Page 32 - Social Media Musings

Social Media Musings – Part III My Reflections on the Practice and Life
Voluntary Bar Associations
For voluntary bar associations considering remote conferences:
- Pre-record some or all of the presentations so attendees can watch them at their leisure.
- Provide more CLE than you typically do
at your conferences. Since it’s remote and you’re going to make some (if not all) the presentations downloadable at will, you can provide more hours.
- Share attendee lists and create video conferences, such as through Zoom, where attendees can network remotely.
- Circulate written materials via e-mail or make them available on your organization’s website.
- Charge an appropriate price. There’s no room block that needs to be met. No food or beverage minimums. No $95 for every gallon of coffee. Pass the savings onto your members. You can make money (more money than live conferences) by charging less. Your overhead will be much less and you’ll likely pick up more attendees.
For voluntary bar associations on the fence about canceling summer conferences and converting them to remote programming or online conferences, consider:
- We don’t know how long social distancing will last.
- We don’t know how long flight cancellations will last.
- It takes time to market a conference.
- Many firms have eliminated reimbursement for all discretionary travel.
- Firms will be hurting financially for a while and one of the first line items to go is conference travel.
- Firms will have an optics issue - having attorneys travel to conferences while staff and associates have been laid off.
- Folks will get used to not traveling and will have to get used to traveling again - that will take months, not weeks.
- Folks will learn how to network and market remotely and some firms will determine they can develop business at their desks and will cut back travel reimbursement. It will take time for these firms to appreciate the importance of in person marketing.
If you’re a voluntary bar organization, in these trying times, expect your members to slow pay their dues. Don’t remove them from your rolls and don’t push them to pay. Also, provide free services, like free webinars and
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