What I Am with Mike Ekey, Lee's Summit Planning Commissioner

Link: ELGL Spreads Across the Country

“Cross between The Atlantic magazine and Buzzfeed”

Welcome to our new member feature. We’ve all heard the excuse “I’m too busy” so we’ve simplified our feature to illicit short, meaningful responses for our new members. As a side note, ELGL is adamantly opposed to the excuse, “I’m too busy.”

Mike Ekey (LinkedIn and Twitter) is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Midwest Public Risk. He also is Planning Commissioner for the City of Lee’s Summit. Mike received an undergraduate degree from University of Missouri and an MPA from Park University.

What I Am Watching:
Endless stream of Elmo videos and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse hot dog song

What I Am Reading:
Hiding from the Internet by Michael Bazzell. (This is 200 pages of how to keep your name and identity off the internet)

What I Wish Local Government Did Better:
Storytelling. And I don’t just mean from your PR or Communications office. We all have a great story to tell about what we do and how it directly influences the lives of residents every single day.
What I Am Afraid of:
Water where I cannot see to the bottom.
What I Wish I Was Doing (Instead of Completing This Questionnaire):
Road tripping. Anywhere. Everywhere. Love getting out and driving across the region.
What I Consider As My Career Accomplishments:
For four years I managed the Midwest’s largest single-day kite festival in Lee’s Summit. It was all sponsor supported and it taught me a lot about community partnerships, team building and volunteer management.
Second best accomplishment would be this promo video I did for the KC Royals.

What I Want From ELGL:
The opportunity to connect with other local government advocates, volunteers and employees (some people are all of these things at once)
What I Am Listening To:
Giles Lamb’s Dead Island Soundtrack (spotify it!)

So, I read a long time ago that the perfect music for concentrating is actually video game theme music. It can play in the background and not be distracting but still is really nice. Plus it make coding websites and writing press release seem more EPIC.
What I Wish People Knew About Me:
After newspapers, I spent about a year working for a company that did booze and bar marketing. We traveled, we drank, we schmoozed. It was awful.
What I Wish Would Go Away:
Caillou. Period.
(Editor’s Note: While Mike may dislike Caillou, ELGL has much more angst toward that lil’ Canadian.)
What I Think of Professional Associations:
Always shied away since many were willing to take my money but only sent a newsletter. ELGL (namely the people who I connected with online early) just seemed different. Really looking forward to working and growing with this group.
What I Wished You Asked Me:
End of a rough day, what are you drinking? Black Maple Hill Rye Whiskey (single ice cube)