On Friday, July 19, Highline College hosted the inaugural Southside Leadership Conference. Approximately 200 people attended the event, which the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce put on.

Workshop participants heard from an array of local business leaders, who shared their experience and advice about running a business or nonprofit.

Samantha Le, Executive Vice President of the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce and Executive Director of the Success Foundation, organized the conference as an opportunity for emerging business leaders to connect, share ideas, strategies, and best practices.

Prior to this conference, “…there was nothing local that didn’t take up a lot of time and wasn’t expensive,” Le said.

Workshop participants at the conference.

“We have a lot of subject matter experts in our region that can speak to top-of-mind issues so why not bring everybody into a room,” she explained.

Talks included “cultivating a people-first culture”, “breaking barriers in business” and “igniting change through nonprofit and civic leadership”. Some of the event sponsors were BECU, Comcast, Westfield Southcenter and Port Jobs.

Le said there was “no better place” to host the conference than Highline College – in the heart of Southside. The region includes the cities of Des Moines, SeaTac, Normandy Park, Burien, Tukwila and Kent.

One of the panelists at the conference was Highline alumni, Mahamed Jama. The son of Somali immigrants, Jama was the student body president at the college in 2019.

Mahamed Jama, former Highline student body president.

“This is a very inspiring event,” Jama said. “There’s a lot of hope in how emerging leaders from Highline College can contribute to anything – from the community to the world.”

Jama, who’s on the board of the Highline Heritage Museum had some business leadership advice to give others, and especially to students.

“It’s important to stay in touch with folks who have helped you throughout your life and also by joining every opportunity you can. One opportunity will lead to another.”

Jama said Highline students can have a “clear path” into business leadership. Especially since the Small Business Development Center has an office at Highline. Jama went on to emphasize how leadership conferences benefit younger generations.

With the success of this inaugural event, it’s expected that the Southside Leaders Conference will be held again next year.