Young Association Professionals (YAP) yapstar.org

Elizabeth

I agree --- we can complain or we can bring constructive criticism to the table.

Plus List

1. Motivation speakers -- both in general session and the sessions. Much appreciated.

2. Guilt by Association video and LA Video

3. CAE Walk -- Did not realize it would feel good.... thanks for the lift and the pin!

4. Caliber of the attendees

5. Bookstore -- I got some timely topic books!

6. Unified Twitter feed  HUB

7. Cindi!!!

Here is my top of mind list constructive feedback list

1. If you go paperless, AOK, but not at the sake of making me clueless!

Examples that made me clueless.... The 2010 ASAE Annual Meeting event site did not consolidate information,schedules etc.  Take a look at the 3 wonderfully written paragraphs about the Opening Party. If you dont know what or where LA Live is, you dont know where and when this party started.

The Education Schedule did not compliment the Schedule of Events. Locations, times

The Mobile App was helpful but the schedule "next" did not have locations

2. Where was a personal event planner so I can drag and drop the items that interest me?  I felt like I was dizzy for 4 days because I had not narrowed my options.

3. Huge rooms set with round tables???  Not cozy for table talks....

4. Too many niche networking lounge --hard to hang

5. The Attendee list in Excel?  How was I to networking in advance?

6. Could not figure out the Exhibitor appt tool.....

Margaret Core

The main knock I have against #ASAE10 is the decreased number of sessions.  Six time slots didn't give me the opportunity to learn new and better ways to do my job.  This was the third national conference I have attended and after the other two I was overwhelmed with information and new things to try.  This time I was struggling to come up with things to do...not what my association paid for me to get out of the conference.

ASAE always does a great job of the production of these conferences and the exhibit hall is always spectacular and a great way to meet vendors and learn about their offerings.  I was not a fan of the TV show skits but you win some, you loose some.  That was not a big deal to me.  The general sessions were not really that interesting to me but I come for the learning labs and thought leaders.  When they took away some of the time slots for these they doomed my opinion of the overall conference.

The real disappointment was not knowing about all the YAP activities before the conference!  I would have loved to participate and hang out with you guys (maybe not the flash mob, but I would have watched!)

I say we move on and focus on St. Louis! I hope that I will be able to attend in STL as it will be within driving distance for me...just need to work on the CEO to pay that registration fee!

The registration fee to attend ASAE is high and my expectation is that the quality of presentations will be high as well.  There were times when I struggled to even find a session I wanted to attend.  Please vet your speakers, ASAE.  As an AMC, I have clients struggling with membership issues and that was my primary focus for attending.  I walked out on a membership session where the two presenters wasted the first 10 minutes with lots of 'ah' and 'um's.  I came to hear about new membership strategies but they did nothing to engage me so I left and went elsewhere.  Another membership session was good but the speakers were tethered to the table because of their mics limiting their ability to engage the audience.  Certainly not an adult learning environment. 

If there must be a general session (and why must there?) make it one, not three.  Most were pointless.  I thought having Bahar on stage during the CAE walk was both embarrassing and unfitting for the prestige of achieving the CAE. 

Bring quality programs to St. Louis and bring more of them and less general sessions. 

Hey All -

I've been doing some thinking and I like this idea of "unconference areas."  I got inspired by VH1 "Pop-up Videos" where they play the video and then information pops up on the screen.  If you are bored with the video, you can learn cool behind the scenes facts.  If it's a video you love, you can just ignore the pop-ups.

Why can't we do the same thing?  We have enough trained facilitators to teach, share, pecha kucha and get our learn on with each other if we need to.  If we see a bunch of us are getting bored, we can launch a "pop-up" like a mini-rave focused on a single topic that we crowdsource ahead of time before we get to St. Louis. This would give us the ability to learn and focus and get more out of the experience.

I see an option like this as a value-add, not an aggressive move to steal mind-share from ASAE and conference organizers.  Our "pop-up" audience isn't going to be in the general session anyway, they are going to be having a rump-session in the bar.  This way we can channel our energy into learning instead of drinking and complaining about what we aren't getting.  

I believe association professionals need to admit it has gotten to the point where we recognize that although lots of people will want to participate in the planned activities and workshop blocks some won't.  If we can be happy and enhance our learning experience, ASAE only stands to benefit.

So, pop-ups anyone?  They could be "pop-ular...."  :D

Shelly Alcorn, CAE