Membership World Podcast

In this episode of the Membership World Podcast, Gordon Glenister is joined by Marcia Philbin, Chief Executive of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (FPM), for a fascinating conversation about leadership, professional membership, medical innovation and the future of trusted expertise. Marcia shares her unusual career journey from research chemist at the Ministry of Defence, where she worked on explosives, rocket propellants and forensics, to becoming a senior leader in the membership sector. She explains how transferable skills, strong leadership and a clear vision helped her move rapidly into chief executive roles. The discussion explores the role of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine as the professional home for doctors working in pharmaceutical medicine, including those involved in medicines development, clinical trials, medical devices, digital health and AI. Marcia explains how FPM supports members across every stage of their career, from trainees through to fellows, and why the organisation is now reviewing its membership model to better serve students, retirees and international members. Gordon and Marcia also examine the importance of diversified revenue streams, from membership fees and training to education, conferences, examinations and commercial in-company programmes. With members in thirty-eight countries, international growth is also becoming an increasingly important part of the Faculty’s future. A major theme of the episode is trust in an AI-driven world. Marcia highlights the opportunities AI brings to medicine, but also the risks around ethics, governance, validation and public safety. Together, they discuss why membership organisations must act as trusted, authoritative spaces where professionals can find verified knowledge, safe community and guidance in a rapidly changing landscape. A compelling episode on modern leadership, innovation and why membership bodies matter more than ever.

In this episode Heather Lishman, Director of the British Professional Conference Organisers, talks about the changing face of association events. One of the most stressful jobs, the professional event organisers role has changed considerably over the years, with them having to grapple around event tech, sustainable events, tighter and tighter budgets and more demanding sponsors. One of the areas we talk about is the growth in event legacy and Heather cites some great examples of what associations are doing. This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)

Simon joined the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) as their Head of Asset Finance in 2014. In 2021 he became Director of Advocacy. He is responsible for the FLA Asset Finance Division and the cross-organisational advocacy work that the FLA undertakes. This includes representing asset finance members to government and the regulators, developing relationships with stakeholders, overseeing the FLA’s asset finance policy work and ensuring that they have a joined-up advocacy programme that demonstrates their members contribution to the UK, so that they can raise their profile and influence public policy. Simon’s background is in public affairs and communications. Previously, he worked for membership bodies and the commercial sector, including the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the Association of Consultancy and Engineering. LexisNexis and in leading market research agencies. He has also been named one of the top 100 UK lobbyists. When he is not working, he and his wife raise two children and one cat. The jury is still out on which species is the easier to guide through life. This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)

The British Orthopaedic Association has over 5,000 members throughout the UK and overseas and is the special surgical speciality association for trauma and orthopaedics. Annette Heninger is the director of communications, and in this episode shares her insight about how they communicate and engage with their members and how they are even exploring a new membership tier for their retirees. For more information on the BOA viist https://www.boa.ac.uk/ This podcast has been sponsored by RD Mobile - the complete events and membership engagement platform. Find out more RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com) #membership #engagement The go-to technical creative agency | Pixl8 @gordon@gordonglenister.com

The Regional Studies Association is a learned society - there are about 26,000 learned associations around the world. The RSA has membership from all over the world and its members range from academics, geographers, political scientists, planners, journalists, and rise from students up to professors . The society was established in 1966 and the current CEO Sally Hardy is coming up to her 37th year. Members love the networking most, says Sally. What they are looking for are those personal connections, people doing the same things they are. They have a huge global conference programme and publish a number of journals. They talk about how their app has helped boost membership engagement. This has helped the organisation grow its online community particularly younger audiences This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)

In this episode we talk about the Friends model of the membership society and in this case it’s the Membership Officer of the Royal College of Music Siti Osman. The RCM is a top conservatoire in the UK and Europe attracting local and international talent – with students coming from 56 nations; they have approximately 900 students studying at one time. The Friends and Family loyalty membership is aimed at attracting friends and family members of the students. There are lots of talks from leading academics and special events. Siti talks about how they offer priority events and how they promote it to their Friends scheme. For less than £4 a month you can become a member of the Royal College of Music and its such a great way to support their students. The RCM have a number of Ambassadors which are loyal “friends” and so the power of this word of mouth is very strong. If you want to find out more about the RCM go visit Home | Royal College of Music (rcm.ac.uk)

Maria Franzoni is an experienced speaker booker. She has held senior positions with 2 of Europe’s leading bureaus; CSA Celebrity Speakers and the London Speaker Bureau – named by the New York Times as “the only international speaker bureau”. In 2007 she founded her own multi-million-pound international bureau, Maria Franzoni Ltd. (MFL), and in this podcast Maria talks about how associations can find the right speaker for conferences, awards evenings and training events. Maria also talks about how you can work with speakers to build your event. Always thinking of how you want your audience to feel afterwards, she talks about how she once booked a hostage negotiator who was a massive hit with the audience. Speakers get booked up, so the longer the lead-time that organisers can give a bureau the better choice they have. And what happens when your big keynote speaker falls ill on the day of the event? what do you do? Maria has all the answers and a whole lot more. This episode was sponsored by RD Mobile - leaders in online event and member management RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com) About (mariafranzoni.me) #speakerbureau #speaker #association #conference

In this episode James Thorne CEO of the Institute of Quarrying is joined by head of membership and marketing Sarah Fry, to talk about how the introduction of an app has made a huge difference in member engagement. Whilst it was always part of a longterm strategy to encourage members to use the app, Sarah commented on their goals have been reached in their first phase. As more content is shared on the app, so adoption is growing. Find out how they did it. This episode is sponsored by leading event platform providers RD mobile