Chris Wallace
Featured: Thursday, September 15
A.O. Smith Future Trends Luncheon | 12:30 pm
Chris Wallace is a veteran broadcast journalist and host of Fox News
Sunday with Chris Wallace (FNS), Fox Broadcasting Company’s Sunday morning public affairs program. He also contributes to the network’s political and election news coverage. He joined the Fox Network in 2003. As host of FNS, Wallace has secured interviews with many leading newsmakers, including all the leading contenders for the 2008 Presidential campaign — top national and international figures — and his controversial interview with former President Bill Clinton. Before joining Fox News, Wallace worked at ABC News for 15 years, where he served as the chief correspondent for Primetime Thursday and as a substitute host for Nightline. During his career Wallace has won every major award for broadcast journalism, including a Dupont-Columbia Award, three Emmy Awards, the George Foster Peabody Award, and the George Polk Award. In 2004, Wallace wrote Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage. The book was widely touted as an informative study of American presidential leadership. Prior to joining ABC News, Wallace was with NBC News, where he served as the chief White House correspondent from 1982-1989. While at NBC News, Wallace covered the 1980, 1984, and 1988 presidential campaigns as well as the Democratic and Republican conventions in those years.
Gene Simmons
Featured: Thursday, September 15
Weldbend IPD Breakfast | 6:45 am
Millions of people know Gene Simmons as the rocker who demanded that we rock and roll all night, and party every day. But the legendary KISS front man is much more than just another music icon. Gene is an entrepreneur and an outside-the-box thinker who has used his creativity and never-ending drive to enjoy amazing success in all of his postmusic ventures. Before Gene’s music career was launched, he graduated from State University (NYSU) and City University (CUNY) with a Bachelor of Education degree. He taught sixth grade in Spanish Harlem in New York City, and then became the Assistant to the Director of the Puerto Rican InterAgency Council, a government-funded research and demonstration project. He later worked at Glamour and then Vogue as an assistant editor. Gene speaks several languages, including English, Hungarian, Hebrew, German and Japanese. Gene co-founded the band KISS in 1973 along with Paul Stanley. After many years of commercial success, KISS continues to be a juggernaut of merchandising with over 2,500 licenses including action figures, trading cards, a clothing line and a wide variety of other products. When it comes to the concept of ALL IN, Gene definitely fits the description.
Lowell Catlett, Ph.D.
Featured: Wednesday, September 14
Industry Outlook | 3:45 pm
Lowell Catlett, Ph.D., is a Regents Professor in Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business and Extension Economics and is Dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University. He is an exciting futurist whose knowledge of technologies and their implications on the way we will live and work is addressed in his various upbeat presentations. His vast knowledge astounds corporate and association audiences both nationally and internationally. His presentation is entitled The Economic Behemoth, and will cover how today’s economy continues to “chug along,” albeit slowly, in the wake of the last 18 months of recessionary times. How can an economy keep growing with $4 gasoline (soon to be $5), a housing meltdown and a costly war on two fronts? While the U.S. economy has tremendous staying power, it is not devoid of potential pit falls. Catlett will take a look at what got us here and forecast those sectors that will grow and also those that will become obsolete in an economy that is labeled by many as “too big to fail,” but one that is certainly not “too big to radically change.”
John Foley
Featured: Wednesday, September 14
Keynote Speaker Presentation | 2:00 pm
John Foley has spent nearly a decade sharing practical and inspirational messages on high performance with audiences around the world. The former lead solo pilot for the famed Blue Angels flight-demonstration squadron is the founder and CEO of CenterPoint Companies, which provides in-depth training on the How of High Performance™. He is also the founder of the Glad To Be Here® Foundation, which administers a giving-forward program that partners with clients to make donations to worthy charities. John has logged thousands of hours in the cockpit of F/18s and other jets when he was an aircraft carrier pilot, a Naval instructor pilot and as a member of the Blue Angels. He has also logged thousands more hours traveling the world as a much-in-demand keynote speaker. John inspires audiences with his energy and his commitment to serving others, while also providing a unique framework that makes the How of High Performance™ possible for anyone in any organization.
Gene Marks
Featured: Wednesday, September 14
Educational Session | 10:00 am
Gene Marks is an opinionated small business management columnist, author, speaker and business owner. He writes weekly online columns for The New York Times and Forbes and monthly and biweekly columns in Business Week and American City Business Journals. Gene's books include the #1 Amazon small business best-seller The Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists (Adams Media), The Small Business Desk Reference (Alpha Books, 2004), Outfoxing The Small Business Owner, Crafty Techniques For Creating A Profitable Relationship (Adams Media, 2005) and The Complete Idiot's Guide To Successful Outsourcing (Alpha Books, 2005). His latest book is, In God We Trust: Everyone Else Pays Cash. Simple Lessons From Smart Business Owners. (Create Space, 2010). He owns and operates The Marks Group PC, a highly successful ten-person firm that provides customer relationship and financial management services to small- and medium-sized businesses. The Marks Group PC, launched in 1994, has grown to help more than 700 companies and thousands of business owners throughout the country.