JANESVILLE From a Janesville-manufactured pen used to sign documents that marked the end of World War II, to a Titanic survivor who went on to open a Chinese restaurant, the citys history is filled with stories of people who came here to build something of their own.
This was the message at Forward Janesvilles annual dinner Thursday.
Keynote speaker Zach Atherton asked business and community leaders to consider how the stories they tell can help shape Janesvilles future.
Atherton, a marketing expert, storyteller and founder of ImprovBroadway. He shared how businesses and organizations can use storytelling to communicate not only what they do, but why it matters.
Shar Hermanson, the CEO of Forward Janesville, said she reached out to Atherton to be the speaker because as a marketer, she understands the power of telling peoples stories.
I learned the more that we could really find out about the stories of the businesses in Janesville and tell them, the more we can really build this big sense of community, she said.
Atherton said his main goal for tonight was to inspire people to want to tell their stories. He said it is stories that make up the greater fabric of a community.
He said that it is lucrative to tell stories.
Theres also a big personal branding part of it, motivation, and then the community building, which is the most important, Atherton said. Im hoping to share stories with them, to inspire them to tell their stories so that theyll get what they want in the short term, like increasing revenue and inspire them to think long term about what a place can become when people tell the right stories.
Atherton lives in Provo, Utah. He said in the time he has spent there, the community has transformed by just a few people wanting to change its narrative. He said most people think of Provo as a college town but in the past 10 years it has become a hub for film, comedy and entertainment.
Just because a few people inspired each other to create these businesses, and its been on the map, she said. Its helped it commercially, and with the locals there. And more important, its changed the culture of what people believe they can be when they live there.
Hermanson said she hopes storytelling might help inspire people to think differently about a vision for Janesvilles south side, a part of the city that still bears scars from post-industrial fallout after General Motors assembly plant closed there in 2009.
Hermanson believes there is opportunity for the south side that could be tied to new concepts, new ideas and new stories.
Its a blank canvas right now, she said Who knows, maybe the south side becomes this mecca for young artists to create community on the south side. Theres a lot of available land and opportunity.
Hermansons thinking ties back to what she sees as Janesvilles biggest opportunity: the citys youth. She said high schoolers should be exposed to businesses in Janesville because they are going to create the citys future stories.
We dont know what were going to need in the future. We have no idea, but we have a great population of young people that do have some ideas, she said. So lets get them into our businesses so that they can start talking to people who are doing the work now, and figure out what Janesville is going to be in the future.
Atherton said that when life becomes more automated and everything can be created at the touch of a button, its the stories that matter.
He said he knows of a barber in Wichita, Kansas who makes videos while giving hair cuts to men that transform their looks and the way they see themselves. He said people are now traveling to Wichita just to get their hair cut because of how one barber makes people feel.
Atherton said a story cant be told without a subject, a storyteller, and another person or group to tell it to. It all involves people interacting with people. He said that is what powers communities and businesses.
If you think about the human race and what we are and how were different, the only thing that we have is our ability to create and tell another story, he said. Thats all we have. And so when we try to think about what makes us different and what gives that experienceits the stories that we tell.
Hermanson said when she came back to Janesville, she was asked what the next steps were for Janesville. Shes spent the past couple of years trying to figure out the answer to that question.
She said there is opportunity coming in the form of new housing, planning for the future of the GM/JATCO site even with local companies doing groundbreaking work with vision and creativity, like SHINE Technologies work with fusion technology.
The overall goal, Hermanson said, is big: Its about finding whats next.