Workforce Committee Brainstorms for Community Event in Fall

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

A group of local leaders will try to strengthen Kodiak’s business scene by organizing an event for that purpose.

The Kodiak Workforce Regional Advisory Committee held a meeting yesterday where they talked about that and Kodiak’s financial landscape.

According to committee chair Jared Griffin, the committee held its first event in October.

“The previous one was to kinda collect and to make connections and this one might be a little bit more about developing relationships, making connections and giving information about entrepreneurship, financial wellness.”

Griffin later said the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly originally formed the committee to advise the borough, but the group may switch directions.

He said it’s transitioning to working more with the school district and Kodiak College. With that comes more outreach to the public.

Committee members at the meeting suggested ways to provide education on how to do finances and encourage more business growth

Garet Plantz, KeyBank manager, said individuals should come up with their own innovative ideas as opposed to others identifying areas of need.

“I think you should jump on it yourself instead of [telling] people this is what we need and this is how to do it. That’s entrepreneurship. I’ve done a couple of classes at the college and I think they have some great classes to really start out and head people in the right direction on what they want to do.”

Alisha Drabek suggested pairing entrepreneurship with an open discussion about possible business ideas.

“You could say it’s just for the entrepreneurs to figure out but maybe [it would be a useful idea] to have a table [where] people are brainstorming. Fill the need. Where’s the gaps in our community for the types of businesses or services that we don’t have at ready availability? Or we know there’s one guy in town who does this, and he’s about ready to retire.”

Griffin says the forum and what it may look like is still up in the air. He says it may include a job fair. The tentative event date is set for early October.

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