Creating a sense of belonging and community can be a challenging task but when accomplished the results are pure magic!
Today’s episode dives deep into the world of creating intentional and meaningful experiences that drive member engagement and foster growth. Our guest, Aaron Wolowiec, MSA, CAE, CMP Fellow, President & Founder of Event Garde, is a trailblazer in the association space, with four successful brands under his belt: Event Garde, Facilit8Me, Review My Speaker, and Health by Association. Aaron brings a wealth of expertise to our conversation in designing events, facilitating learning, and nurturing a sense of belonging within communities.
Together, host Christine Shaw and Aaron explore the necessity of crafting intentional networking opportunities that cater to diverse needs and why it’s crucial for both attendees and sponsors to feel genuinely included. Plus, Aaron shares actionable insights on how to overcome the challenges of event programming and how to make advertisers and sponsors active participants rather than passive contributors.
You’ll learn:
- The importance of blending creativity with education.
- The evolution of members needs in a post-pandemic world.
- How associations can avoid the pitfalls of outdated practices.
- The role empathy, self-care, and mental health have in personal and professional growth.
About our guests:
Aaron Wolowiec, Founder & President of Event Garde LLC, is nationally recognized for his professional development work with boards, learners, staff and volunteers. Having launched four successful brands – Event Garde, Healthy by Association, Review My Speaker and Facilit8Me – Aaron’s equal parts practitioner and theorist. Since 2011, Event Garde has helped leading trade associations, individual membership societies, non-profit organizations, and government agencies across the United States address a range of unique and challenging professional development needs through customized services and expert guidance informed by research, trend analysis, best practices, prior experiences, and intuition.
Resources:
Recommended reading: Pricing For Associations, The Art of Gathering
Explore more on Building Community
Visit: https://www.naylor.com/
Connect with Event Garde & Aaron Wolowiec:
LinkedIn: @eventgardellc, @aaronwolowiec
Facebook: @EventGardeLLC
X: @eventgardellc, @aaronwolowiec
Visit: https://eventgarde.com/
Connect with us:
LinkedIn: @NaylorAssociationSolutions
Christine Shaw: christine.shaw@naylor.com
*Please rate us and leave us your thoughts and comments on Apple Podcasts, we’d love to hear from you!
If we, as organizations, can create belonging for members, for attendees, for, you know, any of the audiences in which we serve, that is really where the magic is. Hi, I'm Christine Shaw, CEO and president of Naylor Association Solutions, and I'm your host of the Association Advisor podcast. We'll learn from successful Association executives, partners, and clients on HADACRO membership engagement and Nondu's revenue to create a thriving, prosperous, and value-driven association. I invite you to join me in keeping informed and, most importantly, keeping your association profitable. Our goal is to leave you feeling inspired, more confident, and more knowledgeable. This is the Association Advisor podcast. Hi, and welcome back to the Association Advisor podcast brought to you by Naylor Association Solutions. I'm your host, Christine Shaw. Today we are exploring the importance of creating meaningful and intentional experiences that can foster growth, learning, and a sense of belonging. Joining me is Aaron Woolawick. Aaron is the founder of three successful brands in the Association Space, Event Guard, Facilitate Me, and Health by Association. He has helped leading trade associations, nonprofits, and government agencies address a range of learning, meetings, and facilitation challenges. When it comes to facilitating events and education for associations that drive member engagement, Aaron identifies as equal parts practitioner and theorist. As you will hear from listening to this conversation, you'll discover that Aaron's approach to learning is to ensure there is a healthy dose of fun added to each lesson. So let's get started and have some fun. Aaron, I am so excited to have you on the Association Advisor podcast. Thanks for having me. I am delighted to have you as a guest, and what I want to do is dive right in. So I want the listeners to learn a little bit more about you and your background. So your LinkedIn bio references your love of learning, going all the way back to preschool and a knitted purple people eater who taught you some early life lessons. Talk a little bit about that. There are certain things throughout our lives that just hold a special image for us that we can always like remember and bring ourselves back to that particular moment. And for me, one of my earliest memories in preschool is that purple people eater, our preschool teacher would bring it out. And that would be the indication that, you know, recess was over, playtime was over and it was time to clean up our things. There was a little song that went along with it that I definitely will not repeat or try to teach today. I remember that moment, I think part of the reason why is because what is a purple people eater like I grew up in the 80s and I feel like my parents played a song, a much different song about a flying purple people, you know, I don't think we were talking about the same thing. But one of the reasons why I think that that story and that image and that little knitted toy, if you will, sort of brings me back every moment is because of the curiosity that it invokes right creativity stimulates this curiosity, which is really a driving force in learning. When we think about things we are interested in and want to explore, you can sit in an educational session, it can be a humdrum and boring, or if the instructor is really presenting it in a unique and creative way that engages you to think and explore in new and different ways, not only remarkable learning experience, but something that will stick with you for a long time to