[00:00:00] Noah: Well, welcome to our webinar today, uh, and the content we'll be sharing, uh, HubSpot for associations from fragmented to unified. Uh, and, uh, of course welcome to everyone. Uh, and, uh, just give you a little bit of background about what we're here to talk about today. As most associations have invested heavily in a MS systems, uh, but members still feel disconnected, uh, engagement is lacking and growth is harder than ever. and so today we're gonna share some fresh insights, uh, from, uh, over 250 association conversations highlighting how leading teams are solving the challenges or solving their challenges with HubSpot, and show you real world examples of transforming member experience, uh, through immigrated events. So we're gonna dive right in.

[00:00:47] We're gonna share a few of our hosts we have here today, uh, including, uh, one of our pinch hitter hosts. So we appreciate him very much for being here. Uh, so we're gonna move on to this next slide. Uh, so [00:01:00] first and foremost, I am Noah Burke, co. CEO of Aptitude, eight. We are a HubSpot, uh, elite Solutions partner, number two, global Solutions partner of the year, and HubSpot's leading technical consultancy. Uh, I'm joined by my other host and I will give a hint. Uh, one of them, uh, Ben unfortunately had a family emergency he had to run to. Luckily we have filling in Dax, uh, from the happily team who'll be taking over his role. So. His picture's not up there, but happy to have him here with us today. I'll let each of my co-hosts, uh, share a little bit about themselves, background and who they are.

[00:01:33] So Clay, we'll start with you.

[00:01:35] Clay: Hey, uh, I'm Clay Ostrom. I'm the founder of Map and Fire, and we are a customer research and brand strategy agency, and we helped, uh, the group here with some of the research and insights that we're gonna talk about today.

[00:01:51] Noah: Thanks, clay. All right, Dax, I'll pass it to you.

[00:01:58] Dax: Perfect. I'm Dax, co-founder of [00:02:00] Happily Chief Care Officer. We are a HubSpot app. EO focused mainly on quoting, and now really, really focused on events and bringing that in-person experience to back to the campfire, can really understand and connect with humans in a great way.

[00:02:16] Noah: And our honor guest today, Maria, let you introduce yourself.

[00:02:20] Maria: you Thank you for invitation back be with you. Uh, I am the head of growth and marketing manager at the Swiss Startup Association, and we are the umbrella organization for the Swiss startups representing over 2000, uh, startups in Switzerland. And we, our goal is improve the conditions for them Switzerland.

[00:02:44] Noah: Awesome. Thank you the introductions. Team, uh, we're gonna dive right in. We're first gonna start off with the agenda of what we have today. you can expect. So we got a really good lineup for all of you. Um, like I mentioned at the top, uh, is we're gonna dig into new research from over 250 [00:03:00] associations.

[00:03:00] Uh, what's working, what's not working, um, and where leaders are running into friction. Uh, we're also gonna hear directly from Maria. Uh, on what this looks like in real life and how, uh, she's leveraged, uh, these tools to, uh, improve the engagement. Um, after that we'll walk through how tools like HubSpot and Happily are really helping teams solve these challenges.

[00:03:21] And finally, we're gonna wrap up, uh, with real world event use case, uh, plus some time for q and a and takeaways at the end. So, um, you know, let's. Dig right in. Let's see. Uh, start with what the research tells us and why it matters. So, um, clay, I'm gonna with you here. Your team spoke with over 250 associations.

[00:03:43] First of all, that's a lot. Uh, so what stood out to you right away from these conversations?

[00:03:49] Clay: Yeah. You know, I mean, I think, uh, just going off the title of this. Webinar. The thing, the big theme that we saw that, that really stood out right away was just [00:04:00] that fragmentation around the tech stack. Um, you can see a couple of these top pain points around just the sheer number of systems that they're using.

[00:04:10] Um, and, uh, just the way that they integrate together is, is just a huge, huge issue. Um, you know, we think about an a MS, uh, association management software as being. This kind of central hub for associations, but we didn't really see, first of all, we didn't see a big dominant player in that space. Nobody having more than 10% market share.

