At PCMA Convening Leaders in Texas, collaborative education by IAPCO (the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers) and the event hosts reinforced the need for global association education strategies to be applied locally.
Having a professional congress organizer (PCO) that understands the importance of locally-sourced intellectual capital – and that is aligned to the mission of the association – can deliver huge benefits, as reflected in IAPCO’s own series of Case Studies. IAPCO’s guide to choosing the right PCO is also on The Iceberg here.
Jan Tonkin, IAPCO President: “An event is no longer just a gathering point, but part of a whole story, part of a continuum”.
Meanwhile IAPCO member MCI’s chief operating officer Oscar Cerazales cautions against complacency on the part of associations who fail to adapt their business models.
Whilst associations should be fundamental to facilitating global professional and business networks, Cerezales believes that many fail to deliver engagement, sponsorship and membership… and that radical re-engineering is needed to satisfy the entire value chain. Many, he claims, will fall short.
Oscar Cerezales, MCI Chief Operating Office Asia Pacific on associations facing up to change: “Some of them are succeeding and some of them are not”.
