The conversation was honest among the participants and the panelists. Expanding globally, the speakers agreed, is not a quick win. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” said Jaspal Singh from UITP, whose organisation took 120 years to stay afloat and only began growing globally in the last two decades. “Patience is a necessity,” he said.
The session moved quickly from theory to practice. Simon Dufaur of MCI Group walked the audience through the journey of the Society for Clinical Data Management (SCDM), which had to shift its whole approach when its core membership moved overseas. Instead of pushing content from the centre, they built regional communities with strong local leadership and made sure each region could eventually finance its own activities. The approach worked because trust was placed in the centre of the activities.
Trust was a recurring theme. Whether it’s letting go of centralised control or acknowledging that innovation often happens far from HQ, associations need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. “The world is not flat,” as Jaspal put it, “innovation isn’t concentrated in Europe or North America anymore. Sometimes, your members in Latin America or Asia might be ahead of you, and that’s a good thing if you’re ready to listen.”
And then there’s the question of where to begin. Xavier Khoo from the Singapore Tourism Board offered a handy shortcut: R-F-P. Ask yourself what risks your association faces if it stays too local. Identify the fastest growing markets where your mission resonates. Then build partnerships, ideally the kind that bring insight.
The panellists warned that global expansion is about values, governance, language, platforms, and yes, time zones. It’s also about knowing when not to go global – yet. But for associations looking to remain relevant in a fast-changing world, the question is less “if” and more “how soon.”
