April 30-May 2 in St. Louis, MO

GATHERING SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

Wednesday, April 30, 2008
8:00am - Noon  Pre-Conference Workshops
3:00pm - 4:30pm  Opening Keynote
4:45pm - 6:00pm  Mini-Keynotes I
6:00pm - 7:30pm  Welcome Reception

Thursday, May 1, 2008
8:00am - 9:30am  Keynote Special Session
9:45am - 11:00am  Concurrent Sessions I
11:15am - 12:30pm  Concurrent Sessions II
2:00pm - 3:15pm  Concurrent Sessions III
3:30pm - 4:45pm  Mini-Keynotes II
6:30pm - 9:00pm  Networking Reception

Friday, May 2, 2008
8:30am - 9:45am  Concurrent Sessions IV
10:00am - 11:45am  Closing Keynote

OPENING KEYNOTE

Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow
presented by Chip Conley - CEO, Joie de Vivre Hospitality

After fifteen years of rising to the pinnacle of the hospitality industry, Chip Conley’s company was suddenly undercapitalized and overexposed in the post-dot.com, post-9/11 economy. For relief and inspiration, Conley, the CEO and founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, turned to psychologist Abraham Maslow’s iconic Hierarchy of Needs. This book explores how Conley’s company, “the second largest boutique hotelier in the world”, overcame the storm that hit the travel industry by applying Maslow's theory to what Conley identifies as the key Relationship Truths in business with Employees, Customers and Investors.

KEYNOTE

Win Against All Odds
presented by Ping Fu - CEO, Geomagic

Ping Fu is Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Geomagic. She co-founded Geomagic and has led it to being the worldwide leader in the digital shape sampling and processing (DSSP) industry. Before starting Geomagic, Ms. Fu was Director of Visualization at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where she initiated and managed the NCSA Mosaic software project that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer. She has more than 20 years of software industry experience in database, networking, geometry processing, and computer graphics. Ms. Fu is a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Carolinas, and worldwide "Fast 50" executive by Fast Company magazine. In 2005, she was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. magazine. Most recently she was awarded the Bernhard A. Goldhirsh award for Courage from Inc. magazine. Ms. Fu holds MS and BS degrees in computer science and a post-graduate degree in Chinese literature from Suzhou University, China, and is an adjunct professor at Duke University.

SPECIAL SESSION

Epic Showdown: Brodsky vs. Stack

Who Will Win?

GETTING OUT is a Special Grudge Match Session at the 2008 Gathering, in which the Titans of the Open-Book Movement, Jack Stack and Norm Brodsky, clash over their approach to building great companies… then struggling to GET OUT ALIVE.

Refereed by Bo Burlingham, author of Small Giants, this outrageous session will pit the two biggest personalities in Open-Book against one another. Two radically different approaches to “Getting Out”… Only one outcome…

Who Will Win?

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KEYNOTES

The Customer Comes Second - Put Your People First
presented by Dave Ridley - Executive, Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines Senior Vice President of People and Leadership, Dave Ridley draws from his eighteen years of experience demonstrating that service excellence is driven by an organization's passion for its most important customer: the employee.

No Man's Land: What To Do When Your Company Is Too Big To Be Small
And Too Small To Be Big
presented by Doug Tatum - Tatum, LLC

No Man's Land is the awkward, adolescent stage of corporate growth. Every growing company encounters that forbidding territory -- and not everyone makes it through alive. Tatum offers real world examples and tools to help transform fast growing companies into long term success stories.

Why Is Everyone Smiling?
presented by Paul Spiegelman - Co-Founder, The Beryl Companies

As a call center company, a business normally known for high turnover, low morale, and a boiler room environment, Beryl created a special culture resulting in low attrition, high customer loyalty and profits reinvested in employees. Check out Paul Spiegelman's keynote and discover his techniques for making your organization smile.

