When choosing a presenter, associations need to consider several key elements about their event. They can then match speakers to session themes to ensure a cohesive event from start to finish. 

Though budget often plays a large role in the process, associations should ensure that quality is the most important consideration in their decisions. Because of this, we’ve compiled a list of tips to help your association simplify the process and find the perfect speaker for your next event!

1. Define and Align Values

The first step of this process requires your association to define its values and goals for the event. 

Think about the overall message of the event. You can use this as a basis for your speaker search. Your speaker should deliver something consistent with your overall message. 

Consider the timing of their presentation: where will it fall? Is it the kick-off, the midpoint, or the closing keynote speech?

Equipped with this information, finding a speaker to fit will be much easier. Get a feel for their material and how it might work with your audience. If their message would be best served to set the table for what’s to come, they might be best in one of your event’s opening slots. 

Don’t be afraid to voice what you want from your speaker, either. Let them know what your values and goals are and see how they believe they will fit. They may have suggestions you never thought of!

2. Understand Your Audience

The best speaker for your event is the one that will best satisfy your audience. For this to happen, you should know who your audience is and what they want. 

Wondering how to gather this information? 

Ask your members for feedback. 

Ask them what they look for from event speakers, and review feedback from past events. You may also consider searching social media to learn what members want most–or even using the poll functions to quiz your audience. 

The important thing is to start the conversation on your association’s various channels. Do this, and you’ll understand what your members want in no time! 

3. Consider Their Style

If you have a chance to see and review the style of your potential presenters, consider how they might fit in with the feel of your event. You may also want to think about how their style matches the time slots available. 

For example, those with energetic and dynamic presentation styles may work best at the mid-day point to get everyone energized and over the hump. On the other hand, those who inspire and motivate change may be best suited for the final keynote slot.

You will also want to think about how speakers structure their presentations. For example, those who integrate Q&As can be useful for livening and loosening up a crowd. 

Consider:

• How do they present and work with audiences? 
• Are they creative and thoughtful? 

It’s a delicate balance. 

While the big name speakers may help attract audiences, those who constantly work the event circuit may not be able to offer the same fresh ideas and perspectives as newer or more unfamiliar speakers. Try to incorporate some of both!

4. Take Some Risks

As mentioned above, taking a risk on a speaker can pay off enormously, as unknown speakers bring an element that attendees can’t find elsewhere. The trade-off here is that more familiar speakers likely bring with them more security; they often have more experience and more material for your association to review before making a decision. 

Think about what is most important to your event and let that help inform your decision.

You might want to also consider what kind of risks speakers take. 

• Are they trying new things?
• Do they incorporate new technologies or new keynote methods? 

While new speakers might not have the same proof of success as their tried and true counterparts, they may also give your audience something they’ve never seen before–making a lasting impact and boosting your event’s value.

5. Seek Out Integration

While integrating a speaker into your next event largely depends on how your association structures its speaker packages (and what you offer them), you can at least explore whether potential speakers would be open to greater involvement. After all, speakers who are more engaged with your event and your association may be willing to offer something extra for your audience. 

• Would they stick around after their presentation to talk to the audience? 
• Would they be open to running a workshop as well? 
  • Do they have the material (and the ability) to do so? 
• Would they speak to smaller groups who express interest after? 
• Would they promote the event to their network? 

These are all questions that may help you answer how much integration is possible. Talk to your potential speakers–you may be surprised!

You may also like: 5 Benefits to Live Streaming Your Association’s Event

Conclusion

Choosing the perfect speaker for your next event requires careful consideration and planning. By following the tips outlined above, your association can simplify the process and find a speaker who aligns with your values, understands your audience, and complements your event. Remember to prioritize quality, and be willing to take risks to make your event memorable and impactful!

With a well-chosen speaker, your event is sure to go in with a boom and leave a lasting impression on all who attend!

Sources

The post How to Choose the Perfect Speaker for Your Next Event appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

What does that mean for member-based organizations? Well, they have to be proactive in providing content that is both useful and relevant to their members, as well as hits on points that more general education may miss.

As noted by Dr. Laurelle Jno Baptiste in a recent webinar, that’s where niche content comes in. Niche content is unique, tailored content that isn’t widely available. It focuses on specific topics or industries and provides your members with valuable information and insight. Typically, the better you tailor your content to your audience, the better your return on investment will be.

When it comes to continuing education, you want to offer courses that really matter to your audience, so focus on timeliness, relevancy, value, and specificity.

1. Set Your Targets

When deciding what content to create, you first need to think of your target audience. Niche content is based directly on its consumers, so if you don’t have a good grasp of your audience, you won’t be taking full advantage of the technique.

The key is to create a persona: a fictional person who will represent your core demographic. You may have multiple personas for different factions of your audience; for example, you may have one for recent grads, one for industry veterans, and one for the group in between.

