Keynote Presentation

Who’s Looking Back at You in the Mirror? Industry Ethics™
Joan Eisenstodt

Diverging practices and business ethics have been topics of discussion for many. Issues concerning, for example, payment of commissions, relationships with vendors, meeting points or rewards and other types of non-monetary gifts or items of value, and itemizing on expense reports, have raised and continue to raise concerns. In this interactive session, we will, using scenarios, discuss the issues and topics that can result in “grey areas” as they relate to industry professionalism and ethics and determine what steps individuals, their employers and our professional organizations need to take you. Joan encourages you to send your ethical dilemmas, which, if used will be done so in confidences, to eisenstodt@aol.com.

Learning Objectives:

• Define and determine questions about ‘grey’ areas frequently encountered.
• Become better prepared to evaluate current industry practices that create or give rise to ethics discussions.
• Learn to facilitate the creation of practices and guidelines to address consistency in addressing practices for ethical behavior.

Joan Eisenstodt founded Eisenstodt Associates, a Washington, DC-based meetings and hospitality consulting company in 1981. She brings 35+ years experience to her work with corporations, associations, hotel companies and DMOs, to facilitate and design meetings, conduct training, conduct departmental audits, negotiate contracts and serve as an expert witness.

Breakout Sessions (Six to choose from)

State of the Industry
Leslie Wright

2009 was a pivotal year for the meeting and hospitality industry. Where are we now as we enter the second quarter of 2010? This State of the Industry will encompass an interactive discussion of the hospitality industry. 2009 will be reviewed as well as looking at 2010 projections. The value of meetings, consumer confidence and other factors that influence buying decisions will be addressed to help assess where we are.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the effects of the economy on the hotel and meetings industries
• Be able to explain how meetings can be valuable to planners and suppliers
• Demonstrate the ability to establish winning partnerships

Leslie Wright was born in Savannah GA and grew up in Brooklyn New York. She is a graduate of Howard University in Washington DC with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing. Leslie began her career in Kansas City, Missouri with Westin Hotels and Resorts in 1984. After completing her management training, she decided to join Marriott International in 1987. Her Marriott career took her to St Louis, Dearborn MI, New York City, New Jersey and Orlando FL where she served in various sales and revenue management leadership positions. In 2005, she took a leap of faith and headed to Minneapolis MN where she was Director of Sales and Marketing for over 3 years. In 2009, she decided to change sides of the hospitality industry and joined Meet Minneapolis as their Senior Vice President of Destination Sales and Services where she oversees the sales and services components of the organization as well as the sales of the Minneapolis Convention Center. She is active in a variety of industry organizations, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and serves on the Board of Directors of the Minneapolis Urban League. She is married with one son, Julian, who is 9. She resides in Eden Prairie MN and is a proud Eagles fan.

Now to Wow!™: Who Are You?
Roshini Rajkumar

Do the words coming out of your mouth showcase a heavy hitter or scream light weight? Does your message delivery say winner or, that person doesn’t know what she’s talking about?

Telling an engaging story about yourself and your organization can build positive relationships toward success. But before you can get to those important steps for gaining new business and establishing your expertise, you must know how to present who you are in a memorable way.

In her Who Are You? talk, Roshini Rajkumar guides you through her trademarked presentation formula to help you first showcase YOU, so you can WOW! every time.

Learning Objectives:

• Define your purpose before you walk into an introduction.
• Learn how to analyze your audience to create focused results.
• Present yourself by maximizing your strengths.
• Put yourself in position to WOW! every time.

Roshini Rajkumar didn’t read any books about communication, she learned by doing. In 2010, Roshini shares insider tips in her first book, Communicate That! During her TV career, she reported and anchored the news, launched an investigative unit, and hosted talk shows on TV and radio. Asked to join the WCCO Radio on-air team in 2007 while she was growing her business, Roshini won a Murrow Award for breaking news team coverage of the RNC 2008 Riot. The Edina native started Roshini Multi Media in 2006. As a keynote speaker and communication consultant, she helps businesspeople, authors, athletes, and politicos present their best within their industries and for the media. Roshini keeps her microphone skills tuned up through radio hosting and commercial talent work and is a contributing expert on powerful communication to local and national media. She is a guest professor at St. Catherine University’s Leadership Institute.

