ASAE Annual Meeting

At this year’s ASAE (American Society of Association Executives) Annual Meeting & Expo in Chicago, association professionals and industry partners met to share resources, strategies, solutions, and more. Over 3 days, the participants gained the latest knowledge and inspiration for their daily work as executives in the association industry.

According to initial official figures, around 6,100 people took part in the annual meeting, which far exceeded the previous record level of 2007. Among them were more than 3,000 association professionals and over 2,000 exhibitors; the exhibition area comprised over 700 booths. The buyer/seller ratio was 63 to 37%, and 74% of the association professionals have a decisive influence on final purchase decisions.

Every year, the event offers visitors and exhibitors the opportunity to get in touch with numerous industry partners to find out about the latest challenges and innovations in the area of associations and non-profits. David Rheault, Business Development Manager at vjoon, and Joe Bachana, founder of DPCI were there for us.

Their summary after the show was very positive. In many interesting discussions, they could explain the technical possibilities about publishing for members and interested parties. The focus has always been on lean production processes for print and digital media. At the end of the fair, an Apple TV was raffled as a little treat for the visitors at the booth. The winner was Jeffrey Hughes from SIOP (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology)

The concept of the event was a complete success and we will probably use this opportunity again in August next year for an exciting exchange in the industry – the question of to what extent we can devote more time to interested parties will also be part of our considerations and future plannings. We are looking forward to the continuation next year and hope to see you there!