| March 15, 2011 | | CONNECT WITH SMARTBRIEF |  |  | | | News for SmartBrief prospective partners | |
| What's Happening |  |  | | - Association conference reinvention
 Shelly Alcorn, CAE, is a thought leader, speaker and association management consultant. Reach her on Twitter @shellyalcorn, on LinkedIn or at the Association Subculture Blog.
"Recently, an association decided to reinvent their conference. However, they were facing a level of internal and external resistance to change including detractors who had ownership and political pull. They decided to focus on ways to get the entire team -- staff, volunteer leaders and presenters -- to see potential changes as a desirable opportunity instead of a threat. To do that, they needed to create pathways they could all resonate with, aspire to and hold all planners and participants accountable for. They chose to conduct a mini-strategic planning process that included adopting a vision and envisioned experience for their attendees.
"Hence, their conference vision was born."
Read about how they did it, and share your own conference reinvention stories. - Top 10 tweets from the .org community
A look at @SmartBriefScoop's most popular retweets from the past two weeks:
- A note on helping relief efforts in Japan
 If you or your company, organization or group want to help the Japanese people recover from last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami but aren't sure how to do so, InterAction provides options. An alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental aid organizations, InterAction has compiled a list of groups that are accepting private, corporate and group donations, along with some guidelines for the most appropriate ways to help. Learn more.
| Leadership Focus | | | | - A simple template to improve your brainstorming
A simple Microsoft Word template listing a series of questions can help leaders refine their groups' brainstorming efforts, writes Chuck Frey. Explicitly answering questions about the intended audience, the resources available and the goals can help innovators come up with bright ideas that are better tailored to a company's specific needs, Frey says. InnovationTools (3/9) - Stop making excuses for cowardly leadership
Too many bosses are happier making excuses than confronting problem workers, writes Leigh Steere. If you find yourself avoiding tough conversations for fear of being seen as a bully, losing a key worker or sparking an employee revolt, Steere writes, it's time to stop stalling and take action. "If your customers, project quality, team productivity or morale are suffering, is there any valid excuse for failing to intervene in a timely manner?" she asks. LeadChangeGroup.com (3/13) - How to cope when reporters come calling
Leaders occasionally finds themselves in the media spotlight, writes Dorie Clark, and a single ill-judged or poorly phrased comment can cost the individuals and their organizations dearly. Before talking to a journalist, it's worth making sure you understand the reporter's motivations, that you prepare for obvious and oddball interview topics, and that you're ready to deflect uncomfortable questions in a way that won't come across as simply stonewalling. Harvard Business Review online/The Conversation blog (3/3) | About SmartBrief | | | | - What we do
SmartBrief publishes industry-specific e-mail newsletters in partnership with prominent associations, professional societies, corporations and nonprofits. More than 4 million executives and professionals rely on SmartBrief every day to stay informed and save them time. Visit here to view our partners, see samples and subscribe. For updates, follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook. Want to explore partnering? Let's talk. | Media 2.0 | | | | - 7 ways to bring your lurkers out of the shadows
The vast majority of visitors to your social channels and communities are "lurkers" who rarely if ever actively participate, writes Heidi Cohen. To encourage them to get more involved, make sure there's always a conversation for them to join, explicitly ask people to speak up and offer incentives such as coupons or virtual gifts to reward first-time participants, Cohen writes. ClickZ (3/7) - Adjust to Google search changes by beefing up content
If Google's recent adjustments to its search algorithms have cut into your site's Web traffic, it's important to pinpoint exactly where the drop has occurred, Vanessa Fox writes. Then, consider Google's own advice on how to boost results, taking to heart in particular its call for meaningful, valuable content. Search Engine Land (3/5) - Don't double down on social media content
Too many brands focus all their energies on a single social media platform, and use other social outlets simply to rebroadcast content that has appeared elsewhere. That's a quick way to annoy and alienate your followers, warns Caroline Chen, who thinks marketers need to develop an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each platform. ClickZ (3/10) | SmartNugget | | | |  | | - 32 rules you can't do business without
The key to building a successful organization is to harness "The Primes" -- essential, timeless insights into how people interact, writes Chris McGoff. His book, "The Primes: How Any Group Can Solve Any Problem," catalogs 32 such insights in pictorial form, then walks leaders through the process of applying them to real-life problems. "We did not invent them. ... Our contribution was to notice these dynamics, make them visible and, most importantly, to name them," he says. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership (3/7) | |  |
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