Book Sherry and Kevin for Your Event
Align Your Audience With the Future
Align Your Audience With the Future
Presenters: Sherry Budziak, Founder and Kevin Ordonez, President and Managing Director
Long before the pandemic made a digital approach mandatory, Sherry Budziak and Kevin Ordonez were exploring how to succeed in a marketplace dominated by technology. As pioneers in digital strategy and transformation for associations, their expertise includes:
- 15 years of consulting with associations and nonprofits on growth strategies.
- Researching and writing two books on positioning for success in the digital era.
- Interviewing association leaders from across the industry about innovation, entrepreneurship, and the future of associations.
Sherry and Kevin are award-winning association executives who are also seasoned entrepreneurs. They have a deep understanding of digital commerce and specialize in supporting associations to adapt and thrive in an uncertain business environment.
Their insights on managing disruption and change, integrating strategy and operations, digital leadership, marketing and technology trends, and entrepreneurship will put your audience on track to understanding a complex business future.
Following are samples of sessions that are designed to educate and engage your group.
Book Sherry and Kevin for Your Event
Sample Session Descriptions
Entrepreneurs Tame Risk, Ignite Innovation and Pivot Without Stumbling–Take a Lesson From the Experts
Entrepreneurs love solving the thorny problems that cause the rest of us to tear our hair out. They welcome disruption and use it to grow business. They change color as easily as chameleons and confront risk with the cool of derivative traders.
Using concepts discussed in their book, Association 4.0™: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Risk, Courage, and Transformation, Sherry and Kevin provide advice, inspiration, and practical examples for professionals seeking to lead with innovation and creativity. They explore real-life situations of how colleagues met uncertainty with resilience by mastering:
- The agility to change direction with market demands.
- The foresight to anticipate and dodge disruption.
- The focus to concentrate on the outcome despite every distraction.
After this session, attendees will be able to:
- Adopt a more entrepreneurial leadership style.
- Implement practical strategies to innovate, pivot, and adapt.
- Introduce creativity into their business model.
Participants will receive a complimentary copy of the newest e-book.
Association 4.0 – Positioning for Success in an Era of Disruption: Discover How 23 Innovative CEOs Maintain Success in Uncertain Times
Entrepreneurs love solving the thorny problems that cause the rest of us to tear our hair out. They welcome disruption and use it to grow business. They change color as easily as chameleons and confront risk with the cool of derivative traders.
The pandemic is not the last disruption. Don’t wait for the next seismic shift to rock your world.
Once upon a time, it was easy to identify the competition. Some groups even held a monopoly in their space. Today, associations are surrounded by competitors. The rules of the game have changed, and we can no longer rely on the models of the past to move forward.
To write their books, Association 4.0: Positioning for Success in an Era of Disruption and Association 4.0™: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Risk, Courage, and Transformation, authors Sherry Budziak and Kevin Ordonez, interviewed executives and entrepreneurs who serve the industry.
Learn how the roles of disruptor, innovator, and entrepreneur enable leaders to succeed in competitive and volatile environments. Discover how resilient attitudes, behaviors, and cultural traits support organizations through change.
After this session, attendees will be able to:
- Identify entrepreneurial skills and attitudes that translate to association leadership.
- Discover a new approach for success in the digital marketplace.
- Learn simple strategies to introduce innovation, creativity, and experimentation into organizations.
Participants will receive a complimentary copy of the newest e-book.
An Integrated Strategic Plan Is Your Best Defense Against an Uncertain Market
Business as usual is not coming back. Forward-looking leaders are reimagining the 20-year-old strategic planning process to meet the new normal. They are exploring a methodology that integrates planning with overarching organizational activities and supports mission and vision with practical realities.
This session will outline an approach to strategy for the digital era. Sherry and Kevin will explain how to align the board’s vision with staff-driven initiatives including program administration, communications, staffing, and budgeting.
After this session, attendees will be able to:
- Describe and understand the market and professional development trends impacting their associations.
- Rethink the traditional strategic planning process.
- Understand the importance of asking the right questions to achieve impactful goals.
- Build a plan that takes the organization from strategy to implementation.
Participants will receive a complimentary copy of the newest e-book.
The Status Quo Is Not an Option. Is Your Organization Prepared to Change?
When your association went remote, were you ready? We can’t predict the future, but we can learn how to produce great outcomes by managing change effectively.
Research demonstrates that up to seventy percent of all change initiatives fail. Failure is common because change is hard. Getting volunteer and staff buy-in and working through transformation is challenging.
Discover how one association made the leap from housing data in spreadsheets and keeping their server in a closet to quickly become a virtual organization. They left behind inefficient business processes and a siloed environment to begin building value, aligning strategy with operations, and innovating. When COVID-19 closed their office, they didn’t miss a beat.
After this session, attendees will be able to:
- Implement strategies for making change less overwhelming and more human.
- Understand how hiring right and building a positive culture contribute to accelerating change.
- Implement agile practices that enhance innovation and speed products to market.
- Understand the meaning of MVP.
- Organize and manage agile project teams.
Participants will receive a complimentary copy of the newest e-book.
Digital Commerce Doesn’t Stop at the C-Suite. What Does It Take to Lead in the New Economy?
The consumer environment is filled with options and opportunities. Customers have increasing control over what, when, and how they buy. To keep pace, organizations must match and exceed that experience. Leaders must reinvent themselves by:
- Committing to innovation, growth, and professional development.
- Being passionate problem-solvers who are never satisfied with the status quo.
- Forcefully communicating vision throughout the organization.
- Abandoning hierarchy for more networked flexible teams that collaborate freely.
- Being outward-focused and keen observers of the market and its consumers.
- Understanding how to manage remote workgroups and utilize freelance talent.
After this session, attendees will be able to:
- Articulate strategies for leading a successful digital transformation.
- Discuss what is needed for associations to succeed in the future.
- Develop leadership traits that contribute to success in a digital marketplace.
Participants will receive a complimentary copy of the newest e-book.
Could You Have Imagined 2020? Explore Scenarios for the Digital Future
The fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, which began in the early 20th Century is giving birth to a new era that merges the cyber, biological, and mechanical worlds.
Digital leaders must understand how to realign technology, business models, and company culture to effectively operate in this new age. How will associations navigate this volatile marketplace? How do organizations embrace the speed of change? What are the trends we need to expect in the near future?
Sherry is a change-manager who is adept at designing effective digital solutions. She launched the first association website and spearheaded the development of the first association for-profit subsidiary. Throughout the shift from desktop to digital, she has guided associations to success. She helps organizations “see around the corner” to what is next and leads them through industry 4.0’s uncertain business environment.
After this session attendees will be able to:
- Understand the characteristics of Industry 4.0.
- Be aware of the impact this era may have on associations.
- Learn future-focused strategies.
- Implement tactics for successful change management.
- Stay connected.
Participants will receive a complimentary copy of the newest e-book.
