From systems to experience: digitalNow 2026 recap

A recap of our digitalNow 2026 session, in partnership with Stephen Sye, VP of Information Technology at Heart Rhythm Society.

Members don't see systems

They see one organization and one connected journey. When that journey feels fragmented, outdated, or impersonal, they disengage.

Our session was about a shift in thinking. Technology isn't a collection of tools your team manages. It's an experience your members live every day.

Connection keeps members around

Forj's State of Member Experience research found that 89.8% of frequent community engagers plan to renew, compared with 76.8% of members who rarely engage. Frequent engagers are also 10x more likely to buy paid content.

What members are asking for

Our research points to six needs. Each one depends on learning, community, and data working together.

You can't help members solve problems in the moment if they need six different logins. You can't create belonging if community and learning live in separate places. Hold these six needs up to your own member journey. How many are you delivering today?

The Heart Rhythm Society story

HRS is the global leader in science, education, and advocacy for heart rhythm professionals. It serves 9,000+ professionals in 94 countries and has done so since 1979.

A few years ago, HRS saw that its technology wasn't keeping pace with its mission. Members had real needs, but HRS was meeting them with separate systems: an AMS, an LMS, a forum, events, and email. So members went elsewhere. They found community in Facebook Groups, networking on LinkedIn, content on YouTube, and peer advice on Reddit.

That was the wake-up call. HRS wasn't only competing with other medical societies. It was competing with every platform its members used every day. If the association is a member's professional home, those conversations should happen at home.

The team weighed three paths:

The test HRS used was simple. Which path delivers the best member experience, the fastest, with the least long-term risk?

The cost of doing nothing

Most associations didn't get here through bad decisions. They added systems over time, and each one solved a real problem. Together, they're built around departments instead of members. That's a strategy gap, not a technology failure.

The gap shows up in three ways:

• Drop-off. Members disengage when their journey breaks between systems.
• Lost signal. Member behavior is scattered across systems, so no one sees the whole picture. Renewal campaigns and outreach run without the data they need.
• Wasted effort. IT, marketing, and membership solve the same problem in parallel and spend time reconciling data that should never have been split up.

These problems feed each other, and they share one root cause: a disconnected technology stack.

Member experience is a team sport

No single department owns the member experience. It's defined, built, and delivered together.

Stephen spoke about what changes when IT gets a seat at the table:

That shift takes leaders who invite IT in early. It also takes IT leaders who talk about member value, not just technical specs.

How Journey by Forj brings it together

Learning alone is no longer enough, and neither is community alone. Journey by Forj puts them on one platform, connected to member data.

• Personalized learning. Education adapts to where each member is in their journey, instead of a static catalog.
• Meaningful peer collaboration. A community built around the work members actually do, not added as an afterthought.
• Data-driven insights. One view of what members value, so IT, marketing, and membership work from the same picture.

HRS chose Forj for what the platform does today and for confidence that Forj will grow with it over the next decade. Association technology is a long-term relationship, not a one-time purchase.

Four moves you can take back to your team

1. Lead with vision, not features. HRS didn't choose a partner for a feature list. It chose one whose direction matched its own for the next decade.
2. Pair every learning moment with a community moment. When a member finishes a course or earns a credential, connect them right away to peers on the same path.
3. Make data a shared asset. IT, marketing, membership, and education should work from one picture of the member, not three reports from three systems.
4. Treat members as one person, not five accounts. One identity, one profile, and one journey. The experience should feel like you know them, because you do.

See how your member journey compares

Book 20 minutes with our team to map where your members' journey connects and where it breaks. Request a meeting