Matt Riley With ICS

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:20] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Matt Riley with ICS International Conference Services. Welcome, Matt.

Matt Riley: [00:00:33] Hi, Lee. Thanks for having.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:34] Me. Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about ICS. How are you serving folks?

Matt Riley: [00:00:40] Sure. So ICS is both a professional conference organizer and an association management company. We’ve been in business for over 30 years and we’ve got clients all over the globe. So just kind of helping with running their conferences, running their association’s strategy and everything in between.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:56] So how did this come about? I’ve been talking to several folks that are in that same space. Does it typically happen with they start running one association or they’re working with one and it just kind of organically expands from there, like, what was your history?

Matt Riley: [00:01:10] Yeah, correct. We were a PKO first and really kind of became known for that and then over time started to have clients who were looking for association management help. And that was when our association management department was started. My teams started to build up, so and now we have about 15 clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] So now when you’re building up, you’re the director of associations. Can you talk about what a day in the life is for you?

Matt Riley: [00:01:36] Sure. So I lead a team of about 12 people. They’re all executive directors of different associations. Our focus is international. We work with a lot of medical and scientific societies. So my day consists of helping clients just kind of navigate the waters of association management, a lot of sort of mentoring with the team and providing resources and ideas and that sort of thing. For all the different challenges that our clients are facing right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:05] And an association kind of leans on an association management company like yours because a lot of times they’re volunteer organizations and maybe their vision is is bigger than the kind of the team that they have around with around them. So they have to, like hire a professional to help them kind of expand and grow and serve their members.

Matt Riley: [00:02:27] Yeah, correct. Most of our clients actually don’t have their own staff, so they are doctors or scientists or commissioners or some, some they’re focused on their profession. So they’re the subject matter experts. They kind of have a handle on on content and on whatever that industry is. But they’re really looking for association management knowledge and best practices and sort of the business side of running the organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:53] And I would imagine when you put a professional group like yours in place, you can really accelerate their growth because you’re kind of getting the best practices from all the other folks that you’re serving and you can really institute some efficiencies quickly.

Matt Riley: [00:03:08] Absolutely. And it’s become especially important in the last few years. The pandemic really sort of shined a light on a lot of practices. And if, you know, if you weren’t looking to the future, if you weren’t thinking about revenue diversification, if you were relying on one big conference for basically all of your business operations, then those were the associations that really kind of had their eyes open in terms of needing to diversify a little more, needing to look at some other options. And that’s something that’s really a strength for us now.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:35] Are there certain challenges that are facing international associations that maybe aren’t as prevalent for ones that are just kind of in America?

Matt Riley: [00:03:47] Absolutely. Yeah. You know, we’re seeing domestic conferences starting to come back. I would say I think it’s safe to say they are back for the most part, but international, there’s still a lot of there’s still barriers to travel, there’s still political instability. There’s still a lot of economic volatility in the world. So a lot of our international conferences are not still moving forward and we’re just still seeing a lot of barriers to our our international associations still kind of lingering.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:16] Now, are you or can you share some maybe some solutions or some opportunities that you see in that space?

Matt Riley: [00:04:24] Sure. Absolutely. I mean, I think one big opportunity right now is this is really an opportunity for innovation. So like I was saying, if maybe the association was kind of in we’ve always done it that way. So that’s sort of my my least favorite phrase in the association space. I really think there’s a lot of permission right now to experiment and to innovate. So just because maybe maybe that you thought the conference was your main driver of of member value. And it may well be like I say, we’ve really kind of been made aware now in a painful way of the need to have other other. To hang your hat on, you know, other sources of revenue and other drivers of member value for the association. So if you’re not already looking at publications or digital content or some, it all depends on the industry and the member and what their challenges are and what their needs are. But we really kind of have to get a little more diligent and a little more creative and looking at how can we how can we serve members in a different way from that. We’ve always done it that way.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:26] Mindset Yeah, I guess the pandemic really forced that, right? So you have a period where a lot of organizations were saying, Hey, it’s our big event and that’s why we’re here for the big gala or the big event conference. And then when the pandemic shut that down, now you’re like, Well, why are people still members? You know, if our whole reason of being was this big event.

Matt Riley: [00:05:46] There’s you know, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Like I say, we’re a conference company. So we we we live and breathe that. But it’s just, you know, it’s kind of thinking bigger than that, you know? Yes, you need a world class event, but it’s kind of like what else, you know, what have you done for me lately as sort of the member the member opinion? So if you’re only engaging one time a year, no matter how good that conference is, you’re going to struggle to kind of keep keep front of mind with your audience.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:12] Right. It’s like you said, diversify your portfolio a little bit. Don’t put all your eggs in that one basket. Let’s see what else we can do and see. Be creative. Yeah, absolutely. Now, when you’re working with an association and you’re having this, this is a tough conversation, I would imagine, for some folks, because, like you said, that inertia of the status quo is a tough one to to really move off of. But I guess the pandemic helped that in that it just kind of forced their hand. They had to do this. They had to make some moves.

