For those who may be looking at our logo and thinking to yourself, “something looks a little different here” – you are absolutely right! Much like the moment when Facebook decided to drop “The” from their name… we have rid ourselves of the “Virtual Media” part of ours.
Why the change?
Over the pandemic, Matchbox stepped away from our initial focus to be exactly what the market needed from us at the time: we were primarily supporting associations who were making the transition from in-person to virtual conferences.
Post-pandemic, we were still self-identifying as a virtual conference platform. But to be honest, it never really felt like we were properly capturing the essence of our focus. This became particularly clear when we pulled together focus groups and conversations with our clients and partners, and heard a resounding, “You’re missing something in your description! You are so much more than a virtual conference platform!“
This felt especially true given that we had been interacting less and less with the virtual conferences people associate with the covid period.
When we combined this feedback with our deep understanding of digital engagement strategies, the platform and resources we had built, and our love of sharing knowledge and collaborating – it hit us: We aren’t just a virtual conference platform; we are a go-to partner for building digital initiatives.
What is a digital initiative, and why have I never heard this term before?
This is a term we’ve coined to describe the online experiences that we’ve seen persist (and thrive!) beyond the covid period. They consistently fit this criteria:
- They are built in a purpose-driven way and designed to meet certain (measurable) objectives, as part of a digital strategy.
- They are co-created with and for a community of member stakeholders: often including attendees, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers.
- They are financially sustainable. In fact, the best ones are extremely profitable.
You’ve now heard this term here first, but we hope you hear it many times after 🙂
Examples of digital initiatives that we’ve had the pleasure of bringing to fruition include vendor showcases, topic-driven summits, innovation challenges, and so much more.
With this in mind, our name change marks the moment we are introducing a whole new offering into the market:
Allow us to introduce you to our digital initiative modules.
Every digital initiative module was inspired by deep work we did with an association who wanted to pioneer something completely new. They came to us with a vision of what they wanted to catalyze, and we brought our deep expertise and data-driven approach to creating something that hit their objectives. It brought all of us a greater purpose in our work recognizing that the lessons learned together could extend into other communities and achieve similar results.
With the introduction of our digital initiative modules, what took us months to co-create together has now become easily accessible within our platform in minutes.
Into each of our modules, we have packaged all you need to design, launch, and ensure the success of your new digital initiative:
- Customizable, validated templates for event formats that you can load directly into our platform and start building from.
- Blueprints for monetization, which are proven strategies that have brought serious dollars to associations like yours.
- Best-practice guides and resources, especially for communicating to your stakeholders.
- Access to a network that includes a combination of associations who are launching similar digital initiatives as you, as well as industry partners and consultants who offer complementary products and services.
You can head on over to our new website to learn more about the digital initiative modules we currently offer, as well as the ones that are coming soon!
What changes about Matchbox?
We have been able to bring our platform price down significantly. You may have seen that Matchbox entered into a joint venture with the Endocrine Society earlier this year. Endocrine’s financial investment in part was to accelerate our feature development to significantly automate aspects of the platform. This has allowed us to bring down our prices and make the platform financially accessible to a wider range of associations.
With our completely DIY version, we can train you on how to use the platform and best practice guides and you can completely run with it on your own. Some of our clients are already leveraging this and we love to cheer them on and check out what they’re building!
However, in this ecosystem we’re building, we also have a number of “team extender” services we provide to help round out your staff needs to successfully run these initiatives. This includes managed event services, video production, and live in-session support. We’ve always offered these services, but now they’re much more available a la carte.
When is the right time to engage Matchbox?
We see two main reasons why you’d want to set up a conversation with us:
- One of our digital initiative modules resonates and you want to learn how to leverage our existing resources to replicate the same success that associations like yours are achieving. Sometimes the conversation even begins with a question to us like, “what are some ways associations like mine are generating non-dues revenue through new digital initiatives?” We’d be happy to share!
- You have this new idea you want to bring into the world, and you are seeking a thought partner to help you achieve your mission.
What stays the same for Matchbox?
The answer hits home when we revisit our core values: co-creating, including, perfecting, human.
Paradoxically, what stays the same is our commitment to always evolve.
As we launch our new offering, (and make those logo updates to all the places our presence persists) we commit to continue building and growing with the association community, and keep engagement at the core of our identity.
