By John O’Brien

Redstone Review

LYONS – The Lyons Area Chamber of Commerce formed a committee called the Lyons Economic Gardening Group, LEGG, in March of 2008. The LEGG group members are: Christy Crosser, Chuck Keim, Rick Whitcomb, Bill VanLeeuwen and myself John O’Brien, chairman. LEGG is an economic development committee whose methodology is “economic gardening,” which is a way to grow and develop local economies by identifying and working with existing businesses to help them meet their objectives.

Economic gardening is a development methodology and is distinguished from “economic hunting” which is the more typical method for public entities to develop economies. Economic hunting attempts to recruit companies to relocate and invest in a community by offering tax, rezoning and other fiscal incentives. When they do that, they are competing with all other towns and cities also recruiting the same businesses. Economic gardening, on the other hand, works with existing local entrepreneurs by offering them market research, competitor intelligence, industry trends information, marketing lists, strategy development, web optimization and customized research.

LEGG has worked with over 16 local businesses and organizations, all are members of the Lyons Chamber of Commerce. LEGG has consulted with them in an on-going process to define and implement a successful business strategy. LEGG’s goal is to increase the number of good jobs in Lyons, by helping Chamber members grow their business.

Over the next several months, I will profile the members of the committee and give you some insight into the background and experience that they bring to LEGG, the chamber and the Lyons’ community.

Let’s start with Bill VanLeeuwen. Bill VanLeeuwen moved to Lyons, Colorado in 1998 after 14 years in Boulder. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Business Administration, he worked in the advertising business for several years and then joined Access Graphics on the Pearl Street Mall. While living on an airplane and crisscrossing the country, VanLeeuwen decided that the best way to escape the rat race was to start his own business. Eight years ago, X2M was formed as a strategic marketing and business development firm catering to technology companies. X2M has seen 500 percent growth over the past few years and works with companies such as Hunter Douglas, State of Colorado, Sun Microsystems, Avnet Technology Solutions, Network Appliance and Hitachi Data Systems. He is married to Alison and has two children, Emily, 8, and Mia, 4. In addition to working with the team from LEGG, running a small business and wrestling with his kids, VanLeeuwen is an avid golfer, fisherman and town shuffler (runner).

For more information please contact the Lyons Area Chamber of Commerce at 303-823-5215 or www.lyons-colorado.com

John O’Brien is the chairman of the Lyons Economic Gardening Group, LEGG and president of the Lyons Chamber of Commerce. He has worked in business and industry for many years and teaches classes at the University of Denver. He lives in Lyons. For more information on LEGG contact legg@lyons-colorado.com.

Back to Top