August 5, 2024
Among George Washington’s leadership attributes was his willingness to listen to peers with whom he didn’t always agree, said Heather Soubra, director of the George Washington Leadership Institute in Mount Vernon, Va.
“When people ask what made George Washington unique as a leader, one thing was his ability to listen, to be able to avoid getting attached to one way of doing something and to surround himself with people who had very diverse perspectives. He saw that as the strength of the team,” said Soubra, who is also an executive coach and former senior vice president of strategic initiatives at the International Dairy Foods Association.
In that spirit, the top staff of eight major financial trade associations gathered at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon in May for a summit to deepen ties and cooperation and learn from each other.
The summit included historical lectures and CEO panels on current association topics. Soubra and Peter Cressy, director of executive leadership programs at the George Washington Leadership Institute and former CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, led a presentation on the first president’s leadership approach.
The Financial Services Association Leadership Summit was the idea of Wayne Chopus, CEO of the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI).
In addition to Chopus, the attending CEOs were Ken Bentsen of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association; Dale Brown of the Financial Services Institute; Marc Cadin of Finseca; Chuck DiVencenzo of the National Association for Fixed Annuities; Kevin Mayeux of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers; Susan Neely, outgoing leader of the American Council of Life Insurers; and Eric Pan of the Investment Company Institute.
Brown, Cadin, Chopus and Mayeux are members of CEO Update’s CEO Roundtable.
Helpful community
Chopus started gathering financial association CEOs for a dinner series when he took the reins at IRI five years ago. As a new association executive — he had come from the insurance industry — it was important to get to know his inside-the-Beltway peers. That, along with other networking opportunities including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100 and CEO Update’s CEO dinners, are essential ways to learn and give back, he said.
“It’s an incredibly helpful community of peers willing to share what they’ve learned in their experiences and their onboarding, and it creates an environment where you can pay it forward when somebody else is new in a role,” Chopus said.
The summit had the added benefit of including the CEOs’ senior staff to the networking mix. All told, 48 executives were in attendance. “I saw it as investing in the future of our industry,” he said.
“Based on the feedback we’ve seen and the survey results, there was a lot of value placed on the relationships built by folks who have similar roles at different trades that didn’t know each other as well,” he said.
So much value that participants are interested in holding the summit every year. Cadin, CEO of Finseca, said some members of his team want to meet with their peers even more often than that.
“It went exceptionally well,” said Cadin. “Wayne and the IRI team did a great job, and the Mount Vernon team did a great job. It was a great setting.”
“This, first and foremost, was about fellowship and building and deepening relationships across the organizations,” he said. “One of the traps is to think about other organizations within your sector as competition.
“When there are no relationships among the teams, it’s easy to put on competitor labels and imbue motives on behaviors. Some elements of competition exist among associations that represent similar segments within an industry or profession. But if you think about why we exist as an association community, it’s about bringing individual companies and people together to solve things we can’t solve individually,” Cadin said.
“Part of our job as CEOs is to break down barriers within our companies and within our associations so that the advocacy and membership and communications and business development and finance functions work well together, in concert with the direction of the board,” he said.
“Those silos get exacerbated when it’s between associations because the HR person from one association doesn’t know the person from another,” Cadin said. “Or they don’t understand what that group does, or the advocacy person gets territorial about their strategy. We’ve got to continue to break down those barriers.”
Inspiring setting
The George Washington Leadership Institute, located in the presidential library, hosts a variety of sessions for seasoned executives, middle managers and emerging leaders in government agencies, associations and nonprofit educational institutions, Soubra said. The library opened in 2013, and the institute’s programs are held in the David M. Rubenstein Leadership Hall, named for the founder of private equity firm The Carlyle Group in recognition of his support for the library.
“There’s something about just being in this space together at this beautiful setting, where they’re anchoring into those timeless leadership principles,” Soubra said. “It’s a way to remind ourselves of who we aspire to be as leaders.”
When it comes to the state of association conferences, Charles Dickens may have summed it up best with the opening line from A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Four years after COVID-19 upended the meetings industry — along with every other facet of life and business — conference professionals and association CEOs are finally feeling optimistic about the future. Approximately 42% of meeting planners said they expected an increase in bookings this year, according to the “2024 State of the Meetings Industry” survey from Knowland in partnership with Conference Direct, with 32% forecasting growth of up to 20%, and nearly 10% projecting a boost of over 20%.