You can split your targets into as many personas as you want–just remember, each persona represents a group you want to cater your content to. If you aren’t going to make courses for each type, there’s no point wasting time on that persona. It’s best to set your focus on a few main targets–broad enough to capture the majority of your member base (if not all of it!) when they overlap, but narrow enough that you can tailor content specific to that group.

Once you have your personas, do your research:

• Will your topic be in high demand? Is this something your persona’s demographic will actually want? Is it relevant to their needs and interests?
• What topics are the most highly searched? This will help you narrow down your choices. If a topic is highly searched, that’s a good indicator of its potential success.
• Is your topic current or evergreen? Is the topic you’ve picked timely? Perhaps there has been something in the news recently about your topic. Alternately, evergreen topics are those that are timeless; you may want to touch on something that’s often missed out on but that remains highly important in your industry.

Still not sure what to do? Ask your audience! Host polls on your organization’s social media pages to find out what your members are most interested in; you may find that you’ve been missing out on some key areas of opportunity. When in doubt, it’s best to ask directly; your members will appreciate it!

2. Tailor-Made

As mentioned earlier, the more thoroughly you tailor your content to your audience, the better your ROI will generally be.

Consider Facebook or Youtube algorithms; once you click on a topic, they will curate your feed to be more relevant to what they perceive to be your interests. For example, say you click on a Youtube video about making paper flowers; you’ll likely be recommended more origami tutorials (or videos on other similar crafts) next time you go to your home page.

Member-based organizations can learn to do something similar. Pay attention to your analytics: is one of your courses doing particularly well? You may want to create more courses in the same vein; high purchase and use rates indicate that you’ve likely hit on a good topic!

Alternately, if you find a course is doing less-than-stellar compared to the others, you may want to avoid making similar content for the time being.

A good way to boost these results is to make your content highly searchable on your platform. When selecting a learning management system (LMS) to host your education, pick one that allows for tagging, categorizing, and filtering. Members will be able to look up keywords or search for popular courses–making your content easy to find and allowing for more accurate analytics. If a member can’t find it, they can’t buy it–creating a number of problems for your organization!

3. Make it Make Sense

Next, when developing your courses, you want to make sure you’re presenting your information in the optimal format. Make sure to divide your content into neat, digestible segments–this improves retention and increases understandability. If your course doesn’t make sense to your audience, it doesn’t matter how good its concept is–they’ll be too busy being frustrated and confused to get anything valuable out of it!

Because of this, you want to pay as much attention to the actual execution of your material (how it’s created and presented) as you do the topic selection process.

Look into splitting longer courses into modules. Consider: which is easier to process, one four-hour lecture, or eight half-hour lectures? Humans need time to absorb information and build mental connections. Additionally, if your course is too long, you run the risk of overshooting your members’ attention spans. Keep things tight and concise for the best results!

You may also want to add a degree of interactivity to your courses. Video hurdles–in which members are prompted to answer a question on-screen during a video–can help keep viewers on their toes and stay focussed. There are a variety of interactivity types that can be applied to course content, from multiple choice questions to drag and drop activities and more; when used at key points in a module, they can gamify the experience and keep members’ attention where it belongs: on your course!

4. Marketing Mastery

When wielded correctly, niche content courses can be a powerful marketing tool. After all, you’re providing something that isn’t available elsewhere!

First, start by creating a landing page for your courses; this will provide information on and display the value of what you offer. When making advertisements and building campaigns, you can link back to this page, inviting potential members to find out more—you want to drive as much traffic here as you can!

When your page is set to go, you can embark on a social media campaign to market your CE across the internet. When creating your campaign, be sure to take advantage of the many promotional tools the web has to offer; Canva, Hootsuite, and Jasper AI are all great options to keep quality marketing content coming.

Testimonials and quotes from members who have taken your continuing education programs are especially helpful in showing the value of your product. Worried about getting enough responses? A little incentive to help motivate members to share their experiences should do the trick; try offering discounts on courses or coupon codes to those who submit a testimonial!

Finally, when making your content known, make sure to pay attention to search engine optimization (SEO). By creating a wide web of content that promotes your courses across as many channels as possible, you’ll be able to boost your CE’s search page results. When people are aware of the quality, niche content you offer, it’ll be hard to resist!

You may also like: The Inadvertent Dangers of Outsourcing Your Continuing Education to Third-Parties

Conclusion

When developing continuing education courses for your organization, it’s important to focus on finding a niche. You want your content to be relevant, timely, valuable, and a little rare–the more important but overlooked topics you find, the more interesting material you’ll be able to take advantage of.

Remember, your continuing education courses have the power to draw all sorts of new members to your organization–you just have to pick the right topic!

