LUCERNE, Calif. – Dozens of local leaders and business people gathered in Lucerne on Friday to consider new ways of pursuing prosperity – both personal and professional – as well as economic vitality.
The inaugural Lake Leadership Summit took place at Friday at Marymount California University's Lakeside Campus.
The sold-out event focused on collaboration, innovation, harnessing community and individual resources, and changing the conversation in – and about – Lake County.
Organizers said the goal isn't just business success, but the broader goal of a thriving, dynamic community.
Michelle Scully, executive director of Marymount California University's Lucerne campus, welcomed the group on behalf of the Regional Economic Development Committee that created the summit.
The group also is responsible for putting up a chalk walk in Lakeport – with other similar walls planned in other areas of the county – to capture positive input about Lake County.
The newly renovated Lucerne Hotel, which this semester opened for undergraduate studies as Marymount's third campus, was the ideal setting for the inaugural event, according to Scully.
“I think it's fitting that we're here to this beautiful building, which is a testament to an audacious vision,” she said, wondering what the building's developers were thinking when they constructed it in the 1920s.
She called the building an amazing blend of history and state-of-the-art technology, which now offers a place for Lake County residents to come and complete four-year degrees without having to leave home.
Scully thanked the county of Lake, the Lucerne Hotel's owner, for its efforts to renovate the building. “I hope we can all look around today and say, 'It was worth it'.”
In looking at the needs of business, Scully said her research focused on leadership, with a view to making not just businesses strong but improving the county both economically and socially.
“I've always found that when you step out in a big way, it's usually worth it,” she said.
Scully said everyone in the room has heard Lake County slammed in one way of the other, and that they were tired of it.
“We're ready to start a new conversation. Who agrees with that?” she asked, with a big round of applause the response.
She emphasized Lake County's rich natural and human resources, noting that it was the community's residents who won her over when she first moved here.
The summit, she said, is about capturing the love of Lake County.
Alan Flora, the county of Lake's deputy administrative officer and one of the summit's organizers, aid the Regional Economic Development Committee formed about a year or year and a half ago, and is composed of people from all over Lake County.
“We really want everyone at the table,” he said.
The ultimate goal, said Flora, is to help businesses grow and become a magnet for attracting visitors.
As the group looked at what they wanted to accomplish, they knew they needed an event, as well as ways to change the conversation, Flora said.
Building a world-class destination
Another of the event's organizers, Rebecca Southwick of Sutter Lakeside Hospital introduced David Woolson, president and chief executive officer of the Walla Walla Valley Chamber of Commerce, which was formed in 1875.
Southwick said she had heard about Walla Walla, Wash.'s transformation into a world-class wine destination and she wondered how they did it. So she reached out to Woolson, who agreed to be the summit's keynote speaker.
Woolson congratulated the group for a fabulous “first-out-of-the-gate” event.
His presentation was titled, “How a sleepy ag community changed its rep and became a world destination for wine drinkers.”
Walla Walla sits on the Oregon border “in the middle of nowhere,” said Woolson. Lewis and Clark passed through the area on their way home in 1805. It also was the site of the 1847 Whitman Massacre and was for a time the territorial capital of Washington.
Its primary agricultural crop is wheat, with Walla Walla sweet onions – the official state vegetable – being another crop. There also is a prison there dating from the 1880s that employs 1,100 people, a large Veterans Affairs medical facility and three colleges, Woolson said.
Walla Walla has become a world-class wine destination, with 145 wineries. Its American Viticultural Area was established 30 years ago, and it's known for its red wines, according to Woolson.
Woolson said a recently completed economic impact study shows a $600 million impact into economy from the wine industry. By 2022, 20 percent of all jobs in Walla Walla will be connected to the wine industry.
The area's winemakers approach their work with a sense of collaboration, sharing equipment and working together collectively to build a market, he said. At the same time, Walla Walla Community College has established a great enology program.
There is a thriving arts and music community, as well as a growing food scene populated by a number of James Beard award-winning chefs, he said.
Woolson, who worked in the film industry before returning to southern Washington, where he was born and raised, took over the chamber four years ago after it had been “in a deep coma” for a decade. He said he gave it a good hard shake.
