We are 10 days away from opening doors to our newest product, The Association Marketplace!

After many years of hosting and producing online events for associations and global nonprofits, we realized there was a marketplace problem. What kind of problem you ask? Here are a few reasons that led us to see this problem:

One-sided Discussion Forums

We noticed that discussion forums were the only kinds of community platforms to connect professional groups, and they are typically through asynchronous and traditional text-to-text format. In addition, discussion forums started to feel really gated and unfriendly to industry partners and sponsors who are also paying community members, if not paying up to 5x more than regular community members.

No place for f2f live interaction

Similar to Facebook or LinkedIn groups, there is no live f2f interaction on community platforms. If you’ve ever experienced a Qiqo event, you know that we focus on the live interactivity and tools that help make events come alive. Without events, how can community connect and thrive?

Lack of Discovery

Associations were asking Qiqo, how can we create this year-round interactivity for our community? How can we create an online trade show come to life? That last question really stuck with us, and we made it our mission to figure out this problem. Because discovery is the key to a regular in-person trade show. There is never enough time to walk an entire trade show within a two-day window and stop at every booth possible. Not only is that overwhelming on your feet and your outgoing personality, but its also an inefficient use of time when you’re not necessarily looking for everything under the sun at that given moment.

Nowhere to compare notes and research on your own

Sometimes we need to sit quietly behind our computers and actually research and check out who does what and determine,
“what’s right for my needs?” We want to conduct our own market research, but the problem is that there was not one singular location to see the lay of the land and what there is to offer when you are in the market for say a new AMS, LMS, or strategic consultant. Sometimes you want to seek out a new recruiting firm or go the next level and find an executive search firm who focuses on C-level recruitment. We all have different needs at different times, but it starts with quiet research.

Effectively, there was a marketplace problem, and we at Qiqo decided it was time to go gangbusters and just do it!

We’ve been in the online events and community business since, oh, forever. We built our events and community platforms to be interactive, collaborative, and highly conversational because association members and communities want to be engaged…with EACH OTHER.

Come check out our Grand Opening on February 29th from 12-3pm Eastern in where else…???

The Association Marketplace! RSVP to let us know you’re coming.

Here are some basic FAQs about The Association Marketplace:

What is The Association Marketplace?

It is a comprehensive events calendar and buyer’s guide full of vendors and service providers. Think of it as a 24-hour 7-days a week trade show expo!

Who is it for?

Association professionals of all levels, industry partners, consultants, association management companies, and affiliated organizations.

If you’re an industry partner, consultant, or AMC, feel free to check out this 4-minute overview: