Digital transformation and traveling have been on my mind a lot lately. As I've been getting ready for both work trips and personal vacations with conference season kicking off and summer holidays approaching, I've noticed how much digital transformation and traveling have in common. For those who know me, you know I love traveling just as much as I love my work. Let's see if my comparison can help ease some of the fears and uncertainties around digital transformation.
Digital transformation is a must for businesses these days, just like planning a trip is for my mental sanity. You wouldn't just pack your bags and go without any preparation, right? The same goes for going digital. Let's dive into how planning a trip can help us understand the steps involved in digital transformation.
Research: Understanding Your Destination
When you're planning a trip, the first thing you do is research your destination. You look up the culture, climate, attractions, and local customs to make sure you have a great time. Similarly, in digital transformation, conducting an assessment of your current digital capabilities and identifying areas for improvement will help you set clear goals and objectives for your transformation journey. This helps you figure out where you are and where you want to go.
Itinerary: Mapping Out Your Journey
Once you know where you're going, the next step is to create an itinerary. You plan your route, book accommodations, and schedule activities to make the most of your trip. In digital transformation, you need a detailed roadmap. This roadmap should outline the key milestones, timelines, and resources needed to achieve your digital goals. Don't forget to include backup plans for any bumps along the way.
Packing: Equipping Yourself for the Journey
Packing for a trip means choosing the right clothes, gadgets, and essentials to ensure comfort and convenience. Similarly, you need to equip your association with the right tools and technologies for a successful digital transformation. Invest in technology solutions, hardware, and infrastructure to streamline operations and enhance productivity. Training your employees and fostering a culture of innovation will also help your team embrace and drive the transformation.
Budgeting: Planning Your Expenses
Just like you budget for a trip to make sure you have enough money for travel, accommodation, food, and activities, you need to budget for digital transformation. Allocate resources wisely and plan for expenses to avoid financial pitfalls. Consider the costs of new technologies, training programs, and potential disruptions to your operations. Having a clear budget will help you prioritize investments and make informed decisions.
Traveling: Navigating the Path
As you embark on your trip, you might encounter unexpected detours, delays, or obstacles. Staying flexible and adaptable is key to navigating these challenges. In digital transformation, continuous monitoring and evaluation are crucial to ensure you stay on track. Regularly review your progress, gather feedback, and make necessary adjustments to overcome hurdles and achieve your desired outcomes.
Destination: Reaping the Rewards
Finally, reaching your destination brings a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. Similarly, successfully meeting goals on your digital transformation journey will yield significant benefits for your association. Enhanced efficiency, improved customer satisfaction, and increased competitiveness are just a few of the rewards you can expect. By embracing digital transformation, you position your association for long-term growth and success in the ever-evolving digital landscape. |
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| The Company: The People Who Make It Happen |
| Let me end with this image, which hits on one of the most important factors of all in traveling or a digital transformation journey, the people. While the journey and the goal(s)/destination are important, the most crucial aspect is the people involved. Engaging and empowering your team, fostering collaboration, and maintaining open communication are key to a successful transformation. Remember, it's the collective effort and dedication of your team that will drive your association forward. |
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| Like preparing for a trip, embarking on a digital transformation journey requires careful planning, preparation, and adaptability. By understanding your destination, mapping out your journey, equipping yourself with the right tools, budgeting for expenses, managing risks, navigating challenges, and reaping the rewards, you can ensure a successful digital transformation that propels your association forward and allows you to continuously improve. And if you need a tour guide for your digital transformation journey, give us a call. Here are a few of my recent ‘successes’ from my travels. |
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Browser extensions can significantly enhance your browsing experience by providing useful tools for managing various tasks. However, they can also pose security risks, as malicious actors may exploit them to gain access to your device, accounts, and sensitive data. As with all cybersecurity measures, understanding potential threats is key to preventing attacks and safeguarding your information.
