OBJECTIVES

• DRIVE business success and growth

• To inspire, motivate and educate

• PROMOTE the entrepreneurial spirit

• PROVIDE valuable tools, information and resources to businesses to support your future growth and success

 

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Innovation is a key source of competitive advantage, but it remains frustratingly elusive for many small business organizations. Too many organizations try to improve innovation by focusing only on new products and services. They hire more creative people, train individuals, or create specialized innovation departments. Yet, for most small businesses, these investments yield only disappointing results. They have not had sustainable solutions—practical and reliable programs that deliver long-term, predictable results. Instead, they have had an endless array of partial answers. They are left with an alarming innovation gap.  

Innovative Intelligence answers the question: How can we close the innovation gap by making leaders and organizations systematically and sustainably innovative? This presentation, based upon Dr. David Weiss’ co-authored book Innovative Intelligence (Wiley, 2011) explores the following:

·        What is the innovation gap and its root causes?

·        How can organizations drive innovation by developing leaders/teams, a culture of innovation, and enabling organizational practices?

·        How can an innovation plan contribute to focusing and sustaining innovation efforts?

Innovative Intelligence gives leaders a clear roadmap and practical tools to make your work culture more supportive of innovation, identify and tap into the innovative intelligence in your workplace and develop leaders who can close the innovation gap for greater business success.

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John Hallward Director of Global Development Ipsos ASI   Topic:  The Happiness Equation

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Lisa Kember Regional Development Director Constant Contact   Topic:  Social Media Marketing Made Simple

You know you should be looking at Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as marketing tools for your business. And you’ve heard that online video is a powerful marketing tool. You might have heard that blogging or tweeting can propel your business to new heights. But maybe you need a kickstart. Or maybe you need help to improve what you are already doing to market your organization on social media.

Learn how to:

• Create content that will capture attention and encourage people to engage with you

• Understand which social media tools will work for your organization

• Engage people using the three most common social media sites

• Manage your time and evaluate your success on social media

This will teach you how to leverage social media tools to increase your online visibility and reach new customers.

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Dr. Min Basadur Professor DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University   Topic:  Making profit by thriving on change

Keypoints:

• How might we anticipate new trends before they arrive?

• How might we make problems into golden eggs?

• How might we respond when making it better & cheaper no longer works?

• How might we develop emerging leaders who take charge?

• How might we simplify how we work together?

• How might we involve our customers in creating big ideas?

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John Clarke Head of Industry Technology Google Canada   Topic:  Digital Marketing   The Acceleration of Everything Just two years ago, how many of us Tweeted? How many of us had an Android? How many were social networking? Things are changing faster than ever. The pace is stunning and so is the scale: the number of internet users, the number of mobile subscribers, and the sheer amount of digital information is exploding. How to keep pace?  In this super-charged environment, there are four things you have to do to keep up, even lead the way. click here for full bio

 

TRAILBLAZING WOMEN

• Just over one-third of Canadian Small and Medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are owned by women.

• There are more than 821,000 women entrepreneurs in Canada

• Women contribute in excess of $18 billion to Canadian economy each year.

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Sources: Statistics Canada / Industry Canada