Want to learn more? Check out our webinar, Continuing Education: Your Shield against Economic Headwinds!

The post Supercharge Your CE: Taking Advantage of Niche Content appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.

Most states require a certain number of CLE hours each year to maintain a law license, but it can be hard to find quality courses that fit members’ busy schedules. And–let’s be honest–most CLE courses aren’t exactly the most exciting things around!

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be this way! By following a few simple steps, bar associations can start building better CLE courses with ease.

1. Harnessing the Power of Niche Content

When it comes to CLE courses, one size does not fit all. Attorneys will often look for courses specific to their particular area of practice, so the more specialized the content you provide, the better!

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples. An attorney who works in criminal law will not be interested in a course on tax law; likewise, a corporate lawyer will not want to sit through a course on family law.

This much may seem obvious, but it can go a step further. Your association should search for interesting, relevant, and unique topics for its courses. Yes, you should have more general courses–these are perfect for introductory programs!–but if you want to really bring value to your membership, try thinking outside the box.

Try to make your content timely. Is there a precedent-setting case in the news? Perhaps you’ll want to do a deep-dive webinar on the details. Are there laws being reexamined or updated? You could cover these, as well!

Additionally, by partnering with experts in various niche areas, bar associations can offer courses that are tailored to specific practices. This will ensure that attendees get the most relevant and useful information possible.

Not only will this make your CLE courses more interesting for attendees, but it will also make your audience more likely to return in the future. You want to capture their intention with insightful, valuable content. After all, why would an attorney take an irrelevant, useless course from their bar association? It’s all about quality!

Once you’ve made your content, make sure to categorize it thoroughly. You want your members to be able to actually find your courses! Keep everything as organized and accessible as possible.

If your bar association is looking to build better CLE courses, consider harnessing the power of tailored content. It’s one surefire way to interest and engage new members! Now, let’s look at a few more:

2. CLE for the Next Generation: Attracting New Members

As the legal profession evolves, so must the way bar associations provide Continuing Legal Education. The needs of lawyers are changing, and bar associations must adapt to continue to meet those needs. In particular, there is a need to engage new lawyers in CLE programs.

First, you have to let your audience know what’s available. Make sure to promote your programs across your association’s social media channels. To spice things up, try offering seasonal packages, keeping things timely and relevant. Remember to be consistent; if you only post rarely and sporadically, you won’t stay in the minds of your members for long!

Next, you want to make things interesting. You can try incorporating gamification into your programs; by making them interactive and offering digital badges as achievement-style rewards, you’ll be upping the excitement factor of your courses. You could even incorporate–selectively!–a few choice memes to amuse your audience.

Third, it’s important to make sure the programs you offer are affordable. New lawyers often have large student loan debts and may be working in jobs that do not pay high salaries. Discounts on CLE programs for new members can make them more accessible to new lawyers.

By offering relevant, convenient, and affordable CLE programs, bar associations can better engage new lawyers with their educational offerings. This, in turn, will help to ensure that your members’ careers–and your association’s membership base–continue to thrive!

3. Two Birds, One Stone: the Value of the Hybrid Events 

As the world becomes increasingly mobile and virtual, it can be difficult to know how to best engage your members; is it better to do in-person or online sessions?

The answer is simple: host a hybrid event!

Hybrid events are a combination of in-person and virtual courses, and they offer several benefits to both bar associations and their members. There are a number of ways to make your event hybrid, like livestreaming the session on your association’s website, or else recording and posting it online after the event–or, even better, both!

Hybrid CLE courses allow members who cannot attend in-person to still participate and receive credit. This is especially beneficial for members who have busy schedules. Livestreamed courses take care of geographical limitations, and on-demand recorded courses open the field up to everyone.

Hybrid CLE courses allow bar associations to further their reach and increase their earning potential at the same time. You’re making your session accessible to an entire second audience–without losing the first–and bypassing the most common barriers to entry for in-person events. This means you can earn more revenue than from an in-person event alone!

The use of hybrid CLE courses is a win-win for both bar associations and their members. By offering these courses, bar associations can ensure that their members are able to receive the education they need–while simultaneously expanding their reach and non-dues revenue!

You may also like: The Top 5 Strategies for Bar Associations to Increase CLE Revenue in 2021 and Beyond

When it comes to building better CLE for your bar association, it’s best to pay attention to the basics: focus on tailoring your content, attracting new members, and increasing accessibility. You want solid, quality courses that no one else offers; you want to attract new members with your value and ease of use; and you want to reach as wide an audience as possible. Follow ACLEA’s footsteps and “Adjust, Collaborate, and Elevate”!

The post Building Better CLE: Tips for Bar Associations appeared first on Online Learning Solutions | Association Management System | Vocalmeet.