In todays episode we talk about why digital transformation projects sometimes fail and what needs to be done in all parts of the process. A lot of this is due to mindset and a desire to change. We draw on examples in the association world where there are often multiple stakeholders involved.  Nej talks more about the importance of Digital Evolution and why associations need to be constantly evolving in the digital landscape.  If you want to find out more about GRM Digital head over to the Membership World Solutions Centre or connect with Nej on Linkedin

In this episode we talk with Russell Hamblin Boone, who is CEO of the Civil Enforcement Association. The Association deals with civil enforcement for local authorities & government bodies and represents bailiffs.  Here we talk about the challenge the industry has around bailiff reputation and particularly since austerity and the cost of living crisis. Often people that don’t know too much about what they do have a strong opinion of them. Russell alludes to why its good for associations to bring in experienced professional trade association experts, rather than industry-experienced individuals. When he went for the interview for the role he said, "If you are looking for a Yes Man, I am not it, because I will challenge positions, in order to move the organisation forwards. Never did I think I needed to be a master of diplomacy, but its true - as a CEO you do. You have wide opinions and voices across the membership and Board.  Associations often need to show their value to the membership trough an issue, not only might they have to deal with external issues, but also internal challenges within the sector". Russell set up the Energy Retail Association which went onto to be Energy UK. He also shares his experiences at the Finance and Leasing Association through the credit crunch.  We round up by talking about managing crisis and why the Professional CEO has to often be the face of the issue. Navigating around member key stakeholders and communicating the right message is essential for the CEO. If you want to follow Russell on Linkedin, you can reach out to him here This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)

Dario Betti, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), is a distinguished figure with over 20 years of experience in spearheading initiatives within the mobile phone industry. Betti's comprehensive knowledge of the mobile ecosystem, coupled with his strategic vision, has been pivotal in shaping MEF's influential role in addressing the multifaceted dynamics of the industry. Renowned for his expertise in mobile entertainment, consumer safeguarding, and fostering industry-wide collaboration, Betti has emerged as a prominent authority in the mobile sector. His unwavering commitment to nurturing sustainable and secure mobile ecosystems has significantly contributed to fostering strategic growth and industry-wide collaboration, cementing MEF's position as a trailblazer in driving impactful change within the mobile ecosystem. This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)

In this episode Heather Lishman, Director of the British Professional Conference Organisers, talks about the changing face of association events.   One of the most stressful jobs, the professional event organisers role has changed considerably over the years, with them having to grapple around event tech, sustainable events, tighter and tighter budgets and more demanding sponsors.  One of the areas we talk about is the growth in event legacy and Heather cites some great examples of what associations are doing. This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)  

The law hasn’t stopped discrimination misogyny, homophobia, prejudice and sexism it has simply gone underground. This has made it more difficult to prove. Why concrete evidence is needed if the law is to step in. The problem that discrimination, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder; can you as a reasonable person, know whether a raised voice and/or aggressive action is aimed at you because you are gay, a woman or of ethnic origins? A personal story to illustrate this; the word of one person against another; laws are there to protect individuals but in practice they don’t prevent inequality, injustices or discrimination. Along with the incident that caused global outrage with the Spanish Football President, this is just some of the areas we cover in this insightful podcast episode with the Patron of the National Association of Licensed Paralegals, Amanda Hamilton.  Find out more from the Association here.   This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)    

Simon joined the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) as their Head of Asset Finance in 2014. In 2021 he became Director of Advocacy. He is responsible for the FLA Asset Finance Division and the cross-organisational advocacy work that the FLA undertakes. This includes representing asset finance members to government and the regulators, developing relationships with stakeholders, overseeing the FLA’s asset finance policy work and ensuring that they have a joined-up advocacy programme that demonstrates their members contribution to the UK, so that they can raise their profile and influence public policy. Simon’s background is in public affairs and communications. Previously, he worked for membership bodies and the commercial sector, including the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the Association of Consultancy and Engineering. LexisNexis and in leading market research agencies. He has also been named one of the top 100 UK lobbyists. When he is not working, he and his wife raise two children and one cat. The jury is still out on which species is the easier to guide through life.   This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)

In this episode we talk about the power of working with volunteers for your membership organisation, with the CEO of the Scouts movement. Matt Hyde is Chief Executive of the Scouts, the UK’s largest youth movement. Formerly Chief Executive of the National Union of Students (NUS), he’s undertaken a number of leadership roles in the charity sector and as Chief Executive of the Scouts has contributed to a period of record membership growth since joining in 2013.  He has led award-winning campaigns, spearheaded work to support the growth of Scouts in areas of deprivation and oversaw the development of a new age range, called Squirrels; opening up Scouts for four and five year olds. Matt is Co-Founder of The Big Help Out, an initiative to dramatically increase volunteering numbers across the UK as part of HM King Charles III’s Coronation, which saw over 7.2m volunteer. He is a trustee of Comic Relief, a Patron of UNLOCK (the charity for people with convictions) and was previously Vice-Chair of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO).  Matt was awarded an OBE in the 2020 New Year Honours List, an Honorary Fellowship from Queen Mary University of London in 2012 and an Honorary Degree from the University of Hertfordshire in 2023.   This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)