[00:04:33] Uh, but in addition to that, when we think about all the other tools, uh, that make up the tech stack, and that's CRM learning management events, volunteer management, community engagement. These associations are really using specialized tools for basically all of these things. Um, for community ma uh, management, for example, we saw 44% using Facebook groups.

[00:04:57] So again, this really feeds into this big [00:05:00] challenge of fragmentation of data, not being able to get a clear view of how everybody's engaging, and then ultimately being able to support your members, uh, appropriately.

[00:05:11] Noah: You know, it's really interesting, clay, you kinda shared that. 'cause that kinda matches with what we see too. Um, especially when. Associations don't have that real time engagement data. Uh, and the reason why is 'cause an outreach tends to fall flat. Uh, you may, it just may be generic messaging, generic communication, not timely.

[00:05:28] Uh, and unfortunately it doesn't do you any favors, especially in the day and age we live nowadays where people expect timely personalized communications and knowing everything about them. Um, which kind of leads us straight into, uh, the next slide here. With really what's holding associations back.

[00:05:45] Clay: Yeah.

[00:05:46] Noah: you kind of alluded to some of it. Um, and I think from my perspective, one of the key points, uh, and one of the things that really caught my eye was 47% cited member satisfaction as their biggest challenge. [00:06:00] Why do you think this is such a pervasive challenge all these associations are experiencing?

[00:06:06] Clay: Yeah, it's a great question. I think there's, there's sort of two sides to this, so. Membership dues. We saw membership dues as being the top revenue driver for associations with 43%. Um, so obviously understanding your members, keeping them engaged is, is critical, right? That's critical to the business and the growth of the business.

[00:06:29] Um, in terms of the actual engagement with them, I think we saw sort of two parts. Of, of the issue around that. And so one is, again, data, you know, just the struggle of getting data, like you were saying, like we're used to a world now where we can do real time engagement, we can do personalization. And there's just all kinds of challenges with that when you don't, when you've got these disparate systems that don't communicate well.

[00:06:54] Um, and then the other part, we, we saw that, you know, events are a [00:07:00] huge part of association engagement. What a lot of associations struggle with is what's happening in between those events and making sure that members feel like they're getting enough value from their dues to, to keep their membership going.

[00:07:18] Um, we heard from one, one leader who runs a, an association for Jewish Studies, and he was talking about the fact that they've got this. One big annual event that they do, like a conference every year you have to be a member to attend. And they would see this spike of membership, uh, happening right before the big, uh, you know, event and then people churning and, and leaving afterwards.

[00:07:45] So again, there's just this challenge of. You know, sharing information, making sure people know that there's other content available, whether that's training information or other things that, that associations provide. Um, but that is a big problem [00:08:00] of just making sure members feel like they're getting enough out of their membership.

[00:08:03] Mm-hmm.

[00:08:04] Noah: And I would say the three that we see here right now are kind of all interrelated. satisfaction directly impacts, uh, member retention, uh, and, and member growth. And then because you don't have the member retention, member growth, now you're, now you gotta go do new. Member acquisition. it's of on each other, and causing these challenges.

[00:08:23] And of course gonna get into what are some of the challenges holding associations back, from really Clay, what you're here. I mean, really the other issues are the leading of primary ones see top. Um, because when don't have real time engagement uh, their outreach will fall flat. that leads directly into the retention issue, which is saying, then have go out and try and find members up the And it's the cycle they're in,

[00:08:52] Clay: Exactly.

[00:08:54] Noah: So we look at this next slide we have about what's holding. Associations back. [00:09:00] Um, this of alludes to what

[00:09:01] Clay: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:03] Noah: and, you know, fragmentation, uh, it no, we have no a MS. Like issues that we currently have. across the poor visibility, um, uh, manual workflows. I mean you're not even directly able to communication, you're manually doing these things, which requires a of time. It's slow, all of a sudden no one has time do anything else.

[00:09:28] Clay: Yep.

[00:09:29] Noah: of course, I think we can all respect this change is hard. Um, and oftentimes leadership will resist change, uh, when it comes to this. But Maria, I kind of wanna ask you these questions and, and really, you know, after kind of play pointing this out, you've kind of dealt with some of these experiences yourself. Um, I'd love to hear a little bit about your experiences as a leader inside an association, uh, some of the challenges you've had as well.

