Henry Dubroff

We are about ready to flip over the internal calendar that drives the Pacific Coast Business Times and launch into Volume 19 of this incredible journey.

Beginning with issue 1 of volume 1, on March 17, 2000, we’ve had amazing adventures and became the business publication of record for the tri-county region.

We’ve been tested by disruption from fire, ash, wind, rain and mudslides but we have some exciting plans ahead for 2018.

• We are kicking off our 2018 awards season on March 15 with our third annual Central Coast Innovation Awards. We’re pleased to be honoring great companies like Patagonia Works, GeoLinks, Paso Pacifico and AppFolio co-founder Jon Walker, our Technologist of the Year. Our program includes a Startup Village where the best of our area business plan competitors get ideas on how to advance from concept to startup. We’re excited about introducing a new venue, the Hotel California on Santa Barbara’s waterfront.

• Our Top 50 Women in Business program on April 19 at the Deckers Brands Rotunda will introduce a new, Distinguished Achievement honor that we’ll inaugurate with a special keynote by Montecito Bank & Trust Chair and CEO Janet Garufis. We don’t expect to give this award every year but we thought it was important to recognize the special accomplishments of the leader of the region’s largest locally-based bank. You can read about her as well as our Editor’s Choice selections in the March 23 edition.

• We will shortly announce an exciting Hall of Fame honoree for this year’s 101 One Hundred awards. After a rousing reception last year, our list of the 100 most influential companies will include our 25 Best Places to Work, a project that got an overwhelming response again this year.

• We will be carrying the theme of innovation over to our call for nominees for our annual Champions in Health Care Awards in June. We’re looking forward to recognizing many of the innovative practices and technologies that are reshaping health care in our region.

• At our Latino Business Awards program in July we’ll be presenting our second annual Pacific Coast Business Times scholarship, a $1,000 award to a worthy high school student pursuing a career in business.

• I’m pleased to announce that “Spirit of Small Business” has been recognized as a protected trademark by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. We are delighted to be partnering again with the Small Business Administration in Los Angeles on this program, a partnership that began in 2003.

When you start a business, as I did 18 years ago with a leased Saab, a checkbook and a business plan, you don’t always appreciate that part of the adventure will be the people you meet along the way. One of them was the late Mike Towbes, who launched his bank, Montecito Bank & Trust, precisely 25 years before I started the Business Times. Before his death last April, I learned many lessons from him about how to respect our unique business culture on the Central Coast.

Hank Lacayo, who passed away in May, figured out how to bridge the two worlds of Ventura County: large agricultural and industrial companies and the thousands who work for them, including farm and industrial workers. Building those bridges was his life’s work and the inspiration for our scholarship award.

As we get ready to launch into a new year, a few more things must be said.

None of this would been possible without the support of you, our print and digital subscribers, event attendees, sponsors and partners.

And a special thank you to the Business Times team, a truly dedicated crew led by Publisher Linda le Brock and Managing Editor Glenn Rabinowitz.

Finally, an invitation. Join us on March 15 at the Hotel Californian for the Central Coast Innovation Awards and reserve your ticket via email to Marketing Director Romi Ramirez at RRamirez@pacbiztimes.com. Subscribe today via email to Circulation Director Debra Giles at DGiles@pacbiztimes.com.

• Contact Editor Henry Dubroff at hdubroff@pacbiztimes.com.