- Understand the Purpose of the Extension - While browser extensions require access to certain data to function, it's essential to understand the specific purpose of each extension and evaluate the access it requests. AI-driven extensions, for example, may request access to more than just browsing history, while malicious extensions could attempt to obtain login credentials by asking you to sign into unrelated accounts. Furthermore, some seemingly legitimate software may come bundled with harmful extensions. By familiarizing yourself with the typical behavior of extensions, you’ll be better equipped to identify anything unusual.
- Verify the Extension’s Author - The identity of the extension’s developer can provide important insight into its security. Ensuring the extension comes from a reputable source is critical for avoiding potential threats. Malicious actors often disguise harmful software as legitimate extensions, while legitimate extensions may be created or maintained by individuals or small teams with limited resources. This can increase the risk of vulnerabilities, particularly if the extension requests access to sensitive areas of your device. Conducting thorough research on the developer, reviewing user feedback, and verifying the extension's history are crucial steps in assessing its reliability.
- Evaluate the Extension’s Impact - User reviews can be an invaluable resource for understanding the performance and potential issues of an extension. Look for feedback regarding any negative impact on browser speed, unexpected changes to settings, or other operational problems. This information can help you decide whether the extension is worth keeping or if it poses a security or functionality risk.
Best Practices for Securing Your Browser Extensions
- Limit the Number of Installed Extensions - Minimizing the number of browser extensions you install makes it easier to identify and address any issues. Excessive extensions can also cause browser slowdowns, conflicts, and a degraded user experience. If an extension is not essential, consider removing it to reduce potential risks.
- Regularly Monitor Your Extensions - Periodic checks of your installed extensions will help you detect problematic software, such as extensions that were added without your knowledge or those that are outdated and no longer supported. Keeping an eye on extension permissions is also vital for ensuring that sensitive data is not being unnecessarily exposed.
- Keep Extensions Up to Date - Where possible, enable automatic updates for your extensions. Regular updates are crucial for patching security vulnerabilities and addressing potential threats. Just as you keep your operating system up to date, maintaining current versions of your extensions ensures that your browsing environment remains secure.
By being mindful of the extensions you install, understanding their purpose, verifying their developers, and practicing good security hygiene, you can significantly reduce the risk of security breaches and enhance your overall browsing experience.
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| Discover Your Organization's Potential with Effective, Automated Data Hygiene |
In today's data-driven world, having accurate and clean contact data is crucial for the success of any organization. However, data hygiene maintenance can be a daunting and time-consuming task.
Consistently facing challenges like duplicate records, outdated contact information, and inconsistent data formats can dramatically hinder marketing campaigns, impact decision-making, and jeopardize audience engagement. Tackling these bottlenecks manually is time-consuming, and worse yet, small errors often go unnoticed until they start affecting your bottom line.
Discover how routine, automated data hygiene can free up your team’s time and energy, allowing you to focus on advancing your organization’s mission and goals. Download our free resource, Tackling Common Data Hygiene Challenges, for actionable insights and tips to take control of your data and turn it into one of your biggest assets.
✅ [Download]
Bumblebee Data is committed to providing top-notch service in a format and pricing structure that works for your team all while equipping you to reach your organization's full potential. Interested in learning more about what clean contact data could do for your organization? Let’s chat! We’d love to connect with you.
Learn more » |
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Over the next three newsletters, we will explore the importance of making your website accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. This series will cover what ADA compliance is, why it’s crucial, and how you can achieve it.
ADA compliance is a critical topic because it ensures that digital content is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. This not only fulfills legal obligations but also promotes inclusivity and enhances user experience. By making your website accessible, you can reach a broader audience, improve usability for all users, and demonstrate social responsibility.
Part 1: Introduction to ADA Compliance in Website Design
What is ADA Compliance in Website Design?
ADA compliance in website design refers to creating digital content that is accessible to people with disabilities. This includes ensuring that websites can be navigated and understood by users with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments. Key areas of focus include:
- Perceivable Content: Providing text alternatives for non-text content and ensuring multimedia content has captions and transcripts. For example, images should have descriptive alt text, and videos should include subtitles.
- Operable Navigation: Designing websites that can be navigated using a keyboard alone and ensuring forms are accessible. This means all interactive elements, such as buttons and links, should be reachable via keyboard shortcuts.