[00:09:55] Maria: Yeah, I'm in a certain way glad to see those numbers and [00:10:00] these research because I don't feel that alone. And yeah, we compete. It a here the are uh, case we handling. Uh, startups and they change their goals, their needs very often.

[00:10:16] So we, we can, we, to up to uh, it's for us. Hard work case more specifically because we are nonprofit so we count on volunteers to organize, uh, events and uh, our database in general and to. to. Grow the community. So we have to go through those to them in any can use their own tools if, don't have any alternative. it's to keep everything to date. And also in our, we, I said we like the conditions for Swiss talk and then, uh, for [00:11:00] that. Uh, uh, is events in our case, plays a, a big role because they, uh, they, as, um, a service because we deliver educational sessions, networking opportunities for them through but the marketing perspective, also as lead generation and so on.

[00:11:19] Uh, and also a way to keep them, uh, engaged with our community. And then it's quite hard to keep everything operating well and those, uh, issues that you are, uh, um, representing here today. It's quite, uh, what we, we experienced there 

[00:11:37] Noah: there.

[00:11:37] there's sometimes that sense of, oh, I'm not alone. Uh, and I'm sure a lot of people watching this right now, they're feeling some comfort from both what said and also right Is you are all kind of in this and the across the and they're compounding is it is almost wheel and each of these the an has. and I, I, I [00:12:00] think Clay, you know, from your perspective, um, really would you say the need for first is at this point?

[00:12:09] Clay: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, um. It brings to mind another quote or another, uh, mention we had from one of the associations we talked with where they talked about how some of the older demos in their association struggled with, you know, engaging with certain tools. So yeah, it really is a case where it isn't.

[00:12:32] It can't just kind of be a one size fits all for everybody. I think you've gotta deal with the fact that you've got. You know, some of these associations have been around a long time. You've got legacy members who've been using it a long time, but you're also trying to bring in a new generation. Um, and everybody's kind of got different perspectives and needs for sure.

[00:12:51] Noah: Understood. And as we kind of move into this next here, and I think kind of what alluding to a little bit earlier here, but clay. You know, [00:13:00] how does fragmentation, uh, really play out day for staff and members? and some you in terms of the challenges.

[00:13:11] Clay: Yeah, it, uh, again, another quote. Um, this was from a woman who's in a leadership position where they have an association around pharmacists. She put it very simply, which is to say we need better access to data to help guide our strategy. It's, it's, you know, it's basically this idea of we wanna make recommendations, we wanna improve things, but if we can't even understand our own data and we can't understand our own members clearly, how can we even convince leadership who may be dragging their feet a little bit unchanged to, to invest in something new?

[00:13:47] Um, so it is, it's a very. Like you said, it's, it's like a, a self-feeding issue of, you know, we don't have the data, we can't make decisions, but we can't improve things if we don't have the data. [00:14:00] So it, it, it's, yeah, it really goes in a circle.

[00:14:04] Noah: continues to feed itself, and all of a sudden have issues. I mean, let's just talk about the admin burden if we don't have that data and trying to put all this together. I'm sure, Maria, you'll talk a little bit more about this as well. And it goes back to the personalization, retention, slow follow up, or, uh, the, the organization just has poor visibility into what's going on. Um, and this is what we want to talk about solving. Uh, and you know, when we think about uh, and again, we have, uh, Dax from Happily here, which we'll get to a moment. Uh, but with Plus as we move into the next here. Um we've really kind of about some the challenges and thank you again, clay, for bringing up.

[00:14:41] And Maria, thank you for giving me, giving, the audience your experience of what the struggle feels like, uh an association. Um, now I want to shift gears and talking about how, how we what are those gonna look like. Um, and this is HubSpot. Plus tools like happily really start to the game for [00:15:00] associations.

[00:15:00] And, um, one of the things I, I want to do as get into this, and again, uh, audience, I do appreciate Dax being here. He is a last minute pinch hitter for us. Uh, but uh, one of the things I'd like to do is to in here and talk about how we're helping go from disconnected. To unified. Um, and as we're that, shifting how for this.

[00:15:20] So Dax, what are you seeing from your side? And maybe kind of start a little bit about what the HubSpot piece is and how women with HubSpot, and we're dive into how events in.

