In February, the Leadership Tomorrow class of 2017 will ‘pull back the curtain’ on the arts in Orange County. The day begins in South Coast Metro with a walking tour of the Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario. Commissioned by Henry Segerstrom in 1979 and completed in 1982, Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario is recognized as one of the country’s preeminent sculpture gardens and the most vital publicly accessible outdoor sculpture oasis in Southern California. Situated on 1.6 acres, the garden in its design symbolizes various geographical characteristics in California, incorporating indigenous plants and materials.
Next the class will have a backstage pass to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. They will go behind-the-scenes of Segerstrom Hall, the Renee & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and Samueli Theatre. These halls are home to local performing artists like the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Pacific Chorale, Pacific Symphony and American Ballet Theatre. Situated in a 14-acre multidisciplinary campus of the same name that encompasses two other major arts organizations.
The ‘Art’ tour continues thru ‘scenery’, ‘wardrobe/costumes’, ‘props’, ‘make-up’ and more at the Tony® Award-winning South Coast Repertory.
During lunch at The Capital Grille the class will break bread with some of Orange County’s premiere leaders during an Arts Roundtable featuring the following:
The class will then review and curate a short film with the guidance of Dennis Baker, Director, Short Film Programming, The Newport Beach Film Festival. The rolling credits at the close of the film, will not mark the end of this ‘Arts Day’! The final act is yet to come.
The class will journey south to the Wyland Worldwide Global Headquarters for a private tour of the exclusive Wyland Foundation ‘Originals’ Gallery. They will end the day with an uber-exclusive painting party lead by Wyland in his private studio. You don’t get any more ‘behind-the-scenes’ then access to one of the most influential artists of the 21st century in his personal workspace!
The Leadership Tomorrow Business & Communication Workshop on January 19th was an informative day full of engaging, and inspirational speakers sharing their expertise regarding Business and Communication in Orange County. (more…)
The Leadership Tomorrow Business & Communication Workshop on January 19th will be a day full of engaging, and inspirational speakers sharing their expertise regarding Business and Communication in Orange County. The Class of 2017 will begin with a Continental breakfast at 7:45 a.m. at the “Man Cave” at 3184 D Airway Avenue, Costa Mesa where they will receive a Spotlight on the Economy and learn “Where Are We and Where Are We Headed” from Morgan Christen, Chief Investment Officer, Spinnaker Investment Group.
Next our class will hear from one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Nation, Wing Lam, Co-Founder of Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, followed by a Business Banking in the OC brief by Chairman and CEO, Ivo Tjan of Commerce West Bank.
The class will wrap things up at the Man Cave at 11:00am and head to the beautiful Newport Beach Marriott Hotel in Fashion Island where they will be treated to an amazing lunch in the Rose Garden hosted by Newport Beach Marriott General Manager, Debbie Snavely.
While at the Newport Beach Marriott the class will learn about Economic Deployment in Orange County from Linda DiMario, Vice President of Economic Development and Tourism, Destination Irvine and learn how to “Level Up” their Leadership from Dr. Deena Brown, DB Coaching and Consulting.
The Workshop grand finale will be an interview with Michele Gile, Orange County Reporter, CBS 2/KCAL 9.
The class met up at the Airport Commission Room of the John Wayne Airport over a continental breakfast. They were welcomed by Assistant Airport Director Courtney Wiercioch who presented on the Airport and its role in Orange County commerce and the national transportation system. John Wayne is the smallest big airport in the nation at less than one square mile, and it serves a vital role in the region’s transportation system and for Orange County residents, businesses, and visitors. There were a lot of insightful questions from the class.
Following the Assistant Airport Director was Steven Brown of Fehrs and Peers Transportation Consultants. Several current County transportation issues were examined, including the extension of the 241 toll road. As well, Steve presented on the future of transportation. Interesting take-aways were the reduction in Vehicle Miles Traveled from predictions, the prospects of fully autonomous vehicles in the not too distant future, and the effects on traffic of on-line shopping. Again the class had ample opportunity to ask questions of the expert.
We boarded the luxury coach for a trip back in time to Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, and a private tour of a massive World War II era blimp hangar. These hangars are amongst the largest wooden buildings ever constructed. After an introduction by Tustin City Manager Jeff Parker, the class heard a presentation by Tustin Deputy City Manager Matt West on the history and the future of the giant hangars. The class had an opportunity to tour the building and hear about how the Air Station was closed by the Base Realignment Commission in 1999, and how it is being reused for housing, business development, and transportation by the City of Tustin. The management and decision making involved in repurposing 1,600 acres of prime Orange County land is a mammoth task.
The class boarded the bus and drove by the Anton Legacy Affordable Housing development and adjacent airbase themed park on their way to Coventry Court, an Affordable Housing development for Seniors. In the welcoming clubhouse of Coventry Court with its holiday themed decorations the Class heard three speakers from the City of Tustin.
Jerry Craig, the City’s Economic Development and Housing Manager spoke helping the class understand the challenges and competing needs faced by Tustin in respects to the Housing demand in general, and especially housing affordability. There is a strong demand to convert commercial properties to residential properties, and that gives rise to traffic concerns.
Following Jerry, Melissa Trahan, Community Impact Officer for the Tustin Police Department spoke about how Tustin addresses the issue of Homelessness. Officer Trahan shared success stories, and some of the ongoing challenges in an excellent presentation. There was discussion about how the efforts of the police department are integrated into the broader efforts of the County in a coordinated effort.
