One Guilford event focuses on county's future
Editorial writers like to throw out ideas and let other people run with them.
If you give Nido Qubein an idea, you'd better lace up your running shoes. You're going along with him. And fast.
That's how the News & Record came to be the sponsor of One Guilford: A Leadership Symposium, which will be hosted by High Point University next Wednesday. ...
Late last year, our editorial board chose "leadership" as one of our agenda issues for 2007. In an editorial published Dec. 31, we called for stronger, more focused and unified leadership throughout Guilford County.
"Leaders provide vision," we wrote. "In this area, that might be a vision for a thriving Heart of the Triad; an economy that raises everyone's standard of living; effective and efficient governmental agencies that reach across old boundaries; colleges and universities that become centers of creativity and culture; and museums, performing arts facilities and sports arenas that draw visitors and generate excitement."
The editorial quoted Qubein, president of High Point University, who is rapidly transforming that once-stodgy little college into an exciting, dynamic, fast-growing academic community according to his vision of what it can become. The editorial also triggered a reaction. Soon after its publication, Qubein contacted me and suggested the News & Record join with HPU in putting together a leadership event. We were off and running.
Let me say, we never pretended we were starting something new. Guilford County has many outstanding leaders, in government, business, education, the nonprofit community and elsewhere. There are many initiatives under way aimed at creating a better future. Some of them show tremendous promise.
There are also obstacles, some put up long ago and maintained by old divisions, rivalries and resentments. As someone who lives in High Point and works in Greensboro, I understand the distrust that exists between the two cities. But it holds us back at a time when we can't afford it anymore. Our local governments have separate functions and responsibilities that sometimes prevent the seamless delivery of services to the public. And we often compete when we should cooperate.
It all leaves us a little behind the state's larger metropolitan areas, Charlotte and Raleigh. We trail in economic and population growth and educational attainment. Our airport traffic is falling. One of our greatest economic assets, the furniture market in High Point, is threatened and the region isn't fully committed to supporting it.
We're not exactly on a downward spiral. Guilford County has some valuable resources, including fine colleges and universities, an excellent network of highways, a good location and quality of life and plenty of talented people. It has many economic development success stories to its credit, including the HondaJet facility. It took real teamwork to land that deal.
Next week's symposium isn't meant to produce a formula for success that's eluded everyone else. But we hope it will advance the discussion about the challenges and opportunities ahead. Maybe it will encourage individuals and organizations to talk with others who share the same goals, maybe the same vision, but who haven't met or talked much before.
Keynote speaker Howard Putnam achieved great things as a commercial airline CEO and as a community leader in cities where he's lived. Our panelists will stimulate a lot of thinking. The News & Record editorial board will follow up with articles suggesting further steps and promoting more events like this one.
The setting alone should be inspiring, especially for people who haven't visited HPU lately. The campus is turning into a testimony to what can be done with vision, commitment and, oh, $110 million or so. But money like that couldn't be raised without the vision and commitment.
If any of that rubs off at next Wednesday's event, all of Guilford County could be off and running.
Contact Doug Clark at dgclark@news-record.com or 373-7039.