Trend Watch List

The dream of the completely paperless company is not new. We imagine offices free of paper clutter, neatly organized shelves and desktops...the vision is quite attractive. For the large majority of businesses, however, it is not even close to reality. Today the evolution of multi-media and internet security is making the completely paperless office a distinct possibility...and eliminating some organizations and business models through this digitization. The question will be, is there sufficient reason for your organization to go paperless, how to estimate the costs in time, effort and more intangible resources, and when to make the jump. Reduced printing and mailing costs are key for many organizations. Increased efficiency is also a great reason to go paperless. Beyond all of that time saved you are even more likely to save some serious real estate in terms of storage and the need for an office in the first place. Those seeking to go paperless are confronted with challenges that mark an abrupt stopping point for companies not prepared to address them. Major challenges include resistance to change, employees or clients (gulp!) that cannot receive, read, edit or annotate the document, security of proprietary or other critical information and making sure your contracts and other agreements are legally binding even though they are electronically or digitally signed. Modern paperless operations include a number of components to address all manner of these and other challenges including: multimedia, clickwrap, electronic signatures, digital signatures, biometric signatures, authentication and computing devices. Software capabilities such as those from Adobe, NFi Studios, Alfresco, Ademero, Knowledge Tree Echosign, Docusign and others solve the remainder of these issues with ease. To turn this trend into a competitive advantage, understand that not every paperless device or method is right for your business. To develop the right strategy for your organization, do your homework on needs, capabilities and issues before you dive in. Once all of your homework is in place, estimate the cost and benefit in time, effort and more intangible resources such as morale, corporate image, and the like. Make the jump when and only when all of these planning steps are in place.

December is a great time to look forward to the next year and beyond. These evolving trends represent the overarching effect of digital becoming more serious in its effect on your business environment. The dream of the completely paperless company is not new but highly elusive. In 2010 will track how the evolution of multi-media and internet security is making the completely paperless office a distinct possibility...and how some organizations are dying at the hand of digitization. The online environment is evolving to allow for more interaction than ever before. In 2010 we will be tracking the potential uses of the virtual space for increased ROI that many businesses have yet to consider. Meanwhile, software as a service is fast becoming the route to simplified operations for businesses worldwide. We will explore the right kind of SaaS-sourcing for your business, choosing vendors, when to keep it in-house, offering your own product to the masses and more. Targeting potential clients based on behaviors, and profiles is beginning to happen as we speak. In 2010 we will track the evolution of online marketing (including social media marketing) towards real time individual ad targeting. While we are all online, the old rules of product development told us that the best way to make sales is to put our product into every possible storefront. That rule may no longer apply. In 2010 we will track the evolution of exclusivity and watch the major retailers for precursor evidence of new business strategies to trump the trend. These trends contribute to a potent brew affecting your business environment and the way in which you will do business in 2010 and beyond. Over the coming year, we will be tracking them and innovating new ways to use them to your strategic advantage.

>>>> NOTE TO READERS: Trend Watch List is evolving and joining forces with Trend POV to become the way that forward thinking executives access the people and ideas that drive strategic advantage. See and share what we are planning for the big launch January 1st at http://www.New.TrendPOV.com. <<<<

With the recent focus on innovation, it can be easy for any organization to become wrapped around building a better axle. However, innovation alone does not breed success. There is a battle brewing between the time tested practice of entrepreneurship and the requirements of the emerging innovation economy. The question is whether innovation or entrepreneurship can exist in this new environment without the other, finding the right mix, and understanding the difference. In this article, we explore the critical differences between and the many types of innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as how to find the balance between the two and your optimal mix for competitive advantage.

Innovation is about new ideas. It may be new products, processes, services, business models and more. Entrepreneurship, however, is about realizing profit. The difference between innovation and entrepreneurship is key. You can build it, but they may not come. Delia Smith of Green Field Ventures gives a concise view of the difference when she notes that, “If innovation is the creation of new capacities for wealth creation, entrepreneurship is the exploitation of these capacities.”

In the accelerating business environment and evolving innovation economy, differentiators are key. Your business has to be unique in some advantageous way that draws your customers. The right mix of innovation and entrepreneurship is at the heart of creating advantage in this evolving economy. Steve Epner suggests, “an entrepreneur with an innovative idea is a rare and valuable find...everyone is capable of coming up with the idea. Put that together with someone who can execute a plan—and watch out.”

To turn this trend into a competitive advantage, develop the right mix of innovation and entrepreneurship for your organization. Decide how you will encourage each kind of innovation within your organization. Next, develop entrepreneurial processes for acting on innovation. Your entrepreneurial process needs to vet ideas effectively and move them forward systematically. In other words, invest in moving forward with ideas that fit your business strategy, contribute to your company’s future prospects and are within your current means.

Lastly, reward innovation and entrepreneurship individually to keep enthusiasm high. Given these steps, your organization will be on the path to a sustained mix of innovation and entrepreneurship that will enable your to thrive and not just survive in this evolving economy.

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Trend Watch List and Trend POV are all about helping businesses create unique advantage from emerging trends. We want to hear from you about what you like, what you don’t like and how we can serve you better. Follow this link to take our 10 min survey and get a free copy of this month's extended article on converging business trends: “Smarter, Faster, More - Converging Trends Driving The New Business Environment”. We value your opinion and look forward to being a part of your strategic point of view.