“I'm a fan of what you're trying to do here,” he said.
He spoke about economic development projects under way in Walla Walla, including expansion of the fiber backbone, for which the city was named a Top 21 Intelligent Community, chosen from among 360 communities worldwide.
In comparing Lake County and the Walla Walla area, he said they are very similar in population, location and economy.
Keys to Walla Walla's success include collaboration, product development, thinking big, authenticity, promotions and having a strategic plan, which Woolson urged everyone to have both for their businesses and personally, noting that “a miracle happens when you write stuff down.”
Such plans, he said, create focus, force a person or business owner to ask themselves tough questions, and establish both priorities and metrics to measure progress.
Woolson suggested the following strategy questions:
1. What is in my toolkit?
2. Who is a friend and who is a foe?
3. What alliance and joint ventures can be built to help develop, executive and promote the strategy?
4. Anchor or propeller? Is a person, thing or activity propelling you forward or pulling you down?
5. How do you define success?
6. Fact or fiction – are you using good data for making decisions?
7. Where is the gate in this fence? (This is about finding solutions and overcoming obstacles.)
8. What is my feedback loop?
9. What are your three wishes – personally and professionally?
10. How do I promote the strategy and why should anyone care?
Woolson also offered his top tips to thrive and survive:
– It is better to make the wrong decision too early than the right one too late.
– Things are rarely as they seem.
– Stand for something.
– Solve other people’s problems before asking them to solve yours.
– Believe in yourself (but not your press releases).
– Live in the moment. The past is gone and the future isn't here yet.
– Ask yourself: What's the worst thing that can happen?
Creating ambassadors
Maureen McElroy, a certified tourism ambassador for Sonoma County Tourism Ambassadors, spoke about the certification program, which has 10,000 ambassadors nationwide.
Certification follows a four-hour class. She said the goal is to turn every visitor experience into a positive one, with the goal of inspiring people.
In the case of Sonoma County, more than 13,000 people visit daily, she said; double that number is how many opportunities the service industry has to make a good contact.
In the context of service, the person standing in front of you is the most important person in your life at that moment, she said. The willingness to focus on people and their needs can result in a transformative experience and make a difference in the lives of people who choose to travel to an area.
McElroy said visitors are vulnerable in new surroundings and need to feel safe and secure. They also want to be made to feel special and important. Just the act of remembering someone's name can make a huge difference and establish a sense of trust.
Following McElroy's talk, Flora announced that the county has researched the certified tourism ambassador program and wants to do it here in Lake County, with money included in the county budget to support the program in this fiscal year.
He said the county is working to finalize a partnership with Marymount California University to administer the program, with the contracts expected to go before the Board of Supervisors in the next few weeks.
As the largest employer in the county, the county of Lake said it believes it can make an impact with the program, and so has included in its budget enough to send at least 200 county employees through the program.
Other highlights of the day included a “speed dating” breakout session in which summit participants introduced themselves and their organizations or businesses to each other and looked for ways to collaborate.
An example offered of “arranged marriages” in local business was Carve Pilates and Mendo Lake SUP, which have collaborated to offer unique, on-the-lake exercise classes.
During lunch, Susan Jen of the Health Leadership Network discussed Lake County's selection in August as one of five “Wellville” communities nationwide. The goal is to produce visible improvements in several measures of health and economic vitality over the next five years.
Jen said it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, with a lot of community partnerships needed to succeed.
Other presentations included Robert Freedman, senior marketing director for Bay Area-based Focus Financial Partners, who discussed how to succeed on various social media platforms, and showings of a Ted Talk lecture by Rachel Botsman on the currency of the new economy and screening of a portion of “For the Love of Cities” featuring Pete Kageyama.
The event wrapped mid-afternoon, with participants offered the chance to pursue fun activities including a haunted walking tour in Lakeport, a Lake County scavenger hunt and a pirate's “bootycycle” tour of Kelseyville.
“It's been great,” Flora said of the day. “We feel really fortunate that you all came out to have this conversation with us.”
He said the organizers hoped those who participated loved Lake County even more after the summit.
Visit the group online at www.embracethelake.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/embracethelake .
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.