come. I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, if you think about the amount of presentations we attend or keynote sessions, etc. The people who do the best job or ones with storytelling in a little bit of fun in it, it makes you remember not just the person but the content because you always make that association. So I love that you have woven that into life lessons and I think it's an important message. As we think about the connection making is so important, right? If we feel like we're an expert or a subject matter expert in a particular industry or field or topic, we jump to conclusions so quickly about what must be the answer or the solution. But really, if we employ this creativity and curiosity in our work and in our learning in particular, we can begin to make new connections between concepts or ideas that result in innovative solutions that maybe we never could have considered on our own. So I think to your point, the more that as presenters, as facilitators, as supervisors and bosses, we can infuse creativity and evoke curiosity with the people that we lead and engage ourselves with, the better service that we can deliver to them. Yeah, I love that expression to invoke curiosity. That should be something we all strive to achieve in any kind of presentation or lesson we're giving. Now, we talked a little bit about your preschool days and some of the life lessons which brings us all the way to today and you have a lot of impressive credentials you burn. So rather me, just listen, tell our listeners a little bit about those credentials and how your attitude of never stop learning has led to this. I think that, you know, at least in my early days, the accumulation of information and knowledge was born out of an imposter syndrome, not wanting to be a quote unquote expert on a topic and not having enough background or resources to back it up, so to speak. But I think over time that imposter syndrome, you know, which does rear its ugly head from time to time still, was replaced by this, like, genuine craving for different ideas, knowledge, approaches to work, whether it be in the meetings space and thinking about how to design really brilliant and effective meetings, events, conferences, workshops where people could come and engage and not only learn but network. I think it continued on into this sphere of professional development where, you know, I didn't want to sit in another workshop or a session where somebody was droning on in the front of the room, but knowing that there had to be a better way. And so I think that's continued on, like at different phases and times of my life, then sort of migrated into the facilitation space and recognizing that not all of what we do on a day to day basis is strictly teaching, but facilitating really important dialogues among board members, staff, volunteers, speakers and other individuals. And then that continued on, I think, to even the present day where wanting to be better and to do better and to know better around diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. And so I think that at every sort of phase of my career, I have looked to accumulate not only homogenous knowledge around a topic, but really diverse concepts and approaches to the work to not only make myself better for my clients, but also to help them produce better outcomes as well. Yeah. And to back that up, you've achieved your MSA, your CAE, and your also CMP fellow, correct? Absolutely. And, you know, in a myriad of other sort of certificates and certifications along the way too, you know, like at one point in time, I wanted to understand what it meant to be an effective like staff coach. And so I acquired sort of master coach designation and on and on, like thinking about becoming an instructional designer and what that meant. And I'm never satisfied to sort of like read an article or a blog post and that be enough. Like I'm always sort of looking to a deeper dive level of understanding that I can sort of pick and choose the things that I think are most relevant to me and to my work and use my clients and bring that knowledge and expertise to them. Excellent. You know, I share that passion with you. I will tell you, Aaron, like two years ago, I took executive certification in data monetization and strategies and I am currently doing my summer school activity in AI, light topics, right? But like you, when I see something and it's impacting business in a certain way, I want to take a deep dive and learn more because I feel like it goes a little bit. You don't want to be that person in the room talking about something that you don't understand. So a little bit of that imposter syndrome too, as well as just always being curious. Like in selling, they say ABC always be closing and in my mind for leadership, it's always be curious so that we're definitely enhancing our knowledge as we go along our careers. You know, in addition to acquiring these tools and resources, like just being a good role model to those around you as well, my consulting team is requested every year to identify their professional development goals for the next 12 months and what does it look like if I'm not also not only setting my own goals, but working to achieve them as well. There's always something new to learn and to grow and to develop around and I think that helping them understand the importance and role modeling that for them is an important part of this as well. I love it being a good role model as well as the leader and the learner. So we talked a little bit about you, your background, what some of your passions are. Tell us a little bit about your company's event garden, facilitate me in the work you do for associations specifically. I think that most people know this, but if not, my very first job really started even before I left college, went to school at Michigan State University and after my first summer at home, I decided that going home during subsequent summers probably wasn't for me, you know, it's always that sort of interesting conundrum when you've been sort of on your own for nine months at school, then kind of go home to similar sort of construct