“One key observation from the pandemic is the continued primacy and relevance of trade shows and conferences,” said Ryan Strowger, vice president for trade shows and meetings at the International Sign Association, which serves manufacturers, users and suppliers of signs and other visual communications. “Once it became safe and accessible for attendees to return to in-person participation, they did so with enthusiasm,” he told CEO Update.
At the same time, tight budgets and skyrocketing costs are squeezing organizations from all sides. For the associations hosting conferences, planners projected an increase in food and beverage (F&B) and audiovisual (A/V) costs of up to 50% this year, according to the Knowland/Conference Direct survey. In addition, 25% of planners reported getting fewer responses to their RFPs for venues in an increasingly saturated market.
Meanwhile, on the attendee side, businesses are sending fewer staff to conferences while expecting more valuable, experiential programming as a return on their investment (ROI).
“We have enjoyed a few years of a ‘honeymoon period’ with attendees being so happy simply to return to their peers,” said Strowger. “However, all honeymoon periods wane, and exhibitors and attendees alike will return to being scrutinous of the ROI.”
Lisa Block, EVP of conference strategy and design at the consulting firm Velvet Chainsaw, put it this way: “Gone are the days when you can book a ritzy hotel in Florida and keep everybody in a meeting room all day,” she said. “You have to let them get out and have some experiences … even if they’re (only) there for a day and a half.” In other words, today’s attendees expect more of everything: “more activations, more engagement, more opportunities to meet the people that they want to meet,” Block said.
This combination of sky-high expectations and limited resources may seem daunting. But as the leading voices for their organizations, CEOs are in an excellent position to partner with their meetings teams to ensure conference stages are set for success.
“CEOs need to realize that their words and their direction on these sorts of change issues are huge,” said Block, whose firm works with all members of an association’s meetings team to transform and grow major conferences. “We know that if CEOs are on board, the success rate (for conferences) soars,” Block said. “It won’t work unless a CEO is open to questioning, probing, thoughtful input from people up and down their team,” she added.
Small but mighty
According to Knowland data, almost half of U.S. meetings had 100 attendees or fewer in 2023, indicating that small conferences comprise a sizable share of the market. Indeed, for a lot of smaller associations, 2023 or 2024 marked their first foray back into the post-COVID in-person conference landscape after several years of virtual events — and the high costs have been a rude awakening for many.
“This year’s in-person conference will be the most expensive conference we have ever held, both for attendees and our association,” said Kim Pawlak, executive director of the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA), which hosted its first in-person annual conference since 2019 on June 21-22 in Nashville.
“Our room rates are much higher than our previous in-person conferences at comparable hotels,” she said. “Our F&B minimum is more than double what it was in 2019, which was a big shock for us.”
Pawlak’s team also had more difficulty this year attracting sponsors. “I think they’re moving away from sponsoring in-person events, because they can reach a much larger audience with online events,” she said.
After TAA achieved record in-person meeting attendance in 2019, registration dropped about 10% when the organization rolled out a virtual conference experience in 2020. Yet their online annual conference also consistently attracted registrants who hadn’t attended TAA conferences before. “We felt like that was a nice trade-off because we reached a larger portion of our members with our online conferences,” she said.
The numbers aren’t yet in for TAA’s 2024 conference, but Pawlak is shooting for 110-120 attendees. Come what may, she is glad TAA made the decision to reconvene in person. For one reason, collecting data and insights will guide the organization’s strategy moving forward. While TAA’s board has yet to decide whether to hold another in-person conference, having a post-COVID data point will be instructive for all of their leaders.
The experience has also highlighted how much in-person conferences have evolved in four short years, with today’s attendees expecting an array of experiences and interactions they can’t get elsewhere. It’s a challenge Pawlak and her team of four staff have enjoyed meeting.
“This year we added a lounge with games. We’re bringing in a singer-songwriter to play at our reception because we’re going to be in Nashville, and we're adding short-form, TED-Talk-style sessions,” Pawlak noted. “It’s more of a get-together. You’re not in a boring room with no windows for your networking.”
