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Boardman Community Foundation hosts breakfast for business leaders
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Boardman Community Foundation President Debbie Liptak spoke at the Free Community Breakfast.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Greg Smith spoke about leadership and communication skills at the Free Community Breakfast.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.The attendees gathered for the Free Community Breakfast at the Lariccia Family Community Center March 7.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Sarah Boyarko spoke about the economy in the Valley at the Free Community Breakfast.
By TIM CLEVELAND
With the area experiencing in improvement in its economy, the Boardman Community Foundation brought together approximately 100 local business leaders March 7 at Boardman Community Park’s Lariccia Family Community Center for a talk not only about the local economy but also to be educated about leadership and communication skills.
Youngstown’s Greg Smith of Achievers USA and the COF of Columbiana-based Compco Industries spoke about leadership and communication skills, and Regional Chamber Vice-President Sarah Boyarko spoke of the area’s economy.
Bagels, donuts, fruit and coffee were served to the attendees.
“Today is our first Good Morning Boardman Breakfast,” said Boardman Community Foundation President Debbie Liptak. “Our board decided that we would like to do a community breakfast. We’re donating the food today. We thought it would be wonderful for folks to hear about leadership tips and also about the state of our Valley’s economy, which is very positive right now.
“We invited the business community to be here today. We wanted to address them as community leaders to help them get some good communication and some good leadership skills and to hear about how great the economy is and all of the great assets we have in regards to manufacturing, all of the new shale projects that are happening in the Valley, as well as all the business growth.”
The event began with Liptak presenting a certificate of recognition to Jack Russell, the chair of the advisory committee that started the Boardman Community Foundation.
Smith said communication is key to anyone aspiring to be a leader.
“We’re going to be talking about communication skills,” he said. “To connect as a leader, you have to be able to communicate or no principle in the world matters.”
Boyarko said she is optimistic about the local economy, not only now but in the future.
“We’re going to be talking about economic development, what’s going on in the Mahoning Valley and Trumbull County, and we’ll try to gear it a little bit more towards Boardman,” she said. “We are also going to talk a little bit about our economic development services at the Chamber, so everyone kind of gets a good idea of what exactly we do.
“I think it’s doing really well. I think Boardman’s starting to experience a little bit of an uptick in new construction with regards to service industry, so new hotels, new restaurants, a little bit higher-end retail. I’m a Boardman resident, myself, and it’s certainly nice to see.”