Entrepreneurs can become key contributors in your community when you provide the right mix of membership benefits. As a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in China’s Board of Governors and entrepreneur himself, Eric L. Schmidt shares how to craft a strategic plan that increases participation and delivers ample value for entrepreneurs on small budgets.

1. Eric L. Schmidt
Co-Founder & CEO
Understanding Key Contributors with Small Budgets:
Entrepreneurs as Members of
Chamber Communities

2. Mark
Duval

3. What is successful engagement?
A marketing strategy that directly involves your target
audience and lets them participate in the evolution of your
brand or brand experience.

4. What makes
entrepreneurs
valuable community
contributors?
Tenacity
Confidence
High Adaptability
Desire to Learn
Passion

5. China Entrepreneurs
Established to share personal experiences and
resources to support entrepreneurship in China.
Began with monthly gatherings of 20 - 30 people.

6. Entrepreneurship in China is taking off.
In 2000, revenues earned by Chinese state-owned industrial
enterprises and those earned by non-state-owned private enterprises
were roughly the same.
By 2013, total revenues at state-owned companies had risen just over
six fold, while revenues in the non-state sector had risen by more than
18 times.

7. We continued to build our community.
Strategically incorporated events as high-touch
engagement opportunities.
Sponsors started contacting us to get
involved as we grew.

8. And we grew.
Transformed into an organization with 20,000+ Chinese and
international members.
100+ events per year.

9. ConnectionsEducationInformation
Components of a successful event:

10. We did our homework.
Pay special attention to understand your
target audience.
Cater to attendee needs by providing insights on
the topics your audience wants to learn about.

11. We thought through event details.
Understand how attendees, sponsors, and speakers are part
of the event experience.
Personalization creates a lasting impact on ROI and brand
perception.
Agenda Ticketing Location Event
Sessions
Onsite
Logistics
Products

12. We thought about pre- and post-event engagement.
Ensure pre-event emails and related advertising
are content rich, but not overwhelming.
Embrace smart follow-up communications and
personal outreach.

13. Chambers too can create tight knit communities for
different member groups.

14. Every community is different and continually changing.
What are your chambers strengths?
What other resources does your chamber
provide?
How can you leverage those resources?

15. What are entrepreneurs looking for in chamber
membership?
Networking events
Assistance promoting their services in the local
community
Professional development opportunities

16. How did we discover this information?
We created an Entrepreneur Committee to evaluate the
costs and benefits of this member segment.
Look at member lists and create programming to engage different
needs
Re-evaluate methods of driving value including internal processes for
membership applications and renewals

17. We also leveraged technology to get member feedback and ease
quality engagement.
Designed
programming geared
specifically for
entrepreneurs
Increased our
marketing and
outreach to increase
turnout at events
Transformed our
outward facing
membership processes
to be more efficient

18. Entrepreneur Events
Networking and
roundtables for CEOs to
exchange best practices
Opportunities that
directly involved the
Board of Governors
Trainings and professional
development for
entrepreneurs and their staff

19. Courtesy of AmCham China

20. Courtesy of AmCham China

21. Courtesy of AmCham China

22. How do you create a membership tier that matches
entrepreneurs’ needs without pushing their budgets?
Listen and collect
feedback from across
the member segment
Preserve a simple
membership tier
structure
Ensure membership
benefits are clear and
differentiated appropriately

23. Membership Structure
OTHER CORPORATE (Entrepreneur Membership)
Companies with global revenue of less than US $1 million
Members allowed: 2 (1 primary member, plus 1 additional member)
LARGE CORPORATE
Companies with global revenue of US $50 million or more
Members allowed: 10 (1 primary member, plus 9 additional members)
SMALL CORPORATE
Companies with global revenue of US $1-50 million
Members allowed: 3 (1 primary member, plus 2 additional members )

24. Since these discussions, we continued to focus on
community engagement as it remains critical to our success.

25. Technology is amplifying community engagement.
Creating
efficiencies
Streamlined marketing
and onsite operations
Easy collection of data
and information for
post-event follow-up
Smooth attendee
experiences
Fast check-in
Efficient information
delivery and access to
event materials
Expanding
community growth
Increased connections and
enriched relationships
Engagement via mobile
apps and push
notifications

26. The Value of Data
With the accumulation of data and
information you can extract additional
value from your community.
The Value of Quality
Engagement
Highly engaged communities actively
work with a shared purpose toward
common goals.

27. Email: eric@eventbank.com
US: +1-703-338-2771
China: +86-139-1077-7190
EventBank.com

28. Founded in 2013, EventBank is a leading cloud-based
engagement management software company.
Event
Management
Membership
Management
Email
Marketing
Payment
Processing
CRM

29. MICE Asia Pacific Exhibition 2016
Event Management Cloud Solution of the Year