This month, we turn our attention towards the powerful combination of trends from each category that are converging to bring revolutionary change to your business environment. In this article, we cover how social media, interactive marketing and the innovation economy are converging and how you can use the opportunity to your advantage. The next step in a long line of economic evolution has been innovation...in other words, they who can turn knowledge into ideas are rare and therefore valuable. Enter the innovation economy. Meanwhile, by filling the need for human connection, social media also filled a need for the secret sauce of innovation - people. With the rise of social media and its native multi-media and interactive formats, came the emergence of interactive marketing. In the world of social media that means meeting them online in their networks in an interactive way. No one puts it quite so well as Ralph A. Oliva, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets at Penn State University who had the following advice for our readers: “Recognize that you don't own your brands -- your customers do...you co-create your brand -- and profitable businesses -- together with your customer.” It is an overarching mantra for the modern business and one that is at the heart of these converging trends. The evolution of the innovation economy contributed to rise of social media and both in turn encourage the rise of interactive marketing for business purposes. These developments have brewed a powerful convergence of these three trends wherein each encourages the evolution of the others. Trend soup; swimming in it can feel overwhelming. To create competitive advantage, place your organization at the center of these converging trends. That will mean different things for different organizations. Decide what it means for you. Develop measures for innovative capacity and brand management within your organization that will guide you towards an optimized use of social media and interactive marketing for your focused purpose. Above all, don’t be afraid to dive in.

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The spotlight award is given organizations that demonstrate a keen understanding of emerging trends and act on them to significant advantage. Virgin Group receives this month’s Spotlight Award for their continually fearless biznophrenic innovation and the management style that has led to success. Today, Virgin Group Ltd has spawned over 200 branded companies in 29 countries and enjoys more than $17 Billion USD in yearly revenue. The big deal is that Virgin Group Ltd has on average developed and launched more than 5 companies per year in industries so diverse as to question the meaning of “core business areas.” Management philosophy within the organization is centered, in our interpretation, on several powerful characteristics: openness to people and ideas, focus on perfecting the details, and willingness to take risks and fail. Openness to people and ideas, for Virgin Group Ltd, means working to find the right talent, and letting them have a voice. Focus on details, for Virgin Group Ltd, means seeking high quality in every product but also paying attention to the details of the business. Not every venture succeeds, even for Virgin Group Ltd. The ability to roll on quite happily to the next is the key. We asked Dr. Tony Warren of Penn State University's Smeal School of Business for his insight. He suggests that perhaps quality is not always maintained at the pace of five businesses per year. Dr. Warren also suggests that, “The group uses the start-up mode to emphasize its free-wheeling image, and to encourage innovation and other entrepreneurial traits throughout the organization. They are not afraid to fail which is a necessity if you are going to be innovative in any case.” To turn lessons from Virgin Group Ltd. into an advantage for your organization, consider the following. First, a word of caution. Dr. Warren recommends, “Don’t try to copy unless you have another messiah at the head... let ideas get support and let your employees take a stake in good ideas they come up with; don’t fear failure.” Point well taken. First, make it all about the people. Be open to ideas - from your customers, your employees and your competitors. Don’t be afraid to fail or look foolish. Focus on your creating something unique and special for your customers and don’t ever stop working to improve it. These lessons are not new, but they are seldom implemented in most companies. Take them to heart for your organization and watch the difference.

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No matter what you call it, more businesses are opting to be multiple businesses all in one. In this article, we explore the pros and cons of the emerging trend in Corporate Biznophrenia and how a smart business can get the greatest advantage. The internet and e-commerce are certainly a factor. Meanwhile. the disposable worker has yielded the disposable brand. Brand loyalty is harder to come by and your organization cannot count on a single brand carrying them through decades of great sales. What differentiates a biznophrenic organization from a conglomerate or diversified group is the speed and processes by which new business concepts or brands are brought to market. Biznophrenia is about acting at the pace of the social media age.

Small and medium sized organizations are just as capable of producing new business concepts in diverse industries quickly...in fact, in an age when speed is critical, the smaller organization with the right mix of talent and resources is the best positioned to succeed. So, why would a company want to take on multiple brands? The answer is not far from why individuals would create a side business: reduced risk, greater chance of overall success, and to capitalize on opportunity. To turn this trend into an advantage for your organization, prepare to get biznophrenic. The challenge for any biznophrenic company (i.e. diversified organization) will be quality and speed. The key is to determine which are the winners and worth the time, effort and resources of the team. Once you know the business concepts you want to pursue, the key will be to pursue them quickly before their time has past. Lastly, you must know when to retire a brand that has over-stayed its welcome. Now a caution against toxic biznophrenia - the tendency to create multiple brands for the sake of multiple brands. Just because it would be profitable does not mean it should be under your umbrella.

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Link: http://tinyurl.com/lsebob

The Self Tending Mushroom award is given to individuals and organizations who refuse to accept the realities around them. This month, we award the STeMie to IBM Global Services in the category of Business Trends for ignoring the nature of the modern employee-employer relationship.

According to IBM’s own proudly displayed metrics, the number of employees at least minimally satisfied with their jobs has remained in only the mid to upper sixties for more than five years without change. Specifically, it shows no effective effort to increase employee satisfaction.

