Vistage Member Alice Duong Wins Painting by Artist Erik Wahl during the San Diego Vistage Executive Summit: Leading Innovation

Artist-Erik-WahlSAN DIEGO, CA (March 17, 2014) – Vistage congratulates member Alice Duong for winning artist Erik Wahl’s painting after his presentation at the Vistage Executive Summit: Leading Innovation, which took place on February 25, 2014.

Erik Wahl is an internationally recognized graffiti artist, entrepreneur, and author of the #1 best-selling business book UNthink. During the Vistage Executive Summit’s closing session, he treated the audience to his ideas on creativity and innovation by sharing his personal comeback story, creating three original paintings live on-stage, and leading a powerful presentation on the value of taking a risk. Wahl promised to hide a painting “somewhere in San Diego,” and tweet the geo-coordinates at 6:00 p.m. that day. The first person to discover the painting was free to keep it.

Alice Duong, CEO of Coldpack, Inc., attended the Vistage Executive Summit and, during Wahl’s presentation, decided she wanted to be the person who found Wahl’s hidden artwork. “I had actually left the Summit and realized much after he gave out the first clue that I had planned on geocaching. So I dropped what I was doing, signed up for Twitter since I have never used it, found the clues, jumped in my car, drove – more like raced –back to the hotel”

Duong signed up for Twitter in time to receive Wahl’s clues, and followed the coordinates back to the Hyatt at Torrey Pines. She analyzed a second set of clues to find the painting within the hotel and tweeted a photo of it to claim her prize.

“In this case, I will collect it as a memorabilia of this experience – a story to tell my children and grand-children. I hand wrote the story and glued it to the back of the artwork. The challenge was an attempt to measure how much tenacity and ambition I still had. Sometimes, as CEOs we lose perspective of some important values because of our responsibilities.”

The Vistage Executive Summit in San Diego was the first in a new series of events designed for business leaders from all walks of life seeking innovative ideas to drive growth and productivity. Focused on the topic of Leading Innovation, the Summit featured keynote speakers and panelists who are leaders in business, academia, technology, and the arts. These included Forbes columnist Rich Karlgaard; best-selling author Marshall Goldsmith; San Diego Chargers EVP-CEO A.G. Spanos; former COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Cameron Herold; University of Michican economist Dr. Richard Curtin; and surprise guest Sekou Andrews, the world’s leading Poetic Voice.

Following the San Diego event, Vistage will host Executive Summits in Lancaster, Philadelphia, Austin, Seattle, New York City, Houston, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Minneapolis, San Jose, Chicago, Orange County, Los Angeles, Boston, Cleveland, and Washington DC.

About Vistage Worldwide, Inc.
Vistage is the world’s largest CEO coaching and peer advisory organization for small and midsize businesses. For more than 65 years, we’ve been helping CEOs, business owners and key executives solve their greatest challenges through confidential peer groups and one-to-one executive coaching sessions. Today, more than 45,000 members in 35 countries rely on Vistage to help make better decisions for their companies, families and communities. The results prove it: Vistage CEO members grew their annual revenue on average by 4.6% in 2020, while nonmembers with comparable small and midsize businesses saw revenue decrease by 4.7%, according to a study of Dun & Bradstreet data. Learn more at vistage.com.

Media Contact
Katie McWeeney
| Vistage
858.523.6875 | katie.mcweeney@vistage.com