(Fort Dodge, IA) – Iowa Travel Industry Partners (iTIP) and the Iowa Travel Industry Partners Foundation gathered statewide partners to host the iLEAD Leadership Symposium February 23 – 24, 2023. Sessions taking place at The Cardiff Center at Fort Frenzy in Fort Dodge, Iowa focused on the growth of leadership skills for Iowa’s tourism organizations.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, leadership is “the action of leading a group of people or an organization.” When thinking about this further, leadership is about taking risks and challenging the status quo. Leaders motivate others to achieve something new and better. Interestingly, leaders do what they do to pursue innovation, not as an obligation. They measure success by looking at the team’s achievements and learning.
The last few years have proven that tourism leaders need to innovate and collaborate in order to grow their organizations. The goal of the iLEAD Leadership Symposium is to allow anyone in Iowa’s tourism industry to advance the growth of their leadership skills. Attendees ranged from someone only a few months into their position to individuals that have been leading their organizations for years.
“The small, intimate nature of iLEAD is designed for Iowa’s tourism professionals to advance their leadership skills while networking with new partners and those they don’t always get to work with,” stated iTIP Executive Director, Chelsea Lerud. “Watching the relationships of partners grow over the course of the one and a half day event is so powerful. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with those met during the event.”
Sessions for the 2023 event included:
- Gallup’s Strength Finders by Julie Thorson
- Leading Through Crisis: Mental Health & Empathic Listening by Lisa Schaefer
- Handing Over the Reigns: Demystifying the Succession Planning Process by Richard J. Bryan
- Partnerships & Collaboration Leads into Fundraising by Carla Eysink
- Developing Your Board of Directors by Dave Bright
- ‘F’ Your Shoulds by Jill Anderson
- Peer learning
The iLEAD Leadership Symposium was supported by Catch Des Moines, Neapolitan Labs, and Visit Fort Dodge. iTIP is committed to forming a united front with collaboration essential to continued growth of the industry.
