digitalNow 2022 Content Focus

What content ideas and themes to expect at digitalNow 2022

Now in its 22nd year, digitalNow remains the best idea generator for association leaders. In our ongoing commitment to tackle today’s most critical issues with action-based strategies, transformative technologies and an innovative community, the content focus at digitalNow 2022 will remain on creating the place for association professionals to take a look into the future of what the ongoing digital transformation will bring to our industry. 

And that future is changing rapidly. 

At digitalNow 2022, we will lay the foundation for purpose-driven member organizations, associations and nonprofits to understand what those technologies are, but more importantly, how those technologies stand to impact their industry and the sectors they represent. In many ways, understanding the impacts of these technologies, their real-world applications and the potential for new ones in the future, matter more for our audience than the nuts and bolts of how they work. 

Through over 20 hours of conversations with association executives, including those on the digitalNow Advisory Group, and our annual digitalNow Content survey, we’ve identified an exciting blend of core focus areas for the 2022 conference: Web3 and Artificial Intelligence. These focus areas will serve as the foundation of discussions at digitalNow from which we will build engaging workshops and strategic discussions aimed at answering the most pressing questions and solving the most urgent problems association executives face today. 

Register now. We can’t wait to see you there. 

Web3

Web3 will reshape our entire online world by transferring and decentralizing power, creating new communities and financial ecosystems, redefining how we think about “trust,” and adjusting how we reach new and existing audiences.

Possible subject matter areas: 

• Blockchain: Fundamentals, Tokens, Smart Contracts, credentialing
• Opportunity for community identification and development: Creator coins, NFTs, DAOs
• DeFi: Defining DeFi, its implications and where cryptocurrency fits in
• Transfer of power from owned media to individuals, and how that impacts the ability to reach new and existing audiences 
• Impacts on privacy, such as how it could be paired with AI 

Artificial Intelligence

By no means is artificial intelligence new, but its use is being rapidly refined through an overwhelming amount of data collection. With recent improvements to artificial intelligence capabilities, we are making ever greater strides toward accurate predictions, language processing and data analysis. 

And these are key concepts for associations and the industries they represent: Over 90% of digitalNow survey respondents said it will be important to predict member behaviors in the next 12 months — and artificial intelligence is one avenue toward making that possible.

• Identifying opportunities for using AI, and when to outsource vs. build in-house
• How AI can impact learning technologies
• What AI can and can’t do (and for how long it’ll stay that way) 
• Impacts on the labor market, and what skills will become more (and less) important
• Impacts on data collection, privacy and the value of existing and new data

Association Management Strategy

The idea of “uncertainty” has become less of a buzzword and more like the only thing we can count on. Right now, we’re grappling with big-picture questions that will define the next era of association management. At digitalNow, we’re interested in tackling some of these questions and examining new association management ideas. 

• Holistic approaches to funding strategic plans and organizational goals 
• New association value categories or product lines
• Systems integration that can seamlessly weave together association tech stacks
• Next Gen content management so members get what they need, when they need it
• How to use new technologies responsibly and ethically, especially in the context of DEI initiatives 

What is your “one thing?”

Learning about a new concept is one thing, but that’s no use without identifying key takeaways and, even more important, key action items. On Day 3, we’ll host a panel discussion with all of our keynote speakers to bring these ideas together, challenge each other and then help attendees identify how to answer the biggest question of all: What next?

• How to prepare your organization and your staff
• What skillsets does your organization need to hire for as you look to utilize new technologies? 
• How can your organization track ROI on technology investments?
• What industry-wide changes could result from these new technologies?
• What goals can you set for your organization to tackle in the next year?
• What is “The One Thing” your organization needs to focus on and work toward? And how do you get there?