Today and Tomorrow Conference sets focus on building customer relationships
Delaware Technical Community College Owens campus held the 25th Annual Today and Tomorrow Conference on Oct. 26 and hosted business owners native to Sussex County, political officials, as well as Delaware Tech students and staff. The Today and Tomorrow Conference was composed of five main presentations that revolved around the theme of customer relationships in the new economy.
Dr. Ileana Smith, Vice President and Campus Director, said the event is “where good people, who care about this community, come together.”
Dr. Smith lead the conferences segments which included her introductory remarks, a 1 Million Cups presentation, which is a national program aimed at educating entrepreneurs, an overview of business-related demographics from Sussex County, open panel discussions, and a keynote speech to conclude the event.
The 1 Million Cups presentation featured two local entrepreneurs; Karen and Tony Sposato who own a winery in Venezuela and Benjamin Gray who manages the most successful Microtel hotel in the world, located in Georgetown.
“It’s up to us to take what we learn here today and use it for the good of the county,” she said.
Dr. Smith also discussed a variety of topics such as how the community can help build growing businesses in Sussex County as well as how those businesses can better connect and support the community.
Christine Gillan, a coordinator of the Today and Tomorrow Conference and Delaware Tech Director of Communication and Planning , said “we have a variety of businesses and we all work together to come up with a theme.”
The guest speakers were focused on bringing attention to the markets that are growing such as the now retiring Baby Boomer generation and the Millennials who will refill the workforce. The population of Sussex County has been increasing each month in past years and there are no signs that this will change in the near future.
Sussex County businesses have been trying to gather as much data as possible on demographic changes in order to better develop business to appeal to the new population as well as to develop the workforce to support the growing demand for employment.
Yosef Knight-Nieves, an entrepreneurship student at Delaware Tech, said “I was very surprised that the percentage of employed residents in Sussex was higher than Kent and New Castle combined.”
The statistics about the growth of Sussex County were emphasized, showing that Sussex County has been growing at a higher rate than the rest of Delaware and in terms of business, and has been higher than the national average at fourteen percent job growth and a forty percent increase in population in the senior age group.
Delaware Tech. hosts the annual Today and Tomorrow Conference to promote and develop Sussex County business. Photo by Cassandra Gotto.