Convention industry consulting firm, GainingEdge, has announced that Chloé Menhinick is now heading up its global association consulting operations.
Based out of The Hague, Menhinick has 15 years experience working in the associations industry, providing leadership across all areas of association management & operations, strategic planning, membership, stakeholder engagement, communications and marketing.
Menhinick most recently served as Head of Membership & Network Engagement for the International Water Association, an association with a global membership network in over 130 countries. She is also a board member of the European Society of Association Executives (ESAE) where she has helped to lead the development and implementation of a new strategic plan to reinforce the value proposition of membership and to elevate the activities of the Association to ensure its continued relevance into the future.
GainingEdge CEO, Gary Grimmer, said that Menhinick would be helping GainingEdge to expand its consultancy services in the association world.
“Chloé is a highly respected association leader having served on a number of advisory boards as well as in her role with ESAE,” Grimmer said. “She adds considerable strength to our consulting team in general, but will also help us to further expand our services to associations. That is key for us, because we see ourselves as being a part of the associations community and we are determined to contribute to the success of that industry globally.”
“I’m excited about this new appointment,” Menhinick said. “There has never been a more challenging time in the association world and I’m really looking forward to making GainingEdge a global leader in this space. We want to help associations to solve their most complex issues, to be sustainable and to succeed in their missions to bring about positive change now and in the future.”
Menhinick said that associations are operating in a complex and disruptive environment where they are finding it increasingly hard to successfully manage change.
“Every association is either focussing sharply on issues of disruption right now, or they need to be,” Menhinick said. “Disruptive forces are affecting them in two ways – either directly in relation to the services they are providing or indirectly in how their member bases are being disrupted, which threatens an association’s very life-blood. We want to help them address these issues for themselves and for their members. We want to help them change innovatively and transformatively, addressing the immediate challenges while keeping their long-term perspective.”
Menhinick said that GainingEdge will be delivering its association support services in 10 key areas:
• Activation of New Associations
• Strategic Development
• Legacy Planning & Management
• Governance Reviews
• Sponsor and Partner Development
• Organisational Assessments
• Operational Consultation
• Talent Acquisition & Interim Management
• Program and Events Development Support
• National and Regional Association Development
GainingEdge’s traditional focus has been in destination and bureau consulting, convention centre development consulting and in-market convention sales representation.
“Most of our work has been on the supplier side of the meetings industry,” Grimmer said, “but, we have done some important things on the association side as well, like helping to establish the African Society of Association Executives, and consulting on developing association communities in the places where we work. We’ve also done a lot of association training, including our management of the annual ICCA Association Expert Seminar in Frankfurt every year and at the national level in various countries.”
While much of what GainingEdge has done in the past was more broadly association community focused, Grimmer said that GainingEdge wanted to do more for individual associations. “We’ve always been helping associations find meetings destinations, but we want to do more, we want to help them to address their strategic and operational challenges and to be more successful.”