Contract Negotiations from a Planner’s Perspective
Joan Eisenstodt

The often asked question about hotel contracts is “What do I not know that I should know and may not know?” Often that question is followed with “If I have no attrition clause, there are no obligations, right?” and “Our meeting is in Florida. There’s a storm in Chicago. Isn’t it true that I can terminate the meeting?” and “We can substitute names for other names without a problem, can’t we?” or “I can always have access to the hotel’s loading dock and contracted meeting rooms even if the exact times are not in the contract, can’t I?”

In this interactive session you will learn from a meeting professional with a passion for contracts and experience as an expert witness some trend and insights into contracts and the negotiations thereof where the technique of question-thinking or “Q-storming”™ is employed. Prior to the session, sned some language you would like discussed to eisenstodt@aol.com.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain a new technique for facilitating the contracting process.
• Improve questioning skills.
• Create questions to use within your own organization.

Joan Eisenstodt founded Eisenstodt Associates, a Washington, DC-based meetings and hospitality consulting company in 1981. She brings 35+ years experience to her work with corporations, associations, hotel companies and DMOs, to facilitate and design meetings, conduct training, conduct departmental audits, negotiate contracts and serve as an expert witness.

Active in PCMA, MPI, ASAE and other industry and non-industry organizations, Joan’s passions for life-long learning, meeting preparation, risk anticipation and contingency planning, ethical and inclusivity practices, and meeting excellence have been well-recognized: by MPI, HSMAI, IACC, and NSA; as an inductee into the CIC Hall of Leaders, and by the PCMA Foundation for Lifetime Achievement as an Educator.

Lean and Six Sigma
Rick Hardcopf

You might be asking, what are Lean and Six Sigma? Well, Lean and Six Sigma are tools to make processes more effective and efficient. Lean primarily focuses on efficiency and Six Sigma primarily focuses on effectiveness. Together, they make a powerful combination.

Lean Six Sigma is many things: a measure of variation, a measure of process quality, a methodology, a strategy and a philosophy. It is also often misunderstood. Rick Hardcopf, President at Acceleren Consulting will focus on the basics of Lean and Six Sigma - their history, why are some organizations integrating the tools, how do they work together, how are Lean Six Sigma effectively deployed and much more. Rick will draw on his experience and the expertise of premier organizations like Caterpillar, Xerox, ITT, UnitedHealth Group, the Navy, the Army, the USPS and many more. He’ll share how the organizations most effective in leveraging Lean Six Sigma view it not only as a set of tools, but the fundamental execution engine of their improvement strategy. So if you’re looking for a good overview of Lean and/or Six Sigma, this is an excellent session for you; if you’re experienced with either or both tools. Come hear Rick’s insights of successful deployment and how to unleash the power of Lean Six Sigma in your organization.

Learning objectives

• Develop a fundamental understanding of the methodology and terminology of both Lean and Six Sigma.
• Develop an appreciation of how Lean and Six Sigma work synergistically and form a powerful combination.
• Understand what it means to ‘deploy’ Lean Six Sigma and what are the keys to deployment success.

Mr. Hardcopf has 20 years of management consulting, executive management and business start-up experience, including P&L responsibility, with a proven record of success. Clients include government, service, manufacturing, and distribution companies from around the world. Specific experiences include; as VP, starting-up and directing the Navy/Marine Corps consulting practice for a mid-size strategy/operations consulting firm; directing the Business Restructuring practice for a large operations consulting firm in Russia; as President, facilitated the purchase and restructuring of a dairy business in Ukraine; built a business plan and raised $1M of capital to start a mineral water bottling company in Ukraine; VP-Operations for a software development company.

