This year, NRPA has reminded us that the park and recreation profession is Where You Belong. There is no better place to showcase this theme than at the NRPA Annual Conference.
The NRPA Annual Conference has played a critical role in some of my most important professional decisions since attending for the first time in 2018 in Indianapolis. As a firm believer of professional development during my whole career, I engaged in many conversations to advocate within my organization, the City of Fort Worth (COFW), to take advantage of the NRPA platform to develop our staff, resulting in a couple of us being sent to Indianapolis that year. In that first experience, I was mostly a passive, solitary soul navigating through the awesomeness of this stage on my own, but absorbing like a sponge every detail of the experience and the information presented on the sessions.
I decided right there in Indianapolis that I was going to do three things: 1) Double down on my advocacy efforts within my organization to ensure we get significant representation in the future 2) Increase my networking efforts at future events to connect with professionals from across the nation 3) Become an active contributor of the profession as a whole — including to present, not just attend, at the NRPA Annual Conference.
My next conference was in Phoenix in 2022. This year was special because Hispanic Professionals in Parks and Recreation (HPPR), a network I am a founding member of, was just created that summer and officially launched at this conference. Armed, primarily, with a Facebook group as a marketing tool, me and my fellow board members gathered a group of about 40 like-minded professionals in one of the hallways to introduce them to this new networking group and present our immediate plans with it.
Members of Hispanic Professionals in Parks and Recreation gather at the 2022 NRPA Annual Conference in Phoenix.
Last year in Dallas, I began harvesting some of the seeds sown. I was able to accomplish my goal to co-present for the first time, and I did it twice: a session about programming for seniors and another one about HPPR, now a year since its formation. As an organization, HPPR grew in presence by hosting not only a packed session, but also a roundtable with close to 100 attendees and a social. If that is not enough, I proudly witnessed two of my staff at the COFW that I had mentored for years present, as well. Lastly, I was appointed and started serving on the National Certification Board (NCB), an honor that I can attribute, in part, to the intentional efforts to build professional connections within the field, and that should result in an even larger network expansion.
Eric López and his co-presenters speaking at the 2023 NRPA Annual Conference in Dallas.
The 2024 NRPA Annual Conference in Atlanta will represent another turning point in my career, both as an individual and as a part of the organizations I represent. The City of Fort Worth Park & Recreation Department will be evaluated and voted for its CAPRA accreditation after two years of hard work by our team. Fortunately, nowadays we have way more than a couple staff from our department attending the conference — we sent close to 20 individuals to Dallas and we expect to have a similar representation this year.
I will be presenting again in Atlanta — this time in historic fashion. My session “Conexión Multicultural: Opportunity Is Calling, Will You Be Ready to Answer?” will be the first ever session completely in Spanish and will be available both on-site (on Thursday, October 10 at 10:30 a.m. EDT in Room B403) and online through the on-demand platform. Two catalysts drove embarking on this challenge: 1) The influence and impact reached by HPPR and 2) Watching NRPA chair and HPPR advisory council member, Jesús Aguirre, proudly address the audience in Spanish at the beginning of his opening session speech in Dallas.
This is my journey so far at the NRPA Annual Conference. Yours will be different as your path, goals and inspiration are as unique as mine are. A record of almost 9,000 people decided to gather in Dallas last year looking to — like me — be inspired to make turning point professional decisions that will take our careers to the next level for the benefit of the communities we serve. Just like them and me, you belong there, too. I look forward to connecting with you and celebrating you, because the NRPA Annual Conference is Where You Belong.
Let’s keep the conversation going:
What are you looking forward to taking away from the 2024 NRPA Annual Conference?
If you have attended before, how have you been inspired and what advice do you have for first-timers? Leave your responses in the comment section.
See you in Atlanta!
Eric López, CPRE, is the District Superintendent for City of Fort Worth Park & Recreation Department / Recreation Division. He has served in the field of parks and recreation for 17 years, including the last 10 at the City of Forth, Texas. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Eric currently serves as a District Superintendent in the Recreation division, as the Vice Chair of Hispanic Professionals in Park & Recreation (HPPR) and as a board member at NRPA’s National Certification Board (NCB). Email Eric or connect with him on LinkedIn.