This year, 487 society leaders and staff attended regional conferences in Seattle, USA; Dubrovnik, Croatia; and Bangkok, Thailand. Over the course of two to three days, the conferences serve to inspire and connect volunteer leaders, align priorities, enable idea- and resource-sharing, and foster learning and community—faster and more thoroughly than a virtual platform can achieve.
The SLCs are an essential point of connection for society leaders and CFA Institute staff. In the spirit of that partnership, we would like to share some of the highlights and opportunities that came out of this year’s conferences with the broader society network as well as forecast what to expect from the 2024 Global SLC in Montreal, Canada.
Highlights
Good news from this year’s SLCs and the post-event survey touched on three themes: openness to collaborating, increased mutual understanding, and opportunities for societies to lead.
Collaboration
SLC sessions and events allowed attendees to identify common ground and potential joint initiatives. In particular, societies identified new partnerships through the peer-to-peer learning opportunities and benefitted from hearing about a wide range of both challenges and successful initiatives from other markets. Illustrative comments include:
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“Really good opportunities to engage with other societies and a refreshing degree of openness and candour.” (Global Financial Center, EMEA)
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“I look forward to the different societies taking up collaboration on the fronts that have jointly been identified.” (Professional Association, APAC)
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“There is nothing more valuable than learning from others’ experience.” (Global Financial Center, AMER)
Society-Driven Content
Consistent with the high value on collaboration and learning from peers, society attendees appreciated the mix of plenaries, networking breaks, breakouts, and time spent together. Sessions that society leaders led or contributed to where they could share their achievements were particularly well-received. There is a strong appetite for more society-to-society dialogue and learning going forward and for CFA Institute to amplify the strategically aligned work societies are already doing.
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"All breakouts, where society leaders were discussion a topic were of interest, and delivered new ideas and the best value for me as a local leader." (Member Society, EMEA)
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“Added networking time was very valuable. Having some sessions where you hear from [CFA Institute] and society leaders mixed with roundtable discussions is a great format.” (AMER GFC)
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“Great agenda, with high level of engagement with societies and very thoughtful diverse and engaging process.” (Member Society, EMEA)
Mutual Understanding of Needs
Many, but not all, society leaders felt the dialogue with CFA Institute at the conferences trended towards expanded transparency and that mutual understanding of needs increased as a result of the time spent together. Nearly all CFA Institute staff members say that after attending, they have a better understanding of challenges and opportunities with societies and that they have relevant plans to pursue because of their interactions. Comments from the Society and CFA Institute Staff Survey illustrate this:
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“I saw many society-to-society connections made after the break-out on building a strategic board, and commitments made to one another to follow up on board governance topics and idea sharing. Hearing feedback from society leaders in EMEA helped to strengthen the evidence that societies need greater guidance and training on board governance, which has been lacking over the past few years. With this key learning in-hand, I will work with my team and with society leaders to incorporate this into our global society training strategy.” (CFA Institute staff member, EMEA SLC)
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“The trust-building power of the SLC is invaluable. I was able to share and test reactions on a number of University Relations initiatives (positive and constructively critical). It was incredibly valuable meeting the society leaders who have the most interest in my area (UR) that comes through discussion not through Board role titles. It is constructive for Societies to compare and benchmark between each other—a number of leaders told me they realised they could be doing more with universities after meeting counterparts in other societies.” (CFA Institute staff member, APAC SLC)
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“How CFA societies and [CFA Institute] can collaborate to grow and energize markets—it was useful to provide CFA Institute feedback on what we need to help CFA Institute succeed. I'm hopeful CFA Institute takes back the suggestions.” (Member Society, AMER)
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“In comparison to last year's SLC, I felt that the content was more transparent and that the information was clearly meant to provide strong take-aways for society leaders.” (Professional Association, EMEA)
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“[I have] a clearer perception of mission and vision, while also being able to sense the shared values behind people on site.” (Professional Association, APAC)
Opportunities
The surveys also revealed three principal areas of opportunity to address.
Reaffirm the basis for the direction of CFA Institute and its commitment to the place of societies in the CFA Institute community.
A sense of skepticism remains for some around the value and place of societies in relation to the organization and components of CFA Institute’s broader strategic goals.
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“I'm still not really sure what the vision is for the [CFA Institute] ecosystem. CFA Institute might feel that it has a clear vision, but I’m not sure that the society/CFA Institute relationship is clearly envisioned yet.” (Global Financial Center, EMEA)
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“I do see the [CFA Institute] strategy better now … and have more confidence in its future success rate. However, I still think CFA Institute is relying too much on volunteers from the societies, in order for the strategy to be fully implemented and effective.” (Professional Association, EMEA)
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“Would have been great to get a sense from the institute on what their ideal relationship with societies of various levels looks like in five years.” (Member Society, AMER)
Resource and equip the societies who are interested to fully promote the charter, certificates, and courses.
Society leaders believe that CFA Institute products and services are relevant to their members, but more can be done to equip leaders, especially in larger markets, to help promote products to members and industry stakeholders.
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“We continue to have a lot of extremely high-quality initiatives, but are we doing enough to enable our members to know about them and engage?” (Professional Association, APAC)
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“Still not understanding what [CFA] Institute's plan is for marketing the charter to the broader public.” (Member Society, AMER)
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“Greater support in localization of the brand elements.” (Professional Association, APAC)
Shore up perceptions of society support.
Confidence in the support available to societies varied significantly depending on society segment, with survey comments indicating that more conversation is needed with the Local and Member Society segments in particular to fully unpack the Society Operating Model, the Service Standards, and the role of societies in supporting our global community of members and candidates.
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“Many of my conversations with other society presidents mentioned uncertainty as to the funding model and support from CFA Institute over time.” (Professional Association, AMER)
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“From a level of support standpoint, I was a bit surprised that there was an Us (Society) versus Them (Institute) mentality, and many Societies didn't feel that they would be supported going forward. … I would think that leadership would work to remedy this feeling through assurances or confirmed guidance.” (Local Society, AMER)
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“I need more clarity around the level of support that CFA Institute will provide to local CFA Societies especially those in relatively small countries.” (Member Society, EMEA)
Planning for Montreal
From the experience at the event itself, here are some things we’re taking away and working to improve for the Global SLC in Montreal:
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Early Access for Visa Letters: Global travel is not without its bureaucratic headaches. While we cannot directly assist society leaders with visa applications, society leaders who already know they will be a nominated delegate for the 2024 Global SLC can request visa letters from CFA Institute as of now to get their applications in early and maximize the chances of necessary documents being received in advance of October. To request a visa letter, please reach out to societysupport@cfainstitute.org.
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Travel Agency Service: while still earning a 70% satisfaction rating, the experience with the Travel Agency was the lowest-ranked component of the event for attendees. CFA Institute is exploring further options to bring an improved customer experience to the process of booking travel for delegates at the 2024 event.
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Additional Attendees: several comments lamented that more delegates are not able to attend the SLC, and we agree with the sentiment! Although we are not able to expand the in-person SLC audience beyond the numbers outlined in the 2024 Attendance Policy, we will continue to explore ways to extend the learnings from the event beyond the two days onsite and incorporate the full network’s perspective into discussions.
Many thanks to the society leaders and staff who shared not only their time at the regional conferences but also their thoughts from the post-event survey. We are taking the feedback that goes beyond the events themselves into consideration in conjunction with the insights we received from the Society Partnership Effectiveness Survey.
As we begin to develop programming for the 2024 Global Society Leadership Conference, we want your input about how we can prioritize our efforts and create an optimal experience for society leaders and staff. Please complete this short survey and share your thoughts.
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