News

Despite virtual events being less common before the pandemic, recent research shows that remote meetings are gaining in popularity—because more people have had a chance to try the experience.

Pandemic risks aside, your association may be ready to fully embrace in-person events once again.

In-person meetings are returning. But even if you’re rushing back, take the time to determine who is (and isn’t) eager to meet, and how that might change in the future.

Meetings are back. Ish.

Associations hoping to build value for their members may want to look closely at the experience their industry partners have—because it can have an impact on their members too.

Associations tend to mostly focus on their members. But do they need to give their industry partners more attention?

While a call centre’s primary purpose is delivering the best possible customer service, part of that equation should also include effectively generating sales. After all, high-level customer service interactions allow you to identify what a customer wants and presents the opportunity to sell them exactly what they need.

That being said, many businesses find it difficult to effectively generate sales from their call centre. When you consider that callers are primarily seeking answers to questions and resolutions to problems, sales can get a bit lost in the shuffle.

Thomas John at Five9 questions whether the COVID pandemic has sped up government and public sector adoption of cloud technologies.

In a word: YES!

Perhaps the only major benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic is the accelerated pace of digital transformation and cloud technology adoption.

Through necessity, working in the cloud has now been tried and tested, and even previously sceptical public sector IT leaders are likely to be convinced of its potential now.

Associations hoping to make an impact with their fundraising this Giving Tuesday should consider this emerging demographic gap.

With Giving Tuesday coming up next week, associations with foundations and other fundraising arms are looking for ways to reach donors of all kinds.

One thing to consider when evaluating their donor outreach strategies? Diversity, according to recent research.

With many organizations hosting in-person events this fall, association professionals shared what they love about getting together with colleagues and members again after months of pandemic-forced solitude.

Sometimes, we don’t know what we’re missing until it’s gone. But as association pros returned to in-person events, many said they quickly rediscovered that camaraderie that you only get when in a room with people, while others enjoyed the chance encounters that happen in hallways. Read on to see what our colleagues had to say.

Getting a stronger understanding of your audience needs—and the content your organization is already producing—can help you focus your content marketing approach, says strategist Hilary Marsh.

Elisabeth De Longeaux at Odigo explains that today, beyond the technological feats of AI, automation and the cloud, the focus of contact centre managers should remain on customers.

This means that selecting Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution that works with existing customer relationship management (CRM) solutions should be a top priority for every contact centre manager.

Perfecting the panel discussion can feel like a dark art, but it doesn’t have to. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Panel discussions—already a challenge to get right—have only gotten more complicated in the virtual format.

But just because panels have a reputation for being a bit dry doesn’t mean you can’t consider new ideas to keep them fresh and vibrant.

(One thing you should consider? Avoiding the “manel,” an all-male panel, something that the nonprofit GenderAvenger focuses on.)