AWE Board Elects To Evolve And Support Mission Through Community Model
April 16, 2020
Over the last five years, AWE’s mission and purpose have been a beacon in the events community – a groundbreaking movement designed to elevate and celebrate the role of anyone who identifies as a woman in the events industry. The founders were resolute in their goals to shed light on disparities, effect the necessary change, have the tough conversations, and be fearless to achieve their purpose on behalf of all women in events. We are very proud of our many achievements fueled by the hard work and tireless commitments of every one of the selfless volunteers who have been integral to AWE’s success.
On March 5, we successfully held our annual ELEVATE! conference at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The 150 participants were uplifted by the inspiring content and recharged to return home with their new knowledge.
And then COVID-19 happened.
Rather than wither in despair, AWE viewed this as an opportunity to create a new community model to better align with our industry’s new normal. The AWE 501(c)(3) was built on a traditional association model, funded by membership dues, live events, partnerships and supplier sponsorships. In our board’s opinion, these revenue channels were not fair or sustainable in this new normal.
Many of our members have been laid off, furloughed, terminated or have taken a salary reduction. The loss of live event revenues has financially devastated our partners and sponsors. We believe it would be irresponsible for AWE to hold our community to their financial commitments when the current unprecedented circumstances would not permit us to deliver on their expected AWE’s value proposition. Additionally, our community has redirected their collective energy to dealing with the fault of the crisis and their own personal priorities.
Therefore, AWE has elected to pivot and proactively shift our energies towards our active online community. Through our social media channels, we will continue to support women, men and organizations with our vision of an inclusive community that empowers, elevates and advocates for all those who identify as women in the events industry, within which they flourish at all levels and in all roles
Effective May 1, our new community model, we will be:
- Refunding Membership dues, paid after January 1, 2020, prorated beginning May 1 – returning those funds when our members need it the most.
- Releasing our partners and sponsors from their 2020 commitments, at a time when they are challenged to endeavor and reimage the future for their company and employees.
- Eliminating all overhead expenses, including the costs of our CRM, marketing agency and administrative support.
- Dissolving the formal infrastructure and sunsetting the current legal association.
We hope that once the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, we will once again be able to meet face-to-face in 2021 and celebrate in new and unexpected ways, just as we did on March 5 this year. Will it look different? We are sure it will and perhaps that is a good thing. We’ve all been changed by this pandemic, but it has proven, together we are stronger.
Marie-Claire Andrews, President