After more than two years of the pandemic, our friends over at CustomerAdvisoryBoard.org are re-starting their annual customer advisory board (CAB) conference. Due to ever-evolving guidance, corporate policies, airline SNAFUs and personal comfort levels, this year’s conference will be held virtually on March 28th, making it very easy for anyone to attend.
Having attended this conference many times, our leaders have consistently found the gathering insightful and stimulating. The conference organizers have done an excellent job availing content for experts as well as those new to managing CABs – or even those merely considering starting a program. In our opinion, here are the top five topics attendees will gain from this year’s event:
1. Launching a customer advisory board
For those new to CABs, companies just starting their program or exploring the idea, this year’s conference will provide great insights into key initial steps of the CAB creation process – building a business case, creating different CAB types and generating customer insights. As building a solid foundation is key to launching a successful CAB program, the conference would be especially helpful to those getting their management team on-board or to approve their programs, the associated budgets and resources.
2. Virtual CAB meeting guidance
Due to the pandemic, many professional meetings have taken place online via myriad technology platforms (Zoom, WebEx, Google Meet, etc.) over the last few years, and this certainly applies to CABs. But as client advisory board meetings are very different from other customer engagements, best practices have emerged (and lessons learned) that can significantly help CAB managers ensure their next virtual meetings go off without a hitch and continue to engage their customers.
3. Real-world lessons to apply
In our experience, the very best reason to attend the CAB.org conference is to learn “real-world” experience from those managers who are leading their programs, and avoiding the pitfalls they may have fallen into. It’s also stimulating to hear experienced CAB managers commiserating with each other on common shared challenges and learning how they overcame them. Such lessons learned can be applied to experienced programs and newbies alike.
4. Partner advisory boards
While professionals often think CABs are best only for customer executives, what sometimes gets forgotten is that Partner Advisory Boards (PABs) can deliver just as much value and more. If your company sells indirectly or uses value-added resellers, partners, distributors or other third-parties, establishing a PAB can uncover improved ways to move your product, increase partner efficiencies, remove roadblocks, uncover incremental revenue opportunities and better serve your end users.
5. Q&A with speakers, get advice for your program
Join the CAB.org conference to ask the expert speakers about your own program and your challenges. Bring your questions for featured speakers from Citrix, Adobe, Google, Ignite Advisory Group, VMware, and SlapFive all about advisory boards and driving business growth. And you can also engage with your CAB practitioner peers at the virtual conference to get their feedback as well (engage in the chat!). Check out the conference agenda here: https://customeradvisoryboard.org/conference/
In conclusion
The CAB.org conference is a great event for meeting other advisory board practitioners in the field. The conference brings together a diverse group of CAB professionals from various industries to share their experiences and best practices. You’ll be able to foster new connections and expand your own network.
CAB.org conferences have always been insightful, stimulating and provided actionable insights for those who are starting or already managing a CAB program. Newbies and seasoned experts alike have benefitted and made material changes or improvements to their programs, not to mention helpful industry contacts. We have always enjoyed meeting and engaging with real-world CAB practitioners and learning from their experiences. We recommend the event for anyone involved with or thinking about customer advisory boards! Sign up for the event at https://customeradvisoryboard.org/conference/ and add the conference to your calendar for March 28th.
And if you’re interested in highlighting your own advisory board program, CAB.org is always looking for great event speakers for future events. If you’re running a successful CAB program or if you are using some innovative or “out of the box” tactics, reach out to them. (Drop an email here if you’re interested: contact@customeradvisoryboard.org). Maybe you even have a solid advisory board program, but perhaps are running into a common challenge that the rest of the attendees could help solve. The best part is, those who speak at the conference are provided free access to attend — a win / win for all!
Ignite Advisory Group is the leading global authority on Customer Advisory Boards and Customer-Led Boards. Ignite’s proven methodology for managing and evolving Customer Advisory Boards includes a 4-stage process, encompassing 48 deliverables and measured by 20 metrics to deliver a clear ROI. To learn more about Ignite, visit our website, read our blogs, and follow us on LinkedIn. To find out how your company can benefit from Ignite’s CAB methodology and process, contact us today.