Click above to download a copy of the 2010 Best Firms To Work For brochure.
TUESDAY, September 28, 2010
7:30—8:30am
Conference Check-in & Continental Breakfast
8:30—8:45am
Welcome & Introduction
8:45—9:30am
KEYNOTE SESSION
Keeping Employees Engaged in an Age of Disruption
Randy Deutsch, AIA, LEED AP, Architect, Consultant, and Author, Deutsch Insights
9:30—10:00am
Networking Break
10:00—10:45am
KEYNOTE SESSION
Unleashing Bright People’s Potential: Building a Powerful Organizational Culture and Boosting the Bottom Line
Mark Young, Managing Director, Future Considerations
10:45—11:15am
Networking Break
11:15am—12:15pm
CONCURRENT FOCUS SESSIONS
Common Organizational Viruses and their Possible Antidotes
Stephen Gianotti, Founder, The Woodland Group, LLC
Balancing Benefits and Your Firm’s Bottom Line
Tenée Casaccio, President, JMZ Architects and Planners, P.C. and Kim Filion, Associate, Director of Finance and Human Resources, JMZ Architects and Planners, P.C.
Unleashing Bright People's Potential (Interactive Workshop)
Mark Young, Managing Director, Future Considerations
Reconfiguring Teams Is More Complicated Than You Think (Working Group Discussion)
Gerri King, PhD, Social Psychologist & Organizational Consultant, President, Human Dynamics Associates, Inc.
12:15—1:30pm
Networking Lunch
1:30—2:30pm
CONCURRENT FOCUS SESSIONS
Corporate Culture versus Pop Culture: TV’s Show The Office and It’s Affect on Your Office
Clint Hoppes, MA, SPHR, Director of Human Resources, Scott&Goble Architects (SGA)
Beyond Marketing: Leveraging Social Media Tools for Thought Leadership, Recruiting, and Knowledge Management
Christopher Parsons, Founder, Knowledge Architecture
Being a Best Firm at Every Level: A Closer Look at Organizational Strength Through Benchmarks
Christine Brack, Principal, ZweigWhite
Creating a Corporate Wellness Program (Working Group Discussion)
Kim Filion, Director, Finance and Human Resources, JMZ Architects and Planners, P.C.
2:30—2:45pm
Networking Break
2:45—3:45pm
CONCURRENT FOCUS SESSIONS
Business Growth Lifecycles: How Successful Leaders Adapt at Each Stage
John Soter, Principal, ZweigWhite
Building a Culture of Engagement: Talent Strategies for Organizational Success
Marjanne Pearson, Managing Director, Marjanne Pearson Associates
Training & Development: Measuring the Value, Impact, and Effectiveness of Your Learning Program
Pamela Britton, Founder & Principal, The Knowledge Environment, LLC
Why Communicate? (Interactive Workshop)
Gerri King, PhD, Social Psychologist & Organizational Consultant, President, Human Dynamics Associates, Inc.
3:45—4:00pm
Networking Break
4:00—5:00pm
CONCURRENT FOCUS SESSIONS
Improve Your Firm by Improving Your Value to Clients
Mike Phillips AIA, President, Phillips Architecture & DesignFacilitator
Using 360 Feedback as a Strategic Tool: The Dos and Don'ts of 360 Style Performance Evaluations
Stephen Gianotti, Founder, The Woodland Group, LLC
Dollars & Sense: The Business Case for Making Training a Core Competency
Lee Jordan, Engineering Manager, Gate, LLC
Leadership Transition (Working Group Discussion)
Tenée Casaccio, President, JMZ Architects and Planners, P.C.