[00:15:30] Dax: you're leveraging single source of truth for everything. 'cause when you're running an event, you've got not only people that are involved your standard processes and standard systems, but you've got a lot of external as well. You've got don't even have any idea what what using.

[00:15:43] just they expect their check. They want to know some They some how many people they're And of things like it's almost. Obviously fostering a disconnected and defra and got and papers and did the printer kind get the printer badges.

[00:15:59] Yet [00:16:00] all these things that happen where you, you of what you're really trying to do, which is make people connect. And having HubSpot as that not the data of who's who's. RSVPed, um, what their dietary restrictions are, all information. And having that native in one place can see reference is of the what we really wanted to do with event and having that set inside again of But its of not data in a meaningful way, but action doing that in an automated and where I don't have to redo up emails for event. I don't have to redo all the confirmations redo all of the make new lists and things like that.

[00:16:42] So when you have that combined with a lot of the specialties that are able to on top of HubSpot, such as the member portals the reporting that comes out of the it's a, it, almost a forget it, but it's a and kind of out after a little bit because. Scalable processes and processes in general.

[00:16:58] What are aligned [00:17:00] with marrying of event, happily and, and HubSpot together.

[00:17:04] Noah: I think it's and what you audience, looking through kind helps win. It all goes back to the initial challenge, uh, about what's associations back. Um, and that goes that retention issue. That goes back to the issue. That goes back to the issue. So when think of HubSpot, having retention automation using behavioral triggers, did they go to this event? Did for X, Y, Did they read this particular newsletter? That's all that you can do in like HubSpot, personalized engagement, based upon their role, their what in.

[00:17:36] As just to all in one place, your central source of truth so that market, um, workflows that you have, lead scoring and this concept of health scores as well that you can even So identify we may have issues of members to churning. this concept of member portals because we wanna continually deliver values and [00:18:00] then the association themselves, real time reporting. Many people are signing for the events. How many vendors do we have coming? how many individuals are repeat versus not? There's all this reporting that's help the win ultimately in the end. Um, and you know, this is probably one of the big ones on and really where events in, because this is maker for a lot of associations. Is there events? Uh, clay good example how an association, they saw everyone sign up to to the event and then off afterwards We make sure they stay. Throughout that given year. Um, and they're really the most engagement of But without integrations, having all this together, it's hard to prove ROI. Well, how much did we get from all that promotion effort we Um, from your here, where you see associations leveraging events to solve some of these challenges?

[00:18:53] we have.

[00:18:54] Dax: it's the person that up for your, your You know, they're a fit [00:19:00] of in your industry and they understand you guys are of the ilk. what they really want? What do really And when you have events can and can't, you if you, you're running your event correctly, which of a different a different of how actually and entertain your guests where they're engaged and in the corner somewhere you. Have those and this and these events, you to who the people are. That data will marry or will mirror that as well. Like how many are they going? Are people going to and churning or are they going to a they're trying to get some or But that and marketing to as when I say Me, when you speak to people when they're, they've for time event, make sure that a, here's what to The that's single every single need email.

[00:19:50] They know what to expect. They're more And you them as a as a knight, as a unicorn, and be like, Hey, got any wanna bring anybody to this? You you, you've been to every single [00:20:00] You must a good So all of that, when you your process how you can tap and who's a part of organization, who is in your family, that is an piece in that data and having event happily with your registration processes allows for that.

[00:20:16] And know, hey, members can this an open So you do of those where can. Do members and also really engage current members, what's on mind, problems having in their, kind of, of, of, their of, uh, daily life. But it, does you have your easy events people are, a lot of people that we were working with currently that are in the association space are doing small little get togethers, hours, but also attending trade shows and. That's that really comes in. I on vacation or am I actually going and trying to connect?

[00:20:52] And what does that connection What does the data tell their participation in this? And then later on, more more [00:21:00] deals of engagements that you have, um, that are sponsors. All of this, again, is where this really fits in. And without this, you're dealing with paper, you're dealing with a couple spreadsheets that some people can or can't have. And you this to the is really what is the with people. It needs Not to figure out all these things, right? Not trying to figure out all these gears fit in.