Mr. Hardcopf also has a deep background in the implementation of sustainable Lean and Six Sigma solutions. As a practitioner, educator, author and speaker, Mr. Hardcopf has spent over 20 years refining and developing methods for implementing Lean and Six Sigma, in both profit and not-for-profit organizations, consistently guiding organizations to achieve significant and sustainable operational improvements. His innovative approaches have been documented in several Lean Six Sigma books, and 100% of his clients have achieved a positive ROI and are referenceable. Most recently, as an Executive for the world leader in Lean Six Sigma, Mr. Hardcopf led arguably the most successful implementation of Lean Six Sigma in a government setting, having led a successful implementation within a 60k+ personnel organization.

Brain Based Events: The Latest Research on How to Engage Your Audience and Make Your Message Stick
Dan Yaman

Corporate events that bring large groups together are critical for a company. It’s an opportunity to share a vision, to convey information and to boost morale. Unfortunately, many large events are conducted with little regard for making sure key points and objectives are conveyed in a way that ensures action.

When you understand how the brain best receives and retains information, that knowledge becomes the key to holding an event that is truly effective; from a company, trainer, presenter and audience standpoint. You will learn how to strategize and plan your event so that attendees remember more than just the golf outing or the awards ceremony; so that the event truly has an impact.

Along with presenting the latest research on how to improve content comprehension and retention, how to completely engage your audience—from the moment they walk into the event, to long after the closing cocktail reception will be reviewed. With over 25 years of experience in creating the most engaging, effective events Dan will go over specific strategies for changing your event into a brain-focused, audience-focused learning session that truly has an impact on your company’s bottom line.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the science behind modifying an event approach.
• Define and set outcomes for your event; and how to have presenters stick to them.
• Learn how to structure a presentation so that attendees are engaged the entire time.
• Practice brain-based tricks to help your audience retain more information—and make sure the information retained is the most IMPORTANT information.

Dan Yaman started his career at age 17 as America’s youngest stage hypnotist. As he traveled around the country performing before audiences, he realized that there was a bigger need for helping audiences stay awake during presentations.

As the CEO of Live Spark—a strategic event design company—he developed innovative ways to help clients engage audiences. The Live Spark client list includes: Intel, Pillsbury, American Express, Honeywell, Seagate, and many others, and they’ve captivated over 10 million audience members around the world. Dan’s pioneering methodology combines the “art of theater”, the “science of learning” and the “psychology of persuasion” to create environments where message comprehension and content retention soars. This unique brain-based approach helps his clients put on events that profoundly increase their ROI while making the event more enjoyable, meaningful and relevant for the audience.

Mr. Yaman also founded LearningWare—a company dedicated to making training more engaging and effective through the use of interactive game shows—in 1994. Additionally, Dan co-authored the best-selling training book I’ll Take Learning for 500: Using Game Shows to Engage, Motivate and Train with Missy Covington.

“The M-Factor”: Why the Millennial Generation is Rocking the Workplace and How You Can Turn Their Great Expectations into Even Greater Results
Seth Mattison

American business is in the early stages of being rocked by the arrival of a new and powerful generation. Millennials (born 1982 to 2000)—the first generation to rival Baby Boomers in population size—are showing up at work with their own set of attitudes, expectations and values. Techno-savvy, demanding and ambitious, they’re bringing with them an entirely new way of doing business. How prepared will Gen Xers, Baby Boomers and Traditionalists be to manage them?

This presentation by Seth Mattison will demonstrate the obstacles and opportunities when trying to bridge the gap with the newest generation in the workplace. From the faux pas of social networking to the labels of entitlement and spoiled – nothing is off limits.

In addition, Seth offers strategies for recruiting, retaining, and motivating this influential new work force.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the four generations at work today, the influences that shaped who they are, and their values
• Communicate more effectively with staff, co-workers and “customers.”
• Identify critical “ClashPoints” that cause worker dissatisfaction, poor performance, and attrition (i.e. feedback styles and rewards programs) and implement recommended solutions.
• Describe newfound knowledge to co-workers, which will in turn increase awareness of and sensitivity to generational differences and create a more compatible, productive team.