Matt Riley: [00:06:45] Yeah. Forced a lot of conversations among leaders. And then like I say, I think it also gave us a lot of permission with with numbers, with conference attendees, with whoever needs to sort of approve some sort of change or give a little bit of a little bit of patience or a little bit of permission. I think we’ve really got that right now because, you know, we’re hopefully emerging from a time of disruption. But the upside of that is you really get a chance to kind of create something new. And I think a lot of people, especially if they maybe haven’t been super engaged or they haven’t been really sort of wowed by the experience that they’re getting out of their membership, they really are more willing than a lot of people think to, you know, to give you time and space to experiment. And maybe you try some things and it doesn’t work. That’s not the end of the world. Like know people I think are not as critical as maybe they would have been before.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:39] Now, are you seeing younger folks being drawn to associations or is that something that associations need work to attract younger people to not only join but also to take have a path to leadership?

Matt Riley: [00:07:54] Well, it’s certainly a big focus. I mean, I don’t you know, we do a lot of strategic planning with our clients. And I don’t think I’ve had a strategic planning session in the last three years that didn’t come out with some kind of goal, focusing around engaging younger members and the next generation of leadership, and also looking at diversity as well and broadening broadening the membership in that way. So it’s a really key area of focus. I would say. I’m seeing different levels of success and it really depends how much are you really willing to put your money where your mouth is as an organization and really invest in in driving real change that’s going to going to attract both younger and more diverse numbers and leaders.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:34] Is there any advice you can give in that area? Because that is an area of concern for a lot of folks struggling with the same issues.

Matt Riley: [00:08:43] Well, I mean, I think my advice would be it has to be more than lip service. A lot of organizations are coming out with a diversity statement or maybe they’re creating a young member committee or something along those lines. And that’s great. It’s definitely a starting point, but I think it has to be more substantial. You know, those those efforts have to have some kind of real impact on the organization. It has to be visible. One thing that we say a lot in diversity is that if I’m coming into the organization and there’s no one who looks like me in leadership, then that’s a big red flag. And it kind of sends a message that either I’m not really fully welcome or if I am, I’m not. I don’t really have a seat at the table in terms of decision making or how the organization is run. So I think it’s not just sort of creating something to check a box. It’s really sort of creating change in a way that we’re bringing new, new voices in and we’re making sure that the leadership looks and feels like the community that we’re trying to create, if that makes sense.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:43] Yeah, it does. I mean, you go to some of the websites of some of these associations and then you check out the leadership and it doesn’t always reflect the the membership.

Matt Riley: [00:09:53] Yeah. So the organizations that are seeing success are not the ones that sort of create a committee for four young members and put. Set off in a corner and kind of do that. It’s the ones that they create a board position for a number that’s sort of reserved for that purpose so that that voice is in the meetings and the thing that nobody else sees, because a lot of these organizations, you have to be around for 50 years to get into one of those leader leadership positions. But getting somebody in the room or on the Zoom call these days, you know, who who understands what the next generation is looking for. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about that changes the thinking and that that leads to different decision making.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:32] Right. So then they have kind of that seat at the table and they have a voice in these kind of conversations when people are making the decisions, especially budgetary decisions.

Matt Riley: [00:10:41] Mm hmm. Yeah. It kind of addresses both the symbolic and the substantive at the same time.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:45] And that probably gives you a quicker means to be successfully making that happen and moving the needle, if that’s really, truly important. You are kind of walking the walk at that point.

Matt Riley: [00:10:58] Yeah. Yep, I would say so.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:01] So what’s next for you? How does the rest of this year look and in the coming year?

Matt Riley: [00:11:08] Well, like I said, I mean, we’re really trying to get sort of international events back off the ground. I hope we’ll be more and more able to do that. I just I was supposed to have a conference in Taiwan this year. They still have a three day quarantine. The last that I looked, which is really kind of anathema for for a conference. So we’re still trying to move forward with that in the best way that we can. We’re trying to choose destinations that are resilient and hedge against all of the the sort of risks that we’re seeing out there. And then at the same time, like I say, push forward with a lot of the new experiments that we’re trying out, whether it’s restructuring membership categories, this is a good time to be doing that. If you if your membership categories haven’t changed in in 50 years, the industry probably has. So looking at that kind of restructuring, revisiting dues, a lot of dues for we’re sort of stagnant. And if you’re not increasing in to keep pace with inflation, then you’re not really taking care of your business in that sense. So just trying to keep keep our head on a swivel and look out for all of the opportunities that this time provides and at the same time, all of the ways that we can protect ourselves from sort of ongoing uncertainty that’s out there.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:22] Can you share an example of maybe one of the associations you work with? You don’t have to name the name, but maybe explain what the challenge that they were having before they they started working with ices and then you coming in and helping them solve it and maybe getting to a new level.

