New Financial & Insurance Conference Planners president and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans director of event planning and field recognition Dan Young in 2010 will oversee a new strategic plan being finalized by the board this month that includes resource allocations to improve member online communication tools, provide additional educational programming and build additional revenue streams, while increasing value for hospitality partner sponsors.
Young, who took the reins at FICP's annual conference in Toronto from Nationwide Financial Network manager of group meetings and incentives Cindy Wheaton, takes over as financial and insurance meeting and incentive managers, beset by the economic downturn and the perception problem known as the AIG effect, struggle to prove the value of their events.
As such, one of the association's goals for 2010 is "to try to educate the general public of the value of meetings and events, especially for people who are in the financial services business, where incentive events are considered part of their total compensation package for the difficult job they have in serving their members," said Young. "It's not easy to be a financial planner out there, to be in any sales position, and it's important to provide incentives and rewards to people who are in that kind of job. That's our history. That is what we do. Unfortunately, it kind of got turned upside down last year in the economic crisis and the AIG effect. That is going to be a big challenge to turn that around and have the public see the value of meetings for people who qualify for and attend these events."
According to Young, the association plans to enhance its Web site's member online exchange, where members can share experiences and rate suppliers.
In addition to its Annual Conference and Education Forum, FICP will hold four online events next year and is considering adding digital components of live events to the FICP Web site, Young said, adding that membership is expected to hit 500 by year-end with an objective to add 55 net new members in 2010.
Before becoming president-elect in 2009, Young, who oversees about 150 meetings each year in North America for Thrivent, served as FICP's vice president of membership for two years. Last year, FICP further consolidated its chapters into regions. Young said during his one-year term the association would continue to standardize regional agendas, education and marketing in an effort to increase regional member participation and cater to junior planners who are unable to attend the national meetings.
Another of Young's goals is to identify and implement opportunities for additional revenue streams, while continuing to build relationships with the association's hospitality partners, which will be enhanced by hiring a new sponsorship and relationship manager. "We are heavily dependent on hospitality partner sponsorship for our budget and we want to maintain that, but also develop some additional revenue streams so we can develop programs to serve our members."
Young noted the changing industry. "Every event planning department affiliated with FICP has to do less with less in terms of our meetings and our spending. We now cannot spend a dollar when it comes to meetings and events and conferences that doesn't return that same value in the eyes of our participants. A lot of us are being asked to spend less, but our events have to have the same perceived value in the eyes of the attendees, especially when they qualify for these events. That means working a lot closer with our hospitality partners to return that value."
Originally published Dec. 21, 2009