Matt Leonard
Chairman of the Board
Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce
First and foremost, as we enter the 6-month mark for the COV-19 pandemic I want to wish everyone well. I hope that you, your friends, family, and coworkers are healthy and well during this trying time.
I appreciate your dedication to your businesses as we all work towards and to the end of this COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn it has created.
On Friday, August 21 the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the annual State of the Community event. Please look at your calendars and if you are able please join us.
The event will be virtual giving us an opportunity to bring more speakers into the event to highlight what they are doing to navigate change during this pandemic and economic downturn. The Chamber’s goal is to bring relevant content from four major sectors of our community, City Government, Education, Healthcare, and Business. Our featured speakers this year will include but are not limited to our Mayor Matt Hall, Superintendent of CUSD Ben Churchill, a Dr. Sunny Cooke from Mira Costa College, LEGOLAND California Resort General Manager Kurt Stocks and many more.
I look forward to this event every year as the content that is delivered has always been very valuable and relevant to what is going on in our community.
Mayor Hall is always the highlight of the event. I had the opportunity to speak with him and asked him what excites him most about the event. He said he enjoys reporting on how valuable the collaboration and partnership is between the City, Chamber of Commerce, and the community. “It’s when the times are tough that the value of these partnerships shine as we are all working together to get through this tough time,” said Mayor Hall. I also asked him how the City of Carlsbad has adjusted to working in this virtual space. “Just like the private sector, much of the City’s workforce has transitioned to working from home. What the City has found is that the workload and the quality of the work is very good. What I find interesting is that this may have an impact on the future design of City Hall in that we may adjust our vision for office space. It might give us the opportunity to imagine how we will use our space differently as the virtual trend continues.”
Mira Costa College President Dr. Sunny Cooke and her faculty and staff serve almost 15000 students. MiraCosta is one of the largest employers in North County San Diego. I had an opportunity to speak with Dr. Cooke and she said that Mira Costa is working very hard to support their students and staff. Summer enrollment is up, and they expect the Fall enrollment to also increase. I look forward to hearing more about how MiraCosta has pivoted to maintain the service and educational opportunity to our community.
Superintendent of CUSD Dr. Bern Churchill will also be a guest panelist. I asked Dr. Churchill what he enjoys the most about this community event. “The State of the Community event is one of my favorite events of the year because it brings together the wide variety of people and institutions which make Carlsbad a great place to live and work. There are few annual opportunities as meaningful as the State of the Community event to connect our strong local government, our outstanding public and private education entities, and our vibrant and diverse business community,” said Dr. Churchill. As we begin a new school year, I also asked him what are the biggest challenges for the CUSD today. “Rapidly changing the way we provide learning opportunities to ensure an extraordinary education for every one of our students is a significant challenge. Our immediate goals are to meet the physical, mental, emotional and economic needs of students, families and staff during the coronavirus pandemic; in the long-term, we have an amazing opportunity to adapt, innovate, and improve as we meet the changing reality of our next generation of creative problem solvers and citizens. As we’re finding new ways to work and communicate, so are our students finding new ways to learn and collaborate. The challenge is a worthwhile one: how can our schools provide an even better value to our community in new ways with new tools, while still meeting the high expectations of our parents and families, our local employers, and our community at large?”
Kurt Stocks joined LEGOLAND California Resort as the general manager this year and a few months into his tenure had to make the difficult decision of closing the park. “I’ve been very proud of the team in terms of how they’ve taken on the challenge and how they’ve worked through it and how they’ve prepared us to reopen whenever we get the green light.” This will be Stocks first State of the Community, and he will be able to talk about the state of the hospitality industry in our region.