CHICAGO — Clarion Events North America launched a new strategic partnership initiative — The Clarion Events Collaborative: Elevating Association Events — to help associations maximize the value and impact of their event approach and management.
Led by Liz Irving, President of Clarion Events North America, and Chris Brown, Principal at Level Up Event Strategies and former Executive Vice President, Global Connections and Events at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the initiative gives associations the opportunity to partner with the for-profit organization for its expertise, resources and global network.
“I think what sets us apart from other organizers is the deal structure that we can achieve,” Irving said. “The deals that we’ve worked with associations in the past and will continue to focus on is to have the opportunity where the association still has a portion of the event, so they have skin in the game. I think the deal structure can all be dependent on the association, the needs, the outcomes, but the goal really is that Clarion doesn’t want full ownership. We want to have a partnership approach where the association also has decision making authority with Clarion.”
Irving shared that there are opportunities for great synergy by partnering with organizations in industries that Clarion already is in, like energy for example.
“But we’re also open to high-growth markets or markets that are being disrupted, but every deal is going to be different,” Irving said. “It’s going back to there’s not a Clarion way of doing things, it’s what do we need to do from an entrepreneurial perspective to help drive and foster accelerated growth. We’ve got resources, we’re going to leverage them. We come at it from a holistic view of saying what is best for the group, for the association and the event, and how do we actually take our learnings or our partnerships and drive it forward.”
By leveraging Clarion Events’ resources through the initiative, associations can elevate their events and increase ROI for members while maintaining ownership interests. It can also open opportunities for increased revenues.
“The opportunity that an association would have to be able to tap into the resources [of Clarion], there’s going to be a depth of information there that perhaps the association would not have had access to,” Brown said. “Liz’s team has done research and work; they have in-depth background and trends work that would benefit the association. The association would bring its own information to the table, but the industry alignment is a huge deal. The more each partner understands and is committed to that industry, the better chance they have at long-term success.”
Why Now?
Irving shared that right now she sees so much opportunity in the industry and feels the tides are changing, opening the trade show world to new kinds of partnerships.
“We’ve got an opportunity to enrich the industry as a whole, whether your association or for-profit, but in order to do so you have to really be tuned into the customer. I think Clarion has that competitive set where we are very customer-focused, we’ve got a very strong culture, but we’re also open and flexible to have different deals. That’s a special recipe that we can bring forward. I would love associations to be open to a conversation, and let’s talk about what the opportunities may be, because I believe in what we’re doing,” Irving said. “And being back by PE [private equity], we have the ability to invest.”
Related. The Importance of Industry Involvement: 10 Questions with Liz Irving
Driven by Common Goals
Despite the assumption that for-profit organizers and associations have different goals, Irving and Brown shared that they have more in common than some might think.
“I think the real secret sauce is our commitment to the customer, and the customer can be the user of the conference or the event or the members,” Irving said. “Our goal is at the center of everything that we’re doing. Decisions are made to think about how we serve the communities that they’re in. How do we foster those and how do we drive acceleration of growth and shared learning? It’s not about just the bottom line, it’s about making the industries that we serve stronger and better connected. There’s always a financial responsibility to any organization or any business, but this is truly about making the events a better opportunity to bring industries and communities together.”
Brown gave his perspective coming from his experience at NAB.
“Our objectives aren’t all that different,” Brown said. “From the association’s perspective, it’s in their best interest to drive growth, drive profit, all of the accrues to their interests. The more dollars they can drive back into their organization, the more they can serve that membership. A lot of the organizations that have decent-sized staffs on the association side, they operate with a for-profit mindset… There’s more commonality than people realize, and it is really just getting to that conversation, establishing some trust, and then moving forward together around the things that make sense.”
Early Positive Feedback
“We’ve approached this as a real initiative and an opportunity but without any immediate timeframe. It’s going to be exploratory, there’s going to be lots of conversations and opportunity to dig in and we expect to learn,” Brown said. “It’ll be a learning experience in the early stages, and we’ll be able to build upon that as we go. Liz and the team are looking at it as something that can truly benefit Clarion and the industry as a whole and are excited about doing that.”
The initiative’s approach has already been implemented with a number of association partners, including Special Operation Forces Week in Tampa, the National Grocers Association in Las Vegas, the Indian Gaming Association in San Diego and the International Consumer Technology Association in Germany.
“I’ve had some of our partners, our vendors that we work with say, ‘hey, I’d love to be a part of this, how do we help support this.’ We’ve got great partners too, so I’m really encouraged by the early signs of feedback we’ve had so far,” Irving shared.
