By Jeremy Jalie, Business Development Director at Silverbear
To say that the last two years have been a strange time would be a gross understatement. The way in which Covid has reshaped many areas of modern life and decimated others has been extensively covered since the pandemic began, so there’s no need to go into it here.
However, as an attendee at – and key sponsor of – this year’s Digital Excellence 2022 conference, which brought together 380 membership and digital professionals from across the association sector for the first time since 2019, one thing is abundantly clear: effective digital working is now more important than ever.
Digital working has, of course, grown in importance over the last two decades. It’s certainly been important to Silverbear as an organisation. After all, our member CRM system, Silverbear 365, hinges around streamlining digital working. It’s just that Covid effectively shone a spotlight on the importance of digital tools when it comes to engaging with members – particularly in times where digital communication is one of the only forms of communication available.
Digital transformation, perhaps the biggest (and arguably most overused) buzzword of the last three years, has been a high priority for membership organisations. Having spoken with many fellow attendees at this year’s event, it now seems as though digital transformation is the priority.
One of the first keynote addresses, from MemberWise’s Network and Digital Transformation Ambassador, Daniel Bailey, who touched on the idea of a member-focused digital revolution and the need to ‘fast forward’ efforts to bolster digital infrastructure, reinforces this point. As did the tone and sense of urgency from many of the speakers who provided countless insights throughout the entire day. From digital governance to digital best practice, much of what was delivered was done so against the backdrop of a post-pandemic world.
The event wasn’t all a post-Covid call to action, though. As always, the event sought to provide guidance, share knowledge and, in the case of our customer, Simon Berney-Edwards, CEO at the EWI, reassure. In his seminar, entitled ‘When your CRM provider leaves the market: don’t panic!’, Simon recounted his experience of when the membership CRM system his organisation had just invested in was withdrawn from the market – and what he did to ensure that EWI and its membership was not compromised.
Without giving too much away, we worked with Simon to get this digital infrastructure back on track, and you can read about it via our case study. Alternatively, we’re expecting MemberWise to release videos of all of the keynote addresses and seminars very soon, so it’s worth checking the Digital Excellence website over the coming days.
Finally, the conference provided a great opportunity to once again meet up with industry suppliers, old and new, and discuss the membership sector as a whole. Yes, there are a number of challenges ahead. More importantly, however, is that there are countless opportunities on the horizon, too. On behalf of Silverbear, I’d like to express my gratitude to MemberWise for bringing everyone together and providing a forum in which to discuss them.
What's next?
Silverbear 365 has been developed specifically to help membership organisations engage, grow and retain their members. For more information contact our team of membership specialists below. Or download our white paper A project sponsors guide to digital transformation, which will be featured in our up and coming webinar on June 23rd at 11:00, register HERE.
Contact the team
Download A project sponsors guide