There’s a new episode of The Community Strategy Podcast, and I’m excited to introduce today’s guest, Eli Walker! She designs events and programs that build play into belonging in the modern world. She shows how to use play to allow more engaging meetings.
Eli has a BFA in Theater from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is the founder and author of Drunk Yoga® (now The Uplift Experience). Eli pioneered the wellness entertainment movement. She aimed to bridge the gap between #selfcare and #communitycare through her social yoga events.
Since then, she has used immersive storytelling and mindfulness practices to support tens of thousands of individuals. She has also supported hundreds of institutions across the globe. These include NYU and Columbia University, as well as Barclay’s, eBay, Intel, Google, Pinterest, and Mastercard. Her work helps build meaningful belonging for people and their teams in our modern, remote world. She achieves this by leveraging the art of play in live experience design.
Eli has always loved helping people from different backgrounds get on the same page. Bonus points if she can inspire them to live joyfully. Empowering them with new perspectives is another bonus. It’s even better if she can make them laugh at the same time. When you work with Eli, you can expect to play, move, and laugh. You will walk away feeling empowered with tools to create a more connected world.
During this interview, Eli shares her entrance into the community industry. She describes community-based theater as an immersive performance art. Facilitators and storytellers go into existing communities. They use live storytelling theater. This helps participants tell their stories and bridge sociological barriers.
A few takeaways:
Eli gives tips for community builders who bring people together. Uplift the experience with play by creating moments of laughter and levity to see a new perspective.
Break the rules and make the community optional. Clarify the container, detail the experience, and then give them a choice to join. They need to be accountable for their own experience.
Belonging is about setting up the conditions for belonging to occur. You can’t just put a bunch of people in a room together and then say, “Be a community.” Instead, focus on setting up the conditions to create a shared experience
The best way to start a small meetup is to keep things simple and consistent. Monthly meetings are the norm, but do what is doable for you. Make sure to keep the process the same each time, including posting the links and details in the same place.
