How a five-person association matched 301 Summit attendees into peer cohorts and kept them meeting long after the event ended.

This case study explores:

• How AIIM made cohorts the pillar of the annual meeting, so members arrived already knowing their group instead of building connection from scratch

• The rolling, three-batch matching model that kept pace with months of ticket sales, weighted on availability, topic track, industry, and sponsor constraints

• A first-of-its-kind sponsor-as-chair model that gave partners a substantive role inside the member experience rather than a booth in the hall

• Results: 301 members matched into 34 cohorts, 63 Zoom meetings, 7,830 minutes of virtual cohort time, and 4/5 member satisfaction with a five-person association team

• What AIIM learned about facilitator quality being the single biggest driver of cohort success, and the roadmap to industry verticals, SIGs, and AMS-integrated cohort journeys