2021 Convention Highlights from CREW Charlotte Scholarship Recipients

Speed Networking

CREW Charlotte was excited to bring back Speed Networking for our August luncheon. It offered our members and guests a chance to share their most dynamic business statement, otherwise known as an elevator speech. Movers and Shakers moved throughout the room, making rapid-fire connections.

Through this experience we learned that Speed Networking is not a super highway to true business building. Our audience ended the afternoon with a hand full of business cards and a brief introduction to a person’s business interests. Like every networking opportunity, the key to success in Speed Networking is follow-up. A lack of follow-up will prove to be a quick road to nowhere.

This fun event provided our members with an opportunity to get revved up and enjoy life in the fast lane. CREW Charlotte hopes that we see an uptick in our “Members Making Deals” website link in the weeks following this event!

Sustainability Equals Real Money: The Whole Impact of Sustainability on Charlotte

Who you missed: Amy Aussieker is the Executive Director for Envision Charlotte, where she is responsible for developing strategic plans for community outreach, fundraising, vendor and partner relationships. Amy’s background is a blend of corporate, non-profit and entrepreneur expertise. She spent several years as Group Vice President for Sales and Marketing for the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, where she was responsible for leadership, fundraising and community relations. She also served as a business development and community affairs executive with Balfour Beatty Construction, and she founded, operated and recently sold a successful retail business.

Amy has previously served as a board member for the Arts and Science Council, co-chair for the School Bonds, chair for the Hot Jobs/Cool Communities initiative for the City committee, co-chair of Charlotte’s Citizen Transit Advisory Group and a board member for Slow Food Charlotte. She has been recognized by the Charlotte Business Journal as a 40 Under 40 award winner and a Top 25 Women in Business Award recipient.

What you missed: Amy and her team strive to help develop Charlotte, NC into a global model of environmental sustainability. Launched in 2010, Envision Charlotte believes that environmental sustainability, when combined with a pro-business approach, benefits the regional economy. Uptown Charlotte, NC currently has 61 participating buildings with 21 million square feet of office or commercial space, hosting 67,000 workers. Through Envision Charlotte, regional corporate and government leaders are working together to measure factors of sustainability in real time through individual sensors on each participating building.  The goal is to make Charlotte one of the smartest cities in the world, resulting in a superior place to do business. Those factors of environmental sustainability are broken down into 4 pillars; Air, Water, Waste, and Energy.

Air: Charlotte ranks 19^th worst in the country for air pollution. The energy that we use while commuting to work, working in our offices, and in our homes leads to the production of air pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions and smog. Over the next 5 years, Envision Charlotte aims to deploy innovative programs to reduce energy use and promote cleaner air, including ride and drive programs, promoting the use of electric vehicles, and other forms of alternative transportation.

Water: Demand for water is expected to exceed supply within the next 30 years. Uptown Charlotte uses 238,000,000 gallons of water every year. Envision Charlotte has developed a program to track and report water usage in uptown buildings called Smart Water Now. Through this program they are working with building owners, managers, engineers, and tenants to take simple steps to reduce water usage and improve efficiency.

Waste: With over 100,000 pounds of waste generated each day in uptown Charlotte, the landfills that’s serve the city are on track to be full within the next 5 years. Envision Charlotte aims to divert at least 20% of that waste away from the landfill by increasing recycling programs and sensoring waste from buildings to study how they can reduce their production of waste.

Energy: 30% of Uptown Charlotte's energy is wasted in office buildings. Envision Charlotte has a goal of reducing 20% of Charlotte’s energy use in the next 5 years through Smart Energy Now. Through this program, office workers and business leaders are becoming more educated on how small simple changes in their daily habits and routines can have a huge impact on overall energy use. Since Envision Charlotte has started measuring energy use there has been a reduction of 8.2%, with 6.2% coming from changes in behavior alone.

Why: The message is simple. By lowering the amount of energy use, waste production, and water consumption, you will lower the cost of doing business in Charlotte, and therefore bring in more business and opportunity!

Envision Charlotte believes that everyone can make a difference in helping Charlotte become more environmentally sustainable. Because of their hard work, Charlotte, NC, is well on its way to becoming the most sustainable urban core in the country.

Getting Your Business to Dance with Jim Donald, CEO, Extended Stay America

Who you missed: Jim Donald is the current CEO of Extended Stay Hotels and former CEO of Starbucks and Haggen Food & Pharmacy. He was named one of the “Top 25 CEO’s in the World” by the Best Practice Institute in 2006 and one of the “25 Most Influential Business Travel Executives of 2013” by Business Travel News. He has a reputation for turning around financially ailing companies toward growth. Donald speaks to many groups to share his experience as a leader focused on innovation, quality, service, strong relationships within the community, and risk-taking with the freedom to fail.

What you missed: Getting Your Business to Dance: Donald explains six “dance lessons” that are necessary to implement in order to ramp up your business when no one is buying.

Why:
1. Have a fish story – In other words, what are you going to tell people about your business? Have a story to tell so people remember you years later.

2. Never be bigger than the front line – It is important to present yourself as an equal and not above or better than the average person. Employees lead the way and it is necessary to relate to them on their level.

3. Go where you have never been before – Send a personal message to associates/guests/clients that makes them feel comfortable.

4. Communicate to everyone in the organization – Speak a language that other people can understand. Realize that everyone is powerful within the company.

5. Encourage risk taking with the freedom to fail – Donald shared how he gives a “Get Out of Jail Free” card to encourage his employees to take risks no matter the end result.

6. Celebrate the success of others – It’s not about you anymore! Create an environment that shares success stories.