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62% of your members now pay their own dues, and cost remains the top reason they leave. The gap between what your association offers and what members value is widening — and it’s putting revenue at risk. That gap is also your opportunity.
With 72% of members needing professional development, demand for flexible, high-value offerings keeps climbing. Associations that adapt now turn today’s pressure into tomorrow’s growth.
Moderator
Mary Connor serves as Chief Strategy Officer for Stringfellow Management Company and is president of SMG Consulting. With over 25 years of experience in association management, Mary is a Certified Association Executive, credentialed in Six Sigma/Lean, trained in Association Foresight studies, and a Certified Association AI Professional.
Mary leads SMG’s AI initiative, developing and implementing a company-wide strategy that includes safety protocols, comprehensive training programs, employee use-case tracking, and ongoing research into AI tools relevant to the association management space. As head of SMG Consulting, she integrates foresight methodologies into strategic planning, with a strong emphasis on AI futures thinking and its impact on associations. Mary also facilitates Organizational 360 Assessments and a variety of consulting engagements designed to help associations adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Moderator
Dustin Radtke is a software technology leader with a proven track record of guiding teams to deliver disruptive product innovation to the market. He excels at building, leading and transforming global products and technology portfolios to support business objectives and customer growth.
As Momentive’s Chief AI Officer, Dustin leads a global team dedicated to the company’s AI-driven innovation and product transformation through the development of its AI-native platform, MomentiveIQ.
Before joining Momentive, Dustin served as Chief Technology Officer and most recently held the Chief Operating Officer role at OnSolve, where he directed the product strategy, operations and development for the company’s market-leading critical event management solutions. Prior to OnSolve, Dustin held product leadership positions at Honeywell, JDA Software (now known as Blue Yonder), RedPrairie and Teklynx.
Dustin holds bachelor’s degrees in accounting and management information systems from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Moderator
Rich Vallaster, CEM, QAS, AAiP, is Senior Director of Industry Strategy at Momentive Software. His career, deeply rooted in the events and association industry, has seen him collaborate with some of the most prominent associations, organizations, tradeshows, and events. A former Chair of the CEIR Research Council and IAEE board member, Rich is a recognized industry voice featured in The New York Times and leading trade and association publications. He regularly speaks at major conferences and serves as faculty for the IAEE CEM program.
Your membership pipeline looks different than it did three years ago. So does your donor base, your staff’s relationship with technology, and the revenue model you’ve relied on for decades. You already know something fundamental is changing. The question is what to do about it.
The organizations moving forward have realized technology has already far surpassed where anyone predicted, and that industry leaders must adapt to change without getting left behind. These leaders are having honest conversations with their organizations about the gap between where they are and where they need to be—and closing it with intention.
This four-part series draws on original research from three separate studies of association leaders, nonprofit executives, and association members. Each session tackles similar pressure points across different themes: generational change, AI adoption, revenue sustainability, and donor trust. Together, they give you a grounded picture of what’s shifting and a practical path forward.
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