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Are you paying a fair fee?

“No matter how you spin it, there’s something seriously smelly about an industry that survives on kickbacks and commissions. Claiming you act for your client but getting paid by people who want you to flog products to that client, is the sort of behavior that is rightly seen as corrupt.” – Annette Sampson, Sydney Morning Herald, April…

Are you likely to lose your website?

How to ensure that your website is safely under your control Getting a website up and running is a big job and involves a lot of individuals with their fingers in the proverbial pie, from web developers to domain name registrars, board members to website hosting companies. As with any process this large, the chance…

Using social media to generate a buzz for your event

By Mel Kettle, Social Media Expert for Associations Quite a few event organisers I’ve been speaking with have shared how much more difficult it is to get people to register these days. There are so many options these days, so you really want your event to stand out. Social media can be a great help…

Why events are a powerful marketing and business development tool for sponsors

By Richard Woodward Events are a powerful marketing and business development tool for engaging audiences, building brand awareness, communicating brand messages, engaging employees, building relationships, differentiating from your competition and driving sales. However you must ensure that your prospect fully understands the power of events as a medium —compared to other opportunities such as television,…

Association Management Systems Paper – April 2018

Introduction: Over the past 10 years The Association Specialists has been involved with some 100+ associations. During this time, we have witnessed many different methodologies and approaches undertaken by these associations in regard to Association Management Systems. We thought it might be both of interest and useful to highlight our major considerations and the potential…

Privacy Policy

The Association Specialists is committed to upholding your privacy as a valued client, prospective client, stakeholder or user of the The Association Specialists services. As a client-based organisation, its business operations include collecting, storing, processing and transacting data relating to its clients and prospective clients. The Australian Specialists operates globally and has in place, general…

Bitesized Summary of the Managing Conflicts of Interest Guide by the ACNC

Associations can be complex organisations, and like anything involving us human beings they can have messy, chaotic, problematic personalities. Thus, conflicts of interest are an often-encountered fact of doing business, which, if left unmanaged can grow into serious problems. To help busy board members, directors, governors, trustees and responsible persons understand exactly what conflicts of…

Incorporated Association or Company Limited by Guarantee

When starting a Not-for-profit organisation understanding the various structures and choosing the optimal one for your needs can be a difficult and confusing process. The following document aims to summarise the advantages and differences between the two most popular structures- incorporated associations and companies limited by guarantee. What is an Incorporated Association? It is…

What’s Hot in the Association Conference Sector in 2018?

Event Management

It’s been a busy 12 months of conferences and the TAS team have enjoyed a diverse array of events this year. From colleges honouring ancient traditions to emergency medics taking over a big top, 2017 has been all about engagement and, as these top trends for 2018 show, it’s a theme that is set to…

Are you people crazy? Amy Lowe takes to the skies with client SAAA

By Amy Lowe When I first learned I would be taking on a new client I was excited to dive right in and learn everything I could about them. As an Association Manager, we learn about new industries all the time, it’s interesting and varied, and generally, a lot of fun. The first thing I…

Is your association ready for the upcoming privacy law changes?

If you’ve been reading the biz news or scrolling through LinkedIn lately you will be aware that the Privacy Act is changing in 2018. What you may not know is how this is likely to affect your association. Here is a summary of the changes to the Act and an overview on what the implications…

Can we talk about millennials?

Can we talk about millennials? I know, I know, everyone keeps talking about millennials but if you have 2 minutes to spare I have a slightly different take on the whole ‘we must engage millennials’ pandemic sweeping the association and NFP sector. We should stop trying. Well sort of. In essence, the question being asked…

How to resource and run an effective Organising Committee

There are several elements that help make an event great. The vision, the marketing, the content and the execution. Often these elements are broken into separate entities and become the responsibilities of different parties. There is however one constant that sits across the entire event, the Organising Committee. It is not hard to see therefore,…

The price is right!

It may sound like an obvious thing to say but registration fees can be the making or breaking of a conference. Whilst event budgets take every incoming and outgoing dollar into account (pardon the pun), ticket price is undeniably one of the most important and sensitive line items. Not only do you need the revenue…

Content is king

The most common reason for dwindling conference success is a lack of high quality content and innovative delivery. People attend conferences for two main reasons – to learn and to network. When we meet prospective clients, talk to current clients and peers, read articles it is apparent that if anything can generate increasing attendance it…