One current employee, notes in detail what others are saying in droves; that IBM Global Services is a strong brand name that looks very nice on your resume, and it is a great place for training, but that there are major problems with the work environment, specifically with the way employees are treated. Employees (current and past) are posting more frequently and more negatively on sites such as Glassdoor.com, Computerworld’s Sharkbait blog, and others. Among the most common comments are:

“I have been IBM-free since January and I feel like I have been reborn.”
“I still work there, but I would leave if the economy were better.”
“Trending Downward - Avoid”
“Nothing but contracted slaves.”
“If you don't work for IBM, don't come, if you already work here, leave”
“IBM - a stepping stone to a real career”

Ouch. When you treat your employees like a commodity, they will treat your company like a commodity. Back to the golden rule, students: Do unto your employee as you would have your employee do unto your company.

So it is with great hope for change that we award this month’s STeMie to IBM Global Services. May you put that shovel down immediately and start making a difference for your employees. It is too hard to see a legend fall.

There are so many lessons in this story. For IBM Global Services - act now to change this negative trend. Accept the message your employees are sending. For IBM competitors - in the near term, you have a golden opportunity to grab some great talent looking for a new home.

For businesses and organizations everywhere, the time has come for a more modern management style. You are never beyond the human frailty of complacence. Face the realities that your employees are posting. As much as you are preoccupied by economic woes and just staying afloat, don’t forget that it is your team that keeps the boat from going under.

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Link: http://tinyurl.com/mh54s2

The most spectacular crashes happen at the highest speeds. The pace of business today is like a race car at full speed and accelerating every minute. If any part of your organizational vehicle is weak, moving slowly, outdated, or sub-optimal in any way, you will not have time to avoid the oncoming disaster. Tuning up your organization is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity for survival. In this article, we explore why periodic organizational optimization with a human approach is so critical and how to carry it out quickly and effectively.

The end product of a well-conducted organizational checkup should include a concise list of what you need to do to boost your productivity, efficiency, optimize your processes, retain staff, boost growth and sales, and a lot more! If you put into practice the resulting recommendations, your organization will see benefits in the near term, with larger benefits accruing long term. In other words, it should show you what you can do NOW to make a difference NOW and LATER.

Over years of corporate and program rescue, I developed my own streamlined organizational check-up that anyone can carry out in less than a week to keep your organization at peak capacity. I want to share it with you here. The only way to accurately assess an organization is to talk to the people that do the work; from the CEO to the janitor. Address privacy and layoff fears before you begin. Then, start by listing out your core tasks. Ask each person to outline each process. Cross-check between interviews to get an accurate picture of the real processes. Every step of a process matches to a skill that someone has (you hope). Ask each person to rank themselves and each other on how well their current role, skill set, and interests match to each step. A self tending mushroom mentality will not lead to growth so check your rose colored glasses at the door. From all of this, you might recommend role changes, learning opportunities, more efficient or effective processes or any number of innovative solutions. Include enough detail to act on, a measure of impact and a cost to implement.

You can turn this into an advantage by ensuring that your organization has regular check-ups. Be the hero who brings the idea to the table and leads the effort. The result - your organization will accelerate to maximum capacity and stay there as your competition stagnates and declines.

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Link: http://tinyurl.com/nflrwm

The Spotlight Award is given to individuals and organizations that stand as examples for us all. We are thrilled to present this month’s Spotlight Award to Brigadier General John “Mick” Nicholson in the category of Business Trends. So you might ask what a United States Army Brigadier General is doing in the Business Trends section! Quite simply, this month’s Spotlight Award recipient is a prime example of management and leadership at its best in the social media age.

We sat down with BG Nicholson for an extended interview on the management and leadership methods that he employs and what they mean for management and leadership in every industry in today’s changing climate. In this article, we offer you the most critical parts of our interview with one of the US military’s most capable leaders. For all those who think that management and leadership of an army at war has nothing to do with leading your company...think again.

BG Nicholson proved himself an agile leader with a Command Without Control mentality that led to great success before, during and after his command of the tumultuous eastern region of Afghanistan. The lessons are universal for businesses and organizations everywhere.
Creating his culture of learning and agility took a lot of investment in human capital both within and outside of the organization. Tyranny of distance stood between this commander and his team more often than not with thousands of team members spread out over 27 thousand square miles of unforgiving terrain with little to no infrastructure and the most minimal of communications if any. How could he command a team that large and distributed? It was all about the people...

“The bottom line is I invested a lot of time in these individuals and in my relationship with those individuals… And with the demands on your time, you say i can’t afford to do that; but you know what? You can’t afford not to...”

That philosophy is at the heart of Command Without Control management and leadership in the social media age. BG Nicholson left me with the following advice on why a Command Without Control style of leadership will yield more success than old school control mentalities:

“...you are tapping into the full human potential of the organization not just the potential of one individual. To me its so you can achieve the full potential and do even better whether that’s making a profit or winning a war.”

Well stated. BG Nicholson offers several lessons: Be honest about yourself, your organization, your situation and your goals. Invest in the human connection with your team and entrust them with ability to remain agile in an uncertain and changing environment. And lastly, long distance is just an excuse and not a real obstacle to team cohesion in the social media age.

With this, it is my honor to name Brigadier General John “Mick” Nicholson, US Army our Spotlight Award recipient in the category of Business Trends. Many thanks to you from all of us for the inspiration.

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Link: http://tinyurl.com/cdu4xk

The pace of business, that is the rate at which you take a prospect to customer status and the speed at which they expect you to respond, is faster than ever before. Even more so, the pace of business is accelerating. It is not an illusion brought on by age, but a reality of the connected world in which we live.

