Ten Technology Trends You Should Know for Your Association

(or ignore at your peril!)

Andy Freed

Virtual, Inc.

About Virtual

Evolved from PR company founded in 1989 Full management services

Range from small startups to global associations Heavy technology focus among our client associations

Member companies of our client associations include some of the best known brands in technology

Consulting and strategic services

Ground Rules

Be as rude as me Listen, don’t read The power of Diet Coke & The Good Doctor Lifetime guarantee

Make your choice

“I had hoped to retire before I needed to learn this stuff”

“There’s a huge opportunity out there for the taking”

or

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

—General Eric Shinseki

Former Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

New Rules Of Customer Service

The Doubletree effect Expectations have changed

You’ve got less time to respond!

Communications research on expected response time:

Medium Expected Response Time

Letter One week

Phone call 24 hours

EmailIM

<4 hoursIf you’re reading this, you’re already too late

But that’s not bad enough!

“What’s your IM address?” “How can I reach you on Skype?” “Don’t you have your BlackBerry?”

Beware of Technology Isolation

Why do I get emails when I can hear the person typing!

Know when to break the email chainGOYBATTS

Critical Action Step What are your email policies? Does your organization have a policy on staff

response time? What’s your policy on IM access for members?

Availability “Business appropriateness” Audio? Video?

Don’t forget the phone, meetings and real mail exist!

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

Social Networking Grows Up

Demographics worth noting

Fastest growing demographic on the web is the 50+ age group

Fastest growing demographic on MySpace is 35+

MySpace Growth

Aug 2005 Aug 2006 Growth

Audience, 000 21,819 55,778 YTY

Age: 12-17 24.7 11.9 -12.8

Age: 18-24 19.6 18.1 -1.4

Age: 25-34 10.4 16.7 6.2

Age: 35-54 32.4 40.6 8.2

Age: 55+ 7.1 11.0 3.9

Source: comScore

Success Breeds Imitation

Why should you care?

How many of you have “enable networking” on the list of member benefits you provide?

Are you leveraging these tools for your own member recruiting?

The Good News

Associations are uniquely positioned to benefit from this trendWe are where the hubs come togetherPotential band together across regionsCreate “networking on steroids” for your annual

meeting

What’s Next: Second Life

What is it?Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built

and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 5,195,645 people from around the globe.

French Politics in 3-D on Fantasy Web SitePresidential Hopefuls Build Presence for Avatars on Second Life

Friday, March 30, 2007; A01

PARIS, March 29 -- In a battle between push guns and pig grenades, the exploding pigs won.

The clash started on a January morning when protesters attacked the cyberspace headquarters of extremist French presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen in the popular 3-D Internet fantasy world Second Life.

Le Pen security forces responded with push guns, whimsical digital weapons that tossed bodies through the air "like rag dolls," according to one witness. Protesters fought back with pig grenades, firing fat pink porkers that exploded in neon pink splatters. When the shooting ended, Le Pen's headquarters lay in ruins, deserted by staff and guards.

The confrontation in Second Life -- the parallel online universe where players cloak their alter egos in cartoonlike bodies -- demonstrated the rising impact of the newest cyber-venue for politicians trying to promote real-world campaigns.

All four major candidates in France's presidential election have opened virtual headquarters in Second Life, an interactive forum that allows inhabitants -- called avatars -- to engage in debates, attend political rallies and take part in protests in a multidimensional world that makes traditional campaign Web sites seem quaint and antiquated.

Are these your next members?

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

“The watchwords used to be location, location, location. Today it is database, database, database.”

--Tom Peters

“As a general rule, the most successful person in life is the one with the best information.”

--Benjamin Disraeli

Have an information strategy

What are you tracking? How are you using the data? Mine, mine, mine

Advocacy benefit of good membership data

Track membership trends

Who has become disengaged? Who is paying later than in previous years? What programs and services are people using

most? What are people calling about? What do people do on your web site? When is the best time to reach your members?

Do you track “opens” on email blasts?

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

Everybody is a Publisher

The rise of BlogsCreate more clutterNarrowcasting of informationWho is “the media”?

