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Topic: Panel Discussion - Running a Successful Consulting Practice
Speakers: Russ Swall, Howard Eichenwald, Scott Cameron
To be covered: This special session will be an open discussion led by the panel on how to run a successful consulting practice. The panel members will answer questions about their experience running their businesses. Topics to be discussed include:
To enroll and prepay online: click here
Russ Swall is the CEO of Visionpace, Inc. Visionpace is a Software Development company and Microsoft Certified Partner based in Kansas City, Missouri. Since 1992, we have provided nationwide consulting, coaching and training services using Microsoft technologies.
Our software development approach, Perfect Vision™, ensures the frequent, consistent delivery of the highest-valued business priorities while minimizing costs and directly mapping changes in the business climate with changes in business systems. In other words, delivering what's needed, when it's needed.
Our blended training and delivery service, Perfect Coaching™, is changing the way IT managers and developers view training and outsourcing.
Howard Eichenwald is President of HLE Systems, Inc. HLE Systems, Inc. was founded in 1980. Howard has worked with many locally and nationally known firms. Howard is a charter member and Past-President of the Kansas City chapter of the Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA), and served as ICCA National Treasurer for two years. He holds several professional level certifications from the Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals (ICCP), and served on its Board of Directors for seven years. In addition Howard is a member of the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), formerly the Data Processing Management Association.
Scott Cameron is the President of Redwood Network Services, Inc. Since 2004, Redwood Network Services has helped Kansas City area businesses proactively maintain their computer systems, plan for rather than react to growth and disasters, and reduce long term Information Technology expenditures through planning and budgeting.
Redwood Network Services specializes in Windows Server and Microsoft Exchange consulting services in addition to providing consulting and mentoring services on most Windows platform technologies.
Through our Active Maintenance Program, we identify computer system issues before they impact business operations and address them preventatively. We help owners keep their companies focused on what they do best, their business.
Topic: Creating a More Powerful Selling Paradigm
Speaker: Michael R. Grogan of Human Resources Management Corporation
To be covered: This discussion will explore the existing sales paradigm of convincing and manipulating people to buy a product or service whether they need it or not. We will explore an alternative paradigm which frees you up to be in a dialogue and OK whether someone buys from you or not. We’ll have a lively discussion and demonstrate the difference between these two orientations to selling.
The speaker, Mike Grogan (Grogan Coaching), is a highly successful business coach in Kansas City. He has a strong background in sales and marketing, was a top-rated coach at Sprint, and continues to do work with owners and chief executives all around the country.
Mike is a business coach who works with owners of small and medium sized businesses as well as executives and managers in Fortune 100 companies. His coaching style is characterized by fresh perspectives, high energy and penetrating insights into people, processes and strategies. His business experience and uncommon thinking have catalyzed life changing, breakthrough results for his clients.
Mike’s experience in business is rich in breadth and depth. Before embarking on a career in coaching he spent 17 years in sales and marketing. Over one-half of that time was with the U.S. and international divisions of Pfizer. In 1998, Mike shifted careers, serving as an executive coach in Sprint’s prestigious fast-track executive development program. He launched his own coaching business in 2004. Over the past 10 years he has provided coaching and consulting services to individuals and groups in some 20 industries and specialty areas. He has coached every level of the management hierarchy in companies of all sizes. He has even worked with executives in the public and not-for-profit sectors.
In addition to 1:1 coaching, Mike often works with groups. He facilitates strategic planning, helps address cultural issues and interpersonal strife, and provides training in sales, customer service, communications, leadership, teamwork and management. In coaching and group facilitation, Mike uses a multi-discipline approach that reflects his expertise in business, philosophy, psychology, group dynamics, leadership, management, power and politics. Since 2006, Mike has been a Process Leader with the Chief Executive Network, a member association of chief and senior executives who share operational and conceptual expertise through a structured meeting process.
Mike earned a B.S. in Communications from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. and an MBA in international management and marketing from New York University in New York City. His formal coaching began in 1998 as an executive coach at Sprint. Before that he was a marketing and sales professional in the pharmaceutical industry, including 11 years in the international and North American divisions of Pfizer. He earned coaching certification in 2003. Committed to continuous learning, Mike has completed dozens of workshops, and spent tens of thousands of dollars on personal and professional growth. His academic and experiential learning range across a vast tapestry including philosophy, spirituality, psychology, group dynamics, meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, entrepreneurship, leadership, the Chinese game of Go, and more traditional business topics.
You may visit Mike’s website at www.grogancoaching.com.
Topic: Overview of Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights
Speaker: Jennifer C. Bailey of Hovey Williams LLP
To be covered: For this month's meeting, Jennifer C. Bailey of Hovey Williams LLP. will provide a brief overview of patents, trademarks, and copyrights and what each type of intellectual property protects, along with a topical discussion of forms of protection of software, ownership of software, and confidentiality and assignment agreements.
Jennifer practices in the areas of patent litigation and prosecution. Her experience in all pre-trial phases of patent litigation includes discovery, summary judgment motions, claim construction (Markman) motions, and related hearings. Jennifer's defense work includes preparing complex requests for reexamination of patents as an optional means for attacking invalid patents. She also is particularly knowledgeable about oppositions of European patents and has participated in opposition proceedings at the European Patent Office in Munich, Germany.
Jennifer's prosecution experience includes preparing and prosecuting numerous patent applications in the computer software, electrical, and mechanical arts. She also has extensive experience in registering copyrights, with special expertise in registering computer software. Jennifer has counseled many clients about infringement, invalidity, and licensing of their patents and has negotiated and drafted license agreements, prepared invalidity, non-infringement, and freedom to operate opinions, and negotiated settlements of various types of intellectual property disputes.
Jennifer is a former adjunct professor of patent law at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law and a former mathematics instructor at the University of Missouri - Columbia. She is also a frequent speaker on intellectual property issues and has been a source for a number of news articles regarding intellectual property.
2008 Spring Joint Technology Associations Conference and Lunch
PLEASE NOTE: This conference and lunch replaces our normally scheduled April 2008 ICCA-KC monthly meeting.
When: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 10:30AM to 2:00 PM
Where: GSI Headquarters, 10828 Airworld Drive, Kansas City, MO
Topic: The Mindset of Success - Achieving BOLD Goals
Speaker: Dr. Allen Beck , Pacific Accord, Inc.
To be covered: For this month's meeting, Dr. Allen Beck of Pacific Accord, Inc. will speak on achieving The Mindset of Success. Do your goals reflect what you really want? What have you talked yourself out of recently? Are you surrounded by people who can help you build your business? Learn more about what creates motivation and what causes creative avoidance. Dr. Beck will help you identify habits and attitudes that affect your potential and provide you will tools to help you achieve bolder goals.
Topic: Buying, Selling, or Valuing a Business
Speaker: Tim Skarda, President, Allied Business Group
To be covered: For this month's meeting, Tim Skarda of Allied Business Group will speak on the topics of buying, selling or valuing a business.
