Around 250 local leaders met for the 2015 Flint Hills Leader’s Retreat in Overland Park on Friday. Attendees included commissioners, business owners, and organizers from the Riley, Pottawatomie and Geary County areas.
Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce President, Lyle Butler began the two day event with a word of welcome and thanked the sponsors of the event. He mentioned most conferences request that people put away their cell phones, but a new part of this year’s retreat involved the utilization of cell phones. Following each of the different presentations, participants were asked to answer different questions via text message. The results from the poll questions will be released on Saturday.
By popular demand from last year’s retreat, Courtney Dunbar of Olsson Associates returned as the facilitator for this year’s convention. Dunbar began by recapping 2014’s retreat. Discussion topics that carried over to this year involved workforce development, building trust in the region and regional transportation access. More specific discussions last year involved the Welcome Center and the Fieldhouse project.
The majority of the day involved four presentations and roundtable discussions following each item. The five presentations were: regional asset development, regional workforce, regional transportation, regional branding and marketing, and regionalism in practice.
For regional transportation, Matt Crocker of Steel and Pipe Supply spoke about the importance of real estate and cooperation. Crocker focused on the McCall corridor and the Eureka Valley/Highway K-18 example.
During the regional workforce topic, Vice President of KBC Constructors Incorporated, Neil Fisher shared a few statistics. He stated 20% of jobs require a four year degree, 60% require post secondary education, and 20% require a high school diploma.
Transportation Planner for the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Stephanie Watts presented several maps to illustrate her regional transportation discussion. One map showed the levels of service needed, and another showed traffic congestion.
Jim Gordon of Gordon and Associates spoke about regional branding and marketing. Gordon shared the importance of creating and controlling an image. As an example, Gordon mentioned that everyone may have different ideas when they think of Disney’s image. Some may think of event parks and movies, while others think of investing and stokes. Gordon joked that he’s sick of other states associating Kansas with “Wizard of Oz” jokes, as this is not something that showcases the state’s real image.
Lastly, Jeff Libeau of Intrust Bank in Junction City talked about putting talk into action with regionalism. He said, “there are two different types of people: talkers and doers. We’ve talked this thing [regionalism]to death, it’s time to do”. This comment initiated applause from a few people. As far as action items, Libeau recommended developing a brand, assessing development, and leading the development and implementation of it.
After each of the presenters, Dunbar spoke briefly before addressing the poll questions.
The 250 attendees were seated at 22 tables, each of which spoke about a different topic after the poll questions.
Many participants commented that the highlight of the day was listening to Brigadier General, Eric Wesley talk about the possible drawdown at Fort Riley.
Wesley began his presentation by commenting on the original sequestration, which involved cutting troop numbers down to 490,000. Now, the estimated number to end at is around 420,000.
“Sequestration has not been reconciled by Congress. More cuts are coming”, commented Wesley.
Wesley spoke about Fort Riley’s impact on surrounding areas, economic growth, businesses and schools. He mentioned he considers Fort Riley his home, as the area treats soldiers far better than other areas he has traveled to.
“Have no doubt that the soldiers value their relationship with the local communities. There is no better place to train an army division, raise a family and put kids through school than Fort Riley”, said Wesley.
He encouraged local leaders to attend the listening tour to show support for Fort Riley on February 9th at 3:30 p.m.
Wesley received a standing ovation once he concluded his presentation.
Dunbar made one comment on the impact of the possible cuts: “You don’t recover from losing such a large employer and economic driver like Fort Riley”.
The retreat will continue through late morning Saturday for additional discussions and poll results.
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DAY TWO
Starting at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, leaders returned to the ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel for the second day of the retreat.
Manhattan Regional Airport Director, Peter Van Kuren shared a short presentation on the new airport terminal and air service.
Out of 1,788 scheduled departures, 97% of them left on schedule, according to Van Kuren. After addressing cancellations, he mentioned the competitive fare prices around the state.
“It will be hard to compete with Kansas City”, commented Van Kuren. This is because they offer more flights, which drives down the price of flights.
KMAN reported on Allegiant Air late last year after they ended their service from Manhattan Regional Airport to Phoenix-Mesa. Van Kuren mentioned Allegiant plane loads were around 78%, but the airline was hoping for 90% plane loads.
Van Kuren said when load factors increase, they can start looking at sending flights to additional hubs such as Denver. He added they are currently talking to American Airlines about the possibility of larger airplanes. Manhattan Regional Airport could see these changes as early as April.
Dunbar shared some of the poll results from Friday. The first poll question (which is in the second photo pictured above), had 56 people say Bio R&D was the primary employer they wished to see the region focus on. 55 people voted for technology and engineering.
Butler concluded the event by mentioning the retreat survey, which will be sent out on Tuesday, and shared some closing remarks.
