It Takes a Village
by Dianne Strunk, 1 Sep 2009

Dianne Strunk is Chief Executive Officer of Eastern Technology Council, a trade association serving leaders and entrepreneurs of technology and life sciences companies and the service companies that support them in Eastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Delaware.

Visit the Eastern Technology Council online at www.easterntechnologycouncil.org

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You may be surprised to find a listing for the Eastern Technology Council in the Philly Creative Guide. We're a trade association. We create opportunities for our member companies. But those companies create some amazing stuff — from cutting-edge technologies to breakthrough drug treatments.

Yet the type of creativity celebrated here is something else again. It's the talent and expertise to communicate effectively, inform, entertain and inspire. All of us in the business world need to tap that kind of creativity to gain and retain customers, members, employees and stakeholders. If we don't have it in-house, we have to buy it.

The Technology Council buys it. We're a very lean organization and yet we're strong enough to provide hundreds of member companies with high-level contacts and capital, information and education through dozens of innovative programs, events and publications. Our strength comes from leveraging the volunteer leadership of member executives who serve on Council boards. It comes from the power of peer networks through which Council members share best practices. And it comes from outsourcing to trusted partners the services requiring special expertise on an as-needed basis.

When I look at all the people from whom the Council draws its strength, I see a village. While I can take pride as the CEO in all that the Council accomplishes each year, I understand that it takes a village.

This is evident in our marquee annual event, the Enterprise Awards, which draws more than a thousand members and guests to a gala produced by three long-time Council partners* and sponsored by an impressive roster of prestigious member companies. It is evident in our CEO Roundtables, our CIO Institute, and our peer groups for women leaders, medical technology executives and members involved in sales and marketing. It is evident in our Mentor Match program, which pairs emerging entrepreneurs with seasoned CEOs.

But nowhere is the Council village more evident to me than in producing our award-winning publication, Technology Times. Anyone who has been involved in publishing a periodical, in print or online, knows full well that it is a collaborative process. No one person has the variety of skills needed to do it well – not to mention the energy bandwidth to do it on deadline again and again.

Yet I wonder if the uninitiated are thinking they could grab a free template, whip up one of those email newsletters "everybody" is doing, and quickly enjoy the fruits of thought leadership and heightened visibility. Many have tried and many have failed, running out of gas after an issue or two or puttering along with a "monthly" newsletter that comes out on a "when possible" basis. Worse, we all see too many email publications that are so self-promotional only the CEO's mother could love them.

In thinking about how the Council produces Technology Times, I realized that not only does it take a village to produce a quality publication – it should! And here's why:

First, decisions about content need to be guided by people who have the readers' interests in mind. That's why the Council assembled a Technology Times Advisory Board of members leading companies of varying sizes and serving different market niches. When they meet to assist us in choosing feature topics for each issue, the ideas, perspectives and inside industry knowledge they contribute add immeasurably to the timeliness and value of the articles.

Second, multiple voices make for a more interesting and varied publication. That's why the Council invites participation from the entire village. All member companies are invited to send in their news releases. Selected members are invited to write guest opinion columns or share their "Secrets of Success" in a Q&A format. And sponsoring companies are invited to submit helpful articles in their areas of expertise.

Finally, reporting, writing, editing, photography, graphic design and production should be handled by professionals. If you don't already employ this kind of creative talent, you can find a partner and outsource. A number of companies listed in the Philly Creative Guide – including the Council's longtime partner, Hollister Creative – offer these services. At minimum, they will keep your project on track so that it publishes on time. The good ones will work with you to integrate the publication with your overall marketing and communications goals and will give it the professional polish it needs to grab and hold readers.

The Eastern Technology Council is very proud to have a signature publication that serves our village so well. The fact that our village contributes to its success only makes us prouder.

*Council partners crucial to the success of the Enterprise Awards include PricewaterhouseCoopers, which manages the judging for competitive awards in eight categories; 3 Sisters Productions, which handles all aspects of event management; and Brandbridge, Ltd., which produces all the video, staging, lighting and fanfare.