Enabling technologiesRSS goes mainstream

What does this mean to you?

Does your association have a blog? Does it need one?

A site with a low-traffic blog is a public announcement “we don’t have much to say!”

Do you watch the blogs?What’s being said about you there

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

Devices are changing

What’s in my pocket?A cameraA walletA computerMy rolodexMy CD collection

A bonus list

Three trade shows you probably didn’t go to this year that promise to change your business more than the ASAE Expo will:Consumer Electronics Show3GSMCTIA

Why should you care?

Tens of millions of people are connecting to the web without a computerEver look at your web site on a WAP phone?

Dramatically shifts patterns of customer interaction with organizations

Why Should You Care?

Mobile commerce is for realProximity payment in EuropeDigital content market worldwide

Can your members interact with your association using their phone?

Are you going to wait until they complain, or start strategizing now?

Why should you care?

“In 25 years, you’ll probably be able to get the sum total of all human knowledge on a personal device.”

--Greg Blonder

Venture Capitalist

[Former Chief Technical Adviser for Corporate Strategy @ AT&T]

[Barron’s 11.13.2000]

The Wireless Revolution

Things move fast:2003: PC Magazine identifies “802.11.b” as an

“emerging technology” It wasn’t even called Wi-Fi yet!

Do you have wireless at your association meetings?

How does it change the dynamic?Beware of the connected audience!

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

Competition is Everywhere

The internet has removed the traditional geographic monopolies that many organizations enjoyed since their foundingOnline education from anywhereOnline newslettersResources

Action Step: Focus on your “Onlys”

“You do not merely want to be the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do.”

--Jerry Garcia

A Global Marketplace for Talent

They don’t call us Virtual for nothing… Don’t do what you’re bad at!

Know the business that you’re in and outsource the rest

Internet-enabled global outsourcingElance.com

“We own all the intellectual property, we farm out all the direct labor.”

--Jim McDonnell

Vice President, IBM

Action Steps

Ask these key questionsWhat tasks are you doing that could be

outsourced?How broad is your search for outsource

partners? Revisit these questions relentlessly

What was unaffordable in 2005 might be a different story today

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

Top of Search is Top of Mind

Search marketing is a $9 billion dollar market

Does your association have a “search strategy?”

Who do you want to find you and how are they looking for you?

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

The Many Ages of the Web

1994: Web as curiosity

1998: Web as online brochure

2000: Web as online bazaar

2003: Web as collaborative center

2006: User generated content

Next: The mobile web

The Big Question

What can your members do in their pajamas?

Coming soon to a web site near you…

Management of documents & joint work projects

Elections and surveys Discussions that supplant face to face

meetings

A Day in the Life…

Action Steps

Know the tool kit & use it:SharePointNew tools in VistaWebEx/PlacewareCustomized portals & document management

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

“Breakthroughs come from an instinctive judgment of what your customers might want if they knew to think about it.”--Andy Grove Chairman, Intel

The Rising Bar

Ubiquity of videoOver 24% of the content on the web is now video

Podcasts Dynamic content

Can the user interact with the page? Personalized content

My Yahoo & other portalsAmazon’s “Recommendations”

Caution flag

Separate the trends from the fadsRemember the CueCat?

Play it safe: Follow the standards

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

“Strategy meetings held once or twice a year” to “Strategy meetings needed several times a week”

--New York Times on Meg Whitman (Ebay)

Today’s Planning Cycle

Know the trends that are out there and whether you need to be partToday’s lonely pay phone is tomorrow’s wi-fi

workspaceWhen is the “right time” to leap onto a trend

Action Steps

Regular environmental scan Benchmark against the best, not just your

peers

The Trends

1. The new rules of customer service2. Social networking is for grown ups, too3. It’s the data, stupid4. Everybody is a publisher5. Devices are changing6. The world really is flat7. Top of search is top of mind8. The web as workspace9. The content bar keeps rising10. The planning cycle has changed

Andy Freed

Virtual, Inc.

781 876-6205

Afreed@virtualmgmt.com

www.virtualmgmt.com