Key takeaways
- Choose partners based on the local reality: In some sectors, working with peer societies makes sense, while in others you build credibility through trusted local institutions such as incubators and science centres.
- Start with what people will engage with first: Outside the US, events, education and other offerings often build trust faster than membership, and community can be grown before dues-based membership follows.
- Governance shapes trust: Expansion is stronger when there are clear structures, board involvement and enough flexibility for local leaders to shape delivery.
- Track early signs of progress, not only revenue: look at country-by-country engagement, partnerships formed, regional programme or guideline development and interest in credentials, alongside longer-term financial measures.
Growth into new regions rarely succeeds on reputation alone. Associations can have a respected name, strong products and a loyal home community, then still stall when they try to expand internationally. The pattern is consistent: local expectations are different, credibility is contextual and the work of building trust takes time.
A practical way through that complexity is partnership. Not partnership as a loose affiliation, but partnership as a deliberate strategy that shapes market entry, programme design, governance and measurement. In a recent discussion between association leaders and regional experts from MCI, the same message surfaced repeatedly: associations grow sustainably when they align global intent with local realities and invest in the relationships that make that alignment possible.
Partnerships that earn credibility faster
Some associations expand into markets where there are clear equivalents, peers or sister societies. Others enter spaces where there is no obvious counterpart, which changes the partnership playbook immediately.
For the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), collaboration with established regional peers became a way to find shared value. Michael Providence, AASLD’s Director of Policy and Planning, explained: “I think there's sometimes a friction as we try to figure out where we can work together, where we can't work together, where it's just still competition. But I think that the mindset over the last five to 10 years has really shifted more towards collaboration and trying to find a way to work together. So what that looks like for us with regard to, for example, EASL (European Association for the Study of the Liver), who is our largest sister society, is that collaboration on educational issues. We'll do joint education symposia.”
That shift matters because it reframes the objective. The goal becomes mutual benefit, shared scientific leadership and broader public impact, rather than territory.
For the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), the situation was different. There was no network of sister societies to work through, so expansion depended on earning trust locally, through partners that already had strong reputations in the region. CEO Vicki Loise explains: “We decided to look for those partners in very local places where we had strong geographic representation. So an example would be if we were looking to do something, say, in the Netherlands, we were going to partner with an incubator or a science centre that was well known in the region and really lean into their network, their reputation, their credibility to help build SLAS in that region.”
In that context, partnership becomes less about finding a mirror organisation and more about borrowing credibility from institutions that already sit at the centre of local innovation ecosystems, such as incubators and science centres.
Local relevance is designed, not translated
Associations often talk about localisation as messaging and language. In practice, it shapes what you lead with, what you sell first and how you define “membership” in markets where the membership construct carries different weight. Erin Fuller, Global Head of Association Solutions at MCI, puts it plainly: “Within the US, North America, and Europe to a certain extent, we have kind of this membership construct. Certainly within North America, we see membership first, right? Join. Whereas we know that in other regions, it's the products, and I say events as a product, continuing education, certification, or credentialing, et cetera, are all in those business lines. Those really lead first, that people are more interested in that.”
Jeroen Van Liempd, Engagement, Associations and Communities Director at MCI Brussels, summarised what this looks like in Europe: “In most cases, I would advise organisations to use both their brand and their products when entering Europe, but leading with what the market will engage with first.”
That is exactly how SLAS approached Europe. Vicki described the approach like this: “When it comes to expanding outside of the US, for myriad reasons, selling a membership is not always going to be your best lead in. When I say we have 23,000 members of our community, not all of those are dues paying members. In fact, the majority of them are not, but we consider them part of our community if they've engaged with us in a meaningful way over the last 12 months. That might mean that they've purchased a product and are a non-member. And we are perfectly fine with that.
“When we started off in Europe, we led with product: our scientific expertise and the content that we were known for in the United States. And we partnered with local entities to deliver very specific, very deep dive content-heavy symposia in regions across Europe, where we knew we had a heavy concentration of potential community members, potential customers who would buy those products. And we did that for about three years before we launched a pan-European conference. It was a very intentional strategy to build up that database, that reputation and ultimately the brand.”
That strategy gave the association room to build a base, prove value and earn the right to ask for deeper commitment later, but the right entry strategy depends on sector, reputation dynamics and the local market’s buying behaviour. It also depends on whether the association’s home identity helps or complicates trust in the target region.
Governance is part of the trust equation
Trust is built through programmes, but it is sustained through structure. If global growth is a strategic priority, governance has to show it. That includes pathways for international voices, board-level involvement and mechanisms for shared decision-making with partners.
