Following the success of the Inaugural Leadership Summit, YOUR Chamber gathered with over 100 elected officials, and business and community leaders for the 2024 event. We brought back popular speaker, author, and community strategist Doug Griffiths, CEO of 13 Ways Inc. to speak on Collaboration, Community, and the Future of OUR Community.
“We made the investment to bring Doug here because we know that collaboration and communication are the cornerstones of building a thriving community in Union County,” shared Union County Chamber President and CEO Pat Kahle.
Change is Challenging
Doug began with an overview of changes that communities across the country have faced over the past 100 years, including the exponential rate of technological advancements in the past few decades and the resistance to change that can exacerbate.
He shared story after story about communities and organizations that were resistant to change to their downfall. Examples included Blockbuster declining to buy Netflix in 2000, and RCA inventing the first flat-screen TV, abandoning the research of it in 1976.
“We don’t like change. But as a society, we adopt change incredibly quickly, and it’s hard to avoid,” Doug shared. “We need to say to ourselves, ‘You know what the world’s going to change, and now I need to figure out a pathway forward.’
What we need in our communities is a renaissance. We need a rebirth. We need a renewal. The pandemic showed us how many people wanted to move out of big cities, to move to smaller communities like this one, because they wanted a connection to people.”
What Makes Union County Unique
The afternoon session of the Leadership Summit focused on helping to foster that renaissance. It included workshop time where attendees worked together at their tables to understand what makes Union County unique.
Some of the ideas discussed included:
- Union County’s strategic location near Charlotte provides companies with easy access to a major urban center while benefiting from lower operational cost. With a strong infrastructure, skilled workforce, and growing population, the area offers great potential for business expansion and talent recruitment.
- Union County has ample opportunities with high-tech manufacturing industries. We have great schools that actually focus on those industries. They have dedicated programs to each of those industries based upon what you want to learn.
- We get a lot of what are called baby-chasers in our community; grandparents who are moving here to be closer to their grandchildren. We have those families and those baby chasers that are leaving the city for that slower pace of life. We’re attracting a lot of them with our recreational amenities, our charming and family-friendly Main Streets that we have across the county, as well as our opportunities for our small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Attendees left the session with a renewed desire to seek ways to collaborate with others to strengthen Union County.
“If everyone in the community was open to hearing opinions of others that didn’t align with their own and did so with an open mind and an open heart, perhaps that is how true change takes place. We all want what is best for our community, and sometimes, for us to win, doesn’t mean someone else has to lose,” shared Nicole Elzayek, Executive Director of Girls on the Run Union County.
Last modified: November 19, 2024
