Advisor Today > > November 2000: Cover Story

Cover Story: A Whole New Meeting

By Edward Staples

Fully delivering on the "It's A Whole New World" theme, this year marked an entirely new kind of yearly meeting for NAIFA: It ushered in the first annual NAIFA Convention & Career Conference held this September at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center.

New were five Career Tracks, that comprised a total of 25 breakout sessions designed to increase professional knowledge. That's not to say there weren't the ongoing traditions: honors, dinners, parties, superlative speakers, serious business like a dues increase and elections, a new president, four new trustees, deals cut, friendships made and renewed, and valuable networking. The NAIFA Convention and Career Conference also featured a record breaking 165 exhibitors at the trade show and a busy cyber café.

The Career Tracks focused on Insurance, Estate Planning & Taxes, Retirement & Investing, Practice Management and Marketing. Each track consisted of five sessions on Monday and Tuesday so non-voting members could arrive on Sunday night for the Pink Flamingos Party, then attend both the breakout sessions and the new general sessions which also occurred on Monday and Tuesday.

The debut series of training-oriented breakouts proved to be undisputed success. Juggling 25 sessions, intrepid attendees gained state-of-the-art knowledge of best practices from recognized experts. In addition, 12 of the 25 sessions gave attendees the opportunity to earn continuing-education credits. Besides good attendance, the feedback from speaker evaluations indicated that the presenters hit homeruns with their audiences.

Previous NALU annual conventions were mainly angled toward a business meeting with entertainment sessions. However, the new NAIFA format, with shorter general sessions to allow for the breakouts, is designed to appeal to a wider spectrum of members, who are able to skip the NAIFA business meetings that both preceded and followed the two-days of new career-track events and streamlined general sessions.

The general sessions still featured a number of favorite segments, such as the popular "MDRT Hour," with its two world-class speakers. Other continuing traditions included the honoring of outstanding achievements and accomplishments. The John Newton Russell Award Dinner was only one of four banquets honoring awardees or accomplishments.
But not all was serious business: serious partying also occurred. And while Advisor Today did not distribute any evaluation sheets, AT photos clearly showed people singing, dancing, laughing and very obviously enjoying the camaraderie of their colleagues!
For those who did not make it to Orlando this year, the following pages will recap the highlights of the week. (And hopefully serve as a reminder to register for the 2001 edition of the NAIFA Convention and Career Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, September 8 through 12.)

National Council Votes In Favor of Dues Increase
Passage ensures NAIFA's continued strategic growth

Apart from the election of a president, secretary and four new trustees, certainly the biggest business news from the NAIFA Convention and Career Conference in Orlando, Fla., was the National Council voting in favor of the proposed dues increase.
As might be expected, such an action was preceded by a considerable amount of analysis and thoughtful discussion.

The request for a dues increase was driven by organizational needs that are strategically vital to NAIFA's continued growth and its ability to serve its members: the launch of a positioning campaign, the reinstatement of core committee meetings, expanded coverage in Advisor Today, enhancement of the NAIFA website, CFP courses available through local associations and enhancement of political grassroots programs.

The impact of each of these critical areas is examined below:

Positioning campaign.
The insurance and financial services industry is changing and, to help our members stay ahead, we're changing too. To get our message out, NAIFA has retained BSMG Worldwide, one of the nation's leading communications management firms, to help us develop an integrated communications campaign designed to give both current and prospective members a compelling reason to join NAIFA.

Reinstatement of core committee meetings.
The national committees, the "work horses" of NAIFA, have been severely limited in their ability to hold meetings due to financial constraints. The new budget has provisions for a number of our national committees to meet face-to-face, to deliberate issues of importance to our members and individual associations.

Expanded coverage in Advisor Today.
As the industry changes, so do the needs of our readers. New coverage in the areas of technology, agency and practice management, and sales and marketing techniques will arm members with the tools they require and the information they need to remain on the cutting edge in the marketplace.

Enhanced NAIFA website.
An updated website will make information available to members and association leaders 7 days a week/24 hours a day. Legislative bulletins, leadership training materials and educational tools will be just some of the member benefits that will be a "mouse-click" away.

CFP courses soon available through local associations.
LUTC and The American College (TAC) have announced the creation of an educational alliance incorporating the TAC's Web-enhanced CFP curriculum and the classroom-based LUTC Fellow designation program. TAC's Insurance and Financial Planning course (HS318) will become available January 2001, with additional courses becoming available in late 2001 and 2002. (Pilot programs are currently underway in a number of NAIFA local associations.)

Enhanced political grassroots programs.
NAIFA has been able to exert political influence through its prominent political action committee (AIFAPAC) and grassroots lobbying network-all leveraged by outstanding DC lobbyists. In this election year, NAIFA is sponsoring a number of regional meetings across the country to identify key contacts for members of the new administration and train them about grassroots politics and legislative issues important to financial advisors.

The dues increase passed by the NAIFA National Council makes all of these programs and enhancements possible. The modest bump in dues will allow NAIFA to continue to give members unprecedented value for their membership dollars. The association's history has been one of actively listening to member requests-and then acting upon them. In this way, NAIFA growth has been, essentially, the growth of individual members writ large. The dues increase enables the national organization to continue to grow with you.

NAIFA Announces Launch of Aggressive Positioning Campaign

Targets Current, Former and Potential Members

Two interrelated issues dominated the NAIFA Convention and Career Conference in Orlando, Fla.: The successfully passed dues increase (see page 54) and the approved launch of the association's position campaign designed to build on the expanded mission of NAIFA, its name change and its retitled magazine.

The passage of both these important initiatives gives NAIFA new promotional focus and the funds to do the job right.

The positioning campaign was elegantly explained when Immediate Past President Larry Lambert addressed the NAIFA Convention and Career Conference. There Lambert pointed out that NAIFA was "at a crossroads." Its name change, the refocusing of Advisor Today and the new headquarters are essentially behind it, and now there's the looming question of how to leverage the changes.

Lambert observed that "changing our name, creating new programs and improving existing services are just part of the challenge. If nobody knows we've changed . . . then all of the name changes and new programs in the world won't make any difference."

Making sure that everyone knows about the changes in NAIFA is at the heart of the new positioning campaign. The association has retained BSMG Worldwide-the communications agency behind the famous "Got Milk?" campaign-to ensure that current and potential members understand what the new NAIFA is about. BSMG conducted a series of focus groups of present and former NAIFA members, and those who have never belonged to the association, to gauge which messages need to be emphasized.

The results of the focus group research is driving the positioning campaign. It was found that the focus group cited six qualities that would make NAIFA a more desirable association to join: bottom-line focus, innovative, multifaceted, aggressive, inclusive and responsive. It's anticipated that these six messages will each become a targeted message getting across the NAIFA story.

Lambert also explained the campaign's targeting strategy, which he termed "inside-out." The positioning campaign, he said, will begin by first targeting current members, giving them new reasons to belong to NAIFA. Next, former NAIFA members will be targeted, giving this group compelling reasons to rejoin the association. And finally, potential members will become the focus of the positioning campaign.

The delivery of the campaign, according to Lambert, will include the use of interactive CD-ROMs, greater use of email, enhancements to the NAIFA website, turnkey materials that can be used by locals, a trade advertising campaign and an aggressive direct marketing program.

Lambert said that the goal is launch the first phase of the campaign January 2001. He added that the decision about proceeding with the positioning campaign was simple: "We can either continue to conduct business as usual [or] rethink the way we communicate and commit the resources to do a better job . . . The financial services industry is changing and NAIFA needs to change with it."

Other articles from The NAIFA Convention and Career Conference:

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