Her goal is for people to come away from the conference talking about it, which will strengthen the community, inform future events and help market the conference and organization. “We did take a risk in doing our in-person conference this year, and we went into it with that risk in mind.”
Mid-size growth
For Addy Kujawa, the CEO of the American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives (AAOE), slow but steady growth has been the trend over the past few years.
“We’ve been in person since the fall of 2021,” said Kujawa, who adjusted the normal spring timing of AAOE’s annual conference that year to fall, when COVID vaccines were widely available. The 2024 conference took place April 26-29.
Although AAOE’s conference attendance has gradually crept back up, “we’re not back to pre-COVID numbers yet,” Kujawa said. “Our vendors are, but attendees are still a little bit tougher.” According to Kujawa, the event generally averages about 500 attendees and 400 vendors, and this year’s event had 460 registrations.
On top of the cost squeezes affecting all associations, AAOE faces industry-specific challenges, as the U.S. health care system faces widespread workforce shortages and spiraling costs. “Health care is in such crisis at the moment, so it’s hard to get the money to send people to conferences,” she said.
Leaders at organizations that have gathered consistently after 2020 are not immune from sticker shock on prices. “Everything is just getting so much more expensive,” said Kujawa, who leads a staff of 10. “Even at some of the cities we’re used to going to, we’re just priced out at this point.”
When associations are forced to hold meetings in locations that aren’t high on attendees’ travel lists, they have to work that much harder to attract registrants.
“Our attendance is great, but the revenue from attendance is less because we’re having to give away more discounts or BOGO deals,” she said. “Marketing is harder, because you really have to get (people’s) attention, and you have to (offer them) the thing they need in the moment they need it.”
One tactic Kujawa has found helpful is creating an infographic highlighting the conference costs — such as F&B and hotels — and how vendors’ support helps cover those expenses. After attendees received the infographic, traffic to the exhibit halls increased, said Kujawa.
Other ways AAOE has encouraged exhibitor/attendee engagement is by implementing theme days — like Sports Day or Carnival Day — where attendees dress to match the theme and exhibitors decorate their booths, selling vendors drink tickets to receptions that they can in turn offer visiting attendees, and holding scavenger hunts and prize giveaways.
“Every year we try at least one new thing, and most years we try several new things,” Kujawa said. “It's a constant iteration process.”
Like Pawlak and Block, she emphasized that CEOs who are plugged into conference planning are ideally situated to develop strategies that address their biggest pain points. She is looking into the possibility of shortening the duration of the conference, for example, which would serve the dual purpose of easing cost pressure and attracting more attendees who can’t afford four days out of office.
Back and bigger than ever
Associations that hold large conferences have the advantage of leveraging economies of scale, allowing some to come roaring back to robust pre-COVID registration levels. For the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM), attendance at their 2023 Annual Scientific Meeting last July was in line with their 2019 number of nearly 20,000, and they are optimistic that their 2024 meeting July 28-Aug. 1 will exceed pre-pandemic levels.
“Attendees are really looking forward to more networking opportunities,” said Rosey Romano, director of meetings at ADLM, a global scientific and medical organization dedicated to clinical laboratory science. “Interactive events are a big trend and a big focus for us as well,” she added, pointing to an ice cream social, a scavenger hunt and innovative learning formats that diverge from the traditional didactic style.
“For example, the session ‘Improv and the Art of Medicine’ will be set up as an improv session and will teach laboratory medicine professionals improv skills for handling unpredictable situations,” Romano said. “Another session, ‘Clinical Toxicology in the Courtroom,’ will be set up as a mock trial that will recruit attendees to serve as the ‘jury’ in the real-life cases that are presented.”
Strowger of the International Sign Association noted that variable session formats like these are the new normal. “Event planners have seen that the traditional ‘sage on the stage’ format of education may have limitations,” he said. “While there is still a place for one-directional education and content delivery, it is important to layer that with more bidirectional sharing, like workshops, roundtables and informal learning spaces.”
CEOs at larger associations may not have the bandwidth to wade into the details of conference planning, but they are still critical to the event’s success.
“The most helpful thing that CEOs can do is to support new ideas that their staff want to implement or showcase to their membership,” Romano said. “ADLM CEO Mark Golden is a fantastic example of this,” she added, noting that his support was instrumental in helping her integrate changes that streamlined the registration process.