- Understandable Information: Using clear and simple language and maintaining consistent navigation. This helps users with cognitive impairments to easily understand and navigate the website.
- Robust Content: Ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies and implementing responsive design. This ensures that your website works well with screen readers and other assistive devices, and is accessible on various devices and screen sizes.
Stay tuned for next month’s newsletter, where we will delve into why ADA compliance is important for your website and business. By following these guidelines, you can create a menu structure that is intuitive, efficient, and user-friendly. A well-designed menu enhances the overall user experience and helps users achieve their goals with ease. |
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The Higher Logic SuperForum 25 Conference was held from March 26-28 at The Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN. Fun facts about the property – The Gaylord Opryland is the largest gaylord property with over nine acres of indoor space and a quarter mile long indoor river. Over 300 conference attendees spent two and a half days learning, sharing ideas, networking, and visiting with industry partners.
Wednesday featured some learning labs followed by a Welcome reception that set the tone for great networking over the next couple days.
Mark Daniel, professional event Emcee, kicked off Thursday morning with his high energy approach of getting attendees ready to participate in the action-packed conference. Turning the microphone over to Rob Wenger, CEO & Cofounder at Higher Logic for a session on the company vision and strategy product roadmap. Get ready to see some great stuff including search enhancements and smart campaigns.
The keynote, Richard Millington founder of FeverBee has developed successful communities for Apple, FB, Google, The World Bank and hundreds of others. His keynote, Navigating the Future of Communities – Trends, Challenges and Opportunities gave attendees some best practices for developing successful online communities and best in class examples, modern techniques, and innovative strategies. He stressed that communities are becoming the driving force behind customer engagement, brand loyalty, and innovation. Higher Logic treated everyone to a customer appreciation party at The Gaylord Opryland's Waters Edge, a perfect way to close out a very good day of speakers, networking and opportunities for attendees to meet with the twenty-two sponsors/exhibitors, AT being one of them.
Peggy Hoffman, President Mariner Management, took the stage Friday morning with Igniting Engagement: Empowering Members to Lead. A great session on making decision to ‘belong’ not just join a community or organization and the power of OOT - orientation, on-boarding, and training. Peggy shared really good information on the value of volunteers that are members.
One of my favorite sessions was 45 in 45, presented by Bettina Fowler, Sr VP Client Operations at Higher Logic. This fast-paced talk gave…45 very helpful tips, tricks, and resources to make the most out of your Higher Logic platform experience.
Do not miss this annual conference and watch our newsletter for the 2026 date! |
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Do not miss this great conference. The ASAE MMC+Tech Conference is May 12 -13 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.
The Marketing, Membership, Communications + Tech Conference (MMC+Tech) gives association and nonprofit professionals the insights necessary to take their marcomm, membership plus technology strategies to new heights. Learn the latest in engagement, technology, and trends from industry innovators.
With two days of speakers, learning labs, networking, and over fifty sponsor/exhibitors, this is a must attend event.
And earn your credit hours toward certification or renewal of the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation.
AT will be there, so make your plans and come see Ben Kalkwarf, Tricia Marshall, and Jim Meyers at this great conference!
More Information
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| Associations Looking to Upgrade Learning Tech |
The Boundless Learning survey found an eagerness to use AI and other options to bolster their training, but are uncertain about cost and implementation issues.
Read More |
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| How to Improve Your Listening Skills |
Leaders who listen earn more trust from those around them. But being good at that isn’t as easy as it seems.
Read More |
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We have an archive of our newsletters and industry related
articles available on our website, click HERE to access them.
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| Harness the Power of AI with Datascout for iMIS |
Location: Virtual
Learn how AI-driven tools can transform operations for associations and nonprofits with Datascout for iMIS. Get an exclusive first look at Datascout!
Engage and explore real-world AI applications to enhance your engagement strategy. In this session, you'll discover how to:
- Unlock actionable insights with AI-enhanced data analysis.
- Automate tagging and segmentation to streamline member management.
