MORGANTOWN -- Participants at the West Virginia's Young Leadership Conference, Generation West Virginia's April 23 launch event in Morgantown, got an unexpected invitation from Gov. Joe Manchin.

"It was an offer for each of the six member groups of Generation West Virginia to put two people on a, I believe he used the word 'commission,' that would meet quarterly in Charleston," said Justin Seibert of member group OVConnect in Wheeling.

"They're looking to get people up to speed on some of the government initiatives and financials and have them take that information back to their individual groups to see what they could do to improve West Virginia along those lines," he said.

The six member groups receiving the invitation were OVConnect, Generation Charleston, Generation Morgantown, the Young Professional Committee of Huntington's Chamber of Commerce, Martinsburg's Young Professionals of the Eastern Panhandle and Parkersburg's Young Emerging Leaders of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

It was an exciting surprise, said Steptoe & Johnson Member Bridget M. Cohee of the Young Professionals in Martinsburg.

"I was up on the panel and people from my group were texting, saying, 'I have dibs on going down to see the governor!'" Cohee said. "So we decided in the van on the ride back that we should rotate it among the people who have taken leadership roles here in the Eastern Panhandle."

The Martinsburg group has ideas of issues they'd like to see state government address, Cohee said. For her, the issue is locality pay to help service providers stay in West Virginia rather than seeking higher pay in adjacent Maryland and Virginia counties.

"Within our Department of Health and Human Resources, the social workers are constantly turning over," she said. "I'm court appointed to handle abuse and neglect cases and it is such a hard struggle to have inexperienced young social workers. They're trying their best but it takes forever to get them on board and then we lose them -- they just can't stay for what the state is paying them. It's a huge issue here."

OVConnect has ideas, too, said Siebert, who is founder and president of Direct Online Marketing in Wheeling.

"Our biggest goal professionally is growth for the area, both economically and in terms of population," he said. "We thought the invitation was a great opportunity to get more involved."

The theme for the conference was "realizing West Virginia's potential," said Generation West Virginia co-founder and spokesman Paul Daugherty. "We really want to start the conversation on how to make the state more attractive and responsive to young leaders and young talent."

A keynote speech by West Virginia University professor and incoming College of Law Dean Joyce E. McConnell encouraged the future leaders to cultivate certain skills.

Aspiring leaders have to learn to make hard decisions, McConnell said, and to deliver bad news. At the same time, they need to remember that leaders rise through the support of others and that their own treatment of others, good or bad, will come back to them.

In the end, a leader has to be willing to take risks and able to close the deal. But if you're not the right person in the right place at the right time, she said, don't let it throw you back.

The more than 150 participants from across the state attended workshops on mentorship, entrepreneurship and networking as well as panel discussions on moving West Virginia forward.

Daugherty said he expects the Young Leadership Conference to become an annual event.