On Thursday January 12, I received an invitation to attend a briefing by the President at the White House on the subject of small business and government reform.

I assume I was on “the list” because I had attended another small business leader event with White House staffers last month.

I drove up Friday morning with two other members or my Virginia CEO roundtable group and arrived around 10am.  After waiting with a group of about 60 other small business leaders outside at a security checkpoint  on a cold, blustery day, we were guided through two more check points and into the ground floor entrance of the East Wing of the White House.  We checked our coats into what normally serves as the White House Theater and walked down a corridor with portraits of many of the presidents and photo display of First Families over the years.  We then walked upstairs into the White House itself – a lobby area with portraits of Reagan, Clinton and Bush and a grand piano being played by a Marine in a dress uniform.  After milling around for about 10 minutes, we were led into the East Room where we took our seats.  Jason snagged a seat on the fourth row, and Lee and I sat in the fifth row.  Cameras and photographers lined the back and left side of the room.

At 11:20, President Obama was introduced, walked into the room and took the podium.  He then commenced a speech directed to small business owners  that outlined a plan to streamline and rationalize the business related agencies in the government – Commerce Department, SBA, Import-Export Bank, USTR, etc.  You couldn’t argue with the basic goals – to make the government more responsive and supportive to business needs while doing so more efficiently and economically.  The catch was that the President currently does not wield unilateral power to make these changes happen.  He wants Congress to pass a law to make it easier for the Executive Branch to make basic reforms.  Here is a link to a CNN.com article on the speech and the President’s proposal – http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/13/politics/obama-federal-government/index.html?hpt=hp_t3.

After the speech was over, the President simply walked out of the room.  Kind of anti-climactic.  We stuck around a few minutes, took a few photos, picked up our coats and left the White House by its east entrance.  It was around noon time, so we went to lunch at Old Ebbitt Grill before heading back home.  It was a fun and memorable day.

Here is a link to some photos taken of our visit: https://picasaweb.google.com/104320084769605780936/WhiteHouseVisit?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLLQ_a7J8aLFAw&feat=directlink.