Communications technologies including the internet, email, cell phones, VOIP and others were the first major contributors to the accelerated pace of business. Customers have access to easy and fast information and they expect easy and fast access to you too. Then came social media. Blogs, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Facebook, Ustream, and others created and continue to create vast extended networks of people with common interests.

Social media in this way is driving a faster pace of business by creating a cultural expectation of immediacy and by accelerating the speed of word of mouth (be it good or bad). The online word of mouth arena with your business at the center has grown to unprecedented size. Each video view, blog view, tweet and post is a part of a larger swarm of conversation that may be for you, against you, or ignoring you. Only one of these leads consistently to positive outcome.

Over the next few years, I see social networks expanding. In short, anything that will help to automate or semi-automate the lower end of the business prospecting cycle will be well received. The best way to get business in the future social media market may be through short term bidding or must-apply opportunities. A great example of this is Maria Andros, self proclaimed video marketing queen, who dominates YouTube and Twitter. She opened a competition for a limited number of spots as her customer for personal coaching, to great success.

The better news is that the social media age, the very thing that produced this fast-paced environment, also gives you the tools to make it your advantage and that goes way beyond marketing. Turn social media into your double agent by using it to find, keep and cultivate that talent. Then, use communications in all its forms to optimize your proposal and business processes for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. Do that and you will accelerate your organizational performance to peak capacity and keep it there.

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Link: http://tinyurl.com/dbv8td

The Self Tending Mushroom Alert or STeMie, is given to individuals, organizations and entities that support their right to keep themselves in the dark and feed themselves their own brand of fertilizer. As an important point of balance, STeMs give us a valuable lesson in what not to do. So feel their pain and take in the lesson as we present this STeMie in the category of Business Trends to General Motors...yes, the entire company from executives to every last union worker.

Every successful business runs a natural cycle of rise, success and domination leading to decline and a final end. The biggest clue should have been in Toyota’s sales trends in the North American market. When you are overtaken by your competition by more than ten times revenue...you need to take note.

It is the natural cycle of capitalism that some businesses will fail, even some large businesses and that even successful businesses will eventually meet their end. They will be broken up, acquired by venture capital, relaunched, and reincarnated to consolidate once more.

Americans love their cars, and are not likely to stop providing a strong market for cars. That is to say there is plenty of demand to go around. Thus, the more likely scenario is that the majority of jobs would not be lost but would move to another automaker such as Toyota who would naturally expand to fill the void in supply.

But there is something more to the picture than just the natural decline of a business. Businesses decline because they become obsolete. GM is a prime example. The fact of the matter is that GM remained mired in their old school ways, in their knowledge economy processes and their information age management. By failing to move their practices and processes to meet the social media age business environment, they succumbed to a competitor who did.

To turn GM’s example into your advantage, recognize the harm done in not adapting to the times at hand. How can you update your management, processes and skills to keep pace with your competitors..and if you are smart, to outpace them. Look five steps ahead of your competitors’ use of management, process and technological trends and make the leap ahead!

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Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

It seems like everyone has a side business these days. This trend is more than just perception. In this article, we explore the emerging trend of individual biznophreniaTM and how you and your organization can turn it into a personal and professional advantage.

There are a number of factors driving individuals to create a secondary income or side business. These can range from job dissatisfaction to a life long dream, a need for additional income, and similar factors.

The internet and e-commerce are decisive factors in the side business boom. The spice in this secret sauce, however, is the disposable worker mentality. Today, and for the last decade, the average employee changes jobs every 3-4 years. Today’s workforce does not offer company loyalty because they have not been shown loyalty by any company. They understand that they must provide their own plan B and their own stability.

Other factors contributing to the boom in side businesses include the U.S. cultural and legal environment and upcoming generations who are used to multi-tasking. All of this mixes together to provide the perfect environment for a side business boom. Some take it farther than others by having three to four simultaneous efforts or more. This author is a prime example with no less than 5 income generating efforts currently on tap.

The benefits of having a side business are many. It increases customer base. It allows you to incorporate your passions and hedge your bets. Individual BiznophreniaTM is a skill and an art. It’s time to start using it to your advantage.

Organizations can turn this trend into an advantage by not discouraging employees from having a side business. For a radical idea, consider being the one to help them get started. If done correctly, you can earn back some of that lost loyalty and maintain revenue from that employee long after they have moved on. Individuals can turn this trend into an advantage by considering how you might benefit from having a side business. Follow your passions, learn how to run multiple efforts while maintaining your sanity, and then go for it!

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Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

In the social media age, we live in a global society, where communications, and moreover, necessity have produced a convention of vast, physically extended yet tightly connected networks of people. Managers and leaders must accept that control is a delusion, but leadership and agility are real and required. I am not advocating that well studied management methods such as situational leadership and others be abandoned. I AM advocating that it is time to apply them in a new way. This new age has fostered the need for a new model of leadership: Command Without Control™.

Control used to be an option. There was a time when the leader really was the only source of information for his or her team; when it was possible to posit an alternate reality and proliferate it through the team via propaganda in many forms (even before the advent of PowerPoint).

What changed? COMMUNICATIONS! Specifically the internet and the proliferation of inexpensive communications capabilities (email, messaging, cell phones, etc.) and social media. There are two particular outcomes of increased communications capability that are at work here: easy availability of information and accelerated response time.

