Case Studies – The Profitable Association

BIMFORUM—THERE’S NOTHING LIKE THE FIRST (SHOW) TIME

New Show Launch/Sponsorship Growth Strategy & Execution

BIMForum was a simple “forum” or consortium of thought-leaders in the Architecture-Engineering-Construction (A/E/C) industry whose mission is to facilitate and accelerate the adoption of building information modeling (BIM). The group met two or three times each year, sometimes with as many as three hundred or more in attendance, and had a small number of sponsors with display table (but not a “true” tradeshow component.)

Creating this new “non-dues” revenue line-item while keeping the focus on the cutting-edge, vision-setting technology was important. After the first year of working together, this simple “forum” launched into a full tradeshow and blasted the past attendee record by 35% (which means more revenue, more members and more collaboration.) After three events, the non-dues revenue has soared over $325,000.

ASSOCIATED GENERAL CONTRACTORS OF AMERICA’S ANNUAL CONVENTION

Exhibit Sales/Event And Marketing Strategy & Execution

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), a trade association with 28,000 member firms in the construction industry, had to decide if it should pull the plug on the Expo component of its Annual Convention. The shrinking event had a budget that was only 25% of what it had been just a few years before, and a dwindling core of dissatisfied exhibitors and unexcited attendees.

DESIGN-BUILD INSTITUTE OF AMERICA’S PUBLICATION, DESIGN-BUILD DATELINE

Advertising Sales/Marketing Strategy & Execution

The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) wanted to transform its newsletter into a monthly journal that would become the association’s flagship offering to members and to the industry. To do so meant significant increases in production costs. From no ad sales revenue at the start, we developed and launched a program that resulted in over $450,000 in annual advertising revenue in four years.