Leadership Livingston

On Friday, I attended my monthly Leadership Livingston program. Leadership Livingston is a series of sessions designed to expand the community leadership potential existing in Livingston County. The program was initiated by Cleary and the Brighton and Howell Chambers of Commerce in 1992 and modeled after similar leadership development programs operating successfully across the country. It is designed to bring together individuals with diverse backgrounds and experience who have demonstrated a talent for and a commitment to leadership.

This year's program started up in September and runs through May. Each month, we learn about a different sector of the community, about leadership and about strategic planning. I have loved every minute of LL so far and Friday's session (Economic & Business) was no exception.

We started out at St. Joseph Mercy Livingston Hospital in Howell where Mike Markel discussed recent and upcoming changes to health care in the county. His presentation was followed by Mary Ellen Aria who owns Aria Booksellers, LLC and Kim Dane of Tanger Outlet Mall who spoke about small business and corporations, respectively. After their presentation, we were introduced to Gary McCrire who is the Genoa Township Supervisor. I actually never knew what a township supervisor did, but I do now! Gary was very open and friendly and it was interesting learning about the ins and outs of running a township.

We then heard from Kevin Schingeck of Keller Williams and Danielle Boote of US Bank who gave us a very thorough overview of the real estate and mortgage situations in the county, as well as a forecast for the future. I found this presentation particularly interesting because my fiance and I are looking to possibly buy a house (after mine sells!) in the area.

After lunch at Tomato Bros. (yum!), we headed over to Datapak Services Corporation which, to be honest, I didn't even know existed...but what a place! According to their website: Datapak Services Corporation is a leading marketing and order fulfillment solutions company, offering technology-driven services to its customers for over 20 years. A turnkey, fully integrated operation, Datapak processes orders and provides critical campaign reports all in real-time. The facility itself is extremely impressive and there, we met with Frank Kinney, the CFO, who talked about how the business started and about the 2006 move to their new headquarters in Howell. He also gave us a little tour of the main floor of their warehouse and I have to say, you could eat off of their floors it was so clean. Very impressive.

While at Datapak, we also heard from Pat Convery of the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce and Jeff Doyle of Rescue LLC who spoke about the county's economy and what they are doing to bring more business to Howell. They were followed by Barb Barden of the Livingston County Conventions & Visitors Bureau who certainly sold me on this area! My fiance and I are both from small towns and we want to raise our family in that same type of small town atmosphere...where we can bring our kids to local festivals, programs, etc. It seems as if we have it all in Livingston County!

Unfortunately because of my physical therapy schedule, I had to miss the last presentor, Mark Cryderman, a renewal energy advocate. Mark is also an adjunct faculty in Cleary's M.B.A. in Green Business Strategy and he has helped me out with a press release in the past. It's nice to put a name to a face.

All-in-all, I really feel as if I get a lot out of the Leadership Livingston program...however, I am always exhausted after such a full day!