How to Create Valuable Content for Integrators

Whether it’s planning a magazine article or a session at a business conference, success hinges on understanding your audience’s or members’ biggest challenges.

Chuck Wilson Leave a Comment
How to Create Valuable Content for Integrators

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The editors of Commercial Integrator already know this: Planning valuable content for busy integration professionals isn’t easy. 

The first step in content creation should always be understanding your audience. However, that’s quite difficult with an audience of integrators. The folks who run integration companies — both CI readers and NSCA members — are faced with big challenges.

Their industry is evolving through consolidation; changing customer expectations; product-availability issues; barriers to finding much-needed talent; and much more. As such, ascertaining their biggest business challenges can sometimes be a moving target. 

At NSCA, we take great pride in identifying those business challenges. Then, we try to understand our role in providing content that might help our members. The most prolific examples are when NSCA plans content for our annual Business & Leadership Conference (BLC) and our Pivot to Profit business conference. 

Related: From Notebook to Strategic Plan

This month, NSCA is hosting our 24th annual BLC, and it’s a great byproduct of our content-planning process. We consider the stakes high due to the reputation that BLC has earned as a must-attend event in our industry. Professional speakers, authors and speakers’ bureaus report that our conference is known for offering some of the most-desired speaking engagements around. 

What Is a Content ‘Swim Lane’? 

BLC’s reputation didn’t come easily. It took years of trial and error, listening and learning, and experimenting with content, scheduling, logistics and tweaking of even the smallest elements to create this unmatched attendee experience. It also took a planning committee made up of your industry peers, a staff of voracious readers, countless hours watching videos and efforts to align industry issues with content “swim lanes.” 

These “swim lanes,” as we call them, attach integrators’ leading concerns and opportunities with the top three speakers in the world on that subject. I’m thankful for the event sponsors that allow us to attract the caliber of presenters we enjoy today — and that’s just the beginning. 

‘Of Course!’ 

The phrase “Of course!” has come to be known by BLC attendees as the first thing they hear from NSCA team members. In our evaluations, we receive countless remarks from attendees about the nature of our staff, how they handle themselves, and how they deal with requests and issues.

The secret of our approach centers on the lessons we learned from an event team at the Four Seasons Resort in Los Colinas, Texas. We went behind the scenes to study their methods and see how they train. We left in awe of their achievements — and with a goal to match them. 

Flawless Execution

Before BLC even begins, the NSCA team and everyone involved—from logistics, technology, and food and beverage, to facilities, kitchen staff, golf pros and housekeeping—makes a pact.

NSCA BLC 2022The pact is simple: It’s a clear expectation that NSCA and the conference facility are in this together. We act as a team to serve attendees the absolute best experience possible, without placing blame. You’ll never hear an NSCA staff member blame the hotel for a problem.

Likewise, you’ll never hear the hotel or facility blame us if we slip up. Issues are simply fixed — with an “of course!” That little secret has directly shaped the reputation we enjoy today. 

To a large degree, networking and relationship building are the highest-value elements of BLC. To put a finer point on it, the people who attend BLC are the reason why the others want to attend.

The very carefully planned sessions, the “of course!” attitude and the flawless execution are just bonuses. NSCA members who attend the event are simply the best! 

Ultimately, a magazine article, an event session or an overall conference is successful if it provides value to the audience or membership. The reader or attendee, therefore, is the judge.

The BLC 2022 Lineup 

  • “Beyond the Pivot: 4 Investments the Best Teams Use to Build the New Future,” by Jon Acuff 
  • “The Fusion Formula: Brand + Culture = Results,” by Denise Yohn 
  • “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance & Productivity,” by Joseph Allen 
  • “Because Everyone Can Be Great,” by Calvin Mackie 
  • “Leading with Emotional Courage,” by Peter Bregman 
  • “The Collapse of Distinction,” by Scott McKain 
  • “Economic Outlook 2022 and Beyond,” by Dr. Chris Kuehl 
  • “Talent Pipelines: Attracting, Recruiting, and Retaining” 
  • “How the Best Teams Overcome Overthinking to Navigate Change, Increase Productivity and Win Consistently” 
  • “Improve Predictable Labor Resource Modeling” 
  • “Understand Contracts and Intellectual Capital” 
  • “Playbook for Brand-Culture Fusion” 
  • “Change without Resistance” 
  • “What Customers Really Want” 
  • “Culture Renovation: Rebuild or Reinforce?” 

Join NSCA and Commercial Integrator at BLC 2022, Feb. 23-25 in Dallas. Register at NSCA.org/blc. 

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