2023-10-25 Meeting notes

Public Page

CIECA 500 Westover Dr #11617; Sanford, NC 27330

Date

Oct 25, 2023

ANTITRUST STATEMENT

As participants in this meeting, we need to be mindful of the constraints of antitrust laws. There shall be no discussions of agreements or concerted actions that may restrain competition. This prohibition includes the exchange of information concerning individual prices, rates, coverages, market practices, claims settlement practices, or any other competitive aspect of an individual company’s operation. Each participant is obligated to speak up immediately for the purpose of preventing any discussion falling outside these bounds.

Agenda

Antitrust Agreement and Meeting minutes acceptance
Convergence of Education & Marketing Committees
Growing membership/attracting new members
How to promote members other than standards/cobranding/value prop of being a member
one page on getting the most from your CIECA membership
Support Tech Forum

Meeting Minutes

The antitrust agreement was read and the minutes were approved.
CONNEX Communications Plan
- Our goals for the conference are to attract CIECA members and interested parties in the industry to attend the conference, increase attendance from last year by 10%, especially business analysts, product/project managers if possible. We also want to share information about CIECA’s next generation of standards—CAPIS and encourage committee involvement. The last goal is to attract sponsors; the goal is 16. Currently, we have 14.
- Our target market for the conference is current members. Non-members are also invited. Our mission is to bridge the gap between business and technology and offer attendees a perspecitive that addresses the interest of both.
- Strengths for the conference include strong brand awareness and the ability to attract speakers from a broad spectrum of the industry to bring a new perspective. The conference is an opportunity to educate attendees about new technologies that will impact the industry. Weaknesses include not having enough active technical participation in committees. We want to ensure we have fresh speakers so the same companies aren’t presenting year after year. Threats include some companies might be concerned about sending technical representatives to the event due to possible poaching or they might not have time to attend. Travel restrictions due to company budgets and concerns over recession are issues as well as flight challenges traveling to Bloomington and possible conflicting industry events.
- Key considerations are to ensure content is fresh, we don’t overload the agenda and leave time for networking, which is really important to attendees.
- We are currently working on developing clear guidelines for those who receive a free tickets, which is primarily presenters who are giving a standalone presentation rather than a committee update. We are considering giving the committee chairs an opportunity to present. We are planning to have our open annual meeting during the event and ask committee chairs to participate. Paul said the meetings are typically open.
- Regarding travel, we want to proactively address travel questions related to arriving in Bloomington. We want to ensure the hotel has clear signage. This year, we are going to have one large banner with sponsor logos and some foam boards, as well as a sponsor slide during break time. We are going have a deadline of 30 days before the conference to have people sign up for sponsorship to provide enough time to create signage. We are allowing online tickets sales up to the last day of the event.
- Enterprise has been an enormous help with registration in the past. We can also reach out to State Farm if needed. Kim will reach out to her team to find out.
- We are going to have two-sided name tags this year. A conference guide will be printed for the event.
- Paulette will have the gift items sent to her home and she will bring them to the event.
- We are asking presenters to send their decks a week before the conference.
- Paul create a conference website with all of the details about the event. A press release was sent out yesterday with the speakers confirmed.
- NABC will have a gifting ceremony and a tour of Rivian is planned following the presentations.
- Paul created speaker and sponsor graphics for social media. We were talking about providing graphics for board members as well.
- Kim asked who the keynote speaker will be. Sean Carey from SCG Management Consultants will be the keynote. Bill Garroutte will be the emcee.
- Jeff recently stayed at the Doubletree hotel in Bloomington and suggested we have signage to direct people to the conference center. He said it was a nice facility. He went on a Rivian tour and recommended creating and sending out a “How to get to Bloomington” flyer. Kim offered to talk to Mary Mahoney about creating a rental car code. Jeff suggested talking to the airport and letting them know that more rental cars will be needed. He also brought up the idea of having people carpool to the conference from the airport. Paul will see if there is a scheduling tool in ZoHo for people to sign up to ride together.
- Last year, Jeff invited some business analysts to the conference. He said what appealed to them was they were new to the industry and were able to learn more about standards and how we need to connect. Jeff said that the industry needs to understand what’s happening from a technology standpoint and connect with others in the industry. Kim agreed. She said there are a lot of people in her organization who are interested in career training and development and she recommended the CIECA Conference due to its affordable price and the opportunity to hear about all aspects of the industry. A lot of Enterprise staff attend because it’s close by and affordable.
- Jeff said that one of his company’s strategies is digitization of the business and the team is working to understand the industry and connect. Kim noted that everyone in the industry is moving toward a more digitized process. They recommended including that concept when marketing the event.
- To encourage more technical attendance, Paulette suggested using keywords like “being able to help identify new use cases and business workflows coming into the industry.” This will likely help them understand they will be able to learn about information that will help them with development. Jeff agreed. He often receives questions from the technical team about use cases and suggested that we incorporate that wording into the marketing materials to help generate interest.
- To help generate committee interest, Jeff suggested letting people know that anyone can join a committee, it’s virtual and there is value they will receive as well as provide. He often hears people say they don’t want to get tied to something where they have to travel to meetings but this isn’t the case with CIECA committees.
- Regarding committee updates being given during the conference, Paulette said that last year the updates helped promote conversation with the other chairs and understand that everyone was working toward the same goal. Phil liked the idea of having the committee chairs present and providing information about what they are working on and ask the audience for input. Jeff suggested having the chairs talk about the committee focus and encourage those interested to reach out for more information. Presenters can also include information about committees in the same area of focus if appropriate.
- Paul said that when communications are sent out, we typically receive additional registrations and/or sponsors. He asked for feedback from the group about the amount of marketing emails and social media that is taking place. Pete said he isn’t a professional marketer but doesn’t feel overwhelmed with the communication being sent out and there could probably be even more. Rav said that depending on our goal of awareness or conversion, we can upload our email contact list or member list and boost the posts to that audience on Facebook for about $50 or $100. Pete said that we also have the ability to do targeted campaigns on LinkedIn and there are a lot of opportunities using Instagram. Both Rav and Pete offered to meet to discuss how to do that.

Great meeting!

Up Next

Antitrust Agreement and Meeting minutes acceptance
Convergence of Education & Marketing Committees
Growing membership/attracting new members
How to promote members other than standards/cobranding/value prop of being a member
one page on getting the most from your CIECA membership
Support Tech Forum

Action items

Decisions

Participants

@Stacey Phillips
@Paul Barry
@paulette reed