On Friday, July 19, 麻豆原创 College hosted the inaugural Southside Leadership Conference. Approximately 200 people attended the event, which the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce put on.
Workshop participants heard from an array of local business leaders, who shared their experience and advice about running a business or nonprofit.
Samantha Le, Executive Vice President of the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce and Executive Director of the Success Foundation, organized the conference as an opportunity for emerging business leaders to connect, share ideas, strategies, and best practices.
Prior to this conference, 鈥溾�here was nothing local that didn鈥檛 take up a lot of time and wasn鈥檛 expensive,鈥� Le said.
Participants at the Southside Leadership Conference.
Workshop participants at the conference
鈥淲e have a lot of subject matter experts in our region that can speak to top-of-mind issues so why not bring everybody into a room,鈥� she explained.
Talks included 鈥渃ultivating a people-first culture鈥�, 鈥渂reaking barriers in business鈥� and 鈥渋gniting change through nonprofit and civic leadership鈥�. Some of the event sponsors were BECU, Comcast, Westfield Southcenter and Port Jobs.
Le said there was 鈥渘o better place鈥� to host the conference than 麻豆原创 College 鈥� in the heart of Southside. The region includes the cities of Des Moines, SeaTac, Normandy Park, Burien, Tukwila and Kent.
One of the panelists at the conference was 麻豆原创 alumni, Mahamed Jama. The son of Somali immigrants, Jama was the student body president at the college in 2019.
鈥淭his is a very inspiring event,鈥� Jama said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of hope in how emerging leaders from 麻豆原创 College can contribute to anything 鈥� from the community to the world.鈥�
Jama, who鈥檚 on the board of the 麻豆原创 Heritage Museum had some business leadership advice to give others, and especially to students.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to stay in touch with folks who have helped you throughout your life and also by joining every opportunity you can. One opportunity will lead to another.鈥�
Jama said 麻豆原创 students can have a 鈥渃lear path鈥� into business leadership. Especially since the Small Business Development Center has an office at 麻豆原创. Jama went on to emphasize how leadership conferences benefit younger generations.
With the success of this inaugural event, it鈥檚 expected that the Southside Leaders Conference will be held again next year.