Last week, RGI joined the Indiana Society of Association Executives for its annual STAR Awards ceremony, recognizing the best and brightest in association management in 2021.
It was exciting to see the event return to in-person after last year’s virtual ceremony as we celebrated the RGI team’s award-winning entries:
Golden Shoestring Award
NALS, the National Association for Legal Support Professionals, won the Golden Shoestring award for its one-day seminar dedicated to the technology that was transforming the day-to-day work of their members, and provided the tools, tips and training needed to help find success in the coming year. The award is given to an association for a single project or program delivered on little to no budget with a successful outcome. NALS utilized minimal paid marketing services through Facebook and LinkedIn, which kept costs to only a couple hundred dollars. What expenses they had were recouped four times over through vendor and member registrations. Not only was the event a financial success, but it was also a win for the organization from a programmatic and engagement standpoint. The majority of attendees rated the program from Good to Excellent and 93% of attendees said they were Likely to Extremely Likely to attend another event.
Best Annual Convention
The Association for Information Systems won the Annual Convention award for their virtual conference that nearly tripled registrations from 2020 to 2021, including representatives from four different countries participating. Historically, conference organizers have needed to personally ask members for session proposals. For 2021, the number of voluntary proposals exceeded the need, which prompted the opportunity to select better-tailored presentations while establishing the creation of a new year-round professional development series to highlight student speakers. The online conference was heavily marketed via email with a series of messages sent from the association to the leaders and members of chapters around the world as well as a strong social media campaign. Post-conference surveys showed that 94% of attendees would recommend this conference to others in the future.
Rising Star Award
And RGI Senior Membership & Meetings Coordinator Emily Wrinkle, DES, won the Rising Star Award, recognizing an outstanding ISAE member who has made exemplary contributions to his or her association, and shown dedication and innovation to members. Nominees must have one to three years’ service in the association industry. In her short career, Emily has blossomed into a remarkable association professional, progressing from an intern to Meetings Assistant to Meetings Coordinator and now Senior Coordinator – and that is only the beginning. She continually strives to better herself and in turn the associations she serves through professional development – including her certification as a Digital Event Strategist. She applies her skills beyond just creating meaningful meetings for her associations, looking for ways to strengthen her Association Management Company, where she proactively took on a key role in ensuring it was named a one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana for 2021. Emily balances her dedication to her AMC and client associations while sharing her time and talent as a volunteer for both ISAE and the Indiana Chapter of Meeting Professionals International. She truly embodies the definition of an outstanding young professional.
Raybourn Group International is proud of our many clients, as well as all other associations, that have not only survived but thrived through the pandemic, serving their members, industries and society at-large despite the significant challenges brought about by COVID-19.