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by Nancy Carfrae, Coordinator, UIA Round Tables
What?
The UIA Round Tables are the core of UIA’s education project. The Round Table participants are people involved in running associations – of all sorts. The speakers are also all involved in running associations and share their own experience in meeting (or not!) challenges in membership, communication, funding, governance, and more. There are workshops and discussion groups for participants to exchange concerns and knowledge.
“For me, the discussion groups are always the most interesting. The speakers give us food for thought, with new ideas and provocative questions, but in fact everyone in the room is an expert. It is in the small groups that we get to share that expertise. The passion and motivation and knowledge always give me a boost.”
Nancy Carfrae
We consider a Round Table a success if the participants go home with new ideas, with renewed motivation, and with names of people with whom they want to stay in touch.
Where and when?
+ 4th UIA Round Table Asia-Pacific in the Paradise Hotel, Busan, Korea, on 28 and 29 September 2016
+ 10th UIA Round Table Europe, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, 3 and 4 November 2016
How?
We well know that many associations have limited budgets of time, staff and money. This is why the UIA Round Tables are short (two half-days). We move each year to make travelling easy for different associations. With the help of our partners, the registration fee is deliberately kept low (50 euros) to make it even easier.
Participants at UIA Round Tables pay their own way. There is no “hosted buyer” programme because UIA Round Tables are not commercial events. This means there are no conditions attached to registration – all associations are welcome, whatever their activities – and there are no obligations to talk to sponsors.
Who?
The UIA is a research institute and documentation centre. Non-profit, apolitical, independent, and non-governmental in nature, the UIA has been a pioneer in the research, monitoring and provision of information on international associations and their global challenges since its founding in 1907. It currently maintains profiles on over 37,000 active international organizations worldwide, and maintains archival profiles of another 31,000.
These international associations – professional societies, trade associations, service organizations, interest groups, charities, research bodies, foundations, active in all fields of human endeavour – are invited to send representatives to the UIA Round Tables to meet other international association representatives, to share experience and knowledge, and to gain practical skills and tools. In 2015 the Round Table Asia-Pacific welcomed 72 participants from 18 countries, and the Round Table Europe welcomed 192 participants from 22 countries.
The partners are city, regional, or national offices for tourism and conventions who understand the importance of associations’ contributions to a (local) economy and culture. We thank them for their support.
Why?
The UIA Round Tables bring together people you won’t meet anywhere else. Many of the invitees will never be found on any other list: finding and documenting associations is, after all, the UIA’s expertise. And many of the participants will never be seen at any other association event or trade fair.
The UIA Round Tables are by and for associations. They are not business events to which associations are invited. They are not intended only for associations with large, important meetings. The registration fee is nominal. The UIA Round Tables are perhaps the only event ALL associations can attend, no strings attached. This means the participants come from all over, and from incredibly diverse associations.
Finally, the UIA Round Tables are organized by the UIA, with its century of experience, and itself an international association.
For more information about the UIA Associations Round Tables 2016, please visit roundtable.uia.org