The AI Session Your Members Will Actually Use
Members leave with prompts for their own work. Association staff can leave with workflows for theirs.
Chris Sund is an AI speaker for association annual conferences and member-education tracks, and for association staff and executive retreats. Two associations have booked his AI session, Take Back Your Time with AI: MICA in October 2026 and NFBA in February 2027. For members, the examples are rewritten for their industry. For association teams, the same method covers member communications, event marketing, board meeting notes and SOPs.
Why are associations booking AI sessions right now?
Members are asking about AI, and the session they want is not a futurist keynote. They want someone to show them, on work that looks like theirs, how to save hours this week without making a mistake that costs them a customer. An association that delivers that earns credit for the whole conference.
Association staff are in the same position. Small teams run member communications, events, boards and committees with the same headcount every year. The method that helps members also helps the people running the association.
A member-education win
Practical sessions with take-home tools are the ones members cite in the post-event survey.
Fits any track
General session keynote, a breakout in the education track, or a pre-conference workshop for a smaller group.
Industry-specific examples
Chris rewrites the examples for your members’ industry before the event, as he did for insulation contractors and post-frame builders.
Works for your staff too
A half day with association staff covers member emails, event promotion, board notes and SOPs for the work only one person knows.
Six places AI gives association teams time back
For members, the six areas are rewritten for their industry. For association staff and executive retreats, here is how they look inside an association. Each card links to a full guide with the prompt.
Find Members & Sponsors
Find the signal before renewal season.
AI searches public sources for companies new to your industry or region, likely sponsors and exhibitors, and speaking or partnership opportunities, with one next step for each.
Read the guide→02Answer Members Faster
Same-day replies to member questions.
Paste in a member or prospective member inquiry. AI drafts a clear reply with the right questions and the next step, using only approved dues, policies and dates.
Read the guide→03Strengthen Your Website
Pass the 10-second member test.
Can a prospective member tell who you serve, what membership gets them and how to join or register? AI reviews the site like a visitor and ranks the five fixes that matter most.
Read the guide→04Event Marketing
One conference, a month of promotion.
Approved session details, speaker bios and last year’s highlights become registration emails, social posts, a website update and a sponsor one-pager, scheduled in one sitting.
Read the guide→05Board & Committee Notes
Board meeting notes to action lists.
Board and committee notes become a clear action list with owners and dates, decisions kept separate from ideas, and unassigned items marked rather than guessed.
Read the guide→06Association SOPs
Capture what one staff member knows.
The person who runs registration, awards or the annual meeting talks it through for ten minutes. AI drafts the SOP so the work survives a staff change.
Read the guide→Tell AI Five Things
Every prompt in the session follows the same five-part structure, so attendees can write their own after they leave. Here it is with association examples. The full framework is on Tell AI Five Things: The Five-Part Prompt.
Role
Who is it?“Act as our communications director.”
Task
What should it do?“Write the member update.”
Details
What should it know?“Use these board notes.”
Format
What should it make?“A 200-word email.”
Guardrails
What must it avoid?“Do not invent decisions.”
Role+Task+Details+Format+Guardrails
If the first result is weak, add the detail you left out.
Example prompt: board meeting notes to member update
An example built on Tell AI Five Things for association staff. It turns approved board notes into an action list and a member update.
The human review step. The executive director or board secretary checks the action list against the minutes and approves the member email before it goes out. AI organizes the information. Your board and staff decide what members hear.
More prompts, grouped by the six areas, are in the free AI Prompt Library for Business Owners.
Keynote, half day or full day
Every format is delivered in person. The keynote fits a general session or education-track breakout. The half-day and full-day workshops fit pre-conference sessions, leadership academies and association staff or executive retreats.
The six areas in one session
The framework, live association examples from all six areas, and the Monday Morning close. Works as a general session or a breakout.
Hands-on with your own work
Attendees bring the tasks that eat their week and build their own prompts with the five-part framework, then test them on real association examples.
Teams build their own workflows
A hands-on workshop where teams build and test their own workflows across the six areas and leave with a written plan for who uses what, starting Monday.
Tailored to your members
Before the event, Chris rewrites the examples around your members’ industry. For a staff retreat, he builds them around your association’s own communications, events, board work and processes.
The field guide
Attendees get the field guide with every prompt, the worksheets and a simple Monday plan. Chris sends it to the host as a PDF after the event to share with everyone who attended.
Tool-neutral
Every prompt runs in ChatGPT or Claude. No software to buy, no IT project, nothing to install.
Built for associations and the people who run them
Annual conferences, member-education tracks, chapter meetings, and association staff and executive teams.
Related pages: National Association Conferences · State Associations & Chapters · Association Executives & Planners · Breakout Session Speaker · AI Keynote Speaker
Associations book it, and Chris sits on an association board
Two associations have booked the AI session: the Midwest Insulation Contractors Association at the MICA 2026 Fall Business Meetings in Omaha, and the National Frame Building Association at the NFBA Conference & Expo 2027 in Columbus, Ohio.
Chris also knows associations from the inside. He is Vice President of the NATHO Board of Directors, chairs the Membership Committee for NAHCR, and has spoken at the NATHO Annual Conference, NAHCR, LeadingAge Illinois, AHCA/NCAL and several state health care associations. NATHO also hosted his roundtable on sourcing, lead generation and AI.
His topics are well researched, and he weaves in practical tips and real-life examples that make every session realistic and relatable.
Chris consistently brings knowledge, insight, and practical advice to every presentation, elevating the value he brings to every engagement.
Chris would be an incredible addition to any live audience. Each time he finds a unique way to connect on both a personal and professional level, keeping everyone engaged and attentive.
What Association Planners Ask
Do attendees need AI experience?
No. The session starts with a five-part prompt, Tell AI Five Things, and builds from there, so people who have never opened ChatGPT can follow along. People who already use AI leave with better prompts, clear guardrails and a way to check the results.
Which AI tools does the session use?
ChatGPT and Claude. Every prompt runs in either one, and Chris shows the work in both. Nobody is asked to buy new software or install anything.
Is our data safe?
The session teaches guardrails for exactly that. Decide in advance what information is approved to share, leave out customer names and sensitive details unless you have permission, check the data settings on the account you use, follow your organization’s policies, write prompts that forbid AI from inventing prices or facts, and have a person review every output before it goes out.
Can it be tailored to our members’ industry?
Yes. The six areas and the framework stay the same. Before the event, Chris rewrites the examples for your members’ industry, as he did for insulation contractors at MICA and post-frame builders at NFBA. For a staff retreat, examples come from your association’s own work.
Do you sell software?
No. Chris is COO of Nebula, an AI talent sourcing platform, which is part of why he uses these tools every day, but the workshop is tool-neutral and is not a pitch for Nebula or any other product.
Keynote or workshop: which should we book?
A keynote fits a general session or breakout: the framework, live examples from all six areas and the Monday Morning close. A half-day or full-day workshop is hands-on: teams bring their own tasks and build and test their own workflows before they leave. Many groups pair a keynote for the full room with a workshop for a leadership or member group.
Stages I Have Spoken On
