Speakers & Presentations
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Opening General Session
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Taylor St. Germain
2024-2025: A Changing Landscape
Interest rates, inflation, labor, military conflicts, and a presidential election are on the minds of most leaders as they make plans for the rest of 2024 and prepare for 2025. Join us as we look at the trends for 2024, including a weakening economy, lower inflation, and a shift in consumer spending. We will take a look at key markets, both domestic and global. The presentation will give you valuable insights in time to develop tactics and strategies to beat the cycle and prepare for the business cycle rise ahead. Knowing what to watch for and the probable timing of the reversal to rise will give you confidence as you enact plans that enable you to get the most out of 2024 and 2025 while simultaneously getting ahead of your competitors.
About Taylor
As an experienced economist, Taylor St. Germain provides consulting service for small businesses, trade associations, and fortune 500 companies across a spectrum of industries. Taylor specializes in forecasting at both the market and company levels and is a key contributor to maintaining ITR Economics’ forecast accuracy rating of 94.7%.
His dynamic personality and extensive knowledge of economic trends and their business relevance are highly valued by clients and colleagues alike.
Taylor spent time in the tech industry providing market intelligence to electronics OEMs, semiconductor companies, and component manufacturers. In his five years with ITR Economics, he has worked with various distributors, manufacturers, and producers, helping each client navigate the business cycle and optimize their corporate planning strategy. Taylor has also spent several years in Texas furthering his research in the industrial sector, with a specific focus on oil and gas.
Taylor earned his bachelor’s degree in statistics from the University of Vermont and is finishing a master’s degree in applied economics at Southern New Hampshire University. He has been featured in OEM Magazine and on the Fab Lab and Wealth Formula podcasts.
Afternoon Workshop
12:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Sean Glaze
What Effective Leaders Do – How to Accelerate your Growth and Build an Exceptional Workplace Culture!
According to a 2022 Zippia research study, “77% of businesses report that leadership is lacking.” But experience alone, or a new title does not make a leader more effective. Effectiveness is about improved awareness and having positive and intentional interactions!
This engaging program is full of memorable stories and valuable content attendees can immediately implement to challenge assumptions and improve their organizational impact.
Participants will leave with tools and insights to solve problems more quickly, with increased clarity and confidence to accelerate their growth and have a more positive impact on their team performance.
Session participants will also learn 5 essential questions to identify and improve issues in their workplace culture and ensure that their people are more engaged and productive moving forward.
About Sean
Sean Glaze is an author and leadership expert who has worked with clients like Cisco, John Deere, Coca-Cola, and Emory University to increase collaboration, boost productivity, and build exceptional workplace cultures.
As a successful basketball coach and educator for over 20 years, Sean gained valuable insights into leading winning teams – and now he travels around the country to share those lessons.
Seans’s engaging conference keynotes and interactive team building events help accelerate the growth of more effective leaders.
And Sean’s books, Rapid Teamwork, The 10 Commandments of Winning Teammates, and Staying Coachable are entertaining parables with powerful take-aways to improve team performance and leadership!
Monday, April 29, 2024
Breakfast & Speaking Session
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Alex Goldfayn
OUTGROW: A Proven, Simple System for Winning Market Share and Predictably Growing Your Sales
Join 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author and revenue growth consultant Alex Goldfayn for this memorable and powerful speech on how to predictably grow your revenue. The key is to take fast, simple, proactive actions that are proven to add sales quickly. Alex will review how to plan these actions, implement them, and track them. Whether it’s your salespeople, managers, or even you, the owner, Alex will demonstrate high-impact, immediately applicable techniques that his clients use to bring on dramatically expand business with current customers and bring on new ones. Alex’s clients proactively add 15% to 30% new sales annually, and in this speech, Alex will share how you can too. Every…single…year.
3 Big Takeaways:
- Why the proactive phone call to customers and prospects is the best and fasted way to grow business.
- Why most organizations are totally reactive, and how to immediately stand out from this crowd, which is your competition.
- How to infuse accountability, clear expectations, data and analytics into your sales function.
About Alex
Alex Goldfayn is the CEO of The Revenue Growth Consultancy, which is one of the top-grossing solo consulting firms in the nation. His clients average 20-30% additional sales annually – every single year- when working with Alex and applying the approaches in this book. Combined, his clients have generated billions of dollars in new sales which can be tied directly to the systems and techniques Alex has taught them.
His clients include business-to-business companies like manufacturers, distributors, and service organizations, typically in mature industries – which make the world go around. He is one of the highest-rated and most sought-after sales speakers in the world, motivating sales teams, managers, executives, and owners to take simple action which will grow their sales. He delivers 75 to 100 sales workshops, speeches, and webinars annually. This new book will go to all of these attendees. His speaking work is represented by the Washington State Speakers Bureau.
