Prune & Bloom

WITH ALISON BARINGER ENGLISH, CFEE

SOMETIMES ALL IT TAKES IS ONE HANDWRITTEN NOTE

I cannot remember the exact moment I decided I was going to serve on the International Festivals and Events Association board. I also don’t remember the exact timeline of events that got me here, but I do know it started with some personal professional development planning. There were no higher positions in my Festival to obtain (I was already the Executive Director), so I looked outside our organization for growth opportunities. What better place than the top festivals and events industry association?!

Except I had no idea how to get there. I did not know the people around the table. I saw them once a year at the Annual Convention…how was I to make my mark? We were about a month or two away from our next Convention. I decided to start at the top. I emailed the President and CEO, Steve Schmader. A few weeks later, and he still had not responded. So, I went old school and Southern and sent a hand-written card. This time, he gave me a call back!

“No one ever writes hand-written notes anymore, that really stood out,” he said. For those who listened to our 2020 IFEA Day Keynote Speaker, Steve McClatchey, he talked about doing those “extra” things that maybe you don’t NEED to do, but your act of doing them pushes you, your relationships, your work, or your accomplishments over the edge. It appeared I had done just that.

Here I was, an unknown, talking to the top of this organization I held in such high esteem. To quote from the hit Broadway musical Hamilton…I told him I “wanted to be in the room where it happened.” Ok, I was not cool enough to say those exact words, but you get the picture. I felt highly unqualified to be there, but I asked for what the pathway would look like to make it.

A few weeks later, I was sitting in a convention hall with around 500 other fabulous event professionals. Steve had just delivered a speech, and as the crowd dispersed, I gathered my courage and walked over to him. “I just wanted to formally introduce myself; I’m the one you spoke with on the phone about board development.” Like any good event professional, I know how busy event leaders are during events; how many different directions we are pulled. I kept it short and brief, and we both went on with our convention life.

Less than a year later, I was invited to serve on the IFEA Foundation Board. Now, I was not in the room when that happened, but I imagined it went something like this:

Current IFEA Foundation Board: “Wait, who?”

Steve Schmader: “It’s this young (my words ◦) girl, from this small Festival. She has really good penmanship.”

Fast forward some handful of years later, and I sit writing this article as the incoming Foundation Board Chair for 2022.

I do not write one word of this to brag. I am not the smartest event professional in the room. I am not the most experienced event professional in the room. I am not the nicest, or the loudest, or the one with the most fundraising capabilities, or sponsor opportunities.

But I show up to the room. And at the heart of this article, is my plea for you to do the same.

This summer I co-chaired my first international committee task force, “Re-Presenting: The When, Why, and How; Considerations behind Re-Presenting a Postponed or Cancelled Event.” When the call for volunteers to sign up to lead was made, I may have been among the first. I was not thinking about the work, the hours, the emails that would have to be done (although, a few weeks into the process, I most DEFINITELY was thinking about those things).

I was thinking that a global pandemic was having a huge impact on my industry. I was thinking I needed and wanted to get a grasp on the implications this was going to have on my community, in my festival. And I knew that the best way to grasp this knowledge, to really get in and live in it and marinate in it and understand it, was to be in the room where it happens.

So, I signed up and got paired up with Jeff Curtis, CEO of the Portland Rose Festival. Jeff and I were acquaintances; we had shared some words and drinks in the dFest Hospitality Suite at conventions… but this was the extent of our relationship.

Then weekly planning meetings began. Then meetings with our committee members. Then meetings with all the Covid Task Force teams. Then the emails. Oh the emails! Then report writing. Webinar prep. IFEA Day prep. Y’all, I was about to lose my mind.

You see - when I first volunteered for this Task Force my life was stable. My festival is in April, so summer is normally a rebuilding, training, and organizing time. Our chance to work on the business, rather than in the business. We postponed our event just three weeks prior to our festival start, so we had a good chunk of everything already prepared and planned. This summer, we were spending our time editing our documents, redesigning our website, and dreaming up alternative, hybrid, virtual, and re-presented and re-imagined events - should we still be in lock down the following year. It is a fun time. A creative time. Not necessarily a stressful time.

So, I signed up to help lead an IFEA Task Force. And I signed up to judge Florida Festivals and Events (FFEA) industry awards. And I agreed to give my own FFEA virtual conference session (my first solo session, ever!).

And then my father died.

I remember my first Task Force call with Jeff was when I was still in Ohio, with family. I think the day before we were at the funeral home making arrangements. The first Task Force full committee meeting I was still in Ohio, sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by sympathy flowers from loving family and friends. That same week, my own festival was meeting to discuss canceling our rescheduled Fall dates once again.

