Are you looking for a dynamic speaker to fire up your volunteers? Do your chapter leaders need training in how to support your association’s recruitment and retention efforts? Would you like to inspire the attendees at your users’ group meeting? Would you like your staff to learn how to make better decisions, work more effectively with your volunteers, or develop a customer relationship management mindset?
Participant quote, MarComm Makeovers session:
“Best session of the conference. Elizabeth was engaging, it was interactive and relevant to analyze what other associations are doing in their marketing efforts.”
Hire Spark to create and deliver a content-rich and compelling presentation or lead a highly interactive and effective training program at your next event.
Participant quote, Mission Driven Volunteer webinar:
“The session was GREAT!! I learned so much and it gave me so much to think about.”
Topics include:
- The Time is Now: Association Resilience and Adaptation and the Anthropocene Climate Disruption. Sustainability has become a hot topic for the association industry, as association execs realize that climate change is not just a moral imperative, it’s a business imperative. Learn how your association can develop resilience (prepare to bounce back from challenges) and learn to adapt (change how you live and work) in light of the specific effects the climate crisis will have on associations’ internal operations, member-facing programs, products and services, and on the professions and industries we exist to serve (includes a 59-page whitepaper for distribution to your attendees).
- Caveat Emptor: Becoming a Responsible Consumer of Research. Association executives face the challenge that we’re frequently tasked with both choosing external research and sponsoring original research for our associations to use to make data-informed decisions, but very few of us have a formal research background. Based on a 51-page whitepaper that can be distributed to your attendees, we’ll review key terms, concepts, and approaches association execs need to know to ensure you’re getting the insight you need to make good decisions and protecting your associations’ reputation as a trusted source of unbiased information for the professions and industries you serve.
- The No BS Guide to Digital Transformation. Learn what digital transformation is and isn’t, why it matters, what makes association culture unique, how that impacts digital transformation efforts, and how you get started “going digital” (includes a 40-page whitepaper for distribution to your attendees).
- Content Curation: Your Association’s Secret Weapon Against Information Overload. Learn how skilled and intentional content curation (which is more than an AI-driven e-newsletter) can provide the solution to your members’ information overload woes (includes a 25-page whitepaper that includes an association content curation maturity model for distribution to your attendees).
- Blockchain for Associations: Separating the Hype from the Promise. This presentation explains what blockchain is in terms non-technical people can understand, then talks about how it’s going to affect associations and the professions and industries we serve, and takes you through what you and your board need to do to get ready (includes a 38-page whitepaper for distribution to your attendees).
- Steal This Idea! Learn to apply innovative practices from the charitable fundraising sector related to major donor relationship-building, engaging young professionals, and creating effective, compelling campaigns to the association industry (includes a 39-page whitepaper for distribution to your attendees).
- Include Is a Verb. We’ll take a practical, down-to-earth look at what makes the association DEI environment unique and why well-intentioned DEI efforts often fail. Your team will be inspired to create their own vision of what a truly inclusive association would look like, and will leave with concrete, actionable ideas about how to align your walk with your talk (includes a 36-page whitepaper for distribution to your attendees).
- The Association Role in the New Education Paradigm. This presentation addresses some of the key disruptions affecting K-12 and higher education, the education-to-employment pipeline, and the workforce, details the inherent advantages associations have in being part of the solution, and provides practical ideas and strategies for getting started (includes a 39-page whitepaper for distribution to your attendees).
- The Lean Startup Changes Everything. Get introduced to the core principles of lean startup (as more fully articulated in Eric Ries’s book The Lean Startup) and see how associations can use them to help us avoid investing resources working on the wrong thing and bring better programs, products, and services to our audiences faster (includes a 28-page whitepaper for distribution to your attendees).
- Leading Engagement from the Outside-In. This presentation proposes that associations flip our perspective on member engagement, putting members and what they’re trying to achieve personally and professionally at the center of our focus, shifting our relationship from a transactional “we make – you buy” to a strategic partnership in which the members and the association co-create the value we provide (includes a 37-page whitepaper for distribution to your attendees).
- Members: How to Get ‘Em, How to Keep ‘Em. This presentation provides an introduction to foundational concepts in membership recruitment and retention. This session is particularly useful for component leaders and staff, many of whom do not have a formal background in association management. Many clients combine this with a follow up presentation during which I address your audiences’ specific questions about and needs regarding recruitment and retention.
- Your Membership Dilemmas: Solved! We solicit your audience’s top membership issues in advance, I do a live consulting session on several of them (how many depends on the length of the session), and then I’ll lead participants through an exercise addressing an issue together.
- Your Idea Here – looking for something that’s NOT on this list? Contact me and let’s talk!
Rates:
- Webinar: $1,750
- In-person session: $3,000 (plus travel)
- Half-day workshop: $5,000 (plus travel)
Participant quote, New Models of Volunteerism session:
“Elizabeth provided excellent, timely and clear information. She understood the topic and engaged the audience. Being able to interact and throw ideas around with the other attendees in the session was a great experience and way to share best practices.”
Participant quote, MarComm Makeovers session:
“Elizabeth Engel is AWESOME! She is the reason I return to ASAE events. Great thought and content leader, great facilitator, great insight.”
You can also catch me around the association meetings circuit:
- Lean at 10: Lessons Learned – UST Education, July 16, 2025
- Lean Startup at 10: Lessons Learned – Association Insight in Old Town (AIOT), November 5, 2025
Participant quote, Content Curation session:
“Thanks so much for the whitepaper – excited to share this back home! The content of presentation was really interesting and gave me good, concrete information and action items. Elizabeth had great energy. She was a very good presenter, with a relaxed, engaging style.”