Guest Author: Tim Ebner, Associations Now
Roundtable discussions can deliver real value for your association, providing both an engagement experience for members and a learning opportunity for you. Here are some tips for facilitating roundtables that reap rewards for everyone.
Last week, I wrote about how associations are rethinking strategies to recruit and retain next-gen members. Well, the story behind that story comes from a meeting—a roundtable hosted a few weeks ago by the School Nutrition Association and Multiview, a digital marketer and publisher.
In August, SNA and Multiview formed a partnership to host an association roundtable. It just so happens that these organizations are next-door neighbors (in Fort Washington, Maryland), which makes it easy for them to bring together SNA members, as well as members from other area associations, to participate in conversation.
These meetings explore important trends, like generational habits, says SNA’s CEO Patty Montague, CAE. “For me to sit there, someone who’s not social media savvy, and listen to millennials talk about how important social media is, and how they use it, was incredibly valuable,” Montague says. “The real magic happened when people went around the room to ask questions.”
