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Fiveon the Fly by Rebecca Groom Jacobs
1. Can you describe your current role and responsibilities with EAA?
As director of communications, my role is developing and distributing EAA’s messaging to external parties, which is a very long list. Along with our 220,000 members, there
is the aviation media and community, but EAA’s wide reach also includes connecting with the non-flying public about EAA programs and activities such as AirVenture, Young Eagles and the EAA Aviation Museum. I assist every department at EAA headquarters with communications needs, and my role encompasses communications with the local community and state.
EAA, unlike many D.C.-based aviation associations, is a highly visible organization to the public in Oshkosh and Wisconsin. For example, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is one
of Wisconsin’s biggest tourism events in visitor numbers and economic impact. I also coordinate the media at AirVenture, which means more than 900 media representatives from six continents as well as more than 75 news conferences and media events.
2. Can you provide a general overview of the timeline, team and moving POSITION: parts behind the show each year?
WHO:
Dick Knapinski
EAA Director
of Communications AirVenture timeline. As soon as one year’s event concludes, we’re already planning the
HOME BASE:
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
RATINGS:
Private Pilot Certificate
next year. Sometimes we’re working two or three years ahead. As a general rule, around June 1 each year, there is no more planning – we move to full execution mode.
The more than 5,000 volunteers at AirVenture each year are what Jack Pelton calls the “secret sauce” – they make it happen. We need every one of them for this event to work. You get some idea of all the moving parts involved when you consider all that occurs within one week at Oshkosh when we host the world’s largest fly-in, one of the biggest annual aviation trade shows with more than 800 exhibitors, nine air shows, a $2 million- plus fundraising event, an educational conference with more than 1,000 seminars and workshops and a campground with 40,000 people.
3. This month, EAA celebrates 50 years of AirVenture in Oshkosh. How has the show evolved since 1970? How has it remained the same?
Like anything else that has been around for 50-plus years, it must constantly evolve. AirVenture has become a magnet for all things aviation. The growth seen in the 1980s
16 • TWIN & TURBINE / July 2019
Grab a chair because this might take a while. There is never a start or finish to the