Joining Forces: Is a Joint Meeting Right for you?

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Joint Meetings

While joint meetings are not often a common choice for many associations, they present opportunities that may be interesting for your group. To help you decide whether the joint meeting or conference format is right for you, the conference professionals at JPdL International have gathered many of the pros and challenges of planning a joint meeting.

ADVANTAGES

• Go Global. If your conference has been a smaller one until now, partnering up with related associations from other states, provinces or countries presents the opportunity to widen your attendee demographics, enhance the educational value of your event, and thus, transforming your conference into a must-attend event in your field.
• Increase membership. Joint meetings are an excellent foundation on which to build your association’s perceived value to potential members. By delivering better and more content and creating networking opportunities for your attendees, they are more likely to join your organization.
• Increase attendance and impact. Increasing attendance for your conference becomes easier when joining forces with those in parallel fields. Attracting all of your members simultaneously, creates a larger network and the benefits of sharing promotional tools raises awareness for the event, and increases the chance of success.
• More money, more possibilities. Pooling the funds and efforts of several associations leads to more budget flexibility, more money overall, and more sponsorship contacts to help support your conference or event.
• Optimizing synergy between likeminded associations. A joint meeting with more than one association gives all members a chance to share ideas, and create a larger community.

DISADVANTAGES (OR AS WE LIKE TO CALL THEM, CHALLENGES)

While great ideas and events offer inspiration and opportunities, we often face some challenges along the way.

• Finding consensus. Because there is more than one association involved in the planning process, disagreements arise in the development stages with regards to programming, budget, responsibilities, etc. JPdL International’s meeting professionals advise that the key to finding consensus between associations is management. Hiring a professional meeting planner can help find the balance to satisfy everyone’s needs, including the attendees.
• Financial responsibility. Joint meetings present the difficult task of deciding how to share the financial outcome of the event. A professional conference organizer can act as a mediator to help both associations come to an agreement that will satisfy both parties.

JPdL International’s meeting planners are here to help associations like yours sort out these setbacks, and present solutions to ensure your joint meeting is one that members look forward to every year.