Prioritizing diversity and inclusion
Sixty percent of conference planners say DEI is top of mind for them, according to the Knowland/Conference Direct survey — a trend echoed by the leaders highlighted here.
“Inclusion is key,” Romano said. “We will have several sessions at the meeting focused on inclusion-related topics, such as a plenary on the health consequences of ending federal protection for abortion in the U.S. and a session on ensuring equity and fairness in machine learning and data analytics.”
Pawlak of TAA noted that she got some pushback on Nashville as a venue because Tennessee has adopted some DEI-unfriendly policies. While she worked hard to pick a city and hotel that is welcoming to all, she takes this feedback to heart.
“Attendees are holding meeting planners more accountable for where they’re holding conferences, and meeting planners need to take that into consideration,” she said. Pawlak is working with TAA’s DEI Committee to develop guidelines for selecting conference cities in the future.
One point on which everyone agrees — and the pandemic has reinforced — is that in-person events are about so much more than just generating revenue for associations.
“They are a unique opportunity to cultivate future leaders, grow their communities, and connect with influential industry leaders and promoters,” Strowger said.
“I love to iterate with the team and brainstorm and come up with new things or fix things that didn’t work,” Kujawa added. “And then you get onsite, and you can all celebrate each other. I think it’s just such a phenomenal, bright moment in the year.”
Fostering a culture of innovation and harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) while managing its risks were topics at the recent CEO Update LIVE: Emerging Technology forum in Washington, D.C.
Among the biggest issues with AI is the need to create clear policies regarding its use by association staff, volunteers, conference presenters and contractors — and update the policies frequently as the technology rapidly changes, experts said.
“It’s absolutely critical to have an employee usage policy that says what you can and can’t do and what you can and can’t put in an AI tool,” said panelist Jeff Tenenbaum, managing partner at Tenenbaum Law Group.
“We’ve been asked to review some of these policies,” he said. “They’re very much evolving, and they’re all over the place.”
“And it’s not just employee usage,” Tenenbaum said. “If you want to require that speakers or authors disclose if they’ve used generative AI in creating a PowerPoint presentation or an article, you need to put that into your speaker and author agreements.”
The same goes for any agreements with researchers, independent contractors and even board members, he said.
Tenenbaum was part of a panel moderated by Information Technology Industry Council CEO Jason Oxman on the human, legal and ethical implications of AI. The other panelists were Tracye Weeks, managing director of strategy and advisory at Nonprofit HR, and Jeff De Cagna, executive advisor at Foresight First. It was one of two panels at the event, held at the headquarters of the National Association of Home Builders on Dec. 13, 2023. Keynote speaker Noelle Russell, global AI solutions lead at Accenture, kicked things off.
Getting the board on board
Another critical consideration in terms of law, ethics and people is board members’ collaboration when creating organizational AI policies, said De Cagna.
“Boards as a matter of fiduciary responsibility need to be involved in this conversation from the very beginning because they are the ones who will have legal exposure when problems occur,” De Cagna said. “We need policies, but the policies will only go so far if the board itself does not understand what’s going into the policy development process and what the outcomes are going to be within the organization.”
Weeks said associations need to focus on including existing staff in AI solutions, rather than just replacing humans with technology. She noted that HR executives are still learning how to use AI themselves.
“It’s less about replacement and more about enhancement of positions. It’s about making us more innovative in organizations, reskilling and upskilling positions. But then, what new positions does that create?” Weeks said. “So, it’s twofold. We’re trying to embrace AI and at the same time, we’re trying to remain skeptical enough to make sure that there are some acceptable use parameters in the organization.”
One key will be making sure employees communicate about what generative AI tools they are using.
“It will be impossible for you to track who’s using Claude, who’s using Bard, who’s using ChatGPT,” Weeks said, referring to three AI chatbots. “If you’re encouraging innovation and creativity in your organization, you have to make sure you have a culture where people self-report.”
The risks of AI use and its rapidly changing nature will put a premium on ensuring compliance with policies, Tenenbaum said. Those risks include copyright infringement, data security and the use of incorrect information, including on certification exams. A mistake in the latter that results in personal harm could lead to a lawsuit, he said.
