One-hundred businesspeople who recently attended the Come Together for Business Expo 2013 luncheon in Trumbull heard a keynote plea for the business community to speak with unity to affect change in the arenas of taxation and regulation.
The 400-member-plus Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce and the 900-member-plus Bridgeport Regional Business Council united for the initial expo at the Trumbull Marriott.
Bridgeport Regional Business Council Chairman and CEO Paul S. Timpanelli and William E. Purcell, president of the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, served as co-hosts/moderators.
The keynote speaker, James C. Smith, is a banker and son of a banker. Father and son remarkably constitute the total fraternity of presidents and CEOs at Webster Bank, dating to its Depresssion-era founding in 1935. Smith joined Webster in 1975 and took the helm in 1987. He said that with 26 years in charge, he still has less than half the time in the position that his father, Harold Webster Smith, accrued. The Waterbury-based bank today has $20 billion in assets and is one of the top 35 banks in the U.S.
Among the issues Smith urged as “part of the debate” were Obamacare, income redistribution and government dependency. More attention to infrastructure also is long overdue. “We can change all this by getting more actively involved in the process,” he said.
If Smith urged a proactive stance with legislators, his address cited more staid business principals as key to Webster”™s mission and success: vision, enduring values, personal responsibility, respect for the dignity of others.
“We like to think that attention to those values is what binds us together and maybe what sets us apart,” he said.
Smith said Webster had survived the recession in good shape. When mortgages appeared in trouble, loan modifications became tools of salvation. “I”™m so proud that idea percolated from within our organization,” he said. He also noted the bank”™s charitable giving reached record levels in 2007 and has increased every year since, irrespective of the recession.
After lunch, the expo shifted gears. Seventy businesses displayed goods and services in the hotel ballroom. Cleaning services and banks vied for attention with insurers and the Bridgeport Bluefish. Webster Bank was the event main sponsor, with media sponsors the Fairfield County Business Journal, Hersam Acorn, WEBE 108 and WICC 600. (See Faces & Places this issue.)
The event featured breakout seminars on topics that included social media, leadership and branding. A more social event with drinks and food ”” “Networking Extravaganza” ”” was slated for 5 p.m.
