What We’re Listening for at ASAE Annual 2026

This weekend, association professionals from across the country will gather for ASAE Annual, and we expect to hear plenty about AI, personalization, member engagement, analytics, and the future of associations.

All of those conversations have something in common:

They depend on data.

Associations have spent years collecting more of it.

Membership history. Event registrations. Email engagement. Learning activity. Purchases. Volunteer involvement. Community participation. Website behavior.

The list keeps growing.

So as the Data Sangria team heads to ASAE Annual, we’re thinking about a different question:

Are associations actually getting better at using all of that data?

Because having data and being data-driven are two very different things.

 

Associations Don’t Have a Data Shortage

Most associations already know a tremendous amount about their members.

The problem is that those insights don’t always live in the same place.

One system knows someone attended three events.

Another knows they completed a certification.

Another knows which emails they opened.

Another knows they’ve been active in an online community.

And the AMS knows they’ve been a member for eight years.

Individually, those are data points.

Together, they tell a story.

The challenge is making that story visible and useful to the people making decisions.

Can a membership team identify signs that someone may be disengaging?

Can an education team see what topics are gaining interest before deciding what programming to build next?

Can marketing personalize communication based on someone’s actual relationship with the organization?

Can leadership understand which activities are associated with retention, engagement, or revenue?

Those aren’t simply reporting questions.

They’re business questions.

And that’s why data strategy can’t belong to one system, one department, or one person.

 

A Dashboard Isn’t a Data Strategy

Associations have also become much better at visualizing information.

That’s valuable. But a beautiful dashboard isn’t the same thing as becoming a data-driven organization.

The more important question is what happens next.

What decision will this information help someone make?

What action should happen when a metric changes?

Which numbers actually matter?

Who owns the response?

And are we measuring something because it’s meaningful—or simply because it’s easy to count?

The goal isn’t to give association leaders more numbers.

It’s to give them better signals.

Good data should help an organization decide where to invest, what to change, who needs attention, and where new opportunities may exist.

That’s when data stops being something we report and starts becoming something we use.

 

Then There’s AI

AI will undoubtedly be one of the biggest conversations at ASAE Annual.

And we’re excited about the possibilities.

But AI also makes the data conversation more urgent.

Organizations want smarter recommendations, better personalization, predictive insights, natural-language access to information, and AI-powered member experiences.

All of those possibilities depend on the information underneath them.

AI doesn’t eliminate the need for good data. It makes good data more valuable.

If information is scattered, inconsistent, outdated, or poorly understood, adding AI doesn’t automatically fix the foundation.

That’s why some of the most important AI work associations can do right now may have very little to do with selecting an AI tool.

It may start with understanding what data they have, where it lives, how reliable it is, how systems connect, and most importantly, what questions the organization actually wants to answer.

 

What We’re Listening For

That’s what we’ll be listening for at ASAE Annual.

Not just which dashboards organizations are building or which AI tools they’re experimenting with.

We want to hear how association professionals are changing the way their organizations use information.

What questions do leaders wish they could answer today but can’t?

Where is data trapped between systems or departments?

Which metrics are actually helping organizations make decisions?

Where are associations using data to improve the member experience?

How are organizations preparing their data for AI?

And what happens when the data challenges aren’t really technology challenges at all but people, process, or strategy challenges?

Those are the conversations we’re excited about.

Because associations already have an incredible amount of data.

The opportunity now is to turn that data into understanding and that understanding into action.

If you’ll be at ASAE Annual, come find the Data Sangria team.

Tell us the question you wish your data could answer.

Tell us where you’re stuck.

Tell us what you’ve figured out that other associations could learn from.

And tell us what you think the association community needs to understand about data next.

We’ll be listening.