“Just having a policy is never enough,” he said. “You need to write it, you need to update it, you need to distribute it, you need to train on it and then you need to enforce it.”
Tapping staff skills
The other panel discussed how to leverage emerging technologies in association management. The panelists were Tatia Davenport, CEO of the California Association of School Business Officials; Mark Dorsey, CEO of the Construction Specifications Institute; Guillermo Ortiz de Zárate, chief innovation and information officer at the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards; Chantal Almonord, chief information and engagement officer at ISPOR — The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research; and Juan Sanchez, chief information officer at Inteleos.
Brittany Carter, president and CEO of CEO Update, moderated.
Panelists said the ability to respond to innovations starts with people and culture.
“We’ve lived through the internet, mobile and now AI,” said Sanchez. “And if your organizations are still wondering why you’re not adopting or haven’t been able to squeeze all the value out of internet and mobile, and we’re still talking about data being bad, or people not knowing things, it’s your culture. It’s not the technology’s fault.
“AI isn’t going to be any different,” he said. “So, look at your budgets. If you’re cutting upskilling and training budgets, stop. Start upskilling everyone. Everyone. Not just the chiefs, not just directors, but every single person in your organization, because that is ultimately the engine that’s going to adopt all this information, all of this technology, and be able to leverage it and make our organizations better. And they need to be better.”
Ortiz de Zárate said many employees, not just the tech staff, can move technology forward. In addition to his role at NCARB, Ortiz de Zárate is president of Lineup, a volunteer management software company he and his staff created at NCARB.
“It starts with being curious about the people in your organization,” he said. “Understanding who may have curiosity and the intention to do something with it and then giving them the space to try in a way that is intentional. The way we’ve been doing it is, we identify people that have those curiosities and then give them company time to try things with the hope that when, after they’ve done some work, they can then share with the rest of us and teach.
“We’ve been doing that for over 14 years, and it has resulted in a lot of the technologies that we have ended up adopting as an organization, and then at some point also abandoning. Because part of it is that it’s OK to try something that doesn’t work,” Ortiz de Zárate said. “It’s rewarding for them, and you discover new skills that they have.”
A seat at the table for tech
Almonord, of ISPOR, said technology leaders, whether chief information officers (CIOs) or directors of technology, need a close relationship with CEOs and to have a seat at the table with volunteer leaders.
“It’s important to align board initiatives and strategies with tech capabilities,” she said. “It shouldn’t be an afterthought where you plan out this huge strategy, it’s going to take three to five years, you’re going to do all these things, but your infrastructure doesn’t support that, your data is not complete enough. Having the tech leader at the table can help decide, ‘Can we do it?’ or ‘What order should we do it in?’ and ‘What are the prerequisites that we need to put in place?’”
“Seeing that the CIO or your tech leader is involved in the strategic decisions or contributing to the strategic decisions flows down,” Almonord said. “And it helps build that culture in which technology’s going to be the thread throughout the organization. No matter the initiative, the department, the business unit, there’s a need for technology and it’s an enterprise-wide thing that should be considered at the strategic level.”
Association lobbyists faced a challenging landscape in 2023. The year opened with a new and divided Congress, continued economic instability and a slow return to the way they communicated pre-COVID with association members, legislators and the public.
Considering such challenges, CEO Update and Association TRENDS are honoring four government relations professionals as the Leading Association Lobbyists for 2024. The awards are part of the annual Salute to Association Excellence, which will be held Feb. 27 at the Capital Hilton, in Washington, D.C.
The honorees are David Hickey of the International Sign Association, Jillien Flores of the Managed Funds Association, Allison Cunningham of the American Gas Association and Robin Bowen of the Plant Based Products Council.
Congressional turmoil did not deter Flores, Cunningham and Bowen from getting things done — and Hickey said his members actually preferred advocating before a divided Congress.
“You can have one party in Congress that wants to increase regulation and increase taxes, or you can have another party that might go to the other extreme, which our members would prefer,” he said. “If they can’t have a Congress that is pro-business, then they’d rather have one that can’t get anything done.”
Bowen said she had no problem advancing Plant Based Products Council (PBPC) priorities because “a lot of our agenda is fundamentally related to rural economic development and that's something both parties can definitely agree on.”
CEO Update interviewed the honorees to see how they advocate for their industries and their members.
