As the calendar turns to October, the month of the 2020 Bank of America Chicago Marathon Virtual Experience, the ECT Pod has on David Waskowski, Director of Participant Services for Chicago Event Management, organizers of the Chicago Marathon. Before you read any more of the summary of what was truly an interesting and insightful interview, please listen to the ECT Pod jingle(!) that our talented guest wrote for and shared with us after recording!
David is a lifelong runner, and the guys wax nostalgic with him about running cross country before this industry veteran walks us through his career path at CEM, the early days of which included a job Tony can commiserate with him about: flyering the Chicago Marathon course. David shares the most Chicago story ever from his days doing race operations--getting approval to place a tent outside a union hall where whoever answered the phone didn't have any time for nonsense. He explains his transition from the race operations side to the experience side, and along the way tells us about the biggest changes he has seen in the industry over his decade-and-a-half of varied experience at an industry leading event management company.
The interview then veers into the esoteric, as Tony and Eli ask their guest of many talents about his much-ballyhooed musical gifts, comedy chops, and whether he has any other super powers that they should know about (he demurs). As inevitably happens when anyone learns that someone plays the banjo, a long digression into David's banjo-pickin' ways occurs. Wazko also shares some insight into the musical breakthrough he has made due to the regular deep practice the pandemic has created space for for him, which is something we all can and should learn from.
There have been some interesting projects going on at CEM recently, and David shares his perspective on a couple big ones: the inaugural Bank of America Chicago 13.1, a major event that planned to bring racing to a new part of Chicago that was planned for this past June but ultimately was canceled due to the pandemic. And the aforementioned Bank of America Chicago Marathon Virtual Experience, which takes a different tactic than many virtual races by opening up new virtual distances to all comers but limiting access to its longest event--the virtual marathon--to only existing registrants.
David, a loyal Early Riser, is prepared for the final question and tells us about his end-of-day on-site ritual of cheering in final finishers (and becoming an unofficial photographer) and then, after taking advantage of the running water at the after-party before ghosting, settling in with some fellow Cheesehead buddies to watch a Packers game.
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