Monthly Meetings (Be Heard Professional Development Series) Work Plan

Transcription

1 A. GENERAL IABC / Atlanta s professional development programs and our awards program have been designed to elevate the Atlanta business community to world-class communications status by providing practical programming which can be applied within each IABC/Atlanta member s organization. We strive to: Provide valuable content information, tools, resources and inspiration to business communicators. (Success is measured by frequency of our inclusion of these elements in programs, attendance at our events, and feedback through surveys and social media.) Offer quality networking experience We actively recruit speakers and member participation from the over 25 Fortune 500 and 1000 companies headquartered in Atlanta to bring value to the rest of our member population and increase exposure to the widest pool of talent. (Success is measured by attendance and participation numbers, number of programs, networking time allotted, interactive programming, social media engagement and survey feedback) Strengthen brand loyalty with a focus on three areas that differentiate us from other associations serving the professional communication community: We help communicators 1) get business results, 2) develop multi-disciplinary strategies and skills, 3) tap into the global network and resources IABC provides. (Success is measured by the focus on these differentiators within programs and through member survey feedback.) Keep programs affordable and accessible especially for members by holding meeting pricing the same as it has been for the past eight years and operating at breakeven or above for the year. With a deep and wide corporate community, Atlanta has become a hub of communication, allowing us to provide rich programming with local resources. (Success is measured by attendance numbers, net income and member survey feedback.) B. REGULAR PROGRAMS: Monthly Meetings and Special Interest Groups Our regular program schedule for 2013 included 10 monthly luncheon meetings (January to October) and a series of three Employee Communications SIG meetings. We also held one workshop as a tie-in to a monthly meeting. The topics we address in the monthly luncheons have general appeal for people in organizations of all sizes, across different business sectors and a wide range of disciplines and job responsibilities in areas that include employee communications, marketing, social media, public and media relations, human resources, non-profit communciations, and information technology. Monthly Meetings (Be Heard Professional Development Series) Work Plan Goals and Objectives To help Atlanta communicators be world-class communicators To be regarded as the forum where business communicators come to seek new ideas and tools To engage members and enhance the value of their IABC benefits. Budget We set our budget at just above breakeven based on the 2012 results including income that we expect to receive in 2013 for 2014 programs. Our survey results indicated that we were on the right track with our strategy, but we believed that we could improve our sponsorships and our meeting promotion to make a profit this year, even though we were conservative in our budgeting. The budget for our regular program represents over 35% of our projected revenue for the year. Any profit would go towards reserves if all other activities operated at break-even as we anticipated. By managing our events costs and attracting larger audiences, we have kept member/non-member pricing constant since 2006 and plan to extend these same prices into 2014: $32 for members, $47 for non-members and $15 for member students and $20 for board members. Since 2008 we have offered an annual pass at $257 for members. Page 1 of 6

2 Implementation Strategies Sell annual passes We encourage people to think of our programming as a whole series instead of individual meetings. We also wanted to make it easy for people to make one decision to participate instead of having to reevaluate their interest month to month. And for those who were seeking approval for luncheons as a company expense, the professional development series represented added value an easier sell to the boss. The pass is transferable, and if a season pass holder is unable to attend a meeting, we encourage sharing the pass with a nonmember to extend awareness of our chapter. Tap a local asset Speakers at our 2013 monthly meetings included representatives from Fortune 1000 and 500 companies and other organizations regarded as industry leaders. Select a convenient location. Meetings are held each month at Maggiano s Little Italy restaurant in Buckhead, selected for its central location, good pricing, service, and accessible parking. We used feedback from the member survey to confirm that this was the preferred location. Publicize broadly and frequently both internally and externally. Each meeting is publicized through a series of Constant Contact invitations to members, our Web site, LinkedIn and Twitter. Create a networking opportunity. We start early at 11:15 a.m. to allow informal networking before the program begins at 11:45 and runs until 1 p.m. The majority of attendees arrive to take advantage of this networking opportunity. Engage members through roundtables, on topics they have selected. One meeting in the series is a popular mini-workshop where attendees participate in two roundtables of their choice (see complete in the supporting document). We call it IABC Your Way because the topics are selected by attendees at one of the monthly meetings and by all members through an online survey. Involve IABC leaders and senior professionals. We engage members who have IABC leadership experience at the regional or international level to serve as speaker and panel facilitators. Through our introductions of these members, we promote IABC involvement. We also make a concerted effort to involve senior professionals as leaders in program development. Solicit meeting sponsors to help cover costs. Plan in advance and communicate widely. We engaged almost all of our speakers for 2013 at the beginning of the year and opened registration months in advance. We used all of our media channels to talk up the meetings. (See supporting documents with invitations and website promotion.) Results & Measurement of Effectiveness The following are key indicators of IABC/Atlanta s success in engaging members and local communicators to look to IABC as a source for insights and tools that will help them become world-class communicators. Attendance: We have created an upward trend in our meeting attendance. In 2012, we increased attendance at monthly meetings by 67% over 2011, and this year, we increased attendance by 36% over (See the detail in the program summary included in the supporting documents. It provides statistics showing program participation by members and non-members, whom we regard as prospective members!) Revenue ($$ are an important form of voting): Registration: This year, including registration revenue from a larger audience and meeting sponsorships, we had net income of $5244, which we can consider as a contribution to our reserves. In 2014, we will determine the best use of reserves to benefit our members and chapter. (See detail in the Program Summary included in the supporting documents.) Sponsorships: Based on the return on investment that past meeting sponsors received from their sponsorships, we recognized that we had undervalued the package. For 2013, we increased the pricing from $200 to $500, and by focusing on securing more sponsors, we increased our revenue from $400 (2 sponsorships at $200) to $2000 (4 sponsorships at $500). Season pass sales. We increased sales of season passes from 6 last year to 20 in 2013 over a 300% increase giving us a guaranteed income spread throughout the year. Feedback: We used feedback on program content, price and location from our 2012 year-end member survey to determine that we were on track with our best-practice sharing emphasis and use of speakers from well-known Page 2 of 6

