Where Paperwork and Family Collide

We'll be there, so it'll be kinda like you're there. That's how we like to cover an event!

The 2009 ASAE & the Center for Association Leadership Annual Meeting & Expo hasn't even started yet, but there is talk surrounding it going on all around the web.

Using the giant Inukshuk that was the centerpiece of the reception as a navigation point, any direction that you chose to go in the reception room would prove to be a wise one. From award-winning regional wines to delicious Alberta beef to freshly dipped chocolate-covered blueberries, the opening reception was a warm and tasty welcome -- not only to the conference but to Canada as well.

As things kicked off Sunday, we were all entertained by a song written specifically for this conference. Fellow attendees from associations all over the country lent their voices and musical talents to a great little song that will be going through my head all day. "If you're looking for an answer, connect with me." (The beat of the bongo drums was my personal favorite part.)

Rex posted "notes" on our ASAE Flickr set from his moleskine sketch pad made during a presentation by leadership consultant Gary Hamel this morning.

Associations do great work to improve society, and a great example of that is cause marketing.

Cause marketing is a partnership between a corporate partner, a charitable cause and an association partner. "That partnership," Steve Drake said, "becomes a way to do good, energize your members and raise money."

Here are some important points from her talk to people who run association, many of whom are "afraid" of social media while others are very innovative.

1. It's not about the technology, it's about relationships: Next year, there will be a new set of technologies -- it about strategy, approach, being wherever people are, not about technology.

The gigantic expo hall at ASAE is filled with promotional booths from every major tourist and convention destination city, town, state, hotel, resort, ship and nearby planet. Here are just a few (and we mean, just a small representative sampling) of the cities that are here promoting themselves as a great place in which an association can have a meeting.

See more Hammock photos from ASAE09 at: www.flickr.com/photos/hammock/sets/72157621761787921/

• Chris Jenkins, Chief Technology Strategist, The Ohio Society of CPAs

I was a little worried when I first sat down for this Learning Lab and the "chief technology strategist" was going to talk to us about social media. He's the IT guy; what could he know? That was my thought. Shame on me.

Then the first words out of his mouth were "Warning: I'm a techie. I'm not a professional speaker." And I immediately liked him.

Before going any further, he asked the room of attendees how they'd like to proceed. Did we want his canned presentation, or an open dialogue on the subject at hand? We voted for a bit of both.

The first slide of John Goldman's marketing Learning Lab on Tuesday morning welcomed attendees with "MARKET OR DIE." That's a might fine "good morning" for you! But welcome attendees he did. Goldman spent the minutes before the 9 a.m. kickoff of his Learning Lab introducing himself to attendees in the room, and learning about their associations and marketing needs. He also collected business cards to give away some cool prizes during the session. I wonder what I'll win?

Struggling through what speaker after speaker acknowledged is one of the most challenging times ever faced by the association community, there was still a strong note of determination and resolve among the attendees, panelists, speakers and exhibitors at the ASAE Conference and Expo.

One such call to be open to the opportunities found in times of crisis and challenge came from best-selling author and consultant Gary Hamel, who first sounded a warning to those married to the status quo.

"Problems happen when the leaders of an association are behind the thinking of their members," he said. "That's when denial occurs. That's when digging in and protecting the status quo occurs." It's also when most great changes take place, he declared.

Being open to experimentation -- and the failure it often brings -- was another theme heard throughout the event. Again, as Hamel said, using acorns from an oak tree as a metaphor: "It takes a thousand nutty ideas to come up with one or two that take root and grow into giants."