[00:21:22] Noah: Yeah, and, I we about like HubSpot plus Happily and events I think in this piece missing piece that we have in HubSpot associations, and we'll get what this actually looks inside HubSpot. In the next few slides here, we're going through some that will be able to share what to what this because. It's not having the repository all this in your of It's being able to be actionable, ultimate end. Full whether producing an or at an event, event, happily is able to help. your audience as well as help understand what the is gonna [00:22:00] be.

[00:22:00] So let's actually transition, 'cause I think that's gonna be something a lot of the attendees are interested in is what is the, what does like events happily look like? So the few gonna go through here is gonna be walking through this and maybe you can kind of give a high level overview of these we have here. What are people looking at, and what can they this tool?

[00:22:19] Dax: Event happily leverages the of When you we're gonna give you some objects that will represent truly the event event object, which is your event sessions, to allow you to have different breakouts or multiple like that, as well as the registrant object, which most which is the instance of a contact. an event with that data, with the that model allows you to build. Really, really powerful reports and visibility on who's where, many, how are your, your pages or marketing for that events. By seeing registrations over time, are you revenue from events?

[00:22:57] Or are you just which You to [00:23:00] sure you can see. How much is in, and then you can start calculate against your expenses. You net revenue, your net ROI, your Influence pipeline. You can get as granular as you like because have the data set in the way possible.

[00:23:13] And everything with event happily is built This isn't an external software. This that you would need to You're gonna able to really run see this like a dashboard just like you're seeing here of. everything's going. Like, how are we doing? Are we doing better? Are we doing worse?

[00:23:28] Where should we our next event? What does data Its, its uh, ability to see our, um, our registration and all that.

[00:23:37] Noah: one next slides here is really good example of which we talked like the expenses, um, and this type of talk bit about what people are looking at here as well.

[00:23:48] Dax: Expenses usually live in a spreadsheet. They live in somebody's, um, somebody's pocket in a washing an that they or a to write down. is one of the major [00:24:00] disconnects of having that, but it is in when you do your managed inside everyone can see, everyone can adjust, everyone can keep You have to have also the revenue assigned associated to that event. And one our pieces with Happily is a workflow in HubSpot language that attributes deals to the event. Based upon your parameters, how far you wanted to If you wanna do a look period of a year or just do you want to attribute, uh, deals the first went to, maybe most they went to, or event, if you're just looking for influence, right?

[00:24:36] Are you, are you directionally going the right way with your events? So having expenses in HubSpot and ROI and your transactions inside event, puts in one cohesive look an event. See your expenses, see the attributed deal revenue.

[00:24:52] Did you make money? Did you lose Are we in the right path? All what's changing for people that currently [00:25:00] having sales. Call into marketing person. Hey, did that guy come close? that gal convert? They went to this Are you sure? I think they did that this, all of this goes away.

[00:25:10] Right? And again, the work starts to shift into what's which is connected.

[00:25:14] Noah: And, and I think for association, especially if we look onto here, um, and this is Maria has the most because now she can build lists. Very highly personalized lists based upon event attendees, based things' before that to be able to increase that member retention. And you know is of just an example here, that we have of building out a list, based upon all those contacts associated, uh, that event. But how would you kind of allude to like, as one of the more powerful reasons why event happily is so here?

[00:25:48] Dax: When you have granular data of not only just that has an attended event, but of contacts that, or of events that a contact has attended, now you're really understanding your [00:26:00] effectiveness for your events. Of course, you're gonna be able to build lists of, based on who registered.

[00:26:04] Who attended, or you are trade event got a given event. Seeing that charted over is something that's never really been able to be based upon the, you know, the, idealistic, leaving everything on the contact. Having the registrant object and having that tied the contact gives you this layer reporting and how can go.

[00:26:25] And of course, with can associate them to campaigns. So if maybe if you have if you any, any Thing that is event tied to campaigns, can have all of that kind of at as well. So lists and HubSpot are so powerful, you can easily jump them into a report, outta the you're able to attended, who who I reach out that missed out and did not attend all of that again with a with that's the best.

