Dubai Chamber of Commerce
Furthering the impact of associations
May 2019
Dubai Association Centre Conference (DAC) is a platform for dialogue and education for associations interested in exploring opportunities in the Middle East Region, ultimately contributing to building an association community that drives the knowledge economy in the United Arab Emirates.
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Participants - associations and speakers - at the successful first conference in 2017, identified their need to gain insights and knowledge on the impact and value that is generated by associations through their main activities.
Geneviève Leclerc of #MEET4IMPACT served as curator, speaker and facilitator of the conference for their flagship association conference in December 2019. The theme of the 2019 edition was “The Societal Impact of Associations” and structured around four main pillars:
Impact & Legacy
Designing an Impact Management and Measurement Program
Organizational Resilience
The Art of Collaboration
The mandate consisted of developing the core theme and sub-themes for the event, identifying, recruiting and coordinating the speakers, drafting session outlines and learning outcomes, and acting as co-facilitator for the entire event as well as presenting three sessions on impact and the SDGs.
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The 2019 edition of the DAC had a variety of outcomes and thus empowering associations on different matters such as :
How to develop adaptability within a strategic plan
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How to implement the SDGs
How to build events that aim to create impact
How to measure their event's impact
How to collaborate with key players
The importance of knowledge transfer
Through this 2-day conference, participating associations were given the tools and knowledge to start their impact journey, going from being service-based, to purpose-based; from being activity-driven, to outcome-driven.