Strauss Articles

Knowledge, Insight, and Experience

Every Thursday, our experts provide insights into industry trends and issues that readers can leverage to improve their associations and signature events.

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Talking At Your Members Is Easy—Listening To Members Is Harder

Talking at your members is a one-way communication—pushing a message. Technology makes talking at the members of your association easy, all [...]

The Secret to Board Effectiveness: Preparing for Board Meetings

Are you ready for your board meeting? Have you read the agenda and the supporting documents? Are there items that you [...]

Set the Stage for Your Event with a Rockin’ Registration Desk

Registration is the first point of face-to-face contact that your organization has with attendees. A smooth check-in process sets the tone [...]

“New Kid in Town”- Becoming the Event Manager for an Established Event

We have all managed established events in which we have been involved since the start. We have our records on file [...]

Increase the ROI on Your Events

“At most conferences, information flows from the top down in a numbing series of discursive, disconnected PowerPoints and sessions address topics [...]

The Secret to Managing Speakers: Keep Them Happy!

One of the primary reasons delegates choose to attend a conference is the quality of the educational content that is being [...]

“Anything That Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong”: Being an Adaptable Event Manager

Event managers are typically highly organized, which is crucial to managing complex events. Organization is important, but how you deal with [...]

Delaying Your AGM: What Corporations Canada Says

Your association can apply to delay the date of its Annual General Meeting (AGM). The Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (CNCA) requires [...]

Optimizing the Membership Renewal Process

It goes without saying that associations do not exist without members. Keeping membership numbers high and getting dues payments in on [...]

Five Organizations You Need to Inform When Your Association Board Members Change

The purpose of this article is to identify the five key notifications required when your association board members change, so that [...]

Not Another Boring Conference Room: Bringing Your Event To A Unique Venue

As event managers we often get stuck in a rut of using the same venues year after year committed to the [...]

Promoting Board Interaction in Meetings

Being a board member is a significant responsibility and with that must come a commitment to be present and participate in [...]

Sending out the Right Message to the Right People – Attendance Marketing

Our previous article Boost Attendance with Exceptional Conference Promotion provided a great introduction to the attendance marketing discussion but since there [...]

Managing Your Critical Path: Communicating and Giving Feedback to your Team

In the event management world we all utilize a Critical Path filled with details, deadlines and delegations. You create the critical path [...]

Pre-Audit Planning: Getting Ready for the Yearend Audit/Review Engagement

How easy or hard, how long or short, how much or how little your association’s audit/review engagement 1 will be is [...]

What to Include in Your Event Sponsorship Package?

Contacting and confirming sponsorships for your event can be one of the most nerve-racking steps in the event planning process, but [...]

Finding the Right Person to Grow Your Association Membership

In the late 1970’s Dr. Robert Means identified four basic sales environments and the corresponding sales person motivational profiles most suited [...]