as you were in high school. And so I decided I was going to stay at school and needed to find some work and my very first job, real job was coordinating meetings and events at Michigan State. Every summer the residence halls converted into housing system for many conferences from high school leadership groups, band groups, journalism groups to even like parent orientation programs with adults of incoming freshmen. And so I started my meetings and events career very early and then my first sort of post college job was also in the meetings and events space. And so when I started consulting almost 12 years ago, a little more than 12 years ago at this point, that was where I began really developing meetings and events. And to this day, we continue to design and plan and manage meetings events for a myriad of association clients. But out of that grew a couple of other passion areas, including education. So thinking about creating engaging memorable events with learning that isn't that sort of droning presenter, but really engaging and productive, not leaving networking to chance, but really creating these intentional networking experiences where people leave connected and energized and rejuvenated with folks they can lean on and call upon when they leave the conference. And then much like I've already shared like subsequently facilitation kind of rose up in our portfolio of skill sets that we offered, as well as diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, not because they're all disparate, because to maybe an outside perspective, it seems like, oh, well, you do a lot of different things, aren't you moving in a lot of different directions? But actually, like there's so much synergy around all of this work, because we're trying to help people connect and engage and leverage one another's knowledge and network to build really important and innovative and unique solutions to the challenges that they're facing, whether it's in their industry at large, or their organization, or even themselves at sort of a micro level. Well, you know, I love what you said, they're another great takeaway line, which is don't leave networking to chance, but create intentional, meaningful networking opportunities. And I'd all have to say that a lot of your services are wide reaching, but that poor value of creating engagement, in a sense of belonging that fosters growth and learning. So tell us a little bit about why this connects so well with member-based and associations in particular. Yeah, you know, like ask any member of any association, why they join. I think back to the ASAE series a number of years ago, the decision to join, right? And in subsequent surveys and subsequent polls and subsequent research, consistently over and over again, the number one thing that comes up for folks is now working, being connected that we live in this incredibly large and diverse world, and yet some of the biggest challenges we have are connecting with other people, whether they're similar minded or differently minded. And so as we think about, you know, member-based organizations, as we think about different races and genders and sexual orientations and socioeconomic backgrounds and on and on and on, there still lies these like shared goals and shared interests. And if we can find this sweet spot, if we can find this like intersection between similarity and difference, we find belonging. And if we as organizations can create belonging for members, for attendees, for, you know, any of the audiences in which we serve, that is really where the magic is. That's where, I think that over the last couple of years, certainly post-pandemic, one of the things that seems to be coming up time and time again, maybe a low rumble, but it's getting slightly larger and larger is people wondering, what is the future of associations? Is there really a place for them in the long run? Do millennials or, you know, the next generation, generations of the year, whoever's coming up behind them, do they really need or want to assemble in this way? And I think that the answer is yes. I think that though, if we continue to deliver services in the way that we always have, we are not going to be delivering at the speed and the value in which those coming up want to engage and connect. And so that really is the chasm. That's the difference. Yes, they are much needed, but no, they can't be delivered in the way that they always have. I couldn't agree with you more. I actually think that the gen C's and the alpha generation coming in need that connection more than ever because they're so used to being on screens all the time and in the tech world and that human connection. And they're actually a very passion, purpose-driven group of humans that want to have a purpose and there's no better purpose than community. So that's all to say, what are some of the hurdles and challenges you face when trying to create events? Because you hit the nail in the head, their experience and needs for their networking are much different and it's creating that multi-generational environment that speaks to all levels. So talk a little bit about some of your challenges when it comes to the programming to build that connection and community. I think, you know, I think summed up in one word, the needs, like there are such diverse needs of our participants, our members, our attendees and yet so many of our associations continue to deliver programming in the way that we always have and it's not responsive to these diverse needs. And so I think folks are having a hard time plugging into and navigating those meetings and events and conferences and workshops because they're not fulfilling the needs that they have. I think that I have recently come back to Priya Parker's writing on the art of gathering and it just reminds me again that we can't leave our members and attendees' experience to chance that if we are going to develop truly meaningful and intentional networking experiences, because this is the number one thing that our members and prospective members need and wants, it can't be an afterthought. It has to be intentional, which goes into