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Boston—Improved attendance and the highest buyer/seer ratio in more than 10 years marked the ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership 2006 Annual Meeting & Exposition, held August 19-22 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Attendance exceeded 6,000, with 3,191 Association Executives and 1,944 Exhibitors, which according to the ASAE, is the second highest buyer-seller ratio in the organization’s history, just behind a similar event in Washington D.C. in 1995. In addition, there were 810 Booths and500 exhibiting companies at the event

“ASAE & The Center staff have been working diligently to produce the most invigorating Annual Meeting to date,” said John H. Graham, IV, CAE, President & CEO, ASAE. “We’re excited to surpass last year’s pace.” 

“The fact that we are experiencing such growth in attendance is a testament to the value our members find in the meeting experience and their continuing efforts to achieve success,” said Susan Sarfati, CAE, president and CEO of The Center and executive vice president of ASAE. 

The convention also set the scene for a major announcement by ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership: a strategic alliance with Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft), through its Mid Atlantic Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners Group office. The goal of the alliance is to identify and highlight technology best practices for associations and increase the overall productivity of the ASAE through the use of Microsoft Technology Solutions. “We’ve long understood that technology plays a key role in the efficiency, productivity and overall success of our member organizations,” said Graham.  “By teaming with Microsoft however, we’re going one step further to discover scalable processes and technology solutions we may not have known about previously.”

Together, ASAE and Microsoft will create an informal working group that will offer guidance in selecting projects and activities which utilize a series of technology solutions. Results will be documented and serve as reference architectures and blueprints for member-based entities across the U.S. “Like Microsoft, ASAE is also focused on giving people tools that can help them reach unimagined levels of success, so this is a very natural partnership,” said Reed Overfelt, Mid Atlantic Area General Manager, Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners Group, Microsoft.  “We’re thrilled to be working together with ASAE to highlight the importance of technology for associations and elevating technology best practices for ASAE’s member associations and beyond.”

For the Facilitiesonline exclusive gallery of ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership 2006 Annual Meeting & Exposition attendees and exhibitors, click here.