To turn this trend into your advantage you need only to update your current management methods. Depending on where your management and leadership style is now, that may mean a large change, or a small one. Most likely it is somewhere between. Your leadership cycle may be in need of update as well. Consider your current management styles and methods for each stage of a more modern Command Without Control leadership cycle. Refine where needed and free yourself from the control mentality…for your bottom line, for your employees and for the future of your organization.

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Link: http://trendwatchlist.com/extended

It seems like social media has taken over the internet. More and more, businesses and organizations are using social media for marketing and brand development. It is time to take a closer look at how early adopters are using social media for business and how you can take advantage of this trend to make it your personal and professional advantage.

Large organizations including, The United States Coast Guard, H&R Block, The Home Depot, The Mayo Clinic, Procter and Gamble and others are noting the social media platform as a means to market and build brand. Others are taking it a little further by promoting social media as a platform for customer interaction and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). As a next step for social media in the business world, however, there is some push-back from boomer generation management worldwide due to several factors.

It is important to note that for business use of social media, we are in the early adopter stage…the perfect time to turn it into your personal and professional advantage. Consider the trends a play. The first step was using social media for purely external benefit – marketing and brand management. The second step is using social media for Customer Relationship Management, a partially external and partially internal task.

The logical next step is the one that no one is yet discussing but could bring the greatest advantage of all. The greatest advantage will come from using social media for purely internal use – to do your job better, to make your internal processes and teams more effective and efficient.

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Link: http://www.dramyvanderbilt.com

The social media age has had a significant impact on the business environment. Customers expect faster response and innovation. Businesses must increase agility and not just work harder, but also work smarter, and work faster. Great talent is easier to find but harder to keep. The impact of the social media age on business is not a short-lived fad but a real business trend that not only brings these challenges, but also brings the means to overcome them. In 2009, I will be tracking how social media is affecting your business environment and how to turn this double agent into your ally, using these trends to your advantage.

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Link: mailto:drv@dramyvanderbilt.com

A CORPORATE DREAM: NEW ANALYSIS METHOD HELPS ADVERTISERS CRACK THE CODE OF CONSUMER DECISIONS...AND CHANGE THEM.

Vanderbilt Consulting founder Dr. Amy Vanderbilt unveils a new way to analyze market research data that not only unlocks consumer minds, but shows advertisers how to change them. In today's increasingly competitive market, it can make the difference between success and failure; and between election and loss.

Have you ever wondered what makes people want to buy a product or vote for a certain candidate? For decades advertisers have turned to market research – surveys, polls, and focus groups – to tell them whether a product will sell, how to craft their next ad, or how to get voters to favor their candidate. Until recently, the best way to analyze this research was a combination of statistics and intuition. Like reading tea leaves, statistics even in its most advanced forms would often leave much to be desired. The question of what consumers really want to hear in order to sway their opinion has been largely left up to the gut feel of expert pollsters and analysts.

But one D.C. area firm is changing the face of advertising by unveiling a new analysis method called Nonmonotonic Analysis, or NMA. NMA is a blending of new artificial intelligence techniques and proven probability and statistics that reveals the exact strengths and combinations of messages advertisers can use to encourage or alter consumer decisions. And the best part of all is that the analysis requires no other data beyond the types of market research data that a company or campaign already collects...just apply the analysis!

Although it may sound like something out of science fiction, it is all science fact and it can be used to crack the code of any decision – what to buy, who to vote for, what idea to support or reject, and more. So how effective is it? Recent testing showed that when advertisers used the targeted messages produced by NMA, they gained a significant increase in consumer support by keeping supporters AND swaying 25% of non-supporters. Can you think of any political candidates that could use a 25% increase in votes right now? How about a product that might enjoy a 25% increase in sales? In the world of marketing and advertising, even a quarter of that is a huge gain and can make all the difference in a product or candidate’s survival.

NMA was developed over nearly a decade by the husband and wife team of Scott and Amy Vanderbilt. Dr. Amy Vanderbilt, founder and principal consultant at Vanderbilt Consulting said, "This is a powerful method that gives advertisers and campaign managers what they really want to know: how to solidify or change consumer and voter opinion.".

Consumers may wonder if advertisers would use this to toy with their minds. “Not at all,” says Dr. Vanderbilt, “Think of it this way; advertisers have always worked hard to craft messages that will appeal to people. Now they have a way to take the guess work out of it.” So how can you know if your favorite product or candidate is using this analysis method to sway your decision? According to Dr. Vanderbilt, these ads will not look any different than the ads you have grown accustomed to all these years. And we may never know. She notes that, “We don’t disclose our NMA client list at this time. But we invite you to have fun guessing!”

Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

The state of math and science education in the United States has suffered a significant decline over several decades.

In this presentation, Dr. Amy Vanderbilt will challenge you to see the cultural trends the led to this decline and that will lead us out of it. She will walk participants through the future of this trend over the coming decade and how companies and individuals are taking action to ensure a better tomorrow for the next generation.

Every parent, teacher and citizen can elevate the potential of every child. Dr. Vanderbilt will show you how!

Learn what successful companies are doing to cultivate technical talent from a young age, how you can too, and how these children are benefiting from their efforts.

Extended sessions will include in depth how-to on finding and inspiring great teachers, and motivating children to work toward their full human potential.

Learner Outcomes

• Elevate The Potential Of Every Child
• Cultivate Technical Talent From A Young Age
• Find And Inspire Great Teachers Motivate Children To Work Toward Their Full Human Potential

Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

The travel industry is affected by a complicated landscape of technological and economic trends.