- Create personalized, AI-drafted emails in seconds, fully integrated with iMIS.
- Boost member engagement with smart recommendations and visual timelines.
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| iUG Webinar: It's All About the Value |
Location: Virtual
How to Craft a Winning Membership Value Proposition
Description: In this interactive workshop, participants will delve into the art and science of creating a compelling Membership Value Proposition (MVP).
The session will explore the integral components of an MVP, including mission statements, value propositions, organizational purpose, vision statement, and core values. Participants will learn how to align these elements to craft an MVP that resonates with their target audience and drives membership growth.
The workshop will also shed light on the characteristics of a strong MVP and provide practical examples to illustrate these concepts. This session is ideal for organizational leaders, membership managers, and anyone interested in enhancing their understanding of MVP creation. |
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| ASAE MMC + Tech |
Location: Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC.
The Marketing, Membership, Communications +Tech Conference (MMC +Tech) is the only place for association and nonprofit professionals to get the latest tools needed to move forward in the worlds of marcomm, membership, and technology. |
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| JUNE |
| 11 |
| 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM |
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| Association Forum Honors Gala |
Location: Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, 5700 S. DuSable Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, IL 60637
Join us for an unforgettable evening at Association Forum's Honors Gala, where we celebrate excellence, elevate careers, and illuminate the future of our profession. Hosted at the iconic Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, this year's gala embraces the theme "Shine On"-a tribute to our distinguished awardees and a call to all attendees to continue making a lasting impact in their careers and communities. |
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| AMS Fest |
Location: Allegro Royal Sonesta, Chicago, IL
If you’re considering a new AMS, implementing one for the first time or just want to stay up to date on what is out there when it comes to association management software, AMS Fest is the place to be.
The team behind Association TRENDS and CEO Update is excited to bring you face to face with other association executives, consultants, industry partners and AMS vendors that all want to engage in discussions around nothing but association management software.
Join us this June, in Chicago, IL, where we’ll have 24 AMS companies ready to demo their platform, consultants to help guide you during your experience to ensure you’re meeting with companies that best fit your organization’s needs, and industry partners to showcase their newest innovative technologies to integrate within your system. |
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| ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition |
Location: Los Angeles, California
The ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition is where thousands of association professionals and industry partners gather to exchange knowledge, resources, strategies, solutions, and more. Over three days of learning, growing, and finding inspiration, attendees are equipped with a year’s worth of support in their daily responsibilities as leaders in the association industry.
The ASAE Annual Meeting provides a unique opportunity to partake in authentic, engaging, thought-provoking, and positive community-building experiences for attendees that support the power of the association community to shape a better future for the industries we serve and for the world we share. |
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| Golf Outing Benefiting ASAE Research Foundation |
Location: Eagle Brook Country Club – 2288 Fargo Blvd, Geneva, IL
ASAE Research Foundation exists to advance the development and careers of our future talent pipeline via scholarships and grants, and to provide resources that all of us can use. Year after year the Foundation distributes thousands of dollars in scholarships to deserving individuals in our association community. We’re proud of the ways the Foundation is changing lives and helping to mold the futures of ambitious, career-focused association professionals. In 2024, the Foundation launched the Future Leaders Professional Development Scholarship, which supports the career advancement of emerging leaders in our field.
Contact Jim Meyers with questions about participation and/or sponsorship. |
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| 2025 Annual iMIS Users Conference |
Location: Nashville, TN
Learn from seasoned iMIS association professionals, authorized iMIS solution providers, and experienced consultants. These experts bring a wealth of knowledge from the nonprofit sector, offering interactive sessions filled with practical insights, real-world problem-solving, and proven solutions. Comprehensive Sessions: iUG takes pride in delivering sessions that go beyond the basics. Discover how to: Solve challenges with practical "how-to" guidance. Implement best practices for maximizing iMIS functionality. Explore creative, beyond out-of-the-box solutions. Achieve a measurable return on your iMIS investment. Use iMIS in ways you wouldn’t even think of through case studies from other iMIS user organizations. Stay tuned - more information and programming to come! |
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