DIRECTOR’S DESK
GAWDA Participation Continues to Grow BY JOHN OSPINA
A John Ospina is GAWDA’s executive director. He can be reached at GAWDA Headquarters in Hollywood, FL, via telephone at 844-251-3219 or via email at jospina@gawda.org.
10 • Fall 2021
ll of GAWDA’s face-to-face meetings have seen strong support from our members this year. Members are back! The Spring Management Conference closed with 702 attendees, which was the highest attended SMC in ten years. This year also saw the return of our Regional Meetings. The three regional meetings were also well attended. You can see the full recap beginning on page 58. The Annual Convention continues to grow. At the time this article was written, registration stood at more than 700 attendees, 104 booths and our committee activities were all sold out. Nearly 100 participants had signed up for the 3-TWO-1 Reception, which is held for attendees that have gone to three or fewer national meetings. With a month to go before Convention, we fully expect that this will be an event to remember. You can read more about the activities planned on page 50. While there is no replacement for personal interaction between members, digital meetings and content continues to have strong support from our members. It offers a convenient and low-cost way to get timely information and training to more member company employees. Many of our online webinars are free and, whenever possible, we record them and keep them archived on the GAWDA Members Only site. If there is an online event that you can’t make it too, the recordings and information are always available online later. I’d like to challenge each and every one of you to come up with at least one new person in your organization that might benefit from offerings like the Consultant’s Roundtable, the ITR Economic Updates, Sales Training Webinars or any of the other online events that are scheduled through
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2021 ANNUAL CONVENTION
the end of this year and all throughout next year. These events are promoted through the GAWDA Connection Newsletter and in member email blasts. If you have employees that are not on our email list, all you have to do is email Andrea Levy at alevy@gawda.org with the subject line “Please add us to the mailing list.” Please include your company name, the individual’s name, title, and email address. That’s it! All of our online events, as well as our face-to-face meetings can also be found on our website under the “Events” tab. If you have employees without company email addresses, they can access GAWDA TV Episodes by going to Google and typing “GAWDA TV episodes.” They can do this at their leisure, and it will give them a general understanding of what is going on in the industry and what benefits and offerings GAWDA provides to keep them engaged and involved. I hope more of you continue to take advantage of the wealth of information and support GAWDA offers through our online portal and webinar offerings. Get ahead of the pack by staying engaged and informed. As always, thank you for your continued participation in GAWDA.
