As an organisation that is proud of its members, SCI is always looking for ways to better serve its community of innovators. That’s why our Director of Stakeholder Engagement, Kirstie Cochrane, and Senior Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Bryony Parker, stepped away from their desks for the day and attended the Memberwise Annual Conference, Membership Excellence.
Membership Excellence is the largest membership focused national conference for the association and membership sector in the UK, which is focused on planning for the future and driving membership growth. As the largest membership-focused event in the country, it is a one-day experience for membership professionals seeking to learn, innovate and excel in membership strategy, engagement, growth and retention.
It's an interesting environment for the stakeholder engagement team to experience as we can learn from other organisations that offer membership to individuals and institutions. The conference was held in London and had over 600 delegates all with a passion for delivering excellence in membership. There were some great Keynote sessions from organisations as varied as the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), Parkinsons UK and the National Trust.
What the experts shared
Among a variety of talks was ‘Mentoring in Practice: For both Personal Growth and Member Value’. SCI’s Mentoring Programme has been running for several years, and while this is a popular benefit for both mentees and mentors, this session was really helpful in identifying ways to grow interest and participation from mentors, particularly encouraging women and those from minority backgrounds to take part.
With a fantastic breadth and depth of organisations in attendance it was insightful to hear from the IET about their membership journey, and how they have recently developed a centre of excellence approach which aims to put member engagement as the priority across the entire organisation. This has seen the IET take a member-first approach to sales, customer service, transparency on pricing and process improvements.
Another highlight was hearing from the RHS about their rebranding and broadening its membership appeal, and how they have used digital innovation and data insight to enhance personalisation, improve member experience, and drive engagement. This has given us a lot to think about from the membership team, on how we provide our membership services and the tools and toolkit that we can use to support our wonderful members.
So far in 2025, SCI has welcomed more than 830 new members to its vibrant community of scientists, innovators, students and professionals. They contribute to our exceptional programme of events, support the running of our technical and regional groups, showcase how science meets business and recognise each other for scientific awards - it really is one of the most inclusive and supportive organisations.
We are a small team here at SCI supporting membership and we are always looking for ways to facilitate members on their journey through from studying at university, to their first role in a science-based business and beyond with a flourishing career. We offer support for students to engage with potential employers, cross industry mentoring programme, access to technical content for scientists and a corporate partner network that embodies where science meets business.
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