Cut Through the Noise: Where to Focus for Young Professional Impact in 2025
With limited time and resources, you need to focus on what truly drives impact with young professionals, your most critical member segment. Drawing on insights from Highland's 2025 Young Professional Membership Index (YPMI) and the Forj State of MX Report, this webinar highlights four actions that matter most right now.
You’ll learn where associations are seeing results, what young professionals are seeking, and how to concentrate your efforts to strengthen engagement, boost retention, and unlock new revenue opportunities.
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What you'll take away:
Four actions to focus on for young professional impact
- Leadership & strategic alignment: Use executive dashboards, explicit goals, and board-level commitments to sustain momentum.
- Value, personalization & growth: Pair intentional value design (functional, social, emotional needs) with personalization strategies, including responsible use of AI.
- Learning & community experiences: Build bridge experiences that connect programs, offer peer-to-peer learning, and embed community into education.
- Digital & mobile-first infrastructure: Invest in experience infrastructure — tools, cross-functional collaboration, and experimentation — to deliver intuitive community and learning access.

Meet the presenters

David Whited
Principal, Design Research & Strategy | Highland Solutions
David Whited leads the Future of Membership Initiative at Highland, where he partners with associations to reimagine membership alongside the young professionals they hope to serve. He is also the Principal Researcher for Highland’s Young Professional Membership Index (YPMI), a national initiative that helps associations assess and strengthen their ability to connect with the next generation.
At Highland, David combines research, design, strategy, and digital innovation to shape new offerings across sectors. He has developed membership products for associations, designed engagement strategies for nonprofits like Goodwill, and helped launch new services and digital experiences for companies spanning healthcare, financial services, and consumer products. His research with Make-A-Wish helped define what makes a wish truly impactful, and those insights now inform how wishes are designed for children across the U.S.

Terri Herrmann
Chief Marketing Officer | Forj
Terri Herrmann is the CMO of Forj, the single solution for community and learning. Terri believes that behind every great brand is an even better story. She knows that true success happens when you have the confidence to live your own personal brand and communicate the “story of you.”
Terri has partnered with sales teams to exceed revenue goals, and she’s led the launch of three major brands to the market. However, what really drives and inspires Terri is creating meaningful connections and making a difference. Whether that is through leading and growing teams, creating brand advocates, launching and promoting new products to the market, or building an opportunity pipeline - her best work is tied to a greater purpose.
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