CWA Blog Archive-How To Throw The Best Member Appreciation Events

How To Throw The Best Member Appreciation Events

Pdf Summary

This is Part 1 of a two-part series on member appreciation events, anchored by the philosophy of Nick Muffet, Marketing &amp; Community Director at Rock Mill Climbing in Akron, Ohio, that climbing is all about community. Regular member appreciation events exist to make members feel welcome, engaged, and excited to be part of the gym's community, something more important than ever amid the pandemic. The article surveys the range of such events, from occasional free-pizza-and-beer nights (trickier to run during COVID) to speaker series and special member climbing comps (both easier to adapt for the COVID era). Its central insight, drawn from the experts interviewed, is that a successful event is not so much about what your event entails as how you go about it. The first tip is to get creative and collaborative, and specifically to look to staff for inspiration. Will Jung, Assistant Manager at True North Climbing in Toronto, says their inspiration mostly comes from staff, who may have attended similar events at other gyms or sports or have ideas for something new and creative. Logan Wilcoxson, owner of Little Rock Climbing Center in Arkansas, agrees, candidly admitting he mostly steals ideas from other people, endorsing the practice of borrowing and adapting proven concepts. The throughline is that great member appreciation events, essential for building the community at the heart of climbing, succeed based on how thoughtfully they're executed rather than their specific format, and that staff creativity and borrowed inspiration are key sources of good ideas. Because community-building matters especially during the pandemic when member loyalty is precious, gyms should invest in appreciation events, adapting formats like comps and speaker series to COVID constraints while recognizing that execution matters more than concept. By tapping staff, who bring ideas from other gyms and sports, and freely borrowing successful concepts from others, gyms can generate creative, collaborative events without reinventing the wheel. Muffet's community philosophy frames the whole endeavor: events are about making members feel they belong. For operators, Part 1 establishes both the why (community and member engagement) and the how (creative, collaborative, staff-sourced, execution-focused) of member appreciation events, with Part 2 promising specific successful examples.

Asset Caption

Part 1 of a member appreciation series argues events succeed based on how you execute them, not what they are, and that community is climbing's core. Experts advise getting creative and collaborative by tapping staff for ideas and freely borrowing proven concepts from other gyms, adapting formats like comps and speaker series to COVID constraints.