All this is to say that life was incredibly, horribly hard. There were times I just could not concentrate. Times I just could not focus on an email. Just could not force myself to sit in front of a computer screen. Times I just needed to lay on my couch, in complete silence, staring.

My friends, you may not have just lost someone you love, but we all are going through something really, really hard right now. This pandemic has turned our world, the existence of our very industry, upside down. According to the TV show CBS Sunday Morning, anti-depressant medication prescriptions have gone up 14% during the pandemic. We are all losing our minds a little bit more than normal. I had been fortunate to never know depression or anxiety, but here it was, knocking on my front door.

But you know what else was knocking? Friendly, compassionate faces of event professionals from across the world. Like minds, gathering. Leaders who were having many of the same anxieties, the same frustrations, the same challenges. Old IFEA friends, who I had met and gained relationships with through my time on the Foundation Board. And new IFEA friends, who I was just meeting through our weekly “Brady Bunch” Zoom Covid Task Force calls.

The decision to “jump in” is not always an easy one. A popular time management saying goes, “When you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else.” Volunteering will take time away from your family. It may take time away from your work. You may have to drink one (or three) less drinks in order to stay focused longer in your day. It also puts you out there, at risk of rejection. “What if they don’t want me, don’t need me?”

But for me, I see how much I need and want every new opportunity. You never know where your next big thing comes from, so to me, I try to say yes to it all.

Jumping into the IFEA Foundation Board led me to a deeper understanding of how international membership organizations work. It led to a clearer understanding of how festivals and events with basically unlimited staff run (insert jealousy here). It led me to insider knowledge on what insurance providers worry about for festivals.

It led me to travel. Oh travel, that precious word! Traveling near and far to gather for our Foundation Board meetings. Orlando, San Antonio, Las Vegas. IFEA Foundation Board travel led me to the 150th celebration of Canada in Ottawa, where I saw a spider the size of a building, fight a giant fire-breathing dragon. Like, towering over the city streets fighting.

It led me to SOUTH AFRICA. Yes, THE South Africa. Skills Village. Nelson Mandela’s house. A prison where he was confined. Bush Tour. Giraffes. Elephants. Black rhinos. Leopards.

It led to deep friendships with people who get my life, and who, I feel, genuinely care about it. Deep talks around the campfire in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Rooftop pool bar hopping in Las Vegas. Too much tequila talking in San Antonio. Canadian pizza delivery debacle and Disney security guard questioning. Memories made. Friendships made.

Jumping into the IFEA Covid Task Force led me to inspiration, at a time when I personally needed it the most. It led to new sponsorship opportunities. New programming. New potential revenue streams. New ways of thinking about things. New problems I had not even been considering when I probably should.

It led to an enhanced friendship with someone I now call my good friend. It led to a potential cross-promotional partnership opportunity with another event in my state. It led to meeting new event professionals and witnessing their expertise. It led to a feeling of community, in a time when we all have been snatched from our own.

Jumping in to both the Foundation Board and the Covid Task Force took initiative. It is a commitment both in time and money. We all lead busy, full lives. It is in our nature as event organizers, as people who bring people together. No doubt this translates into your personal lives as it does mine. Always the party planner, always the initiator for the next group meet up.

It is scary sometimes to jump in, to volunteer to be a part of something or to lead. You wonder if you will be accepted - if you are good enough. You see others, who seem so much brighter, so much more well-suited for the task at hand.

I am here to tell you that it IS worth the risk to ask to be invited to the table. To jump in. To say yes. Take charge of what you want to be, where you want to go. Seize opportunities that come your way, opportunities that enter your in-box. Even if you don’t quite yet foresee where that opportunity will lead you. I say if it is with people you want in your life, or knowledge that you could potentially learn from, or just simply a new experience, say yes.

This applies to anything in your life, but especially with the IFEA. What a treasure of information, wisdom, and guidance awaits you…if you will just put yourself out there.

Sometimes all it takes is one handwritten note.

If you like what you read, please follow along in each issue of ie. Magazine for this IFEA member’s perspective on how to Prune & Bloom your way to a more beautiful life and career. Like most good things in life, getting to the blooming stage of your goals (both professionally and personally), take some pruning and work - Prune & Bloom will be blossoming with tips, tricks, and best practices to get you there. See you in the next edition!

Alison Baringer English. CFEE is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Azalea Festival. She is a Leadership Wilmington graduate of 2013 and was President of the Junior League of Wilmington in 2014-2015. In 2019, Alison was selected into the inaugural class of the WilmingtonBiz 100, an initiative of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal to recognize the top power players, influencers, innovators, and connectors in the region. The Star News selected Alison as a Top 40 Under 40 business leader in 2020. Alison currently serves on the International Festival and Events Association (IFEA) Foundation Board as Chair-Elect and the UNC-Wilmington Alumni Board on the Executive Committee in the role of Secretary.

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