[Winter workshop] Discover how to activate and connect your members, in just two hours | December 11, 2025

Do you work for a trade or professional association? Have you been meaning to set up a digital community but never seem to find the time? Many associations have big digital ambitions but aren’t sure where to start or get held back by the demands of everyday work.

To help you get started, experienced community strategists and DNA trainers Mathijs Vleeming and Dennis van Aalst are hosting a two-hour workshop designed to jumpstart your community strategy. By the end, you’ll be ready to take concrete steps toward launching a digital community in the new year.

Practical information

Date: Thursday, December 11
Time: 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Location: online
Cost: Free

There is room for a maximum of 4 participants. This way, we can guarantee personal attention for everyone. Full = full!

Don’t wait any longer, sign up now!

Yes, I’ll be there

What will you learn?

During our inspiring and interactive online winter workshop, you will learn from experienced community strategists and trainers Mathijs Vleeming and Dennis van Aalst how an online community can offer added value to your members.

You will discover how to use digital channels to increase member engagement, make communication more efficient, and connect them faster and more easily. You will also develop a concrete, step-by-step plan for your key stakeholders.

In short, you will learn how to activate and connect your members in a smart way via an online community.

What can you expect?

An interactive online workshop where you’ll develop an online community plan for your membership organisation, with personalised guidance in small group settings.

Program

What are the changing needs and expectations of members?
What role do digital channels play in connecting members and how can you use them successfully?
Practical examples of successful association communities.
How do you activate your supporters? How do you facilitate and expand existing processes and use content, conversations, and events to get members actively involved?
Create a practical step-by-step plan for your supporters (target group, motivation, needs, behavior).
Definition of success: discover success and failure factors and useful frameworks to identify the ROI of a community and organize your online community.

Inspiring examples from practice

More and more associations are already making smart use of a digital clubhouse so that members can find each other more easily, help each other, collaborate, and share knowledge.

During the workshop, the examples of the following associations will be central:

Knowledge platform KUBR successfully connects professionals in the installation sector around industry themes, with a little help from AI.
The KNVB makes it easier for club board members to find each other and share knowledge with Een tweetje.
Vastgoed Nederland successfully mobilises members to help each other.

Others’ experiences

“The online Community Strategy workshop really helped me discover the concrete added value of an online community for NOG. The information is very enlightening, and it’s great that Mathijs, with his association experience, really thinks along with my association and doesn’t just give advice from a sales perspective. A really good workshop!”

Corina Moerland, NOG

“It was very useful to get to the heart of the added value of an online community for Fizi in two hours. In this crash course, we learned about the community mindset, the organisation of communities, and how an online community platform facilitates this. The examples of member and knowledge organisations are inspiring and help us translate our community strategy into concrete desired behaviour from our members and a plan of action. We now have a better idea of how to shape the online community for Fizi and how to approach this project.”

Goeran de Pater & Matthijs van der Woude – Fizi, the professional association for healthcare financiers

“Thank you so much for the inspiring session this morning. As far as I’m concerned, it has confirmed what we had in mind. I’m glad you enjoyed it too. I am convinced that we can really use your help in developing the community strategy and the content and activation calendar.”

Marleen Kessels – VSG

Other organizations that already created an online community together with Yunits

Who is it for?

Association professionals who are involved in connecting and activating their supporters. Think of the following roles: association manager, communications manager, program manager, sector or department manager.

About the trainers

Dennis believes in the power of digital technology. Together with his passionate colleagues, he enthusiastically supports social organizations in achieving digital impact. Dennis is an experienced online strategist within the association sector. Thanks to his in-depth knowledge of associations, he acts as a sparring partner and advisor for associations that want to grow digitally.

Together with the KNVB and Yard | Digital Agency, Dennis won the Dutch Interactive Award (DIA) 2021 in the community category. They won this award for the Eén tweetje platform, for which Dennis developed the strategy in collaboration with the KNVB. “The community represents a game changer in the way the KNVB communicates,” according to the jury. “A shift from top-down to peer-to-peer.”

Dennis is also a digital community trainer at De Nederlandse Associatie (DNA). Through open and in-company workshops, he helps industry and professional associations discover the value of an online community. He also guides them in launching an online community and stimulating interaction and engagement within the community.

Mathijs believes in the power of communities to bring about change. With passion and enthusiasm, he supports member organizations in increasing their impact through digital communication. As an experienced online strategist within the association sector, Mathijs has in-depth knowledge of associations, events, marketing, and online communities.

With 20 years of experience “at the heart of the professional community-building sector” in the international association and events industry at the ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) as Director of Marketing, and three years as a Community Strategy Consultant, he is on a mission to increase the impact of mission-driven communities.

In his role as Consultant Associations and digital community trainer at De Nederlandse Associatie (DNA), he helps professional and trade associations discover the value of an online community. He co-creates online community strategies, guides the launch of online communities, and stimulates interaction and engagement within these platforms.

Mathijs is also a board member of the Community Consultants Collective (https://www.communityconsultants.life/) and an “Expert Contributor Online Communities” for Association Meetings International (https://amimagazine.global/).