Abir Ali describes herself as a city builder. Her career has included architecture, philanthropy, design and real estate—with specialized positions across disciplines.

Talk of how automation and artificial intelligence would change the workforce once conjured images of robots taking our jobs. But so far, the robots have not replaced humans on the factory floor — or the cubicle row.

Automation and AI will change the nature of work, said Automation Alley CEO and Executive Director Tom Kelly. "You may not have a person in every truck driving on the highway, but you're still going to need all kinds of people in logistics," he said.

What does sustainability look like in Detroit, a city that is going through changes that some consider a renaissance? The Erb Institute talked with five people who are working to make Detroit more sustainable—in wildly divergent ways, from bees, to dirt, to real estate development, to stormwater.

Conference expos are major revenue generators, but the standard booth-maze model is past its prime. Today, both exhibitors and attendees expect associations to offer something better.

Detroit Dirt makes waste into a commodity. It takes food waste, green waste, spent grains and herbivore manure and uses an aerobic process to make it into high-quality compost.

An association management company allows an association to be agile and flexible—and makes its path toward a brighter future easier to navigate.

Fast data may be the next big thing, but what exactly is it, and how can it help your association?

What your staff should know about fast data—and how to train them

As associations become more cost-focused and revenue-driven, staff outside the finance department need to have knowledge that will enable them to make better business decisions.

To tap into voice technology and engage its readers on their smart speakers, the American Chemical Society has designed a daily news briefing specifically for Amazon Echo devices.

From 2006 to 2017, CareSource’s employee base grew 300 percent, and recently, its longtime CEO retired. To deal with this upheaval, the nonprofit turned to change-management coaching, which it says saved the organization millions of dollars and helped senior leaders keep employees engaged.

Because association CEOs must simultaneously manage the board of directors and report to them, working effectively with the board can be tricky. But it’s also a necessary part of their job.

An association can easily be considered a knowledge community. After all, it’s a community of members who share a profession or interest, and knowledge gets generated and exchanged within it.

The market’s ups and downs in the last year or so have left many investors anxious. But it’s important for associations that might be getting uneasy about their investments to understand that this is common in the bigger picture.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is a well-known, well-respected mentoring organization with more than 250 local agencies across the United States. But BBBS also has more than 33,000 youth (“Littles”) on a waiting list for a Big Sister or Big Brother.

To equip its members for the changes the future will bring, the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants (VSCPA) launched its Center for Innovation in November. It’s focused on two areas: technology and talent.

Utah Diné Bikéyah (UDB) is a nonprofit organization that supports indigenous communities in protecting their ancestral lands. Along with the five sovereign nations of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, UDB got the 1.3 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument designated—the first tribally led national monument in American history.

Brian Merrill is the CEO of Western River Expeditions and the Moab Adventure Center, but he started out as a lawyer. He talked with Outdoor Insider about going from river guide to lawyer to operations manager to COO to CEO, and about the ways he has expanded the business.

It seems as though everyone is hiring these days, and talented professionals have abundant job opportunities. Amid heightened competition for talent, smart associations are adjusting their recruitment strategies, increasing their focus on retaining the staff they have, and looking at new ways to harness an effective team—even if everyone isn’t on the payroll.