More than 600 attend leadership summit at Cape church

Leaders from a variety of backgrounds gathered Thursday for the Global Leadership Summit at La Croix Church in Cape Girardeau.

This was the third consecutive year for the church to serve as a host site for the simulcast, an event broadcast from Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago to more than 200 host sites around the globe.

Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, opened the summit and spoke, in part, about being a leader.

"What a privilege to be a leader, what an absolute privilege," Hybels said.

Other speakers were Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. secretary of state; Jim Collins, business thinker and author; Marc Kielburger, co-founder of Free the Children and co-CEO of Me to We; Sheryl WuDunn, author, Pulitzer Prize winner and business executive; Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard; and Craig Groeschel, founder and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv.

The Rev. Ron Watts, pastor of La Croix, said about 618 people registered for this year's conference and attendance was up by about 100 compared to last year.

Watts was "really pleased" with this year's showing and said the audience was a good mix of those in ministry and business.

"I've met a number of people who have their teams from their businesses here," Watts said. "We have six partner churches and they've brought, of course, a lot of folks, but I'm really pleased with the number of business people who've brought their leadership teams, their executive teams, staff. It's really encouraging."

Chris Edmonds, president and CEO of Element 74 in Cape Girardeau, was impressed with the conference following the morning session.

"It's like sippin' out of a fire hydrant," Edmonds said. "It's incredible the amount of wisdom and knowledge that has been condensed already just this morning. The big take away for me is leadership is being consistent and moving forward in the face of adversity."

Edmonds, who was attending the summit for the first time, said his favorite speaker during the morning session was Rice, who noted that she did not let her circumstances dictate her path in life.

John McGowan, CEO of Love In the Name of Christ of Southeast Missouri, said this was his second time to attend the summit. He also enjoyed Rice's talk, noting she is a great motivator. However, it was Jim Collins' speech that stood out to him.

"He put things into perspective that we can implement now," McGowan said.

Though the registration fee is not discounted for Friday-only attendance, those interested in attending today's portion of the conference may still register at the church.

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