Can you teach an old dog new tricks? CESSE says “yes!”
Last year, our leadership tasked a few staff with developing a strategy to innovate our Annual Meeting, our flagship event, where we have enjoyed enviable attendance for many decades. Like many non-profits, our Academy is steadily making its way back from the dizzying business effects of COVID. We are also challenged by the demographics of our 111-year-old organization. Most of our members are at least 50 years old or more, and we are acutely aware we need to attract and engage a new generation of professionals – young recruits who don’t want to sit in a dark ballroom while a shadowy figure delivers pearls of clinical wisdom on a 3:1 screen.
And, like our membership, our senior staff is composed of a lot of “seasoned” veterans. Most of us have been on board for more than a decade and we have a few “lifers,” like me (37 years and counting). So, this resilient team, charged with breathing new life into our meeting, had to consider the effects of change on two audiences. We were to present a plan to surpass pre-pandemic attendance levels and pique the curiosity of millennials and Gen Z without disenfranchising the loyal Boomers who had always kept our association out of the doghouse.
The run-of-the-mill professional conferences we’d attended in the past had become stale, and we were looking for a new experience to jumpstart our creativity. Enter CESSE, a potential beacon.
At the suggestion of our CEO, my colleague and I excitedly registered for ACCESSE24 in Toronto. It seemed as if the program had been cater-made for us. The agenda was chock-full of presentations on a myriad of topics, bookended by fascinating opening and closing sessions. The conference flew by as we learned about the power of coaching and mentoring and cultivating the next generation of members and volunteer leaders. This was particularly relevant to us since we were helping nurture two young co-chairs who understandably found themselves dog-paddling under the weighty responsibility of planning our behemoth annual meeting. Industry experts offered insights on promoting year-round event engagement, implementing effective pricing models, and building new revenue streams. We also discussed other critical aspects of association management like finance, strategic planning, and hybrid work success.
Learning from the Best in Show
Most importantly, we experienced an attendee’s reaction to a powerful meeting. The presentations were unique, energetic, and interactive, and the formats were varied and innovative. Who knew individuals usually immersed in a technical or scientific environment would find professional relevance in a session on storytelling? And there we all sat -- shoulder to shoulder – some relatively new to a career with a STEM society and others of us straining our leashes to impart our hard-earned wisdom. And we all shared. And laughed. And learned – from each other.
The breaks and social events (many included in our registration fee!) kept us fed and entertained for the duration and provided rich opportunities to engage with others who “speak our language.” We returned home with new nuggets to share with the rest of our pack and an eagerness to explore the other membership benefits of CESSE.
Since then, CESSE has become my go-to source -- a “place” where I can bring my professional challenges and solicit real-world solutions from peers through mediums such as live webinars and CESSE’s online member communities.
I am already registered for ACCESSE25 in Philadelphia, where I expect to be “wowed” by another collaborative experience. I look forward to making new connections. And who knows? Maybe I will share a (new) trick or two of my own!