Michael explains that AASLD formalised global engagement through standing governance structures with board-level visibility. “We have a global outreach and engagement committee that has a pretty wide charge. There are international members on that committee and that committee reports straight to the board regarding their recommendations, where they think we have opportunities, where they see us going off track. This isn't a task force. It's not some temporary thing. We see our relationships globally as long-term.”
That formal approach extends into joint work with partners, such as the public awareness campaign that AASLD does with EASL around healthy living. “We have a steering committee that has members from both associations participating in it. So we have co-governance reporting to both associations there.”
From a strategy execution perspective, Jeroen offered a framework that balances alignment with local empowerment. He described it as a control tower approach: “You need to have that strategic alliance and that oversight to make sure that you can implement your strategy in the different regions where you are active in the world. But at the same time, you need to allow for flexibility, local adaptation, of course, local tailoring, involvement and empowerment of local subject matter experts and volunteers.”
In practice, this means setting global guardrails that protect mission, quality and brand integrity, while giving local partners enough authority to make programmes feel culturally authentic and operationally workable.
Pricing: benchmark behaviour, then benchmark value
Pricing across regions is often treated as a currency problem. It is usually a perceived value problem first, then a purchasing power problem. Vicki described a method grounded in behavioural benchmarking rather than internal assumptions: “What we do is we take a look at where else the folks buying our products are spending their money? That is actually a very consistent question we ask in post-event evaluations, in community needs surveys: “Where else are they going for content? And then we use the answers to develop our pricing models.”
But Vicki also cautioned against shallow comparisons. A competitor’s ticket price means little unless you understand what the attendee experience includes: “You have to do that deep dive. You’ve got to look at what those events or products are and the quality level and make your decision on where you sit in that whole spectrum.”
Marcel Ewals, Director for Association Management and Consultancy at MCI Singapore, said that in the Asia Pacific region “when it comes to membership, we notice that the purchasing power is just not there, particularly developing nations, until they reach the age of 30 to 35.” He recommends that associations customise the membership value mix by region (and, more broadly, adapt their products locally) so that the offering aligns with what people can afford, will use and will value in that market.
Again, this is where partnerships can help. Local partners can validate what is considered fair, what benefits are valued and what formats fit how professionals in that region actually learn and participate.
Measuring success beyond the obvious
Revenue, attendance and membership are important metrics. They are also lagging indicators in many new-market plays. Associations need leading indicators that show whether trust and relevance are building, even before the financials catch up. As Jeroen put it: “You have to look at all the magic indicators and decide up front which ones you want to measure. And of course, they need to be in sync with the KPIs of the strategic plan that you've put together.”
From a programme and credibility perspective, Meighan Jury, Director of Association Solutions, MCI Canada, points to signals that go beyond attendance: “Broadly, of course, we’re looking at growth in reach (be it impact, presence, influence), community growth (the most obvious being membership participants in conferences but also availability and interest in credentialing, programme and medical guideline development) and collaborations that are specific to regions.”
Those indicators matter because they reflect adoption (and therefore trust), not just awareness.
Five pro tips that keep expansion grounded
Vicki reminded organisations to treat expansion as investment, with realistic time horizons: “If you're looking to expand outside of the United States, you really have to go into it with the mindset that you are making an investment and it is going to be a while before you see a return on that investment. I'm not talking months; it's going to be years before you see significant income from those efforts.”
Michael reinforced that governance is part of credibility, not an internal admin detail: “Governance could really be crucial for seeing success long-term, not just operationally, but because it is a signal that you're sending about how serious and committed you are to that.”
Meighan urged associations to commit, define purpose and choose partners carefully: “Lean in, define the why, identify local champions and partners, but bear in mind that not all partnerships or MOUs are created equally. They do require a deep understanding and a strategy to align both global and local priorities.”
Marcel brought it back to presence and cultural participation: “You cannot remote control from the other side of the world. Entering markets and showing up twice a year is not a strategy. You need to have feet on the ground and be able to be part of the local culture. You need to develop a strategy specific to each country. There are very few that can be successfully applied to every country.”
Jeroen closed on disciplined measurement linked to strategy: “When measuring progress, look beyond the transactional growth of the day, the week, the month or the year; assess the progress in relation to your strategic planning, your risk analysis, and your local service delivery capacity on the ground.”
Together, these points form a clear blueprint: commit for the long term, build structures that prove seriousness, co-create for relevance and measure progress in ways that reflect how trust actually forms in a new market.
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