Much like the event he’s become synonymous with, Tom Poberezny’s involvement with the Experimental Aircraft Association is hard to put into words. As AirVenture 2005 begins Monday, Poberezny will once again mingle in with hundreds of thousands of people to watch, listen and note what’s done well, what can be improved and what’s missing from the total AirVenture experience. It’s been this way for 30 years now when he first became chairman of AirVenture.
“The thing we’ve been able to do over the years is respond to our own observations, but balance that with the observations of others with active involvement to continually improve the convention,” Poberezny said. “To be quite honest, the standard hasn’t changed in probably three decades, but the expectations of how that standard is applied has because we live in a different world now.”
Since Poberezny became AirVenture chairman in 1975 and EAA President in 1989, EAA’s signature event and influence on the aviation industry has grown and changed with the times. When the Concorde captured imaginations in the 80s, it landed at Wittman Regional Airport. Now that White Knight and SpaceShipOne and GlobalFlyer have vaulted imaginations into space and set new records, AirVenture visitors will get their chance to see them this coming week.
“As chairman, my role has been to provide the leadership, and I’m proud that the event speaks for itself,” he said. “I’m not here to take credit for myself, but I’m proud to have been put in the situation to help bring together a lot of outstanding leadership and ideas and to put it into what I believe is aviation’s premier event.”
That flexibility and ability to bring elements from all segments of the aviation industry has made AirVenture – and Poberezny – a success, “Flying” magazine Editor in Chief Mac McClellan said.
“The rest of the industry sees Oshkosh and AirVenture and EAA overall as the great unifying force because it’s the only air show or association that represents and organizes all aspects of aviation,” McClellan said. “Every segment of activity is now represented where 30 years ago, the event was more dominated by light airplanes of all sorts.”
AirVenture now represents about 30 percent of EAA’s annual income of about $10 million according to income tax exemption filings, though the organization has lost about $1.1 million in 2002 and 2003 after a $254,000 gain in 2001.
Poberezny attributes those losses to an organizational restructuring and strong emphasis on EAA’s role as an educational outlet beyond its Young Eagles program since the late 1990s.
“Some of those programs, as you do that, you find out which ones will have more impact long-term, and so we’ve now established ourselves as a leader in educational outreach for youths and adults,” he said. “Those years of investment are being converted into operational execution.”
The economic impact on Oshkosh of having AirVenture here has grown to $73 million spent at hotels, restaurants, taverns, stores and other retail outlets last year, according to tourism figures, even as attendance has begun to flatten out in the past several years.
AirVenture has grown from about 35,000 annual attendees in the 70s to about 350,000 attendees over the course of the seven-day event. EAA estimates nearly 750,000 people attend each year because it counts each day a person attends AirVenture as a separate admission. Attendance has largely stayed the same in the past several years and EAA responded in 2003 and into 2004 by restructuring its foundation and endowment.
“As you’re a growing organization, you have to make sure your growth is focused in the direction your constituency, your members, your people that support you want you to go,” Poberezny said.
What gets lost in the translation, Poberezny argues, is the full experience of EAA from the moment the gates open at 8 a.m. to the time the grounds close and beyond. It’s the central focus of EAA’s efforts to encourage “passionate participation,” Poberezny said.
“Oshkosh is one of those unique events that, to fully understand and describe it, you have to be here,” he said. “You can’t totally put it in pictures, you can’t totally put that in words. It’s the whole atmosphere and excitement of the event.”
Over the years, Poberezny has focused his attention on even the smallest details at AirVenture: from traffic jams to the condition of the grounds to pedestrian traffic flow in an effort to improve every detail of the annual convention. But in the past several years, he’s left those details to others and focused on guests and members’ overall experience.
At the core of that effort has been to remain with the times and to ensure people want to come back because of positive experiences.
“Our focus has been on engaging the entire family, not just one person,” he said. “I can’t do all the things I physically used to do. I still monitor things, but I’m not actively involved there as much as I was in the programming and the planning and execution of events on a daily basis.”
McClellan said the commitment to year after year improvements shows.
“Every year, every time a bottleneck or shortcoming is identified, it’s gone by next year,” he said. “It’s just a very well-run operation for a convention of its size.”
Jeff Bollier: (920) 426-6688 or jbollier@thenorthwestern.com
