Elevate Tahoe Lake Tahoe Leadership Summit

May 10th was the Elevate Your View Summit put on by the 2014 class of Leadership Lake Tahoe program sponsored by the +Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce.  Almost 200 attendees saw two hourlong keynote speeches and got to participate in their choice of any 3 of six breakout sessions on the Environment, Economy, Tourisim, Public Safety, and more.

Morning Keynote: Dave Meslin

The 8am opening keynote address was delivered by Toronto area activist +Dave Meslin, Author of
"Local Motion: The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto" and well known for his TEDxToronto talk "The Antidote to Apathy" A dynamic speaker, Meslin came down from the stage to be on the audience's level and held them spellbound with stories of his activism including the  story of how he fought electronic billboards while pushing for the preservation of individuals' right to poster; how founded Toronto's guerrilla gardening movement, and how he transformed Toronto's political scene with the "City Idol" competition.

Musical Entertainment

The band Little Town featuring +JT Chevallier and Helena Kletch performed their self-titled original at lunch.  (Bonus video hosted on +Tahoe Onstage )

Break Out Sessions

The summit offered a choice of breakout sessions with a wide variety of experts.  The morning Environment breakout featured a panel discussion with US Forest Service  regional director Nancy Gibson, who discussed the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit's role in preserving the Tahoe Environment.  Darcie Collins of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, discusses opportunities to involve the public in environmental preservation like the Pipe Keepers program and planned 5th of July beach cleanup activities.  Julie Regan of the TRPA discussed how to counter the public's notion that they can't make a difference in Tahoe's environmental planning process, and how Tahoe's regulatory culture has moved from a culture of stopping things to a culture of building sustainably.

The afternoon breakout session I attended focused on tourisim and made excelent use of former Park City, UT mayor Dana Williams' ample experience in running a town with a similar tourists vs locals economy.  Other panel speakers included Carl Ribaudo of Strategic Marketing Group and Carol Chaplin of +Visit Lake Tahoe South.

 Afternoon Keynote: Dana Williams

Dana Williams, former mayor of Park City, UT; home of the famous Sundance Film Festival, gave the closing keynote address on his experiences in reforming a town with challenges very much parallel to  those of the Lake Tahoe Basin.  From building one of the nation's flagship examples of a sustainable city in a state that officially disbelieves in global warming to reforming the outdated political culture of a small town Williams cut through the political fog by following the "Dao of Duh" - when you find something head-slappingly obvious to make your situation better: don't just sit there, do something about it.

Gallery

Click here for the Full Galery of Elevate Your View: Leadership Lake Tahoe 2014 on Google+ if your browser doesn't support embeded galleries.