Conversations with the Country - Los Angeles

Anyone who attends the Conversations with the Country in Los Angeles today please drop us a line in the comments and share your thoughts. Good or Bad, Nice or Mean, up to you. You also don't have to leave an email address or URL or even your real name to add a comment, and even if you do the only thing visible to people besides me will be a name and website. For those who claim to be active duty Navy personal we always ask you leave your email so we can verify your identity if necessary. All email addresses remain private, as every Naval officer who has left their email address can attest to.

Senior Officers from the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard will present the new maritime strategy known as "A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower" to more than 180 local business and community leaders at the Wilshire Grand Hotel on April 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (PDT). They will discuss how U.S. seapower directly benefits the people and economy of Los Angeles and maintains the American way of life.

Senior Officials participating in this program include:

• Navy Vice Adm. John Morgan, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information, Plans and Strategy
• Coast Guard Rear Adm. David Pekoske, Assistant Commandant for Operations
• Marine Maj. Gen. James L. Williams, Commanding General, 4th Marine Division
• Navy Capt. Dan Cloyd, Director, Navy Strategic Actions Group
• Commodore Kelly Williams, Assistant to the Canadian Chief of Maritime Staff

We have been critical of the Navy for making this their primary medium for explaining the strategy, but for those 180 people I'm sure it is very informative. Rather than be critical this time we are taking a different approach, we will support the Navy's efforts to elevate the discussion of the Maritime Strategy.

We have read in the past the networking strategy of these "conversations" is they hope those in attendance will spread the word regarding the Maritime Strategy. We believe if only 1 of those in attendance leaves their impressions on the blog later today, they could potentially spread word to 10x that number by Friday afternoon, and potentially 25x that number by mid next week. In that spirit, we offer those in attendance a medium to share their thoughts to an audience already interested in the topic.