The class then had a presentation from Tustin’s Public Works Manager, Krys Saldivar. Ms. Saldivar offered an insider’s view of the difficulty of increasing traffic flows in built out areas. Her slides of street improvements and presentation of the way projects get funded demonstrated how cities not only have to solve problems for their residents, but they have to make difficult choices while doing so, and while paying for their efforts.
It was a beautiful day and a lunch of salads and wraps was served al fresco. Class members met in small groups both indoors, and outside on the large patio, and some took time to ask additional questions of the presenters.
After lunch the class rallied and walked off lunch on a tour of Coventry Court by Melanie D’Avanzo. Melanie described pricing, resident habits, special challenges of housing the elderly, and the integration of the project with the surrounding new neighborhood; built since the airbase had closed. We walked through an empty apartment unit and toured the pool area of this nearly new property.
Boarding the bus we drove to the Irvine yard of OCTA’s MV-ACCESS para-transit program where nearly 250 small busses and countless subcontracted taxi cabs are coordinated daily to transport eligible Orange County Residents unable to use regular fixed bus routes because of functional limitation caused by a disability. After an introductory presentation by Laura Soto and Broderick Dow, the class broke into two groups and toured the in-house maintenance facility supporting the busses mechanically and physically. The groups then switched and toured the dispatch center and observed a large room full of reservation professionals at work, followed by a visit to the operations centers where every vehicle is monitored remotely. It is truly a marvel of coordination how MV Transportation provides this service to OCTA under contract to meet the needs of many thousands of eligible Orange County residents.
After the tours, the class met in the large classroom that MV gratiously provided for a discussion of their class project. It had been an action and fact filled day and the class was sustained by homemade Trudydoodle cookies. Wrapping up their discussion the class boarded the bus for their return trip to the Airport offices and a taste of afternoon traffic on the 405 freeway, and prepared for their own drive home to their homes. It was a busy and informative day learning about Housing and Transportation in Orange County, and the class came away with a more in-depth understanding of both.
Housing & Transportation Day will begin with a continental breakfast at the Orange County Airport offices in Costa Mesa. The Director and Deputy Director are scheduled to welcome us and introduce the class to the role of the airport in the regional economy.
A principal from Fehr and Peers will lead a discussion on current trends and the future of county and regional transportation including a look at autonomous vehicles.
They class will then travel by bus to the Tustin Airbase and be welcomed by the Tustin City Manager and Deputy. We will tour of the base and hangers and discuss their past, present and future plans
Boarding the bus again, we’ll take a drive-by guided tour of the Anton Legacy affordable housing site and a local park that have risen from the re-purposed Marine Corps Air Station.
Arriving next at Coventry Court, we will hear from Tustin city staff about their challenges and successes with housing and transportation including re-purposing the airbase and designing bicycle lanes and connecting residents to their train station.
Following lunch on site, we depart for OCTA's MV Access in Irvine to learn about bus routing and dispatching and effectively managing the needs of their customers, some of who have special needs.
With a theme for the day of “Trends in Technology & Innovation”, the Leadership Tomorrow, 2016 Education Day will be fast-paced and varied. (more…)
Water Day began at the Back Bay Bistro, where the Leadership Tomorrow Class of 2017 jumped on our 30 person “party bus” and got to know each other better with several fun icebreakers that class liaison Trudy Naman designed.
Our first stop was the Irvine Ranch Water District, which hosted us for an amazing breakfast. We then heard from the IRWD Director, Paul Cook, who spoke about the latest innovations that the facility is implementing to conserve even more water than they were previously. The new IRWD biowaste facility that recycles the waste from the recycled water to partially power the facility was explained to us in fascinating detail. Then the Leadership Tomorrow class was able to physically tour the facility and tie in the lecture with seeing the actual recycling process first hand.
We then jumped back on the bus and headed to the Mesa Water Treatment facility in Costa Mesa. There, we were treated to a tour and history lesson explaining how water is removed and treated from the water table underneath Orange County. One of the cool facts we learned is that the underground water is brown (but perfectly safe to drink) because of the Redwood forest that used to stand there 100,000 years ago - amazing!
After that, we headed back to the Back Bay Bistro for a delicious lunch and great presentation from Dr. Chris Lowe, Director of the Shark Lab at CSULB. Dr. Lowe gave us insight into why there have been so many shark sightings off our coastline in recent months and shared some very exciting video of those sharks. He showed us some of the advanced technology that scientists are using to track and document changes in shark population and behavior as well as the ways sharks tie into the health of our local oceans.
From there, we moved onto the Back Bay Science Center, where we were able to see live testing of our local coastal waters. Not only did we learn how the facility monitors the water, keeping us safe, we were also able to touch some of the local sea life in the centers touch tanks. Luckily, no one lost a finger, so we considered that portion of the day a success!
Our day ended with an amazing harbor cruise through Newport Harbor on the Newport Legacy, where the class was able to get to know each other even better and enjoy some perfect Southern California weather.
On Thursday, October 20, the Leadership Tomorrow Class of 2017 will take a behind the scenes tour of how Orange County gets, conserves and recycles our water. (more…)
Leadership Tomorrow kicked off the year with a day full of Orange County history, icebreakers, team building, and more! The Class of 2017 had the opportunity to meet several Leadership Tomorrow Board members including President, Kristin Miller and Past President, Jon Lewis. (more…)