3 IABC 2014 Chapter Management Awards Professional Development Atlanta corporations and agencies. Based on survey feedback, our 2013 focus was on improving communications and advance planning. Beginningg in August, we used a survey at every meeting. Thee following charts represent compiled survey results from our October meeting, where speakers from Siemens and CARE presented case studies on digital communications. We also collect qualitative feedback through questions that accompany each registration and meeting survey and through communications to new and renewing members. A recent response from a senior communicator came in response to an thanking her for her renewal: I havee learned so much through the group over the past year. It is certainly one off the most valuable groups I belong to! Obstacles/Improvement We worked our plan this year and did not encounter any significant obstacles. Our focus was on the monthly meeting track. Next year, we will focus on the best way to conduct and integrate additional SIG groups and workshops into our schedule. In 2013, the enthusiastic response we received from our May program on Global Communications led to a successful follow-up workshop session in Augustt on writing for a global audience. In 2014, we will plan for similar linkage between monthly programs and the more interactive workshop and SIG meetings. Chapter History / Perspective Over the past four years, we have been building back after major drop in program attendance and a drop in membership that began in 2009 with the downturn in the economy. In 2013, we feel that we stepped up the momentumm and intend to keep up in 2014! Page 3 of 6

4 C. SPECIAL PROGRAMS Golden Flame Award Program Overall Planning Strategy: The purpose of IABC/Atlanta s 2013 Golden Flame Awards was to deliver an awards program that has value to members and Atlanta-area communicators while aligning the Atlanta chapter s awards program with the new International Gold Quill call for entries and judging standards. This meant adding a division (Research) and several categories to the 2012 IABC/Atlanta Golden Flame call for entries, and creating a completely new evaluation score sheet at the chapter level. The theory in doing this was to ensure winners at the chapter level would have a legitimate chance to enter their same winning entry at the regional and international levels and have a reasonable expectation of doing well. This move also promotes IABC as a whole, and was intended to make more communicators aligned with the Atlanta chapter aware of the benefits of being part of the larger IABC organization. Objective: To increase the number of GF entries by 5% (5) in 2013, and increase the quality of those entries by increasing the number of winners in each category by the following levels: Gold: 15% (+5); Silver: 5% (+1); Bronze: 0% (+0). More gold winners at the chapter lever means more potential entries at the regional and international levels. Strategy A: Take the mystery out of what it takes to win an IABC/Atlanta Golden Flame Award Gold Flame round tables at Monthly luncheon o Five 2012 Gold Flame winners share their entries in case-study format Golden Flames Webinar with Atlanta-based 2013 Gold Quill winner: Does your entry measure up? (focus on measurable results linked to business needs) o UPS Gold Quill winner walks through each section of their entry explaining what judges score on and how to best approach each section. Pre-Judging Evaluation by Blue Ribbon Panel Allow entrants to submit their completed entry in the weeks prior to the call-for-entries deadline for unofficial evaluation by a certified Atlanta-based Blue Ribbon Panel judge. Top 5 Golden Tips to Winning a Golden Flames Entry o Tips were hosted on the atlanta.iabc.com website and linked in s to past winners and all IABC/Atlanta members, posted to the chapter s social media pages, distributed at monthly luncheons, and sent to previous winners and all IABC/Atlanta members. Each tip includes approximately one page of examples and instructions to make sure entrants have a good understanding of what was expected in their entry. #1: Follow the Call for Entries Instructions #2: Be SMART about your objective #3: Know the 7-Point Judging Scale #4: Know what the judges are scoring #5: Ask for expert advice BEFORE submitting your entry Evaluator s guide to judging an IABC/Atlanta Golden Flame entry Explain the alignment of the chapter s evaluation sheet with the international score sheet Explain the 7-point judging scale and how to use the new evaluation score sheet Strategy B: Make the Golden Flame Awards entry process easy. Partner with AwardSentry to place entire entry process online. All Tips for a Winning Golden Flame entry available on AwardSentry site. EVALUATION Our objective of increasing the quality of entries in 2013 was significantly surpassed as shown through the significant increase in overall Gold-Flame winners below. We were originally concerned that we might see a decrease in overall winners because of the new, more defined evaluation sheet; however, we believe that all the steps we took (outlined above) attributed to the high caliber of entries we saw in Page 4 of 6

