Thanks to everyone who came to our annual meeting! What a packed day!
Pamela Patterson, CEO, West Company and President of the CAMEO Board opened the CAMEO member meeting with a recognition of outgoing board members and board members elect.
A big hearty thanks to Pamela and Stacey Sanchez, Senior Loan Officer for CDC Small Business Finance and Vice President of the CAMEO Board!
We’d also like to welcome to the 2017 CAMEO Board of Directors, the following:
- Carmen Herrera-Mansir, El Pajaro Community Development Corporation,
- Robert Lopez, VEDC, and
- Leila Mozaffari, Orange County Small Business Development Center.
Their term begins in January 2017.
And then we moved into the meat of our meeting in which according to one attendee, “we gave the members much to think about and renewed interest in being a part of CAMEO.” Dan Beam, a creative design strategist, guided us through the tremendous changes happening in our economy, where they’re disruptive and what the opportunities are for our sector. And we also had great breakout and group discussions on what this zeitgeist and these trends mean to CAMEO and what members expect of us.
Read Dan Beam’s report 2016 CAMEO Member Meeting Report.
For those of you who weren’t able to make it, his explanation of today’s zeitgeist is as follows.
Scarcity Drives the Economy
The economy of the 1900-1950’s was about products, making things, and manufacturing. The second half of the 20th century was about desire, think Mad Men and advertising and sales. The 21st century is about valuing engagement and experiences. People crave to belong.
Engagement
Engagement is about screwing up the status quo to create value and meaning in life. This leads to disruptive insights and unexpected solutions. Engagement is scarce in our present day economy; this results in an under-utilization of human capital. An opportunity for our sector is that we provide engagement; it’s our Micro Magic.
Talent
75% of companies have talent issues, which means they can’t find the talent they need. Talent seeks mobility due to erosion of job security. New competencies include creativity, design, collaboration, and systems thinking. This is what we need to teach. Today we’re training people in skills, but 50% of jobs are going to go away most likely through automation by 2030. For example, if you’re learning to code today, there’s a good chance a robot’s going to do your job in the future. We can’t predict the future, so we need to train people to think on their feet.
Audiences are changing and marrying their values with the world view (see diagram).
And we’re faced with threats and opportunities (see diagram).
On top of all those threats and opportunities are growing inequality and the stress it creates.
- Productivity has doubled while real wages have decreased.
- 60% of new jobs are going to people who are making less than $15/hour.
- The top 1% received 90% of the gain after the Great Recession.
- 50% of middle skilled jobs went away during the Great Recession, only 2% returned.
Upshot: the only way to make change is to create a new way, create new systems. We need to have a cultural/paradigm shift into long-term thinking and creating value.
After Dan explained the zeitgeist, he gave us some insight into what it means for business formation and our sector. Businesses are moving toward platform models. 75% of the S&P will be new companies by 2027. 80% of products and processes will be eliminated by information and automation, e.g. here comes virtual currency. And one response – the gig economy; one study says it’s going to grow by 3000%!
This information will guide CAMEO’s future development to better serve this emerging customer segment. When it came to CAMEO’s role, some immediate needs arose to the top.
- Better assess needs of new self-employed/gig workforce.
- Raise public awareness of typology, needs and policies to support a healthy ecosystem for the New Era Collaborative Economy.
- Redesign training and business assistancetowards: increasing engagement, creating “collage careers”, and improving financial capabilities.
- Change criteria for economic impact, i.e. away from jobs to 1099 revenues spent on other contractors.
You can read more of Claudia’s take-aways from 2016 Annual Meeting Please contact us with any suggestions, comments that you might have.
Moving on to lunch and this year’s Faces of Entrepreneurship Awards
We are so excited about this year’s Faces of Entrepreneurship nominations. The number and the quality of businesses nominated speaks to the great work of our members. After much deliberation, we came up with our winners. This year we have three winners due to a tie. Congratulations to the following:
- Vicente Quintana, El Nopalito Produce, nominated by El Pajaro Community Development Corporation,
- Bethany Smith, B Team Solutions, LLC, nominated by Coachella Valley Women’s Business Center; and
- Rebecca Westion, Sacred Mountain Spa, nominated by Jefferson Economic Development Institute.
Thanks to Senator Bill Monning and Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, chair of the Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy Committee, who presented awards and lent their support to small and microbusiness.
And then it was time to visit the legislators to educate the Assembly and the Senate on three crucial issues*:
- responsible small business lending;
- the need to support business technical assistance (SBDCs, WBC, SCORE, VBOC and PTAC); and
- the importance of women’s business ownership in closing the wealth gap.
After the legislative visits, we gathered at Chops to report back on our visits and we were overwhelmed at the positive response that our member advocates generated for responsible business lending. About a dozen legislators were intrigued at various levels including the willingness to carry a bill. We also found out about a possible source for business assistance.
WHOA – lots for CAMEO to do! Again, thanks to all of those who came.