Live Events Still Key Driver of Association Revenue

As you’ll see throughout today’s issue, live events remain a cornerstone of the association non-dues revenue equation. For example, our latest online reader poll indicates that one in six respondents (16.1 percent) consider live event revenue the single most important area they’d like to increase in 2013. Only “advertising and sponsorship” (20.3 percent) garnered more votes from the 118 readers who had responded to our insta-poll as of press time.

Emerging technology is also having an impact on the association revenue equation. Our readers cited mobile apps, webinars and virtual events just as frequently as they cited longtime association revenue staples—affinity partnerships and continuing education programs—as areas they’d most like to increase in 2013.

 Jim Anderson, president of the California Society of Association Executives, isn’t surprised. “You just can’t substitute” the impact of meeting face to face. Attendees and exhibitors are very ROI-focused today, and they’re expecting an “experience” that they can’t duplicate anywhere else, he added. See today’s lead story for more insights from Anderson.

That being said, Anderson expects that face-to-face meetings will be “transformed by technology” and by face-to-face appointment setting in the near future. He also predicts there will be more “blended events” in which portions of an association’s live event are streamed to those who couldn’t attend in person due to budgetary or timing issues.

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