More than 1,200 people packed the Columbus Convention & Trade Center for the 10^thannual Jim Blanchard Leadership Forum Aug. 24-25. Hosted by the Leadership Institute at Columbus State University, this year’s forum featured an acclaimed group of best-selling authors, leadership experts, and a social entrepreneur. 

The featured speakers on Monday evening were President George W. Bush, his wife, Laura, and daughter, Barbara Bush. This was the second appearance for the 43^rd president, who was the keynote speaker in 2012, and the former first lady was the featured speaker at the forum in 2010.

Barbara, who serves as CEO and co-founder of Global Health Corps., moderated the hour-long event, while her parents shared memories of their time in the White House, reflections of Sept. 11, and the joys of retirement.

The forum opened with Tom Mullins, founding pastor of Christ Fellowship Church and former football coach, who inspired the business and civic leaders, military personnel, college students, and members of the community in attendance to think like a coach and not a boss.

Mullins quoted successful insurance executive Art Williams, who said, “Nobody really wants a boss; everybody wants a coach because coaches have a way of making people feel special.”

Mullins, who is the author of The Leadership Game and The Confidence Factor: Discovering the Winning Edge for Life, related several differences between being a boss and coach. “A coach will call out the champion in you,” he says. “They see your potential and call it out of you.”

Forum namesake Jim Blanchard, retired chairman of the board and CEO of Synovus, provided a history lesson on how business and civic leaders merged their talents and used their influence to bring about revitalization in Columbus.

Blanchard recalled several watershed moments in the city’s history including saving the Historic District, improving race relations in the 1970s, the recruitment of major companies to the area, opening of the Convention and Trade Center, and the completion of Interstate 185 which connects Columbus to Atlanta. He also gave special recognition to Columbus State University for its commitment to expanding academic programs in the downtown area.

Concluding the first day's group of speakers was Doris Kearns Goodwin, who is an historian and author of six critically acclaimed and New York Times best-selling books. The film rights to her most recent book, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, have been acquired by Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios. Goodwin and Spielberg have worked together in the past, when her book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln was used in the production of the movie “Lincoln,” which earned 12 Academy Award nominations.

The forum continued Tuesday with an impressive lineup that included Shana Young, director of the Leadership Institute at Columbus State University; Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water; Daniel Pink, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author; John Maxwell, world renowned leadership expert and New York Times best-selling author; James J. Dunne III, senior managing principal with Sandler O’Neill + Partners, L.P.; Simon Sinek, author, speaker and leadership expert; Ken Blanchard, author and business consultant; and General Stanley McChrystal, former commander of U.S. and International forces in Afghanistan. 

According to the Leadership Institute’s website, next year’s forum is scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13, 2016. Speakers include Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal and New York Times best-selling author; Bonnie St. John, the first African-American to win medals in Winter Paralympic competition as a ski racer; Ajaypal Singh Banga, president and CEO of MasterCard; Bill Curry, an author, motivational speaker and former football coach; Henry Cloud, clinical psychologist, leadership expert and best-selling author; Tommy Spaulding, world-renowned speaker, New York Times best-selling author and former CEO; and Jim Nantz, sportscaster.

For more information about the forum and to register, visit https://jblf.columbusstate.edu/