PROz Vice Pres. Colbert Williams L; Juan Roberts; Former PROz Pres., Vivian Komori R.What a Wonderful Afternoon
Last Thursday, I had the most wonderful opportunity to speak before a group of powerful SoCal PR professionals at their monthly speaker's luncheon. The Antelope Valley PROz meets at Eduardo's Restaurant in Palmdale, CA and features a plethora of industry pros.
I was introduced to this organization in April and was asked to speak for their June date. I immediately accepted, having been invited to the group by Vivian Komori, of Komori Fresh. She has been great to me since we met in April through a mutual friend, Deborah McGill. They are both strong advocates for my work and how vital they see it being in the AV.
The framed certificate given to me was an unexpected gift, I am honored. By the way, I have no idea why I am cheesing like a goofball, except that this is the second pic, catching me off-guard from my normal cool pose. But I digress. (smile)
The topic for the event was originally branding and marketing, but once I listened to the brief introductions of each person in attendance, I changed my content to speak on a very real situation facing the High Desert region. In short, the 25 minutes I spoke covered the new influences that are impacting the 'way of life' in the Antelope Valley. It was augmented with questions and comments about how deal with the rapid transition from homey community to faster paced marketplace.
I shared that the recent 5 year population explosion is having rippling effects on the need for small companies,
AV based corporations and organizations to be more competitive to sustain the influx of major brands and mainstream companies seeing the AV as a ripe market for exploitation. My recommendation is to understand the impact of the influences and strategically respond to them, otherwise local firms are preparing to be marginalized by less vested marketing entities from outside this valley.As a resident and creative professional, I am passionate about embracing the changes and strengthening the existing creative profile/prowess/power of the valley. I think we should be about the business of Rocking the Valley with high levels of creative thinking/action and showing the world that in addition to being makers of state-of-the-art weapons, we also have the capacity to develop a type of emerging creative culture, similar to what Richard Florida comprehensively defines in his book, The Rise of the Creative Class.
The Antelope Valley has the potential to be a global city, if we can allow ourselves to recognize that we are no longer the drowsy, somewhat isolated town, once accepted as a pass-through destination for commercial productions. This region is an unpolished diamond, poised to be faceted and attract the best creative talents in the world.
I, for one, am excited and ready to see the growth of a respected design, branding and marketing community. Thank you to the AV PROz team, especially Programming Chair, Ann Hill, for keeping me informed about the PROz process leading up to the luncheon -- you helped me to look good.
Thanks again to Deborah and Vivian for your support and friendship.