Zingerman's Vision of Greatness
presented by Ari Weinzweig - Co-Owner & Founding Partner, Zingerman's

Zingerman's vision of greatness answers the question: "When we're really successful in our work at a particular point in time in the future, what will our organization look like?" In this keynote you will explore:

• Why is a good vision so critical?
• Who creates the vision?
• How it has made a difference at Zingerman's and more.

Ending The Generation Wars At Work
presented by Dr. Cal LeMon - President, Executive Enrichment, Inc.

The scene is familiar. The Boomers are complaining the Gen X'ers don't want to work, just plan their next mountain biking expedition. The Gen Y's cannot figure out why the Boomers and the Gen X'ers don't want to be on anyone's team. Join Dr. Cal LeMon to discover hands-on strategies to invite generations to win at playing "The Game" together.

Exploring Your Employee Ownership Alternatives
presented by Corey Rosen - NCEO, Martin Staubus - Beyster Institute, Rick Rose - Menke & Associates, and Lisa Casey - Reflexite.

Join leading experts from the field sharing real world examples on creating a stake in the outcome and ownership culture in your organization. Discover in this keynote:

• What is an ownership culture?
• Why employee ownership can help companies succeed.
• The culture and management methods essential to bring it alive and much more.

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PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

April 30, 2008     8:00am - Noon
(Additional $215 registration fee for each 4 hour pre-conference workshop.)

The Game
presented by Bill Fotsch, Great Game Head Coach

Prepare to play and win at the game of business with The Game workshop. This is an excellent overview of The Great Game of Business and open-book management for both new and seasoned players. You will cover topics such as rules of the game, huddling and scoreboards, and how to provide employees with a stake in the outcome.

The Art & Science of Win-Win²
presented by Matthew Cross

In this highly interactive session, you'll learn the essentials of what it takes to upgrade an organization so that everybody truly wins: Customers, Employees, Shareholders, Society and the Environment. Utilizing the Deming Method of Management & Leadership as a foundation, participants also engage in a personalized Hoshin Success Compass™ process. Here you'll discover and create a custom map and navigational system for maximum, sustained high achievement in your life and business.

The Art of Giving Great Service
presented by Kathi Dvorin

Every organization talks about great service these days. Zingerman’s really puts it into practice! Over the years they’ve worked out ways to take service beyond being one more nice but nebulous idea (as it is in many organizations) and converted it into something tangible you can define, teach, live, measure and reward. Perhaps most importantly they’ve developed a recipe for great service that works equally well for sixteen-year-old busboys, sixty-year-old corporate execs and everyone in between. Just the thing for large and small organizations, food service and health care, for-profits and not-for-profits.

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CONCURRENT SESSIONS

Lessons From The Field: Unlocking The Power & Profitability Of OBM

In this panel discussion, you'll hear from All Star Award winning practitioners who have experienced first-hand the many benefits of OBM and understand the path to successful, long-term implementation.

Success By The Numbers
presented by Kent Forsland - Designer Doors, and Tom Samsel - The Great Game of Business

One company's story of moving beyond break-even to profitability and robust growth by building an ownership culture and the establishment of an ESOP.

Avoiding The Pitfalls: How To Take A Pretty Good Idea And Really Screw It Up
presented by Joe Jenkins - Jenkins Diesel Power.

Joe shares his experiences with The Game and tips for how you can avoid some common and not so common mistakes to implementation.

Getting Started With The Game
presented by Bill Fotsch - The Great Game of Business

Get an overview of the process used by successful Great Game practitioners to get to the critical number and get the Great Game up and running.

Lessons From The Field: Start Up Issues

In this panel discussion, you'll hear from seasoned OBM practitioners who know the challenges, the pitfalls, and the path to getting started with Open-Book Management.

Designing Incentive Plans
presented by Steve Wilson - Willow Creek Consultants, and Ed Dorian Jr. - Dorian Drake

Learn how to incorporate the critical number, financial literacy training and the huddle process into the bonus plan design.

Getting It Embedded: Using Themes And Celebrations
presented by Rich LaHaye - CalTex, and Jeff Austin - The Scooter Store

Hear from two companies who really understand how to get their associates in The Game.