For Hickey, politics is local
David Hickey’s work takes him deep into the local trenches. The International Sign Association (ISA) represents the on-premise sign, graphics and visual communications industry.
“Most of what we work on are local zoning issues because on-premise signs are regulated almost entirely at the local level of government,” Hickey said. “So, we work with city councils and city planners and local officials to educate them about signs. There are over 20,000 local sign ordinances across the country, each with their unique sign code.”
As ISA’s vice president for advocacy, Hickey said access to decision-makers is much easier on the local level. Hickey, who joined ISA in 2011, spent six years working on Capitol Hill, in both the House and the Senate, “and I know it is really hard to get in to meet with members of Congress.”
“On the local level it is easier to get your industry voice heard, to get your customers’ voices heard and to affect a positive outcome,” he said. “It’s a totally different game.” Hickey said when he joined ISA, he immediately realized the need for change.
“When I started, we were focusing largely on federal issues and there are not that many (federal) issues that involve on-premise signs,” he said. “We’ve helped change dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of jurisdictions’ sign ordinances. We’ve been able to get in front of over 9,000 local officials since I joined ISA.”
ISA and its members try to emphasize the importance of paying attention to regulatory ramifications of the ubiquitous signs. An example of a current issue that impacts many in the industry is sign lighting restrictions, which Hickey has tackled head-on.
Hickey has led local coalitions to ensure officials understood the importance of signs for their communities, including a major victory in Chicago, where a years-long process to get a new sign permitted was revoked.
Although the pandemic was a “great challenge” for ISA, Hickey said, “We were able to help get our industry through (it) including getting the sign industry classified as critical infrastructure.”
He also stressed the importance of technology to his lobbying efforts.
“We try and use technology as much as possible . . . to communicate, not only with our sign company members but also with the regulators who develop sign ordinances,” Hickey said. “Whether it’s e-blasts or blogs or webinars or short videos, we pretty much do it all to try and communicate with key stakeholders.”
Flores tackles new efforts to regulate the industry
The Managed Funds Association (MFA) represents the global alternative investment industry and its investors. Alternative investments include real estate, precious metals, hedge funds and commodities, among others.
The industry was subject to minimal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulation — until recently.
Jillien Flores, MFA’s executive vice president and head of global government affairs, spearheaded the association’s advocacy during what she called unprecedented government scrutiny.
Her efforts led legislators to send letters to the SEC echoing MFA’s positions, and to hold several hearings that highlighted how the association’s members are impacted by the federal agency’s agenda. President Biden also signed legislation that contained language urging the SEC to consider how its rules will harm minority- and women-owned firms.
“The SEC is undertaking the most aggressive regulatory agenda since the global financial crisis,” Flores said. “Many of these rules seek to fundamentally reshape the alternative asset management industry by applying a retail, mutual fund-like regulatory regime to private funds.”
Flores also lobbies in the United Kingdom and the European Union. Her work helped lead to a major overhaul of the UK’s short-selling regulatory framework and in the EU she secured changes that enable MFA members to raise capital, invest and generate returns for their beneficiaries. She joined MFA in 2021 after six years at Vanguard, where she advocated on a range of issues related to U.S. capital markets, tax and retirement policy.
While the COVID pandemic created alternative methods of communication that remain in use, Flores said in-person meetings are still important.
“The nonverbal communication that takes place when you are in a room with someone improves the outcome of meetings,” Flores said. “That said, the ease of conducting meetings virtually has expanded the network of people I am able to meet with regularly.”
Flores said her successes underscore what a woman can do in an industry that “has historically been male-dominated.”
“I make it a priority to extend my professional passion outside of my work at MFA, dedicating time to support and elevate women who are forging their paths in government and government relations, including hosting regular networking and development events for women in financial services advocacy,” she said.
“I think it’s really encouraging that increasingly there are more and more women taking on more and more senior roles within both government affairs advocacy as well as senior roles in government itself,” Flores said.
AGA focuses on energy affordability
The American Gas Association’s (AGA) primary concern is “the future of America’s utility space,” according to Allison Cunningham. While AGA focuses on greenhouse gas reduction and climate-friendly solutions, “balancing that with affordability for customers, reliability and other important issues that utility customers face” is of utmost importance.
