Alliance Summit to Focus on Results of 5 Surveys

You don’t have to remember your high school math to know that converting data into knowledge and power--and ultimately into substantive change--takes much more than a slide rule.

But that’s the formidable challenge facing the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and the rest of the region’s business community.

The Alliance is probably best known for orchestrating the Valley of the Stars marketing campaign. But this Thursday, it will become the proud owner of perhaps the largest cache of Valley-centric data ever amassed by a group not working for the U.S. Census Bureau.

At its daylong symposium, dubbed Summit 2000, the Alliance will officially unveil the results of five (count ‘em, five) separate studies/polls/surveys on the Valley region, stretching from Glendale to Calabasas. One study has been in the works for nearly two years.

The public will learn everything from the optimism level of business owners in the region (it’s fairly high), to how the average Valley citizen feels about water quality (they’re concerned, which translates into a substantial market for bottled water).

From this storehouse of stats, Alliance leaders hope to move forward the debate on what ails the Valley, and what changes are needed to improve not only the business environment but also the overall quality of life.

That’s when the calculators go back into the drawer and the real heavy lifting begins.

Not even a deluge of data can effect change without leadership and a fair amount of political nudging. So after the bean counters sit down, it will be time for the true business leaders to step up.

Ultimately, this could provide an interesting test of just how much muscle the local business community has.

“Typically, data leads to disclosure, which is the first step,” said Larry Kosmont, whose Los Angeles-based firm, Kosmont Partners, studies the business atmosphere in communities across the country.

“But there can’t be any meaningful change without the political will to do it,” Kosmont said. “There is no political will to create change, if there is no leadership from the political and business community, it’s hard to effectuate change. The data itself will not do it.”

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The Alliance has billed this week’s program as the “information event of the century.” Pretty tough talk since the century’s not even 100 days old yet. Hyperbole notwithstanding, there will be enough information distributed for data junkies to pig out for days.

“I see the summit as the beginning of this incredible accumulating of data, which we will turn into information if we’re smart,” said Bruce Ackerman, the newly minted president and chief executive officer of the Alliance. “And that information can become knowledge and that knowledge can become power.

“It gives us the ability and resources to help guide the destiny of our community,” he said.

The five reports to be issued are:

* The San Fernando Valley Economic Forecast: a forward look at business trends and growth predictions within the region. The forecast was produced by economic guru Jack Kyser of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., and is the first such report that group has issued for the region.

* The Valleywide Business Enhancement Survey: a poll, mailed out late last year to nearly 10,000 businesses in the 300-square-mile Valley region. It addresses such things as plans for capital expansion and thoughts on business impediments;

* The San Fernando Valley Almanac: a project, funded by $225,000 in grants from the James Irvine Foundation, that includes, in part, gathering available data on the communities within the region, going across municipal boundaries. The Almanac will include information on how Valley industries, like aerospace, compare with those in other regions.

The project was launched two years ago by Woodland Hills attorney Bob Scott, one of the founders of the Economic Alliance. The Almanac will be available in print, and as of Thursday, on the Internet;

* Valley Community Indicators Report: the result of interviews with 60 individuals and more than a dozen round-table discussions with up to two dozen business, community and government leaders. They analyzed quality of life issues ranging from air pollution and crime to housing stock;

* San Fernando Valley Public Opinion Survey: a telephone poll of more than 800 households, conducted in late October, measuring likes, dislikes and attitudes about the quality of life in the region.

“It’s a plethora of information about the greater Valley area that has never been known before,” said David Fleming, chairman of the Alliance. “It’s everything you always wanted to know about the Valley but were afraid to ask because there was no one with the answer.”

Part of the reason no one had the answer is that not everyone agrees on what the Valley is. For the Economic Alliance, which was formed after the 1994 Northridge earthquake to help stimulate economic development, the region includes all of four cities--Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando and Calabasas--and a big chunk of Los Angeles.

That’s a spiritual conglomerate not recognized by statisticians who focus on municipal boundaries. Likewise, few agencies separate the Valley-Los Angeles from the Basin-Los Angeles for the purpose of fact gathering.

The multiple studies from the Alliance should go a long way toward helping to more clearly define, and quantify, the broader region.

Kosmont agreed that gathering Valley-specific data “is an important and correct first step” on the long road to achieving tangible results. “It’s hard to effectuate change without a reason,” said Kosmont. “And you don’t have a reason until you do an analysis. You need to identify a reason for change or else you won’t get people to buy into it.”

From this data, business leaders say, they will be able to speak authoritatively on the pressing issues of the day.

“If knowledge is power, we’ve certainly empowered the business community of the Valley,” said Fleming. “Now we’re going to be able to take this information and speak from a standpoint where we know what we’re talking about.”

Making the quantum leap from talking to doing will require the assistance of business leaders who represent a variety of Valley-based organizations, officials said.

“I would venture to say if it were something that required advocacy, we’d go to VICA [the Valley Industry & Commerce Assn.] and say, ‘help us develop a position paper’,” said Ackerman, who took the helm of the organization three weeks ago, when its first president, Bill Allen, resigned to launch an Internet company.

In some cases, Ackerman said, the Alliance will act as a facilitator, bringing together groups or individuals that can address a problem.

“If crime is crazy in one area, and I don’t know that it is, doesn’t the data allow for us to get the people together who can impact the subject and the area?”

Ackerman said that in some cases, the organization, which is gaining increasing prestige in business circles, will “negotiate with city or corporate leaders to develop public policy statements to bring pressure to bear.”

Officials said the data will be used not only as a flashlight, to shine a brighter light on concerns in the growing region, but also as a beacon, to draw in new business.

“It’s going to tell quite a story to the outsiders that we’re trying to influence to come into the Valley,” said Fleming.

Whether the data are used as carrot (for new business) or stick (to prod policymakers into action) the important thing is that the information be used.

“The goal of the summit is to take the information that’s coming out, a lot of which is available for the first time ever, and . . . develop knowledge and the application of resources to make a difference in guiding our community into the future,” said Ackerman.

“The challenge is not whether we have a successful summit, but what . . . we do with the information. That’s the real value of this project.”

Valley@Work runs each Tuesday. Karen Robinson-Jacobs can be reached at Karen.Robinson@latimes.com.