When our small Four Corners of the world lands an event guest speaker of international caliber, it gets your attention.
The La Plata Economic Development Alliance will bring Jay Elliot to its annual Economic Summit – “Collaborate, INNOVATE, Grow Your Business” – where attendees can learn to incorporate innovative practices and processes into the workplace. Elliot, the highly successful businessman and world-renowned author, will present the keynote address.
Who is Jay Elliot, you ask? He is a former Apple executive who helped Steve Jobs launch the Mac computer to the world.
And how does Elliot happen to be coming to Durango? It stems from a chance meeting made by a fellow board member. Former chairwoman Kerry Siggins, standing in line for a cup of coffee, struck up a conversation with a stranger. It proved fortuitous.
That stranger happened to be “the most connected man in world” – Peter Strople. Strople is described as the human Google Search of business connections. Siggins, also CEO for StoneAge Waterblast Tools in Durango, immediately hit it off with Strople, and they have been great friends for eight years.
More recently, Siggins and Strople were sharing ideas about distribution networks and ways to gain dealer loyalty when he asked her what dealer model she would most like to emulate. Siggins’ response was “Apple.”
Strople advised Siggins to contact his good friend Jay Elliot, the man who helped build Apple’s operation. Siggins took the advice, and now the former Apple executive is coming to Durango to meet her StoneAge team and speak at the seventh annual Economic Summit.
With more than 30 years of corporate operations experience, Elliot’s most notable tenure was in the 1980s, when he served as senior vice president of Apple Computers, reporting directly to Jobs. Elliot helped Jobs develop and introduce the Mac, and Elliot was responsible for all corporate operations, including human relations, facilities, real estate, information technology and planning. During his term at Apple, annual sales grew from $150 million to more than $3 billion.
Elliot is the author of two best-selling books, The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation and Leading Apple with Steve Jobs: Management Lessons from a Controversial Genius.
During the keynote presentation Oct. 23 at the Sky Ute Casino Resort, Elliot is expected to touch on innovation and how an organization can sustain advancement.
Conference attendees, who represent every sector of the local business community, come to learn and share information about doing business in Southwest Colorado. Those attending will find significant value in Elliot’s keynote speech. Besides, you never know who might end up standing next to you.
Roger Zalneraitis is executive director of the La Plata Economic Development Alliance. Email him at roger@yeslpc.com or call 259-1700.
If you go
The seventh annual Economic Summit – titled “Collaborate, INNOVATE, Grow Your Business” – will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 23 at the Sky Ute Event Center in Ignacio. Visit www.economicsummit.yeslpc.com to register.