like some of my other things. Like, if it's going to be intentional, the organization needs to buy in. They need to invest some time and money and resources that they can't be satisfied with the status quo and business as usual, they have to be willing to take some chances, they have to be willing to win some and lose some and, you know, evolve their learning. And so I think some of those things are certainly embedded in this question around challenges, as well as just like this fear of judgment, this lack of interest in trying something new, this shyness around engaging, I think that we also have to recognize that we as human beings fall along the spectrum at one end maybe being extremely extroverted on the other end being extremely introverted and recognize that, again, a one-size-fits-all networking activity isn't going to meet the needs of everyone along that continuum and that maybe what we also need to do is offer different opportunities throughout our meetings and events as well. I couldn't agree more and, you know, we talked a little bit about that experience and the connection. And you know how that is, you go home from an event and you feel that feeling like that was amazing, you can't wait to get back. Let's talk a little bit and move away from the attendees to the advertisers and sponsors. What specific things do you do to make them feel equally as included as that experience so that they see that higher level value and they see the ROI of coming back to doing it over and over again? Well, I think that maybe what I'm going to say is a little controversial. I think that we have for many years slapped logos on things. We have, you know, dropped promotional items in sleeping rooms. We've sort of taken the lazy way out in terms of engaging sponsors. What is sort of the minimum level of thing that we can do to appease our sponsors? And I think that if that's the approach that we're going to continue to take, certainly some sponsors are going to take their revenue elsewhere. I mean, how many sponsors are now directly competing with associations by offering so many of their own user events and conferences and just other educational experiences? So I think, you know, on the proactive side, what are some things we can do? Like we want sponsors to roll up their sleeves, to get into the content with learners. We want them to be a part of the solution. We want them to show their physical and mental investment and not just their monetary investment. We want them to be subject matter experts and speakers and writers and learners and not just be seen and not heard from, but be a part of the issue, the challenge, the learning experience and not just periphery to it. That makes a lot of sense and we play on both sides of it, right? So we show up as sponsors a lot and we also attend a lot. And I love what you're saying. It's like, you can't just slap a logo, that's the easy way out, but there's so much more to it and equally we're part of the same community. So it's important that we all work together towards it. That's great advice and input. So let's talk a little bit about what makes all this work, which is humans. And for humans to be able to do it, we have to prioritize taking care of ourselves and I know that you're a huge advocate of prioritizing self-care and overall health and well-being. So that leads us into health by association, which you started a handful years ago. Talk a little bit about that and why that's so important to you. Yeah. So I think that in 2017, I was on a health kick, I was running a lot. I was posting just updates personally and it was interesting how much traction they were starting to get. People were interested in, well, how are you maintaining this balance of working out while also, you know, working and having a full-time job. And I think that's really what sparked this community of goal gutters who are trying to balance, to the extent possible. I mean, balance is such like a misnomer because I don't know that balance is ever really achievable. But to create better work-life balance means, you know, being able to eat well, to sleep well, to have time, to prioritize workouts and other things. And I think that, you know, it started definitely from a place of physicality to improve productivity, to have good sleep so I could show up in a really positive way to work and be able to tackle like the biggest challenges, right? But then I think that during the pandemic and coming out of the pandemic, like in addition to our physical health, like mental health became so much more spotlighted and so much less taboo and really thinking about how mindfulness and reflection and journaling and therapy and relaxation can really also support, you know, the way we show up for our work, for our clients, for our team members, and that if we live to work, how far is that going to get us? Like, how far is that really going to end? What is the quality of life that we actually take away from? And so just really being mindful that to the extent that health is prioritized for yourself and for your teammates, how jobs satisfaction, retention, performance, you know, all of those things we see positive connections to as well. Yeah. And I think it's important and another great quote you have is, you know, you can't show up for others if you don't show up for yourself first. So keeping that in the front of mind and I agree with you Aaron, I think the one thing COVID did do is to make it okay to talk about your health and well-being because we all were concerned about that during COVID and what's interesting and I have found out as a leader that you get to know people in a different way when you're showing up literally in their homes and living rooms and kitchens and you see what's going on, all of a sudden we all become humans instead of these just worker bees and you realize, oh, okay, it takes a little bit more. And I think we all have a better appreciation. Myself included. I started a new health journey at the beginning of this year. I've had a lot of great success with it, but prioritizing that and making it okay is a leader to be able to talk about it because