There is safety in silos when it comes to moving the needle in our everyday work. Marketing people talk to marketing people; hospitality people talk to hospitality folks; tech leaders talk to...you get the point. This isn’t native to Philadelphia or even D.C. (where I am very proudly from!); this is just how people are, naturally. We talk within our industry; and those “other” ideas are shared between friends and associates, but not always amongst fellow leaders who occupy a different space. For me, one of the strongest advantages of GPLEX is the opportunity to share ideas across industry, understanding that the components and insights shared from an initiative being led by an economic development organization could be beneficial to an effort being built by a behavioral health nonprofit; or the trends or 2020 outlook for tourism could be of importance to someone in the finance sector. The correlations exist; we’re often too busy to find them. Fortunately, GPLEX provides us the opportunity to do so. This is what has motivated me to participate for the last 3 out of 4 years. And when asked what do I hope to learn, my answer is simple: everything.  -

Megan R. Smith
Founder
Brownstone PR