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SmithBucklin provides full-service management to 20 technology associations including professional societies such as the Society for Information Management and independent user groups of industry leaders such as SAP, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel Networks and Computer Associates. Collectively, our full-service technology client organizations represent over $75 million in total annual budgets and well over 75,000 members. SmithBucklin also provides function-/project-specific services to an additional 11 technology organizations. See a complete list of our technology client organizations.
The information technology industry moves at a dizzying pace of change, vulnerable to dramatic and endless shifts in market conditions, the competitive landscape and emerging/declining technologies and products. These market forces have significant impact on membership organizations and the vendors that support them. As such, technology user groups, professional societies and industry consortia face significant challenges, including:
- Dramatic increases in formidable competitors vying for a share of member/attendee time, dollars and commitment, resulting in declining or flat membership and conference attendance
- Pressure to create unique new value for members and stakeholders
- Unsettled mission and strategic direction
- Proliferation of regional, local and special interest groups creating competition rather than synergy
- Increased dependence on high-risk event revenue
- Severe cost-containment pressures
- A changing customer-value paradigm - from focusing on a set of discrete events, products or programs to a continuous, interconnected set of experiences
- Limited volunteer availability
- Fragile vendor-user community relationship
- Uncertainty about the future
At SmithBucklin, we believe in order to compete and grow, a technology association today must:
- Improve its ability to create and deliver new and unique member and stakeholder value
- Acquire strategic leadership, innovation, speed and change management as core organizational competencies
- Invest in strategic marketing and branding
- Pursue and develop alliances with vendor partners, allied organizations, and regional, local and special interest groups in order to enhance competitiveness, product development, or time-to-market
- Commit to ongoing visioning and strategic planning
- Adopt a governance culture and structure that emphasizes speed, strategic thinking, accountability and flexibility
- Adopt new, more flexible financial management frameworks, continuously adjusting, investing and shedding based on strategic direction
- For user groups, enrich the primary vendor-user value proposition via options including user enhancements and advocacy
To meet the complex challenges and opportunities noted above, a technology association must complement its own strengths by aligning itself with a management services partner capable of delivering and implementing solutions. SmithBucklin's knowledge, experience and resources for the success, sustained competitiveness and long-term growth of technology user groups, societies and consortia cannot be matched by any other association management company, consulting organization, conference/tradeshow company, communications agency, or publishing company. We have been developing our technology industry practice since 1973 when IBM's GUIDE user group became our first technology client organization. Since that time, we have been honing and delivering a comprehensive, integrated set of specialized services designed and packaged to meet the unique and sophisticated business, technology, marketing, and operational requirements of our technology industry client organizations.
The professionals in our technology industry practice work hard to stay ahead of the issues, trends, challenges and actions impacting our client organizations. In fact, each year SmithBucklin hosts a Technology Leadership Forum that brings together our volunteer client leaders to discuss current and emerging issues, and more importantly, solutions, leading practices and lessons learned.
Some areas in which SmithBucklin offers expertise and resources particularly relevant and important to technology organizations include:
- Strategic marketing and branding
- Chapter, local/regional user group and special interest group (SIG) management
- User group enhancement systems, processes and advocacy
- Web design, development, hosting and online management
- Integrated e-business solutions
- Automated conference planning tools
- Primary and affiliated vendor relations
- International, national and regional education management and content development
- Online learning platform and tools
- Capturing, packaging and managing intellectual capital
- Conference onsite technology solutions
- Tradeshow management
- Exhibit, sponsorships and advertising sales
Please contact us to learn more about our Technology Industry Practice, and how it might serve your organization.
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