ASSOCIATIONS SPEAKER: HOW TO STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE

Trade secret: We’re not just associations keynote speakers and futurists by day – we also head up a trade organization. BIZDEV: The International Association for Business Development and Strategic Partnerships – the trade association with teamwork at its core – strives to provide education, professional development, and networking/event opportunities for millions of business development professionals worldwide. Our members (who operate in a variety of fields from technology and entertainment to healthcare and advertising) and associations speakers are professionals who work to identify and capitalize on new business opportunities by building helpful partnerships and promoting teamwork at every turn.

If you think about it, every time you download a movie on streaming services like Netflix, play a game on digital distributors like Steam, or receive a free trial offer for another business when you buy something on Amazon.com? A business development professional – who had to pick that piece of content, broker a deal with its provider, and brainstorm how to create a win-win scenario for everyone involved – had to come up the concept and make it happen. Our members aren’t typically folks you’d see on stage or in the media spotlight, but are often the ones making the phone calls, taking the flights, and doing what it takes behind the scenes to get the deal done.

How did BIZDEV come about? Simple: For the past 25 years, We’ve helped leading app stores add thousands of software programs to their distribution catalogues and top video game providers acquire hundreds of titles to publish. That required a litany of late nights, red-eye flights, and having to interface with countless brilliant and talented individuals from all over the world to identify opportunities, source new capabilities, and find creative ways to get deals done.

But in recent months, when we went to seek out information on best practices and continuing education for business development pros (who you can often see hanging out by the bar in hordes at any trade show), we were stunned. Despite finding over 39 million listings for professionals in the field and over 253,000 job posts on LinkedIn, we couldn’t find a single global trade association devoted to helping advance the profession, or give a voice to working pros in the field. (Who, ironically, are often the most outgoing and vocal individuals in any given industry.) Which is kind of amazing if you think about the fact that Amazon Prime is currently home to over 14,000 movies; over 30,000 video games can be found on your favorite online download site; and that there are 60 million songs in iTunes’ catalogue. People had to make those deals happen – and being enterprising sorts (and associations speakers ourselves), all it took was a few calls to friends across the industry to get the ball rolling on building out our network, and building out our platform.