[00:26:53] Noah: thank you so much for that I move on to the this is about Maria's here, kind of what you [00:27:00] And I know we joked around earlier that you felt a little better about those stats, Maria. You're not alone in this of people are feeling the thing that you had felt before.

[00:27:10] You, uh, obviously involved and and happily. So gonna pass the to you and kinda share a more about your story.

[00:27:18] Maria: Yeah, can just like share a little our experience here, especially with when it to events management because as I mentioned, it's a important role. We, we host a hundred events year and all across Switzerland. So we handle with different regions, which speaks different language and uh, we are counting on there. And then they helping us to host those events, also manage the attendance information so we get ous if they were there. Even feedback sometimes because it was that organized. we were trying also to use tools [00:28:00] that was uh, commonly used in different regions. And of them were us receive more because even the, um. The availability here in Switzerland that And then we have, uh, or they are, but they are not connected with other tools. For example, not easy to connect, and was, was not, uh, receiving Swiss friends, for example. So we have, uh, in case to uh, uh, to event.

[00:28:31] As we know, it's everyone who has account there. All this fragmented tools was uh, uh, a lot our event management. We could also see that was, uh, really hard to personalize those events for regions. And different industry sectors and needs we organizing events with similar topics in different regions because we. Couldn't see [00:29:00] the, the big of our organization. So, um, were experiencing a of as then once had we have to find ways those So a lot of, uh, reports and also adding information manually to a spreadsheet. that's just a little bit of a, challenge that we were facing, uh, before.

[00:29:27] Noah: Yeah, it, just a bit, not not that many challenges. I'm not sure such there overall. Um, but I, I think kind of up the of a lot of associations are. Um, and the challenge that, I mean, a hundred events lot of work. And then trying to manage it manually, the I mean, you're just leaving on the both from a from a, a member experience perspective all the overall, uh, effectiveness of the event to that these members are [00:30:00] getting. um, you know, now that we've kind of the challenge was before, let's go into. What happened afterwards? Like what did you Like what's your like after you got all this going?

[00:30:13] Maria: New life. So,

[00:30:16] Noah: I that we have that as the headline of Future New Life, more Life.

[00:30:20] Maria: so it's it's like being able to everything. One, two is already. Amazing. Let's say this way um, now we can easily filter things. We can also more accurate information because even like attendance uh, we were with a in a then they miss or they haven't they have printed lists those names. in it was complicated. being able to. Uh, our data and I have everything is already amazing, [00:31:00] the one I really, really enjoy is the possibility of personalize it. And we have a very specific case, let's say, uh, and then. Being to it according to our needs, an organization. It's really, um, uh, wonderful. And yeah, and the automation, it's, uh, we, we are getting into that now. And this will be helpful because being able to also create tasks reminders and, uh, like reaching to them with the right information, pre and post event, it.

[00:31:40] Noah: Y you know, one thing I tend to talk about with, uh, you know, our clients and in is the force multiplier effect. it of a its of yours just everyone productive. It looks as if just hired all these people, but in reality you're just leveraging technology in such a [00:32:00] way you're able to get more with the same now which is such an exciting. in and, and then you get to look like the hero at your which is cooler. Um, like, uh, you know, based on what heard from Maria's like does this align with kind of what you saw in the research as well? Both the challenges as, who had the opportunity to solve it.

[00:32:23] Clay: Yeah, absolutely. Um, when Maria was talking about the, the sort of the, the manual effort of importing, exporting data between systems, you know, that was one of the top challenges we saw. One of the biggest manual processes, 46% of associations dealing with just doing, importing and exporting endless times over, which is such a recipe for.

[00:32:47] Data that's out of sync and just errors in data. Um, and yeah, I think everything Maria talked about, you know, again, this idea of we've everybody's together in this, [00:33:00] um, I think these are very, very common issues and luckily, uh, you know, you all are offering some tools and services to help make life a little better.

[00:33:09] Noah: Well, nothing worse than uploading that list. And next thing you know, something was incorrect. Uh, every, nothing that added up correctly and everyone's getting this random email and, you know, well, who is this person? You know, it's not, it's not just actual effort of doing it, it's the errors that can happen in doing it.

[00:33:25] Clay: Yeah.

[00:33:25] Noah: the double check-in.

