SWEL Summer Summit 2026
SWEL (Suncoast Wedding and Events Leaders) is a really impressive organization because it is local only. A lot of wedding industry associations are national and they have local chapters, but because SWEL is local only, it’s a small business just like the members.
The SWEL community is so tight knit, and I think that is because the founder, Jordan Heller, is an experienced wedding pro himself. And even though he is the first person to say he's a little shy, he is really welcoming and warm and just a good neighbor.
SWEL hosts their Summer Summit every year as an included perk for their annual members, but anyone in the area can attend. Jordan has more than 300 members and there were 285 people in the room for this event, which I think is a huge testament to the success of not just the Summer Summit, but of his community as a whole.
All the great talks
I felt the event itself was incredible because all of the speakers backed each other up. I don’t mean that in a “we all said the same thing” way. There were a variety of points, but all of the speakers in general were talking about how to elevate your business. Everyone in the room could find something that they felt was applicable to them, like getting more sales, becoming more efficient, or standing in your own authority and authenticity. Whatever it was, everyone had something to walk away with that they felt confident would move their business forward. It was just really fun to see how well Jordan put that event together where each of those things lined up so nicely.
In case you were wondering, I spoke about using your words to make more money, which, of course, everybody wants to do. You can see my whole talk in the video below. One of my favorite moments in this video is when someone specifically mentions how my talk gave them an ‘aha!’ moment. They left that day and went and updated their website because of it.
Thank you so much to Jordan! I hope I get to go back one day.
