Tags
Association, convention, convention planners, generations, meeting planner, professional convention management, trade show
I’m getting ready to head off to San Diego to go to one of my favorite professional association annual conventions. Professional Convention Management Association’s Convening Leaders. Yes, it’s a convention of convention planners. Don’t you love the irony? Can you imagine the pressure the planners feel? Planning for planners, sheesh. That’s a no-win situation for sure. And yet, they do it beautifully, at least in this recovering-meeting-planner’s mind.
2009 PCMA Professional Achievement Dinner
Anyway, PCMA is an association I’ve belonged to for years. And one of about four that I currently belong to. So I was rather upset at this Meetings & Conventions article “How Associations are Targeting Young Professionals.” It seems that young people don’t really “do” professional associations. They don’t get the value.
With the exponential growth of social media, I can kind of understand that they may perceive some redundancy. Both allow formation of communities, both are resources for professional and personal growth, and so on. But I do so love my professional associations. As I told my husband, I love going to the PCMA convention because I see all my peeps there (and yes, I say “peeps” and he cringes…every time).
Maybe it’s because I teach meeting and convention management and without associations, there will be fewer conventions. And without conventions, what I teach is obsolete. Maybe it’s because my first “real” job was as a meeting planner for an association. So this article concerns me from a self-preservation standpoint, but also from a nostalgia standpoint. But it’s mainly because I truly see the value of professional associations for young people starting out in their careers as well as us “seasoned veterans.” Professional associations have done so much for me (including giving me a group of peeps. Go ahead, cringe. You know you want to.).
What are your thoughts on professional associations and the younger generation? Can they change enough to remain what they are, only new and improved? Or are they headed the way of the dinosaur?
Carpe professional associations.
I think there we will see a trend of younger people moving toward their professional industry associations. While the tools we use to communicate are changing (social media, smart phones, etc…) – how we are wired as human beings remains mostly the same. The need to really connect with others is real, and many are finding that a “link” with nothing more is like having a phone book (hey, I have their numbers, I guess I could call everyone… but I don’t).
On the flip side, the younger professionals are going to demand more from their associations, so just the “same old / same old” conference will not be enough.
I am convinced that face to face will become the new cool thing very soon.