Alex’s three most recent books, Pick Up the Phone & Sell (Wiley 2021), 5-Minute Selling (Wiley 2020), and Selling Boldly (Wiley 2018) are WSJ bestsellers. His 2015 book, The Revenue Growth Habit was honored as the sales book of the year by 900-CEO-Read, and Evangelist Marketing was published in 2011 by BenBella Books.
Alex lives in the Chicago area with his wife, Lisa, and 14-year-old twins, and it’s immediately obvious to everyone that Lisa – who raises the kids and feeds Alex- works much harder than he does!
Members’ Luncheon, Carver Award, & Keynote
12:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Zack Kass
The AI-Powered Future
Join Zack Kass as he explores the transformative journey of AI, tracing its ascent from simple origins to a cornerstone of modern technology in “the AI-Powered Future.” This keynote offers a rich perspective on AI’s evolution, simplifying its complexities and highlighting its potential for organizational growth. Zack shares practical strategies and insights, equipping leaders to leverage AI effectively. Discover how to navigate the AI revolution and position your organization at the forefront of this technological era.
About Zack
For over a decade, Zack Kass has stood at the crossroads where artificial intelligence meets the pragmatic world of business. With 14 years navigating this evolving landscape, Zack has had a front-row seat to the nuances and transformative possibilities AI brings.
He devoted pivotal years at OpenAI, serving as the head of Go-to-Market. In his role, Zack wasn’t just at the helm of theoretical applications; he was a key player in channeling OpenAI’s innovative research into tangible business solutions. But as he steered the AI applications into the market, Zack recognized a broader horizon that beckoned his expertise.
At the heart of Zack’s mission lies a clear challenge: ensuring businesses, both big and small, are ready to harness the full potential of AI. in a rapidly shifting technological world, staying ahead isn’t just an advantage; it’s a necessity. Through his endeavors, Zack aims to demystify AI, ensuring businesses can pivot, adapt, and thrive in an AI-augmented future.
But Zack’s vision isn’t limited to corporations. He’s a firm advocate for the idea that AI can be a game-changer for local governments, equipping them with tools that could redefine community service. By introducing AI to local governance, Zack hopes to ensure that advancements benefit every strata of society, leveling the playing field in unprecedented ways.
Outside the realm of AI, Zack finds solace in the community of Santa Barbra, California. Beyond his professional pursuits, he indulges in competitive beach volleyball, a testament to his belief in balance and embracing life’s simpler pleasures.
In Zack Kass, we find a blend of visionary and pragmatist, guiding businesses and communities alike into the promising future of AI.
Tuesday, April 30, 2023
General Session & Business Meeting
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Mike Maddock
Questions Business Disruptors Ask Themselves
Bruce Lee once said, “A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”
Business Disruptors are often celebrated for their courage and vision, but Mike Maddock thinks that much of their success is rooted in the questions they ask themselves; questions that reveal new opportunities that the rest of us often miss.
This keynote presentation is based on Mike’s best-selling book Plan D. it is a highly entertaining talk that focuses on the unexpected, replicable and generative questions enlightened leaders learn to ask themselves and their teams.
Key takeaways include:
- How to ensure your leadership team is balances
- How to uncover meaningful problems before you start generating ideas
- How to build a team that can create even in the most difficult circumstances
About Mike
CEO and Founding Partner, Maddock Douglas
www.maddockdouglas.com
www.flourishforums.com
www.mike-maddock.com
Mike Maddock is an entrepreneur, a keynote speaker, a best-selling author, and a CEO Coach.
Mike will tell you that his purpose is “To inspire and empower curiosity.” His passion is to make people believe they can change the world and then provide the tools, his frameworks and hard-earned wisdom to make positive impact happen.
Mike calls himself an Idea Monkey because he loves to solve problems with disruptive ideas. this passion for problem solving has driven Mike to establish 7 successful businesses, including innovation and strategy consultancy Maddock Douglas which has helped more than 25% of the Fortune 500 create and launch new products, services and business models.
He also co-chairs the Gathering of Titans Entrepreneurial Conclave at MIT, and he is past Chapter President of Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Young Presidents’ Organization, both chapters located in Chicago.
A doodler, turned cartoonist, turned author, Mike has been using words and pictures to create smiles and build ideas his entire life. Today, Mike is a contributor to Forbes and author of four bestselling books: Free the Idea Monkey…to focus on what matters most!, Brand new: Solving the Innovation Paradox and Flirting With the uninterested, Innovating in a Sold, Not Bought Category, and finally, Plan D – his latest book about how Disruptors use their superhero powers to put a dent in the universe.