AEE Karl Rohnke Creativity Award

Karl Rohnke Creativity Award 2025

At this year’s annual conference for the Association of Experiential Education, I was honoured to be awarded the Karl Rohnke Creativity Award for 2025. Yep, feeling pretty humble (and proud) right now.

Referencing the AEE website, I have learned that…

This award is presented to an individual whose outstanding commitment to experiential education principles is evidenced through the design, creation and/or production of experiential education resources.

The award originated in 1997 and was named after Karl Rohnke. Karl was an innovative teacher and program developer. His creative and experiential facilitation style laid the foundations for adventure program development for individual and team growth in schools, colleges, corporations, camps, therapy, and elder education. Play, challenge, fun, and laughter were tools he used to enhance learning experiences, whether in indoor or outdoor settings.

Sadly, I was unable to attend the conference to receive the award (this week,) so I recorded the following message to be broadcast during the awards ceremony.

Thank You Speech (Transcript)

First, thank you to the AEE for this tremendous honour.

I wish I could be there in person, but apparently even creativity has its limits – it can’t solve international logistics.

Second, receiving the Karl Rohnke Creativity Award feels both surreal and oddly fitting. Karl was my most influential mentor, which, if you know anything about Karl’s influence, is a bit like saying “I once had a brief conversation with gravity.”

Karl taught me so many things, but especially that “a good idea doesn’t care who it belongs to” – which is perfect, because I’ve been shamelessly borrowing his ideas for 36+ years.

He also championed the whimsical acronym – FUNN: Functional Understanding Not Necessary. And honestly, that acronym has broken through more crossed arms and furrowed brows in my programs worldwide than I care to admit.

I think Karl would have appreciated the irony of a creativity award. He’d probably say something like, “Creativity isn’t something you win – it’s something you trip over while you’re looking for your car keys, or something.”

So, to my peers – you’ve been my tribe, my sounding board, and my favourite co-conspirators. Whatever creativity you have seen in me, in playmeo, in my books, or in those team-building tools I have created, it all came from the same playground we’ve built together.

Karl died in 2020, and I know he’d be simultaneously proud and slightly embarrassed by all this fuss today. So let me end the way he might: with gratitude for the play, the laughter, and the privilege of helping people interact, connect and grow together through experiential education.

Here’s to Karl, and to all of you.

Thank you.