[00:33:27] Clay: I was just gonna say, I think your point about, um, how this frees up time to do higher level tasks, you know, it's like it frees you up to be able to do more valuable things in your organization, I think is so key. And being able to grow without necessarily increasing head count is, I think something on everybody's mind right now.

[00:33:47] Noah: A hundred percent agree with that. So Marie, thank you so much for sharing your story. Uh, and again, clay and Dax, thank you so much as well. Uh, we're gonna move into our questions, uh, q and a section here. So if anyone [00:34:00] has any questions, uh, from the audience, you know, feel free to go ahead, um, and add that in.

[00:34:05] So, uh, one of is does it take to implement something, uh, like this from start to finish? Um, and uh, I think kind of two this One is just general. The other piece is unhappily. and know, I would, I would my I'd also hear, from yours and your example as well. It depends. you it really depends upon what are we implementing. Yes, I be like, 30 days. Uh, but no, uh, it really ultimately depends upon the size of the what you're trying to accomplish, the number of events that doing. Where is your data currently being a MS are you currently leveraging this in time? this through an integration? So, uh, what I tend to talk about with individuals and, and there's this great book, how Big Things is an. one thing we need to go back to the [00:35:00] Make sure you start the why of why we're doing this implementation in the first place and what we're trying to solve for. and then the phase, understanding, okay, before we just start slicing and dicing, putting things how are we actually make sure this is correct on time and on budget for deployment for the organization? And it's a very thoughtful process you want to go through. So always start with the why.

[00:35:21] the thing is, there's a, there's a concept called the planning fallacy by Amos Ky and Daniel Kahneman. People tend to, uh, uh, underestimate the of effort and overestimate, uh, their own capabilities. Um, and you want to be with about what you're to do just head into it, because otherwise you miss out those expectations.

[00:35:43] So I would say why. Understand the different systems you're integrating and the reasons behind those, of data wanna move in. You could do this within a month to months Other associations can take six to 12. It really just your scenario. of course, if you have questions, [00:36:00] uh uh my APP two be happy to help you. That's more from the HubSpot side of Dax, I of ask you question. Maria, I would love for you to show your experience.

[00:36:11] Dax: Depends is the best Uh, have onboarding uh, two and three weeks. But it hey, if you're to the wheel or you have a lot your res, with your registrations, you have multiple registration flows and processes, event types, attending it can far.

[00:36:28] And that's USS there and the application based upon the, needs of the, the, uh, association. But depends is pretty much the good answer. But fortunately as much, uh, we've seen. hundreds and of different like so, we'll be pleasantly surprised if there's we've never seen before.

[00:36:49] Uh, I won't count it out. There's a non-zero chance, but it's, it's a very straightforward process of how to and that why really important. Like, do really [00:37:00] this? Is this more enrollments? Is this visibility? Is Is it the ROI? Um, that's where we like to start and really try to contain that into that first, you know, rollout.

[00:37:11] Noah: And Maria, tell us about your experience.

[00:37:14] Maria: Yeah, I think unfortunately I cannot share like a a number specifically to takes one or two or three we a very fragmented way because like we, we have to with what we have and then try to make out of then bit more. So we start by implementing Spot from scratch. So it took a while with a few information and we had some more, and then now we're integrating with, uh, happily as well. So I can't even say one number. Like we took six months or a year from us because we were doing it over the time.

[00:37:51] Noah: And that's not uncommon. And it is not uncommon to start with, you know the main tool itself and work on your and then start adding, uh [00:38:00] as goes on. So, uh, I think that's a refreshing our audience. Uh, and uh, have for about another or um, that have coming up. what if a MS be can we still it alongside HubSpot? Yes, absolutely. There are things a MS that HubSpot's not necessarily designed to do. ledger, for example, uh, some of the accounting pieces as well. there's also, oftentimes there's other items and capabilities inside their a MS that to use. so we focus on is about the immigration. Um, you gotta what you want, uh a MS you versus you want for you. A lot of these items moved in but the association for they don't wanna disrupt the entire organization, will a MS But, um, maybe Maria, you can kind of your here as well.

[00:38:58] Maria: We are really trying to [00:39:00] migrate everything we can to

[00:39:02] Noah: You're not the only one.