In this highly interactive session, Dr. Amy Vanderbilt will walk participants through technology trends affecting the travel industry from booking to communications and economic trends affecting the travel industry including the recent downturn. We will look deeply at how these trends affect personal and business travel and in turn affect the meetings industry. Some of these trends bolster attendance at your meetings, and some seem to deter it.

Dr. Vanderbilt will offer a holistic view of how these trends interact to produce a total effect on your meeting and how to use them to your advantage. Participants will gain insight into how these trends will evolve over the coming years; how that evolution will affect how business travel is booked, and when it is NOT booked; why these technologies will not decrease business travel, but are actually likely to increase it; and how businesses can take advantage of these trends to survive the current economic conditions and prosper!

Participants will tailor techniques to their own events and specialties using handouts and worksheets.

Learner Outcomes

• Techniques For Surviving And Prospering In The Current Economic Conditions By Taking Advantage Of Technological And Economic Trends In The Travel Industry
• A Plan For Implementing Strategies Within Your Own Events And Specialties

Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

The social media age has produced a business environment that demands immediate turnaround; while at the same time sets you within a sea of heavy competition.

Small and large organizations alike are running at top speed just to keep up. At that speed, organizational processes and teams can become stagnant and inefficient. Left unattended, what started out as stagnation can become decline and failure.

In this session, Dr. Amy Vanderbilt will walk you through a step by step approach to optimizing and streamlining your organizational processes and teams for peak performance. Like a checkup for your organization, this process will leave your team ready to take on the world at the pace that today's business environment demands.

Using worksheets, best practices and case studies as a guide, participants will begin to map out their own optimization plan for their own organizations. Special cases and real-life scenarios from participants will feed a portion of the presentation on handling difficult and unique situations with new methods.

Learner Outcomes

• Optimize Your Business Processes In Less Than Two Weeks For Maximum Efficiency And Effectiveness
• Put The Right People In The Right Job On The Right Team
• Increase Organizational Performance To Peak Capacity

Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

The social media age has spawned fantastic advancements in technology and communications. It has also spawned one of the greatest battles for talent that our society has ever known. It seems to be getting harder and harder to find, grow and keep great talent. Add to that the complexity of searching, recruiting and working with three full generations (the boomers, Gen X and Gen Y).

In this highly interactive session, Dr. Amy Vanderbilt will show you the role of social media and the internet in creating this talent war and how to turn it into your secret weapon. Participants will learn key insights into how our own behaviors led to the creation of social media, the disposable worker mentality, and the need for a different kind of management.

Dr. Vanderbilt will walk participants through case studies and real life examples of how to use social media and the internet to find, cultivate and most importantly, keep multi-generational talent.

Worksheets will be provided to help participants plan and tailor these techniques for their own organizations and create an action plan that can be implemented immediately.

Special cases and scenarios from participants will feed a portion of the presentation on handling difficult and unique situations with new methods and an enlightened point of view.

Learner Outcomes

• Social Media And Internet-driven Techniques That You Can Implement In Your Organization
• Details On Behaviors Holding Back Your Own Organization From Keeping Multi-generational Talent
• An Action Plan That Can Be Implemented Immediately For Transforming Your Organization’s Use Of Social Media To Find, Cultivate And Keep Multi-generational Talent

Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

The social media age has produced a business environment that demands immediate turnaround; while at the same time sets you within a sea of heavy competition. It seems the only way to keep your bottom line above water is to produce more proposals faster on fewer hours, efforts and resources. The challenges of this environment are different for large and small businesses. For large businesses it is like turning a barge to become that agile. For small businesses it is the challenge of having more ability than time or people. For both, it is the challenge of doing more with less.

In this highly interactive session, Dr. Amy Vanderbilt will walk you though an optimized method for producing proposals and business plans on the least amount of time effort and resources. From preparation and teaming through editing, costing and delivery there is a better way...a faster way.

Real life examples, case studies and best practices will be augmented with the customer point of view to show participants why to prepare a proposal this way. You CAN produce compliant, competitive and complete proposals in little time and with few resources; Dr. Vanderbilt will show you how!

Learner Outcomes

• Optimize Your Proposal Processes
• Develop Compliant, Complete And Competitive Proposals FAST
• Win More Bids With Greater Consistency

Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

In the age of social media, managers and leaders must come to terms with one very important fact: control is a fallacy, but leadership is real and required.

In this highly interactive session, Dr. Amy Vanderbilt will detail how the communications age, and subsequently the social media age, has changed the way managers must lead multi-generational teams; the consequences of being a Self Tending Mushroom, and the disposable worker mentality. Using case studies and best practices from the military, industry and everyday life; Dr. Vanderbilt will walk you through each step of the leadership cycle.

Presentation will include handouts and worksheets as we work through real life examples and techniques that participants can implement immediately.

Special cases and real-life scenarios from participants will feed a portion of the presentation on handling difficult and unique situations with new methods and an enlightened point of view.

Learner Outcomes

• Build And Maintain Highly Effective Teams With Multiple Generations And Skill Levels
• Manage And Lead Openly To Build Trust And Cohesion
• Develop Great Leaders From Within Your Ranks And Transition Leadership To Them At The Right Time

Link: http://trendfactorpress.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=2&osCsid=3e3b1b597335583f4c435a524ee8e069

TREND: The age of small business.

