Letter from the Executive Director for August 2024: Events are Changing

This month's letter focuses on the results of our analysis of event attendance. I should be talking policy, but a month after I last wrote that we were “waiting for the senate shoe to drop,” we still have not learned whether Massachusetts will saddle itself with TOPA, eviction sealing or both. I am therefore left to focus off-topic a little, to discuss how we've learned that events are “not sticky.” This means people who attend an event once are unlikely to attend again. And it means we need to make changes, both for the sake of events and training, but also for our policy machine.

It’s fair to say that the pandemic hurt directly managed dinner meetings. Whereas MassLandlords used to run four events monthly in Greater Springfield, Worcester, Waltham and Cambridge, we have since struggled to attract and retain attendees. Three of our four partner associations still manage their own dinner meetings elsewhere, but even they see lower attendance.

This is not to say the pandemic is entirely to blame! On the contrary, the new analysis shows we had problems even before Covid arrived. Many regular event attendees have suggested reasons why more people didn’t come: the price, the venue, the event time, the speaker, the subject matter, the traffic, etc. These suggestions have all been welcome, and in fact we have experimented with various solutions. But no matter what we have tried, we have not anywhere in the last 10 years developed a growth pattern of repeat event attendance: not in-person, not on Zoom, and not with the crash course.

I believe the larger truth has to do with the internet. First of all, people don’t leave their home or office to learn anymore. When a toilet breaks, we YouTube how to fix it. We expect to be able watch a video or otherwise find new skills online on-demand. And further: people don’t expect to make new connections over a meal. If we need to meet someone new, we search for them on an app, have a call or visit their office. If we need to eat, it’s with people we already know (or else we eat alone). The old pattern of gathering strangers over food to learn together has sadly faded away.

We know in-person events have value. To give one example: policy advocacy (especially by renter advocates) is now happening at live, free events. At these events, there is no food; any networking time is implied rather than formalized; the information being shared is new and doesn't exist online. Besides this type of event, there are other ways in-person events could succeed.

The data show that if we continue on our current trajectory, we will spend a lot of our organizational resources (and half of my time) running events with a long-term audience trending toward zero. So we’re changing course.

I have not yet asked the Board to approve a new direction, because I don’t yet know in which direction to go. It's a complicated problem. Many of us get value from events the way they are now. We have ideas for things to try. We will roll out new offerings with careful attention to cost–benefit ratios for our association and for you and your business.

As we divert resources into exploring new options, some anticipated events may not take place. Please bear with us in this transition.

Thank you for supporting our mission to create better rental housing. We've got your back only because you've got ours. Please join as a member, encourage others to join, become a property rights supporter or increase your level of support. We aim to hire both a full-time educator and policy advocate, and our events replan will support this.

Sincerely,

Douglas Quattrochi

Executive Director

MassLandlords, Inc.