[00:39:05] Maria: So, yeah, was of the last were, uh, using so many other, uh, that was to find one that would integrate it also to HubSpot here. now we are in that point that we are trying to get, so that there is nothing that we like to, to keep in the.

[00:39:27] Noah: Yeah, and oftentimes that note you may build out, we're doing it with a lot of associations right now, which can't necessarily do something, there's certainly a a point that can handle that need that a MS for that association. That able to you to out everything.

[00:39:44] have one central repository, one of your Um, and it just requires evaluating how your association operates primarily, uh, and then be able to come to you and say, this is the best mechanism to, here's how could do it all in one, [00:40:00] here's what wanna keep what you have. we have time for one more. right We're using an a MS right now that doesn't integrate well with anything. Well, welcome to all a You don't have to feel so bad, hence the, uh, challenges that we had earlier. do we or how do we start transitioning to a more connected system without ripping everything out? so from our perspective, uh, we don't ahead and slicing and dicing. That's not the best things. You really have to evaluate what you want. That's why I say you start with the why. Um, why are we doing this in the first place? What are The. that for your your light. That's to our recommendations as you continue down this pathway. a lot of association software out there, I mean, some for a very, very long time, uh, and it does have trouble integrating with other applications. Um, if it's not possible to integrate at that you have a of different solutions. We can see how [00:41:00] much of we out be some other mechanisms can let's pull data in where you still have some sort of sync going on. It not be a full integration, uh, it may be something daily.

[00:41:11] Uh, but the I have is, you know, doing, going through of your existing systems, how are they currently being used now? What team members are What's them in the process? What's holding back your numbers those why scenario. and then we can put together a game plan around how do we best wanna transition out of that a MS either into a new, uh, software technology stack like HubSpot. Um, or it may be even a bigger conversation, like what does that tech stack actually need to for you moving Because currently have right now isn't the trick. based upon your, your transition, Maria, and I'm sure would you as well as you ripped out like your, your kind of a, as down this um, any, [00:42:00] any kind of or you as well?

[00:42:03] Maria: Yeah, like. It's good if you can plan as much as possible ahead because then when you start this can get quite tricky because then you have with and another and still different platforms and it seems, can, seems like it is one more platform to with. So you can plan. a that it'll a of your process clearly and then, uh, move to the when you have this planning in stages, uh, it's quite helpful.

[00:42:39] Noah: Planning is doing. I to emphasize that, um, you know, oftentimes people say, well, you're just No, that is doing In

[00:42:49] argue it's the part of the doing process, uh, as you've heard, you know, measure twice, count once. I highly recommend uh, going. [00:43:00] so that being said, we're gonna wrap it up for today. 

[00:43:02] do wanna reference and just my co-host Uh, I thank you, Maria. Thank you Clay and Dax, so for pinch for us uh and in and helping us, uh, do uh, and talk Um, will be out our research paper post, uh, today's, uh, event. a follow up email. So you're have all the research team have Uh, it is like you're, just gonna love going through. may have an on your else what's Maybe you're trying to back up why you're, recommending A, B, C, or D.

[00:43:37] You now have experience from, uh, several other. Hundred associations that you can do. if you'd like to see how Aptitude eight and our partners like happily, uh, can help your association, unifying systems and member experiences, please, please feel free to reach to us Visit us@aptitudeeight.com.

[00:43:55] Uh, happy to chat. Uh, and then I'll let you of give a plugin [00:44:00] uh, events. Happily.

[00:44:02] Dax: Happily is your native So events for you're hosting or attending event, happily has what you need from registration, check in code ins, all the fun stuff so that again, you guys can worry about connecting and that's thing can all like we today on this webinar.

[00:44:19] Noah: Maria, I'm sure a lot of people be like, need to talk to Maria. She has, she's been through this. How do people get in you 

[00:44:26] Maria: Yeah, you can, uh, connect with me via LinkedIn or yeah, just reach out via email as Also, if to invest in Swiss startups, feel free to reach out.

[00:44:38] Noah: Love it. you everyone. Uh, thank you audience attendees. really appreciate all us Uh, thank you to co-host uh, for participating and, uh, enjoy. Take I.

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