EFFECT: You can no longer judge a business partner by the size of his company

SOLUTION IN FOCUS: Choose your business partners based on their agility, capability, and complementary skills.

So often in business we find ourselves wanting to bid on a job a little beyond our own capability. After all, that is how businesses grow. So we team up to create a bidding team that embodies a complete and complementary set of skills and experience that will be the perfect fit for our client. Teaming is beneficial for so many reasons:

• To augment your skill sets for now and in the future
• To gain visibility in your industry and in complementary industries
• To catch the customer’s eye with an impression of team spirit

That is the picture we all start out with when we set about building a team; but how often does it go just how we planned? Here are a few things that you should look for when screening potential teaming partners to ensure that your team is the best it can be.

Good Proposal Skills
Clearly, if you approach a company to team you have high regard for them; so it may feel uncomfortable to ask them about their proposal skills. You want to believe that they are good and it can be hard to take the time to check it out. Failure to check their proposal skills could leave you with a teammate that runs your effort into the ground so do it right the first time. Ask what their win percentage is and ask who exactly they would contribute to the effort as well as what their experience is on proposals of this nature. To keep it fair, offer up that data on your own company. When all the cards are out on the table, your team can move forward with confidence. If you have business intelligence resources, find out what the client thinks of this company’s proposal skills (that can speak volumes – pun intended)

Positive Client Standing
Before you choose your illustrious team, make sure you are choosing companies that will make the client smile. Again, this is a job for the business intelligence wing of the company, or a good consultant. Knowing the standing of each potential teammate will help you mitigate impending difficulty and put forth a team that the client will WANT to choose.

Complementary – Not Competing - Skill Sets
Look for partners that bring skills sets DIFFERENT from yours but that fill in the gaps in what is needed for this effort. If you do choose a teammate with overlapping skill sets, be certain to create an agreement (on paper) before hand that clearly defines exactly which part of the work each will be doing. A common mistake among small companies is to team with a large one without such an agreement. When the bid is won, the large company got what they wanted in the way of checking the box on small business partners, but the small business is left with no work as they watch it all derail into the larger prime. So how is a small company supposed to team with a large prime? There will almost always be an overlapping skill set! The answer is to negotiate a percentage of the work IN WRITING BEFORE you choose to team. If they are not willing, you now have everything you need to know.

Size?
Not really. But there are times when choosing a company based on size is a smart move (as long as it is coupled with all of the above). When the bid calls specifically for a small or large business lead, or when the client is known to prefer one or the other are fine times to be size-biased. A good team does not necessarily have to include one large or one small company. Let the situation and the client lead that decision. In the absence of such guidance, put together the team that will truly do the best job on BOTH the proposal and the work; regardless of size.

Get Everyone On The Same Process
Finally, when you have your team together, hand out copies of The Lean Proposal Quick Start Guide to everyone on the team to make sure that all the players from every teammate are clued into the process; making your life and proposal easier. If you are not the prime, you may not have a say in the process used, but you are always free to suggest it!

Link: http://trendfactorpress.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=2&osCsid=3e3b1b597335583f4c435a524ee8e069

TREND: The social media age

EFFECT: Agility is key - organizations must streamline their business processes

SOLUTION IN FOCUS: Develop better proposals in less time.

In today’s business climate, what is the magic formula for growth? Great ideas? And agile and responsive team? Is it who you know? I would suggest that it is all of the above. Most importantly, the most business is won by the organization with the agile and responsive team that has great ideas. This is often easier said than done. Let’s examine why by focusing on three main categories of business: large, medium and small.

Large Businesses
Large businesses have LOTS of people. If you chose them wisely, you have some with great ideas. That is the easy part. But you are large and that often means that your processes are becoming larger and more complex. You have more hoops to jump through. As a result, it takes you longer to get anything done including writing a great proposal. The key is to streamline your proposal process while remaining within your corporate processes.

Medium Businesses
The medium business is in a great position. Lots of people and therefore probably lots of great ideas. But watch out! This is the turning point. Your processes can either become more complex, making it harder to get things done; or you can take this opportunity to turn your business into a lean proposal machine and keep it that way. You are still fairly agile. Now is the time to make that trait permanent.

Small Businesses
The smallest of the three business world bears is currently the most ferocious. This is the age of the small business. Founded by largely bright people with big ideas, the small business is agile and has little red tape to deal with. At the same time, they are constrained in time, people and money, making it hard to spare enough hours to write enough proposals to grow at the desired rate. The answer for you is to solidify agile processes now that will harvest those great ideas and turn your brilliant thinkers into proposal powerhouses all while creating winning proposals fast.

The answer for all three of you lies in streamlining your proposal processes to get the most compliant, competitive and complete proposal possible with the fewest people and the least amount of time, effort and money. That means getting the right members of your talented staff engaged in a process that will ensure they produce the highest quality content in the least amount of time so they can get back to the direct charge work that keeps the company running. Via years of experience, Ray Etter and I have developed what we call the Lean Proposal Process™. For any company large or small we developed an optimized version of industry best practices that will do just that for your company. While it won’t guarantee you any extra work with the Government (my standard CYA clause), it will make a marked difference in the maturity of your team, and the quality of your proposals which in turn should make a difference in your bottom line. We recently decided to make this process accessible to every company regardless of size and resources by releasing a series of books designed to show you the way to compliant, complete and competitive proposals on little time, effort and resources. The key is in the simplicity – take the best practices of experts in the proposal development field and optimize them to work quickly for every member of your team; even those with little or no experience. Make it easy to follow and quick to carry out and there you have the Lean Proposal Process™.