Matt Riley: [00:12:38] Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we have we have one association in particular. It’s the International Association for for that for that scientific field. And there’s a lot of strong national and regional associations for the field as well, because it’s a it’s an important medical field. So with all of these challenges, with the sort of added complexity of operating internationally, I think they they a little bit fell into a rut of more trying to compete with the regional societies, going to the regions that had a lot of members that had a lot of money and sort of trying to to rest their laurels on that because it was the it was the low hanging fruit. And it worked to some extent, but it created competition with the regional associations and it was sort of it was splitting the pie to many different ways. And they they would have very good years when they were in those regions and then they would have bad years when they tried to do anything else. And they sort of took that as, let’s stop trying to be global and let’s kind of try to be what already exists in these regional associations. So we did a strategic planning. We, we did surveys, we did targeted conversations with a lot of the different leaders. And that was the conclusion we came to was we sort of fallen into this strategy, not really meaning to where we’re not truly we’re not truly a global association and we’re not we’re not taking advantage of that that unique selling principle that we should have as an organization and where we’re sort of trying to play somebody else’s game.

Matt Riley: [00:14:13] And what we did was we started to really look at how are we choosing where we engage in the world, how are we selecting destinations for the conference? How are we choosing partners to work with other associations to partner with, even sort of how are we finding influential members who can help us in different regions? So for instance, South America was very underserved. So we basically just kind of across the board started to change how we thought about the identity of the organization. And now they’ve had some very successful conferences in some less traditional regions, and they’re really sort of, I guess, just embracing a new identity and really thriving with that. And that’s something that I really talk a lot about strategy and the importance of doing. Strategic planning. A lot of the smaller organizations that we work with, they don’t necessarily think that they have the resources or they don’t know where to go to find that. And that’s something that we bring to the table that I think is really, really helpful.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:12] Yeah, you have to invest in that because if you don’t know what you’re aiming at, how do you know you’re never going to get there? You know, it just it makes sense.

Matt Riley: [00:15:20] What tends to happen is, is sort of management by crisis. In that case, you know, you’re very reactive. And what whatever happens to you, you sort of try to react to it. But that’s I think we all know that’s not the way to get ahead of the ahead of the curve. If you really want to be leading in our industry, then you need to be looking ahead and you need to be preparing at least three or five or ten years out and really kind of looking where your industry is going and trying to be the the resources that is where your members want to go, that you’re helping them kind of create create the industry of tomorrow or the or the scientific field of tomorrow.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:53] Right. Which is usually at the heart of the mission of most associations. Yeah.

Matt Riley: [00:15:58] Ironically, it kind of, it’s kind of the opposite of the. We’ve always done it that way.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:01] Right, exactly. They’re supposed to be leading and being the role models for the industry, not the laggards.

Matt Riley: [00:16:08] Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:09] So what do you need more of? How can we help? Are you looking for more associations to serve? Do you need more talent? What do you need?

Matt Riley: [00:16:17] I mean, yeah, absolutely. I think there are so many associations that could use help. So I think just having people know that there that association management companies are out there and that it’s, you know, it’s an alternative to maybe if you don’t see having the resources for a full time staff, I think that’s a great thing for for people to know. And we’re always looking to partners. So anybody who’s interested in what we do, I’m always open to a conversation. You know, travel industry right now, hospitality industry I know has really just had so much turmoil. And they’re trying to start back up and they’re trying to find good talent. So we’re really looking out for our our hotel and our destination partners and everybody in that world where we’re trying to support however we can. But really any industry, you know, we work with technology quite a bit. Association management software is really important to what we do. So there’s there’s a whole a whole bunch of different worlds. And as I say, there’s an association for everything. So we do a lot of medical and scientific, but we really are sort of conservatively looking for other other organizations to work with as well. So I think the sky’s the limit for associations. I really do, yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:22] I think that there’s a lot of opportunity, especially coming out of the pandemic. The need is so great at this point.

Matt Riley: [00:17:30] Yeah, I.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:30] Agree. Now, if somebody wants to learn more about this or maybe get on your calendar, what is the website? Best way to get a hold of you or somebody on your team?

Matt Riley: [00:17:40] Yeah, our website is ices events dot com. Check us out. We’ve got a great website with a lot of information and my email address is. Riley. Riley. That’s m as an matt Riley Y at ices events dot com. So I’d love to hear from any of your listeners who are interested in working together.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:57] All right, Matt, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Matt Riley: [00:18:02] Thanks a lot, Lee. I really appreciate.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:03] It. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Association Leadership Radio.