The Association of British Professional Conference Organizers’ executive board has developed and released its strategic plan, focused on helping members raise their profile and prove their value proposition as solution-oriented strategic advisors to their association clients and employers.
Fundamental to the ABPCO plan is the need to demonstrate what makes an ABPCO member special: their passion, resourcefulness, innovation and organizational skills, which in turn helps them adapt and change to meet the needs of associations.
Alongside ABPCO’s core values of Excellence, Learning and Belonging, the strategic plan introduces a fourth pillar, External Voice—to strengthen and deliver the collective views and opinions of ABPCO members to associations and others. In particular this will focus on the members’ expertise and knowledge of virtual, hybrid and face to face meetings management solutions. Ultimately this will be pivotal in raising the profile of members as leaders in the wider environments in which they operate.
On the release of the plan, Michael Smith (pictured left), co-chair of ABPCO said: “Our membership has reacted, adapted and innovated despite the wider global challenges we have faced over this past year. As an association we have adapted to meet the needs of our members and their customers to ensure we support them going forward. This strategic plan reflects the fact that we are helping our members learn new skills, develop new income streams and flex to suit fast changing situations beyond their control.”
“We cannot be prouder of the creative way our membership has moved forward and reacted over the last 12 months. We therefore felt it was imperative that ABPCO remains fit for purpose and able to give them the best possible support we can. We fundamentally believe this plan achieves those goals and look forward to delivering it over the coming months.”
Barbara Calderwood (pictured right), co-chair of ABPCO commented, “It is vital we demonstrate to associations our ability to innovate and support their needs; to engage their audiences, recover and grow their communities. Our strategic plan ensures our membership is equipped with the toolkit they need to be even more relevant to associations going forward.”
The strategic plan was developed by the executive board following consultation with the wider membership. The full plan is available in the members’ section of the ABPCO website, whilst non-members can view an executive summary here: https://bit.ly/3qxe6tB
ABPCO is the UK’s leading organization for professional conference and event organizers, industry associates and those studying for, or seeking a career in the conference and meetings industry. For more info, visit www.abpco.org.
