People & Processes By Dave Lutz, CMP

Take Away

Don’t LetYour LegacyAMS KillYour Conference

Here’s a newsflash for your IT department: Technology that is built for purpose (registration, expo sales, speaker management, etc.) does not need to integrate with your legacy association-management system in order to be implemented.

Your association has investeda ton of capital in its AMS (association-management system), the enterprise applicationformanaging your business. When it was implemented, your association cus- tomized the heck out of it. Making changes or get- tingdata into or out of the system is cumbersome and expensive.Your ITdepartment thinks every- thing in theworldneeds to be tightly integrated. As a result, your association has lost its ability to be nimble and is prioritizingefficiency and data cap- ture ahead of providingand servingthe needs of your conference attendees. I’m not recommendingthat you scratch what

you have and invest six figures in a new enterprise system. Just don’t allow past technology deci- sions to affect your future attendee- and exhibitor- facing solutions. The inability to integrate is usu- ally due to limitations of your AMS, not the built-for-purpose applications available today. If real-time data and system integration is not

easily done via “web services” (that’s geek-speak for whatmost legacy systemscan’t do), a one-time import and export should be explored. The IT department of the future will consider

your members’ and conference attendees’ needs first.They’ll be able toquickly deploymember-fac- ingsoftware and connect the dots on the back end to help drive the business. They’ll embrace SaaS (Software as a Service) applications that continu- ously improve and evolve. At the least, your IT department should make

sure that everymember- or attendee-facingtechnol- ogy can be consumed and fulfilled via mobile browser in 2012. I guarantee that at least 25 per- cent of your traffic is via mobile or tablet device. Thatnumber will grow exponentially over the next 24 months. If you think your members aren’t tech-savvy enough, think of your futuremembers.

Fast Technology Fixes for 2012 In addition to mobile accessibility, here are the four major technology solutions that every major con- ference should have: 1. Sales CRM—Your sales database is gold!

Most AMS programs are built for membership management. Exposition, advertising, and spon- sorship sales rarely fit that model. Savvy associa- tions will implement a cloud-based customer- relationship management (CRM) software program that is shared among the sales team. Salesforce.com — the leading application — is affordable, easy to implement, and has tremendous capability to import and export data. 2. Registration—If your system doesn’t pre-

populate member data, you’re not makingit easy to buy. Look into one of the SaaS-based registra- tion software providers or outsource this function. Nearly every solution has the ability to verify membership and provide a good data export after the conference. 3. Itineraryplanner —Today’s attendees want

to be able to pre-plan their conference and expo experience. They should be able to select each ses- sionandexhibitor that theywish to see. Ideally,you should have this capability for both web and mobile. You should assume that attendees will want to access these preferences from their work computer and fromtheir personalmobile or tablet device. Preferences should sync across devices and platforms. 4. Real-time floor plan — For exhibit sales,

every major conference should have an online floor plan that is dynamically updated with every booth sold or placed on hold.These solutions are nowa commodity and can be implemented at a very low cost. Provide this, and key the data into your AMSon the back end, if necessary.

ON_THE_WEB: In my column in the September 2007 issue of Convene, “Technology Solutions: Lease, Buy, or Build” (http://bit.ly/techsolutions), I made the argument that leasing is almost always better than building, which remains true today.

34 pcmaconvene January 2012 ILLUSTRATION BY BRAD YEO

I Don’t Hate IT This column may come across as a rant. It is! The truth is, I love a good IT de- partment, and not too long ago, several very large IT departments reported to me. My recent experience with some associa- tions, however, has made me realize how hamstrung they are by their own silos. We’re at the mercy of our IT co-workers. When hardware or software doesn’t function the way it’s supposed to, the IT department pulls a rabbit out of a hat and saves the day. But many have a break/fix mentality: While they are great at putting out fires, they are not strategic enough to drive improvements that benefit those outside of your four walls— namely, your mem- bers. That needs to change.

Dave Lutz, CMP, is managing director of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting,www .velvetchainsaw.com, a business-improvement consultancy specializing in the meetings and events industry. His com- pany assists organizations in realizing top- and bottom-line growth by delivering customer- focused solutions in business development, best-practice and process improvement, strategic planning, and training.