COMMUNITY MATTERS.

The fabric of our community is woven by the events we attend, and Twyla Lapointe believes deeply in the importance of creating, growing, and maintaining communities. The keys to community building are simple: proximity, shared experiences - and often, laughter. Event experiences Twyla creates are shaped by these principles - we get together, we do something memorable and fun, and we laugh.

Life-Long Event Lover

The first recorded instance of Twyla planning her own event is an invitation to the Kitchen Table for a party she planned - from the early 90s when she was a little girl. (When she finds it again, she promises to take a photograph and feature it here!) The love affair with events, parties, and all manner of entertainment began young, with her Grandma (pictured here, with fascinator) as her event-running hero, creating games from scratch for friends and family.

Throughout her first career as a self-employed event photographer, Twyla worked at hundreds of events of all sizes, styles, and levels of effective engagement - the good, the exceptional, the bad, and the truly ugly. Through that process and her own experience, she developed a keen understanding of all aspects of events.

Professional Experience

After attending the Canada Photo Convention in 2013, she quickly rose from volunteer to co-manager of the event and continued until shortly before the company closed in 2016. In early February 2020, as the sole Event Manager, Twyla ran the Value Builder Summit 2020. In 2023-2024, she was the Manager at the non-profit Polish Hall, conceptualizing and executing their New Years Eve bash as well as performing all duties as Director of Operations for a busy banquet hall.

As a professional event manager, she has managed logistics for seven multi-day destination conferences in Canada and the USA. In volunteer capacity, she has managed event logistics in both self-performing and team contexts all over Canada for over 20 years.

Professional Development

Twyla brings with her a wealth of experience and is committed to continue to develop her skills. She has recieved certification in the Event Management Program at NAIT in February 2023 - having taken more classes than required for the program in the pursuit of knowledge. Her future plans are to achieve her CSEP designation through the International Live Events Association (ILEA) as well as attending their local Edmonton Chapter. In addition, she attends the annual GO WEST Conference for Event Professionals on a yearly basis. A self-labeled "Conference Junkie" she has always attended professional and personal development events - typically 3-5 a year. You can always expect the finest in technology and developing event methodology from Twyla.

Personal Projects

Twyla has been one to create communties as her main hobby. In the past, she founded Casual Cycling YEG, the Edmonton Catholic Archdiocese’ Young Adult Leaders Working Group (YALWG), and was a founding moderator of the Reddit community Families You Choose which has over 22,000 members today.

While those projects have ended now, these days you can find her working on more personal projects, such as hosting lavish Tea Parties, adapting commercial murder mystery parties for large groups, hosting mini-Carnivals, and most recently, creating game shows like Task King.

Twyla is a self-professed nerd who plays Dungeons and Dragons with her dice hoard as often as possible. When she’s not growing communities or fighting imaginary monsters with magic, you can find her making wreaths from reclaimed materials or green-thumbing with houseplants and gardening year round.