6:30—10:00pm
2010 BEST FIRMS TO WORK FOR AWARDS CELEBRATIONS
WEDNESDAY, September 29, 2010
7:45—8:45am
Continental Breakfast
8:45—9:00am
Welcome Back
9:00—9:45am
KEYNOTE SESSION
Differentiating Your Business through Strategic Talent Management
Shelly Gompf, Principal, Strategic Evolution LLC
9:45—10:00am
Networking Break
10:00—11:00am
CONCURRENT FOCUS SESSIONS
Leadership Development: It’s Not just For The Senior Leaders
Debbie Norris, MA, SPHR, Vice President of Human Resources, Merrick & Company
Plan, Process, and Tools: Leading a Learning Organization to Drive Performance and Engagement
Shelly Gompf, Principal, Strategic Evolution LLC and Julianne C. Nevins, Director of Human Resources, SGH
Generation X /Y and the Aging Workforce: Optimizing Collaboration
Barbara H. Irwin, President, HR Advisors Group, LLC
Harnessing the Power of Social Media to Enhance Competitive Advantage (Working Group Discussion)
Christopher Parsons, Founder, Knowledge Architecture and Marjanne Pearson, Managing Director, Marjanne Pearson Associates
11:-00—11:15am
Networking Break
11:15am—12:00pm
KEYNOTE SESSION
Collaboration: Value Change and the AEC Organization
Markku Allison, Resource Architect, Strategy and Business Development, American Institute of Architects
12:00pm—12:30pm
CLOSING KEYNOTE PANEL DISCUSSION
Best Firms To Work For Winners Circle: Executive Mindshare Panel
12:30pm
CONFERENCE CONCLUDES
FEATURED SESSIONS
Collaboration: Value Change and the AEC Organization
Markku Allison, Resource Architect, Strategy and Business Development, American Institute of Architects
The AEC industry’s growing interest in Integrated Practice has firm leaders and professionals discussing collaboration on a more profound level. As we challenge the age old model of doing business in silos, organizational leaders must consider what this shift from collaboration as a strategy to a more integrated value really means to their organization and their staff. How can leaders train and position their organizations to embrace industry change and cultivate professionals better equipped for more collaborative processes? How can we better collaborate in a complex world? What really goes into collaboration and how can we accomplish this in our own organizations and projects? This session will discuss what it means to go beyond simply working together, to creating teams as wholly living entities.
Differentiating Your Business through Strategic Talent Management
Shelly Gompf, Principal, Strategic Evolution LLC
The statistics are startling: one in five employees are likely looking outside the company for new opportunities and over 65% of the current workforce say they will change jobs when they see the economy recover. The result is that turnover will soon become our new “war on talent”. Talent is the number one strategic imperative for our industry. Organizations that not only want to sustain these economic times, but also want to thrive after them, must figure this out. We need to embrace HR strategies that attract, retain, engage, and manage our talent. In this session, participants will gain an understanding of how an integrated talent management strategy can successfully move firms from business goals to business performance, through assessing, acquiring, developing, and aligning talent.
Keeping Employees Engaged in an Age of Disruption
Randy Deutsch AIA, LEED AP, Architect, Author and Consultant, Deutsch Insights
What motivates employees to stay engaged and eager to contribute? As the advent of new technologies such as BIM, digital communication tools, and social media enables more collaborative work processes, what are the social impacts of these disruptive tools and process changes to firm culture and morale? What motivates employees to share, collaborate and act transparently when working on integrated teams? Learn how the new team workflows affect the ways in which employees engage with project work, each other and the firm. This session will illustrate how firms are turning to employees themselves to determine how best to stay engaged and motivated when the focus is set on the bottom line.
Unleashing Bright People's Potential: Building a Powerful Organizational Culture and Boosting the Bottom Line
Mark Young, Managing Director, Future Considerations
In professional services firms, your competitive advantage is largely the quality of people you are able to attract and your ability to unleash their creativity, innovation, and discretionary effort on your clients. This session will introduce key principles and practices for building a high-authenticity, high-engagement organization which can generate superior commitment and performance amongst your people. Mark Young, Managing Director of UK-based Future Considerations will also show how his firm has achieved this with blue-chip clients and draw from his own experience of his business journey, a journey which has recently seen them recognized among the world’s most democratic organizations.