The British Orthopaedic Association has over 5,000 members throughout the UK and overseas and is the special surgical speciality association for trauma and orthopaedics. Annette Heninger is the director of communications, and in this episode shares her insight about how they communicate and engage with their members and how they are even exploring a new membership tier for their retirees. For more information on the BOA viist https://www.boa.ac.uk/   This podcast has been sponsored by RD Mobile - the complete events and membership engagement platform.  Find out more RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com) #membership #engagement  The go-to technical creative agency | Pixl8 @gordon@gordonglenister.com

In this episode industry veterans Russ Magnusson, CEO and founder of RD Mobile and Membership digital agency founder Alex Skinner talk about the some of the trends facing the membership sector post Covid. Skinner commented, one client had 70% of income from physical training accounts so were motivated to make decisions to move online very quickly. Culture played a big part to do something different. How do you managed a large remote distributed team, this was new ground for a lot of membership bodies. .  Some decisions during the Pandemic were made at speed and in some cases now having to re-evaluate as not all the these products were talking to each other in one centralised platform.  Magnusson suggests not many organisations have gone for a hybrid model and a desire for in-person events has been very high.  Find out more from this riveting interview. This podcast has been sponsored by RD Mobile - the complete events and membership engagement platform.  Find out more RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com) #membership #engagement  The go-to technical creative agency | Pixl8 @gordon@gordonglenister.com

The Regional Studies Association is a learned society - there are about  26,000 learned associations around the world. The RSA has membership from all over the world and its members range from academics, geographers, political scientists, planners, journalists, and rise from students  up to professors . The society was established in 1966 and the current CEO Sally Hardy is coming up to her 37th year.  Members love the networking most, says Sally. What they are looking for are those personal connections, people doing the same things they are.  They have a huge global conference programme and publish a number of journals. They talk about how their app has helped boost membership engagement. This has helped the organisation grow its online community particularly younger audiences This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)  

Richard John has spent over 30 years in the industry.  In this episode we discuss why taking on a university “event” apprentice can be a great thing to do.  His turnover has gone up 400% since the Pandemic and all of which has this has come from online events.  People will dip in and out of sessions from an online event, whereas at an exhibition you tend to go for the day.  Consumers and members are very keen to look at more snackable content. Education has been one of the benefits for associations particularly in terms on online delivery. Ted Talks tend to be delivered quickly and less than 15 minutes. Find out more from Richard Looking for the best in event training, development online or in person services? Contact Realise   This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)  

In this episode we talk about the Friends model of the membership society and in this case it’s the Membership Officer of the Royal College of Music Siti Osman. The RCM is a top conservatoire in the UK and Europe attracting local and international talent – with students coming from 56 nations; they have approximately 900 students studying at one time.   The Friends and Family loyalty membership is aimed at attracting friends and family members of the students.   There are lots of talks from leading academics and special events. Siti talks about how they offer priority events and how they promote it to their Friends scheme.  For less than £4 a month you can become a member of the Royal College of Music and its such a great way to support their students.  The RCM have a number of Ambassadors  which are loyal “friends” and so the power of this word of mouth is very strong.  If you want to find out more about the RCM go visit  Home | Royal College of Music (rcm.ac.uk)

CEO of the National Hairdressers Federation, Richard Lambert talks about how a campaign to find the top 100 influencers in the industry drove phenomenal engagement on social media. An industry hit massively by the pandemic, this initiative run by the NHBF achieved so many amazing results across all social media, and helped drive membership.  Richard talks about the whole campaign from inception through to the livestream event to launch some of the winners.  It has been such a success that the 6500 member strong association wants to run it again, but on an even bigger scale. https://www.nhbf.co.uk/   This episode was sponsored by RD Mobile - leaders in online event and member management RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)   #nhbf #top100influencerindex #influencers #membership #association

