City pride is something we wear proudly here at OLG.
After all, we claimed this region with a heart and a flag in 2012 when we helped Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana (YLNI) design the original My City logo and pin. (We also designed that gorgeous YLNI logo back in the late-00’s.)
Then, in 2014, our own Beth Bobay helped plan and co-chair the YLNI My City Summit (after which Matt Kelley first decided to make overtures to bring her to OLG!).
In July, we continued the tradition of participation with Matt and Beth each presenting at this year’s Summit.
Matt dished on what it takes to start a thriving local business at Thursday morning’s Entrepreneurship Reimagined session, and at Friday afternoon’s symposium, Beth schooled us on everything YLNI has done during the last decade to make this region the place we know and love.
A lot of OLG’ers attended the Summit, too, because supporting our community is something that means a lot to us here.
So much, in fact, that we wanted to share our reflections on the Summit with you while they’re still fresh in our hearts and minds.
If you ask us, this is an exciting time to “be Fort Wayne,” and there’s no place on earth we’d rather be.
Beth’s experience
After having served on the planning committees for the previous two Summits, I was thrilled to attend my third My City Summit. While I presented a history of YLNI at the Symposium, I was mostly a participant for rest of the event, and I got to just soak it all up. I enjoyed a comfortable summer night out on the landing at the Block Party, participated in four interesting focus sessions on the arts, entrepreneurship, leadership and the future of our city, ran in the My City Social Dash at Pedal City, enjoyed the keynote speakers at the Symposium and continued invigorating discussions after the Symposium at the Happy Hour. Whoa! And I didn’t even attend the Rise & Grind events on Friday morning. YLNI wanted to give people an opportunity to get out and “Be Fort Wayne,” and they sure accomplished this.
Having been a part of all three My City Summits, I most enjoyed the presentation on the small, medium and large community projects being proposed as a result of the second Summit. It’s one thing to host a conference and brainstorm unique ideas that can add value to our city. It’s another to actually make these ideas happen. And that’s exactly what YLNI is doing – facilitating the discussions to make progress on these ideas. I am pumped for the possibilities of the Fort Wayne Mural Project, a winter festival and the redevelopment of Quimby Village.
All lot of my friends from high school didn’t understand why I went back to the Fort after college, and then stayed here. Well, the reason is exactly THIS. I get the chance to be a part of the incredible progress happening in our city. I love to boast about being asked to be part of the discussions on how to redevelop The Landing. I know that I have the opportunity to concretely shape the future of Fort Wayne, and without even being an elected official! (Note: The friends coming home to visit are noticing the super cool changes happening here too.) The My City Summit always surrounds me with people who want to make a difference.
Kara’s experience
I attended the My City Summit as an audience member with OLG, and the experience that made the biggest impression on me was a video that started with a crazy guy dancing—the way most good things start. It was actually a crazy guy dancing alone at a concert, which makes it even better. But what was cool about this video was that after a few minutes of the dude dancing alone, another guy joined him, and then another, and eventually, all the people sitting at the concert were dancing, too.
Josette Rider, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana, showed us the video at Thursday afternoon’s lecture on Developing Future Leaders to make the point that following someone else is a type of leadership, too. We hear graduation speeches and read blogs telling us to step up and be leaders. And the pressure to lead makes events like the My City Summit intimidating sometimes. But this video got me thinking that maybe we don’t need to be leaders—maybe we need to be fearless followers.
Take the crazy guy, for example. Before anyone else stood up and started dancing with him, he was just a crazy guy doing something crazy. And if no one ever joined him, that’s all he would ever be. But as soon as the first follower decided to take a risk on him, the crazy guy had validation, and a movement began. The leader didn’t start the movement; the first follower did.
So the moral of the story is that we should look for bold ideas around town that we can stand behind and support. Because somewhere out there, a crazy guy is dancing alone. And we can’t let him have all the fun.
Matt’s experience
What can I add to Beth and Kara’s delightful recaps? They nailed it.
I was honored to be a panelist in the Entrepreneurship Reimagined breakout, joining the terrific Dani McGuire (owner of PranaYoga and co-owner of Jai Juice) and Andrew Thomas (of Pint & Slice fame). I got to answer questions about starting OLG and The Good Ones Clothing, clarify that both EASY and COMPLACENCY are four-letter words and take a couple of shots at the status quo—what more could I ask for?
I’ve been proud to have OLG support Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana throughout its first decade. Yes, I was at the first-ever YLNI meeting, at Dash-In, and have been thrilled to serve the organization since—from creating YLNI’s logo, and the Barr Street Market logo, and the My City logo, to donating our services to the 2020 Vision initiative, to sending multiple OLG’ers through YLNI’s Leadership Institute, to supporting OLG team members who serve on YLNI’s board, to keynoting at this year’s YLNI annual meeting…you get the idea. It’s a real privilege for all of us, and we thank YLNI for the opportunity and for the hard work they do to make this community all it can be.
While you’re at it
Don’t miss the video we made for Lutheran Health Network with our friends at Lodge Design. The video was featured at the Summit’s symposium and drives home the ways downtown Fort Wayne is improving and evolving. It earned some special recognition from keynote speakers Max and Ben Goldberg, too!
