Fresh Thinking. Shared. Agenda

Keynote: Soren Kaplan

Soren Kaplan is the author of the best-selling and award-winning books Leapfrogging and The Invisible Advantage, an affiliated professor at the Center for Effective Organizations at USC's Marshall School of Business, a contributing writer for Fast Company and Inc. Magazine, a leading keynote speaker, and the founder of InnovationPoint and upBOARD. He formerly led the business strategy group at HP in Silicon Valley and has been recognized by Business Insider and the Thinkers50 as one of the world's leading experts and consultants in disruptive innovation, business model innovation, and innovation culture.

Create a Culture of Innovation for Sustainable Success 

In his presentation, ‘Create a Culture of Innovation for Sustainable Success’, you’ll learn how to start small to uncover big ideas for your company, empower your people, identify emerging trends, and understand customer needs.

Keynote: Steven J. Stein, PhD

Dr. Steven Stein, a clinical psychologist, is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Multi-Health Systems (MHS), a three-time winner of Profit 100 (fastest growing companies in Canada), one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies since 2013, E&Y Entrepreneur of The Year 2015 (Ontario, Health), and Canada's 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures.

Multi-Health Systems (MHS) is a leading human assessment and behavior analytics company. MHS helps clinicians in the mental health field make better diagnostic and treatment decisions, probation officers and other public safety professionals make better decisions about offender risk and remediation, and human resource and talent professionals better select, train, and develop leaders and workplace contributors.

Your Entrepreneurial Edge: Knowing yourself gives you an EDGE 

In his talk, ‘Your Entrepreneurial Edge: Knowing Yourself Gives You an EDGE’ Dr. Stein will share the Success factors and Competencies that have the greatest impact in the success of Entrepreneurs.

Panel: Lisa Bolton

Sherrard Kuzz LLP

Lisa is a highly accomplished litigator with significant experience acting for a wide range of public and private sector clients.  A former General Counsel of a public, multinational company, Lisa’s understanding of and appreciation for both the client and litigator’s perspective enables her to help clients manage risk by providing effective business solutions and using litigation where beneficial to advance business goals.

Panel: Mathew Badrov

Sherrard Kuzz LLP

Matthew is a skilled lawyer whose practice is focused on the representation of management in many areas of employment and labour law. Widely published, Matthew is regularly asked to speak on a range of topics related to his practice and has taught labour law at Conestoga College.

Panel: Brian Wasyliw

Sherrard Kuzz LLP

Brian’s expertise includes the full range of employment and labour law with particular focus on human rights and accommodation, employment contracts, wrongful and constructive dismissal, harassment and investigations, grievance arbitration, as well as employment and labour issues in corporate restructuring and transactions. He is published on a variety of labour and employment issues.

Breakout Session: Michael Lynch

Michael is the founder of upBOARD, one of the world’s largest platforms for finding, customizing, and sharing business best practices.

Prior to founding upBOARD, Michael led the Internet of Things business at SAP. He joined SAP as part of the acquisition of Right Hemisphere Inc., where he held the position of CEO. During his tenure, he transformed a small tools provider for graphics professionals to the global leader in Visualization software for Global 1,000 manufacturers. He closed multiple rounds of venture financing with Sequoia Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, SAP Ventures, NVIDIA, and others. Michael led the company to a successful acquisition by SAP.

Prior to working in Technology, Michael was a successful actor/singer/dancer on Broadway where he starred in Fiddler on the Roof, Jerome Robbin’s Broadway and Les Misérables, on television’s General Hospital, and more. Michael attended the Manhattan School of Music where he studied Opera.

Michael will be leading the breakout session ‘Create Your “Innovation Command Center” with Best Practice Tools & Processes’!

Breakout Session: Kelly McDougald

Kelly McDougald is an accomplished CEO, Board Director and Business Advisor.   Kelly’s cross functional leadership experience spans more than 30 years in senior executive positions at Nortel Networks and Bell Canada, as CEO of Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG), and as Managing Director of Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions.  Today Kelly assists entrepreneurs to grow their businesses acting as an Executive Advisor with the Business Development Bank of Canada, as an independent CEO coach, mentor, and facilitator.

Kelly will facilitate the Breakout Session ‘Your Culture and Strategy - Friends or Foes’.

Breakout Session: Marion Salmon

Marion is an HR professional with over 20 years of consulting, coaching and project management experience in dynamic organizations.  Her energy, enthusiasm and expertise have propelled her to success as a leader and team builder, focused on helping people and organizations meet and exceed their goals.

An HR generalist with a passion for organization development and leadership development, Marion brings a structured and analytical approach to business.  A skilled facilitator, she designs and leads a broad range of initiatives ranging from business planning through organization design, culture change and more.

Marion’s philosophy and approach are pragmatic and based on the beliefs that people come to work because they want to do a good job; that results are important, how we achieve them more so; and that leadership and authenticity are about doing what’s right rather than what’s easy.

Marion will be facilitating the Breakout Session ‘Covid, Culture, and Silver Linings’.

Attendees can choose between 1 of the 3 following Breakout Sessions. All sessions will be recorded so that attendees can view the other sessions if they are interested.

Create Your “Innovation Command Center” with Best Practice Tools & Processes

with Michael Lynch

Creating your opportunity portfolio. Developing your business case. Tracking products and services through their stages, phases and gates. Engaging internal teams and external partners in the innovation process. Innovation management requires a structured yet flexible approach. In this breakout, you’ll learning about best practices in using technology for innovation management and receive links to download practical tools and templates.

Your Culture and Strategy - Friends or Foes?

with Kelly McDougald

Culture and strategy are often looked at as discreet attributes of a company, but successful companies intentionally build and align culture specifically to drive their strategy.  

The book The Disciplines of Market Leadership suggests that each company must pick a primary strategic focus, either product leadership, operational excellence, or customer intimacy.   While organizations must have elements of all three areas, your primary area of focus will be your differentiator.  The "gotcha" however is that each of these focus areas is best supported by a very different and distinct culture. 

In the workshop we'll examine the imperative elements of culture required to support your market strategy.

Covid, Culture, and Silver Linings

with Marion Salmon

Organizational culture is the collection of values, expectations, and practices that guide and inform the actions of all team members. Think of it as the collection of traits that make your company what it is.

Covid-19 has peeled back the layers of company values, exposing the strengths and weaknesses of many corporate cultures. The impact of Covid-19 on the workplace has rocked many cultures to their core.

Join this roundtable discussion to discover a definition of and framework for culture, ideas, actions, and best practices to know what culture you have and what culture you want.

Members: No charge for registration

Non Members: Contact Us for details