And what that says to me is that the difference between a wannabe and a 'be' is in the execution. That's what gives associations a competitive advantage. It's my view that all associations will be dot-coms. What dot-coms have discovered is that they don't know how to build community. If they knew how to build community, I wouldn't be getting the calls I get from headhunters looking for a community builder.
Associations have the tools to maintain a sustainable, competitive advantage.
The danger for associations, in my view, is to ignore this front. We looked at our competitors and not one of them was an association. Associations should be setting the ideal so that they're the ones that other groups aspire to. I happen to believe that associations have such a tremendous lead in the content, services, and relationship areas that it would take commercial entities millions and millions of dollars to duplicate it. A lot of associations don't realize what a powerful asset they have in their own brand equity, their own neutrality.