The Department of Energy’s first-ever efficiency regulation on cooking appliances is one of the issues that tops AGA’s agenda. Cunningham, the association’s senior director for governmental affairs and public policy since April 2022, managed to secure strong bipartisan support for key legislation such as the Save Our Gas Stoves Act, which places limits on energy conservation standards for kitchen ranges or ovens.
The divided Congress was not an issue in passing the House bill (it awaits Senate consideration) as “issues of affordable home energy resonate with everyone, regardless of political party,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham also fostered new bipartisan support for the continued role of the direct use of natural gas (as opposed to generating electricity with it) in a clean energy future.
Being an association lobbyist presents unique challenges, she said.
“As an organization, AGA represents more than 200 companies in every state,” Cunningham said. “This means that we have to take into account a broad range of perspectives and local regulatory environments while working towards consensus decisions.”
This is not the first time Cunningham has been acknowledged for her lobbying efforts: She was recognized by The Hill newspaper in its 2021 and 2022 lists of top lobbyists.
“I’m incredibly proud of the relationships I’ve built. Washington is a lot like a small town — your reputation, good or bad, will absolutely follow you,” she said. “I always endeavor to be a straight shooter, and to make sure the information I provide is accurate and comprehensive. People have come to expect that of me, and to know they can trust what I have to say.”
Similar to Flores, Cunningham said it’s important to encourage women to get into leadership positions within advocacy.
“I think that women are still going to be dealing with challenges of being in what was a male-dominated industry for a while,” she said. “Fellow women lobbyists joke that a lot of work happens on the golf course. I haven’t been golfing in years.
“It feels like it’s a male-dominated space, even if it’s not intended to be, so the more we can get excited young women in positions of leadership, I think that’s better for everyone,” Cunningham said.
Bowen’s farm experience helps cultivate change
Robin Bowen, PBPC’s senior vice president of external affairs, credits growing up on a farm in rural America with honing her ability to lobby for sustainable, plant-based products.
Bowen is also senior vice president of external affairs for the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) and said her work for each organization — managing government relations, stakeholder engagement and communications — complements the other. In addition, she leads CRA’s government relations committee. She joined both organizations in 2019.
Corn refiners manufacture sweeteners, starch, advanced bioproducts, corn oil and feed products from corn components such as starch, oil, protein and fiber.
“My advocacy approach is shaped by my farm background — achieving change through planning, creative thinking and patience,” Bowen said. “It takes substantial effort to gain the higher-value result I’m after and although this kind of approach has generated some challenges during my career, I’ve learned to educate others on my methods and stay focused on the long game.”
Bowen has been working on changes to the 2018 Farm Bill, which in November was extended until September 2024.
Some of her early legislative victories were the initiation of the U.S. Composting Infrastructure Council and development of draft legislation that supported the introduction of the COMPOST (Cultivating Organic Matter through the Promotion of Sustainable Techniques) Act in the House and Senate in the 117th and 118th Congresses.
Bowen takes immense pride in her roots, adding that much of her successful lobbying approach can be credited to her upbringing.
“I’m most grateful to show that the daughter of Kentucky dairy farmers can work hard, take risks and have a positive impact in the unpredictable tides of public policy,” she said. “I try to put into practice every day the principles and life lessons that my parents taught me. The skills and resiliency it takes to handle Mother Nature’s curveballs is perfectly applicable to policy advocacy.”
Bowen started her career in advocacy as a senior legislative assistant for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 1992. With two decades of lobbying experience behind her, Bowen’s advice to those looking to gain traction in their work on the Hill: “The internet doesn’t have all the answers. Ask questions and listen very closely. Even if you know the basic answer, nine times out of 10 you’ll learn something new that will be useful to you.”
Information on registering for the Salute to Association Excellence is available at Salute to Association Excellence: Washington, D.C. (associationtrends.com).
Four Salute to Association Excellence honorees share their inspiring journeys and plans for the future.
Event hosted by Association TRENDS featured examples of how groups can harness artificial intelligence, minimize perils.
Rare arrangement with privately held for-profit Questex enabled quicker launch of The Hospitality Show
Crisis plans should go beyond contingencies near the convention center and be citywide; after-action reports help hone responses.
Online voting now underway for 10th annual NCBA National Anthem Contest.
