One of the first things Anne Holland and Cassandra Farrington of Marijuana Business Daily did in their new venture was conduct a survey of businesses in the field—their audience. What did people really want from an information company?

"I know clients putting together conferences, and they haven't talked to [their audience]," Diane Arseneau, CEO of Zagora, told me last month. "They say they know what people want, but I wouldn't put on a program without having heard from the market. It takes time."

Diane Arseneau, CEO of SIPA member Zagora, was ahead of her time. Back in 2008—when silos still stood tall and “publisher events” still was not an everyday phrase—she went to TC Media, publisher of the Montreal newspaper Les Affaires, and proposed an events division.  They agreed, and four years later Arseneau came up with the idea of renting a plane for a traveling “conference” for entrepreneurial Canadian miners to venture 2600 kilometers north in Quebec. “Let’s try something different,” she recalled saying yesterday while presenting a session at Day 2 of SIIA’s Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS) in Fort Lauderdale. Only the word “completely” was missing from this over-the-top idea that would have given it a Monty Pythonish, fantasy feel. But Arseneau showed us the video! And we watched entrepreneurs bonding on frozen runways with layers of clothing, regaling in the ...

"Let's face it, association training and education programs are evolving...FAST. If your own programs don't align with members' new expectations, you're at a disadvantage in growing your membership base—and revenue. Which is why we created Learnapalooza!"  

Listening to Diane Arseneau, CEO of SIPA member Zagora, tell me about the keys to putting on successful events last week, it reminded me of a talk Kevin Spacey gave to marketers two years ago.

Here's a story that hits a marketing sweet spot. John Downs, CEO of the National Confectioners Association (NCA), recently went on a "listening tour to hear members' concerns and share data that helped win them over [to a new industry standard]," reported Associations Now.