Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown Jr. will be a key speaker at the 6th Annual California Self Storage Association (CSSA) Northern California Owners Symposium on April 17. Brown will speak about the California government and its fiscal challenges at the event, which is expected to draw nearly 200 attendees.

Brown served as a two-term mayor of San Francisco from 1996 to 2004. He was also a legendary speaker of the California State Assembly from 1980 to 1995, and is widely regarded as the most influential African-American politician of the late 20th century. He has been at the center of California politics, and government and civic life for four decades. He also heads the Willie L. Brown Jr. Institute on Politics and Public Service, where he shares his knowledge and skills with a new generation of California leaders.

Held at The Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, Calif., the event partner for the symposium is Colliers Valuation & Advisory Services. Other speakers include Spencer Kirk, CEO of Extra Space Storage Inc., KC Conway, executive managing director of real estate analytics at Colliers Valuation, and employment-law specialist Lisa Barnett Sween, a partner at Lewis, Beisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP.

We are proud to have the Honorable Willie Brown as one of our speakers at the 6th Annual Northern California Owners Symposium, said Erin King, CSSA executive director. We look forward to hosting this full-day event that will feature compelling need to know sessions by noted industry experts who will focus on what every self-storage owner and operator needs to know to successfully navigate through the challenges of 2012.

For more information about the 6th Annual Northern California Owners Symposium or to register, visit www.californiaselfstorage.org.

Founded in 2002, the California Self Storage Association is the states not-for-profit trade organization dedicated to serving the California self-storage industry, including owner-operators, facility managers and industry vendors. The CSSA represents 450 direct member companies that own and operate more than 1,200 facilities in California. CSSA direct members range from individual facility owner-operators to multiple-facility operations, to the industry's largest publicly traded real estate investment trusts.