Making Your Strategic Planning Process More H.I.P.
presented by Rich Armstrong - The Great Game of Business

Use High Involvement Planning to transform the strategic planning process from an annual time-consuming ritual to an exciting ongoing adventure where the entire organization discovers the answers to growth and success.

Kill The Commissions
presented by Neil Ducoff - Strategies Publishing Group

When you reward employees for building a client base, they will take it with them when they leave. Reward them based on overall performance… and for growing the business… and they'll grow it faster and bigger than you can ever imagine.

Mini-Game™ Idea Factory

In this rapid-fire panel, Great Game companies will share 20 to 30 ideas for mini-games, including themes, scorecards, prizes, celebrations and more; proven ideas you can immediately take back and apply in your organization.

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Using Forecasting To Motivate
presented by John Williams - Central States Manufacturing

This session will provide first hand experience, examples and an interactive exercise to show how forecasting can motivate your employees.

A Stake In The Outcome: Beyond Company Borders
presented by Shawn Askinosie - Askinosie Chocolate

Learn how Askinosie Chocolate took "A Stake in the Outcome" beyond the company by sharing their success with farmers in the developing countries of Mexico and Ecuador.

Better Than Yesterday And Better Than The Competition: Sustaining An Open Book Culture
presented by Bill Collier - The Great Game of Business

Use the dual concepts of "Challenge Everything" and "Know what's important to your customers" to embed a culture of continuous improvement in your organization. This session is full of take-aways you can use to improve your business.

Sky Factory Culture, Compensation And Ownership: Is This Capitalism Or What?
presented by Bill Witherspoon - The Sky Factory

Discover Sky Factory's unique and non-traditional solution to their employee ownership quest -- a quest that has resulted in an elastic valuation-based program with positive tax consequences.

Lessons From The Field: Keeping The Spirit Alive

In this panel discussion, you'll hear from All Star Award winning companies who understand what it takes to keep the Great Game and OBM culture going strong.

Execute Without Drama
presented by Patrick Thean - Gazelles

A serial entrepreneur's journey of discovering the right things to measure and the dashboards that changed his future.

Living Your Life Plan
presented by Elaine Brodsky - CitiStorage

Elaine shares what she believes to be the secret to her success… setting a plan for her life and sticking with it.

The Hard And Soft Toolbox
presented by Jim Shaffer - Jim Shaffer Group, Inc.

Businesses are a lot like sports teams. Teams win most often because they play the game well, not because they have a great game plan. In this session you will learn how to blend the hard and the soft toolbox to help improve execution.

How To Succeed As A Small Business Owner And Still Have A Life
presented by Bill Collier - The Great Game of Business

Learn proven strategies and step-by-step approaches that can make the difference between just getting by and succeeding.

Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead Of Big
presented by Bo Burlingham - Inc. Magazine

Some of the greatest companies in America are scarcely known outside their industries. That's because they have chosen not to focus on revenue growth or geographical expansion, pursuing instead other goals that they consider more important than getting as big as possible, as fast as possible.

Building Your Cultural Architecture
presented by John Hollingsworth - Stellar Call Centres, and Greg Loudoun - Acumen Intl.

Learn the challenges and successes in designing your culture with OBM / The Game as a foundation.

Teaching Business Literacy – Effectively!
presented by Donna Coppock - The Great Game of Business, Terry Morrill - Pacific Pavingstone, and Krystal Simon - The Great Game of Business

The interactive exercises shared in this session prove that teaching and learning business can be fun!

Hitting The Wall
presented by Steve Crowder - Decorize

Solutions for making it through the difficult period of implementation when things have been going well, but suddenly hit "the wall".

Open-Book: Paving A Path To Cultural And Strategic Change
presented by Ed Dorian Jr. - Dorian Drake International, Inc.

Practicing The Game can help a company dramatically improve financial performance, but the real power of Open-Book is the path it paves for strategic and cultural change.

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