5 Additionally, while fewer people attended the Golden Flame gala in 2013 compared to 2012, we had to turn more than a dozen people away because of our smaller venue capacity in We expect that had our venue been larger we would have easily filled 180 seats, compared to the 165 we were limited to. Golden Flame Award Entries Total Entries GF Winners SF Winners BF Winners 2012 Actual entries Actual entries 116 (+.01%) 43 (+22%) 24 (-29%) 32 (-8%) Golden Flame Gala Registrants 2012 registrants GOAL Actual registrants 175 Implementation Strategies Golden Flame Round Table: Each of five tables featured a different Gold Flame winner from The topics ranged from internal publications to digital communication and public relations and feedback was so positive that the workshop will become a regular feature in the IABC/Atlanta luncheon rotation. Golden Flame Webinar: Huge success! A total of 30 participants (15 members) participated in the webinar that featured UPS s Gold-Quill-winning Superstorm Sandy campaign. At least 18 of the participants earned an award in this year s program. I wanted you to know that the Webinar and your follow up comments on the draft of my work plan were very helpful. It's so hard to know what the judges are looking for, so it was great getting the benefit of those who are experienced in preparing work plans. Southern Company (Gold Flame winner) The innovations (aligning to International s categories, the webinar and Tips series) were especially helpful. I wish we could have taken the pre-judging option I think that would have been incredibly helpful. McKesson Innovation Solutions (Silver Flame winner) Pre-Judging Evaluation by Blue Ribbon Panel judge: A total of six entrants took advantage of certified Blue Ribbon Panel judges providing valuable feedback to improve their entries before they officially submitted them in the Golden Flame Awards program. We believe that by extending the deadline for evaluations closer to the entry deadline we will be able to help even more entrants improve their entries going forward. Each of those who participated in the program earned a Golden Flame award. We can t thank you enough for all the feedback you provided [during the BRP pre-evaluation] to make our entry stronger. National Peanut Board (Gold Flame winner) Golden Tips: The innovations (aligning to International s categories, the webinar and Tips series) were especially helpful. I wish we could have taken the pre-judging option I think that would have been incredibly helpful. McKesson Innovation Solutions (Silver Flame winner) Page 5 of 6

6 Online Entry: We partnered with AwardSentry to continue our online Golden Flame entry platform that we launched in Using new divisions and categories that aligned with IABC International divisions and categories, IABC/Atlanta garnered one more entry in 2013 compared with Budget We worked to earn at least a $2,000 net income in 2013, compared to the $1,750 net income earned in By increasing sponsorships and aligning our awards pricing with other chapters of similar size (increased this year s award entry fee by $10, gala tickets by $10 and duplicate awards by $5) we were able to significantly surpass our net income goal and bring in more than $6,100* for the chapter. (See budget detail in Supporting Document Program Summary) *estimated net income assuming duplicate award entry income is in line with previous years. With the gala taking place in mid-november, the deadline for ordering duplicates isn t until Dec. 7. Results and Measurement of Effectiveness 36 members took advantage of extra assistance from Atlanta s pool of experienced winners in preparing their entry. Despite an increase in entry fees, Atlanta members still entered 116 entries, one more than The event sold out the venue we were using this year. The goal being a more intimate venue, featuring tables rather than stadium seating. More gold awards were given in 2013 than in any previous year. A direct result of more focus on quality over quantity. Obstacles / Improvement Although the venue was more intimate (target 165 tickets), it also sold out faster than we expected forcing us to add tables and tickets at the last minute to accommodate winners. Chapter History / Perspective Over the past several we have focused on developing a strategy for holding the most successful event, solving problems related to venue, entertainment, food and beverage and awards judging. With good experience behind us, we were able to focus more on the professional development dimension this year, giving members an opportunity to learn more about measurement of communications through their participation in Golden Flame program and offering multiple workshops focused on documenting world-class communication programs. We intend to continue and expand this emphasis on professional development next year. Page 6 of 6