Maria Franzoni is an experienced speaker booker. She has held senior positions with 2 of Europe’s leading bureaus; CSA Celebrity Speakers and the London Speaker Bureau – named by the New York Times as “the only international speaker bureau”. In 2007 she founded her own multi-million-pound international bureau, Maria Franzoni Ltd. (MFL), and in this podcast Maria talks about how associations can find the right speaker for conferences, awards evenings and training events. Maria also talks about how you can work with speakers to build your event.  Always thinking of how you want your audience to feel afterwards, she talks about how she once booked a hostage negotiator who was a massive hit with the audience. Speakers get booked up, so the longer the lead-time that organisers can give a bureau the better choice they have. And what happens when your big keynote speaker falls ill on the day of the event? what do you do? Maria has all the answers and a whole lot more.   This episode was sponsored by RD Mobile - leaders in online event and member management RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)   About (mariafranzoni.me)   #speakerbureau #speaker #association #conference  

In this episode, host Gordon Glenister talks with Adam Donnan, the CEO of the Institution of Environmental Science.  The IES represents individual consultants, academia, those working for Natural England, The Environment Agency and local government. This gives them the opportunities and the tools to create real system change, by having a strong purpose at the core of what they do. Adam says membership bodies need to have a sense of purpose at the heart of the organisation. CEOs want to grow their membership, they want an engaged and active membership, alongside staff that know they are doing and why they are doing it. Purpose can fulfil all those aims.  Growing your membership is broken into two areas, Adam says. The first is a transactional one based on a range of services offered that meets the needs of the member; but the other is a more altruistic one. The altruist is more about the well being of the sector and a sense of wanting to give back; and in many instances this can be a deeper relationship than the transactional one. Find out more at what Adam has to say on this. This episode is sponsored by RD Mobile, online event and engagement platform providers to the membership sector. RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App  

In this episode James Thorne CEO of the Institute of Quarrying is joined by head of membership  and marketing Sarah Fry, to talk about how the introduction of an app has made a huge difference in member engagement. Whilst it was always part of a longterm strategy to encourage members to use the app, Sarah commented on their goals have been reached in their first phase. As more content is shared on the app, so adoption is growing. Find out how they did it.   This episode is sponsored by leading event platform providers RD mobile

In this episode Gordon Glenister talks with the author of "The Social CEO", Damian Corbet and the vice president of global marketing at Onalytica, Alicia Russell.  A recent survey conducted by Membership World and influencer marketing platform Onalytica looked at the social profiles of over 50 CEOs of membership bodies and trade associations.    Original content performed so much better than shared or branded content on Linkedin. 'Don’t create content for content's sake and know what your audience care about', says Alicia.  And leaders of trade associations that are sharing from their personal content is when the real value comes. Chris Skeith from the Association of Event Organisers is an example of a CEO using social media well during a challenging time for the sector. Having a leader like this lobby for the sector they can see this person is working hard for us says Damian.  Most people are seeing what you’re posting but not necessarily commenting. Craig Bennet CEO of the Wildlife Trust leads one of the categories in the report and he shares pictures of nature on his linkedin and Twitter.  'It feels personal and you feel like you are going on a journey with him', says Alicia .  She also praises Sophie Devonshire for doing a great job at the Marketing Society.   Download a copy of the report on The Social CEO Index Report | Membership World   Damian Corbet (@DamianCorbet) / Twitter (1) Alicia Russell (@aliciaonalytica) / Twitter This episode is sponsored by leading event and community app platform RD mobile

Inspiring CEO of England Athletics, Chris Jones, talks about his challenges but optimism of running a governing body with 190,000 members.   In this episode Gordon Glenister talks to the head of England Athletics, Chris Jones about what its like to manage a sport governing body in a Pandemic.   While there are approximately 7 million people that run every month, not all are members of the 1800 licensed running clubs, many are social runners. England Athletics Run Together campaign has been very successful at inspiring people to run.   With a lack of opportunities to license road races, normally its 4,000 a year and major championships being thwarted the organisation was facing multiple challenges. Chris talks about the changes made to online training and coaching and while it didn’t suit everyone, it’s now here to stay a – blended approach he says.   The organisation made great strides around supporting the community, employees and volunteers on mental wellbeing and enlisting the likes of Ben Smith and Jack Green for webinars.    Find out more by listening in on your next run…   This episode is sponsored by leading event and community app platform RD mobile  

John Newcomb CEO of the Builders Merchants Federation talks about his personal journey steering an industry body through the Pandemic and the tough decisions he had to make. The organisation needed to relocate to the midlands and in doing so had a profound impact on the organisational success. John talks about how lobbying government was an essential part of keeping builders merchants opens and how online education has helped engage members.   This episode is sponsored by leading event and community app platform RD mobile  

Podcast expert Christina Moore talks about the winning formula for a successful podcast, from the tools you need, the length of a typical  episode, how to monetise your show, how to market your podcast and which of the best presenters to follow..  Christina has a wealth of experience having previously worked at Apple and the BBC World Service. She is also a judge at the Podcast Awards.   This episode is sponsored by leading event and community app platform RD mobile