Mergers AND Acquisitions

A few weeks ago, at a terrific TSW Fastest 50 weekend in Dallas, we were honored to have incoming IAEM Chair Chris Brown and current SISO Chair Margaret Pederson kick off our Saturday executive conference. Both gave intelligent and thoughtful presentations.

Of course, as we would expect, the topic did move to the current discussions underway between IAEM and SISO about a potential joining of forces — or, as Margaret called it, the M word — meaning, of course, the melding of the two groups (see, I didn't use the other M word).

I strongly support the discussions between these two important groups and truly hope that a merger (there, I said it) will result. We all agree that there are too many meetings, too many redundant conversations, and too many groups asking for money. I would also hope that the very good people at CEIR, TSEA, EDPA, ESCA and EACA could get involved — at some level — as well. Heck, let's call MPI and PCMA too.

While I realize that there is a lot of history in the formation of our industry associations and that a one-size-fits-all approach is difficult, the bottom line is that any alliance is pointless unless it acquires as its mission the very serious promotion of the industry to folks outside the industry. It also needs to acquire a serious commitment to fund this promotion.

The association that represents business-to-business publishers in the United States is American Business Media. This is a terrific organization that promotes the value of B-to-B advertising to those who need to see that reinforced. Top companies like Reed Business Information (publisher of Tradeshow Week) pay the top-tier dues of $180,000 a year to belong. And we get our money's worth. By contrast, top dues at SISO are $1,900.

You get the picture. All of this is essentially pointless unless we truly start reaching out. So, let's use the M word. And maybe the D word, for "Dig into your pockets," because unless we start to invest a little more money in promoting our industry, it doesn't matter how many associations there are. They will all be called the S word, for self-serving.