Antonia Nuzzolo - Director of Technology, Eagle Management Group
While it is a charming idea that strong leaders were destined at birth for their roles, the truth is the path to leadership requires learning, determination, practice, and support. In the trade show industry, many future leaders, myself included, have received this support and development through the EDPA. In this blog post, I will briefly share my path of leadership development through the EDPA in hopes to inspire our next class of future leaders.
The EDPA has chapters (broken up geographically) as well as committees (whose group focuses on a specific goal, such as promoting sustainability.) Each of these groups has leadership opportunities, both formal or informal roles, for those looking to level up their involvement. My exposure to these groups began when I joined the SoCal EDPA Chapter as the Vice President and later took on the President role. In this position, I organized the team of board members to delegate and ensure the completion of various responsibilities, helped to present in meetings, navigated a temporary chapter marriage between SoCal and NorCal during the pandemic to unite our mission, and more. The skills I honed in this position improved my contributions in my actual job; I was more confident in capturing attention during presentations, identifying and empathizing with stakeholders of projects, and guiding teams to the completion of tasks (such as testing a software piece in record time.) What I have learned through my involvement with the EDPA has always been useful to me in my career.
Over the next months, I built a website for the Texas chapter, entered the Sustainability Committee, and notably joined the Future Leaders Committee. The FL Committee focuses on supporting and recognizing young industry professionals who prove or wish to develop themselves as leaders so joining was a no-brainer! I was honored to be inducted into the FL Class of 2021 and took on a role with the group as Head of Class Communications/Community/Awards. I am very excited about the work we’re doing in our FL group; our upcoming year holds talks with key industry professionals, special networking sessions, circulation of valuable resources, and more.
As you can see, the EDPA has really paved the path of leadership for young professionals like myself. It provides opportunities to lead that no 25-year-old could easily find in a job. Getting involved in the EDPA gives you a taste of the C-Suite so that you will be ready for such a role in the future. To those looking to get engaged, I highly recommend joining the Future Leaders LinkedIn group to learn about and attend our events. It’s a great first step towards growing yourself as a future leader. To those looking to recognize a future leader, look out for Future Leader Award nominations. An investment in our industry’s youth is an investment in our industry’s future.
Join EDPA’s Future Leaders Group on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12529351/
