Pastor Ed Noftz is part of a group of Tamaqua residents who meet monthly to discuss how they can be better leaders in their fields and the community as a whole.

So when the pastor from New Life Assembly of God in Tamaqua had the opportunity to participate in a national discussion about leadership and community building on Friday, he jumped at it."It's said that everything rises and falls on leadership, and we believe in that. So anything we can do to enhance leadership in your community in our area, that's what we want to bring and want to see."Noftz and about 100 local aspiring leaders - from local businesses, schools and nonprofits, filled the Tamaqua Community Arts Center Friday for Leadercast 2016. The annual leadership seminar is broadcast to hundreds of sites around the country.Attendees at Leadercast Tamaqua got to hear from luminaries of the corporate and sports world, as well as the heads of some of largest business entities in Carbon and Schuylkill counties.They were joined, at least virtually, by people at hundreds of other sites around the country where Leadercast was being broadcast."The community has really embraced the opportunity to have something like this here. They understand the importance of leadership if a community is to thrive," she said.National speakers included iconic leaders Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Alabama football coach Nick Saban, and motivational speakers.At one point, speaker Chris Barez-Brown asked viewers around the country to take 30 seconds to fold a paper airplane, and toss it at the same time. The exercise was meant to demonstrate the merits of being decisive and not overthinking - but it also served as an attempt at the Guinness World Record for the world's largest simultaneous tossing of paper airplanes.The speakers all talked about the qualities that helped them be successful leaders in very different fields, according to Tamaqua Community Arts Center coordinator Leona Rega."They talked about clarity - as a leader you need to be very clear in what your expectations are and what your goals are, and do it in a manner that you excite your team and make them want to go with you," she said.Local speakers included leaders of Mauch Chunk Trust, St. Luke's Miners Campus, and the Carbon County Chamber. Tamaqua-based painter Stephen Bennett shared his message through a live painting. Rega said the local speakers took the theme of the Leadercast and brought it home."They're not only speaking from a professional standpoint, they're speaking from the heart about what you can do in relation to your own environment, your culture of where you live," she said.