we are people at the end of the day. So that's great. And then the other thing too is I just want to know some advice you might give about growth and you've been such a student of growth, self improvement, learning, health and well-being. So is there something that you'd like to share with the audience or our listeners about what's had an impact on your life, either personally or professionally? Our team recently has, and certainly me, a part of that conversation has been thinking a lot recently about empathy and the importance of empathy, not only in our personal relationships but our professional relationships as well, like really thinking about what it looks like and feels like to step into another person's shoes, to approach a conversation or a dialogue or a situation from their lens or from their perspective and how our responses change as a result. A classic example is someone misses a deadline and how easy is it to just say, "You've had a month. You've had whatever. Why isn't this done?" For me, it's easy to respond in that way. I'm very punctual and have, I think, high expectations around achieving deadlines. But when we stop for a second and say, "Okay, well, if I don't respond that way, what's the alternative?" The alternative is to really think about where that person is coming from. And so it is a growing edge for me. It's a growing edge for our team, but we're getting little rocks that have empathy imprinted on them so people can put them on their desk. Hopefully, when they have those spark moments that you might want to fly off a handle, you just look at it and remember that you always have a choice to respond differently. I love that, Erin. For two reasons. One, there's a lot of research that's been done, in fact, Harvard Business Review came out with an article maybe about two years ago that said that most companies now look for that as a skill set in leaders. Now, early days in my career, that wasn't even something you talked about, let alone be a requirement. And what we're realizing back to the human element, with AI here, of course, there's a lot of machine work that's happening, but we are humans, and in the middle of my course and studies, it's humans and machines together create the best outcome. Each individually do not, and when you think about your human computer, if you will, being able to add that skill set, it makes you a better person, a better leader. I love what you're doing with the rocks because it forces you to take a breath and a step and think, "Is there a different way to respond?" And we all can think of lots of examples day to day where this happens. So love that advice, and I might go get some rocks myself, Erin, at your suggestion. So don't mind if I steal that idea, but I love it. And then the final question we like to ask all our guests is, "What would you recommend for people to read?" Summertime, some summer reading, some always be learning. I love that. So just two things, one, I actually shared this with some colleagues earlier today. My Kindle is dedicated to personal reading. I actually don't read any informational work-related books on my Kindle. And so first piece of advice is just, like, take some time to read something that you just enjoy. It doesn't always have to be about work. It doesn't always have to be about the next best way to do something. But the other piece of advice that I have is pricing for associations by-- Oh, great. --to your Michael Taddonetti. I think that is, you know, an important read if you are concerned in any way about pricing for yourself, for your organization, for your industry. Certainly that. Lastly, I've been sort of on the bandwagon of listening to books. And I mentioned her earlier, but she bears another repeat. I've had the opportunity to read Priya Parker's book on the art of gathering previously. I'm listening to it again. You always-- I feel like just the different modality is teaching me something different and just would 100% recommend that text as well. And I also love the advice that you say, you know, it's okay if you're reading things that aren't business. You do the same. So almost every long trip, I always have one fun, easy book. It could be romantic. It could be a murder mystery, whatever it is. And then usually a business book because you need to give your brain some time for enjoyment. And one of my mentors said to me once, and she was a really great Zilla, she worked for Future PLC, she was a CEO, and we ran hard and fast. But she would say, if you're stressed at night, read something fun. It will tie your eyes. It will take your brain off of anything else. Because with reading, as you know, you're forced to pay attention. So I think that's great and it helps with the whole health, human connection as well. So how can our listeners connect with you and follow you? What's the best way to do that, Erin? Yeah, LinkedIn is great. So you can follow me, Erin, while we can LinkedIn. Also our website is eventcard.com. And you can get connected to my whole team in a myriad of ways via our website. Well, this has been a fascinating conversation so much of the human aspect, which is what I really appreciate and as well as I'm sure other leaders in association. And it really demonstrates your strong sense of community and bringing people together. So it's no wonder you're a successful founder of these companies and look forward to hearing more from you. So thank you, Erin, for making the time for us. Thank you for listening to the Association Advisor podcast brought to you by Naylor Association Solutions. If you'd like to access more resources to serve your association needs or join our newsletter, you can visit our website at naylor.com or just click the links in the show notes of this episode. Please be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast listening app, like Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to your podcast so you won't miss an episode. So I'd love to hear from my listeners directly. Feel free to email me at Christine Chrystianny.shaw@naylor.com. Until next time, we at Naylor are wishing your association success. [MUSIC PLAYING]