Link: http://www.dramyvanderbilt.com/Sponsor%20an%20Educational%20Distribution%20of%20Negative%20Nine%20and%20the%20Early%20Math%20Series.pdf

The reality is that you as an individual, as a company or as a Government entity, cannot expect the struggling school systems to give your children and future star employees everything they need to be the building blocks of our future economic stability. It is time to do something and that something is to partner with us here at Trend Factor Press to bring Negative Nine and the Early Math Series to schools and reading programs across the nation.

WHY YOU SHOULD SPONSOR AN EDUCATIONAL DISTRIBUTION

• The lack of home-grown technical talent in the United States is hurting Government and Industry alike across every sector
• Developing the technical talent needed for 2020 and beyond has to start TODAY at the EARLIEST POSSIBLE POINT
• Teachers recognize what this book can do for them but they do not have the funding to acquire it – 75 percent of all teachers and librarians in the pre-kindergarten through fourth grade levels who hear about the book wish they had one, but they don’t even have the money to buy school supplies, much less critical concept-building books.
• US students are falling, ”further behind in math, trailing counterparts in 23 countries” – Associated Press, USA Today, December 4, 2007
• “This issue has reached a crisis point…If the United States is to remain a global economic leader, we must foster an environment that enables a new generation to dream up innovations” - Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation, The Washington Post, February 25, 2007

PARTNER WITH US

Trend Factor Press is a passionate supporter of early math & science education. We want to partner with you to put this innovative series into schools & programs nationwide:

• We will run a special printing with your logo and message inside each book
• We will support your PR efforts to show off your sponsorship
• We will provide books at a full one third off the list price
• We will handle all of the distribution
• We will pay all the shipping costs
• YOU will make a difference

Click the link above to see program ideas and more detail.

Link: http://trendfactorpress.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=29&osCsid=3e3b1b597335583f4c435a524ee8e069

The Lean Proposal™ Quick Start Guide has officially launched!

We are thrilled to offer this first book of the Lean Proposal Series. But the news gets even better!

This October, Trend Factor Press will be launching the second book in the Lean Proposal Series along with the second book in the Early Math Series AND a paperback edition of the first book of the Early Math Series. Whew! These THREE simultaneous book launches are cause for celebration and there is no better way to celebrate than to help a worthy cause. In October, the authors of Trend Factor Press will be undertaking a BIG social network campaign that will benefit TWO special charities. Details are in the works and you can expect to hear more in the coming 4-6 weeks.

Link: http://trendfactorpress.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=2&osCsid=3e3b1b597335583f4c435a524ee8e069

TREND: The social media age has produced customers that expect to get what they want NOW and a sea of competition ready to comply.

EFFECT: Your business has to be more agile than ever.

SOLUTION IN FOCUS: Turn around better, more solid proposals in less time and on less effort and fewer resources.

Let's talk now about what that means for your RFP analysis:

The RFP has hit the street; maybe it has even hit you personally (nice if you can get it). Now what? You have an overwhelming desire to start writing. This is such an exciting time; it is hard not to dive into copious prose. Here is what we recommend: DON’T. With all your strength, RESIST the urge to write. Instead, lay the foundation for great writing by:

1 – Read the RFP front to back (try not to fall asleep!)

That’s right – read the whole thing; every word. If you are not in sync with what the client is asking for you are never going to be able to accurately answer it.

2 – Create a Compliance Outline and a Proposal Outline

These are two separate things. See details on how to create these critical tools in The Lean Proposal™ Quick Start Guide. Once created properly, your compliance outline and proposal outline will guide you through the rest of the process and you will not waste valuable time referring back; searching for the one line in the RFP that is relevant. With the compliance outline in place, that relevant line will be right where you need it to be and will be easily found.

3 – Prepare your team by holding a kickoff meeting

Establish the schedule and rally the troops. Create team cohesion with an executive pep talk and get everyone on the same page (pun intended). DON’T LET THEM WRITE YET!! Your next stage will be storyboarding. In fact, you will be almost one third of the way through the process before you are writing hard-core.

We have been there and done that and can tell you that this key preparation time will save you DAYS of time and effort later; In fact, it is the key reason that the Lean Proposal Process™ has a 100% rate of getting your proposal into the competitive realm.

Start your company down the path of more effective, efficient proposal development Then you can use the extra time to do all of that direct charge work that you are about to pile up!

Link: http://trendfactorpress.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=2&osCsid=3e3b1b597335583f4c435a524ee8e069

TREND: The Social Media Age.

EFFECT: Your business has to be more agile than ever.

SOLUTION IN FOCUS: Preparation and process optimization for faster proposal turn-around.

At what point in the proposal process do you feel the most stress? For many the most stressful point in the proposal process comes at the time when a task that seems like it should only take an hour turns into a multi-day exercise. Resume formatting, boiler plate development, gathering past performance details. You know, all those things that you leave until last only to find out they take A LOT longer than you planned? I have been there and I vowed never to be there again. So how can you make sure that does not happen to YOU again?

PREPARATION, PREPARATION!

Many companies forego preparation because it seems like a luxury. But when you amortize the time spent preparing over all the proposals you will NOT be stressing over; you will see it is a NECESSITY. Here is what I recommend, and what is recommended in The Lean Proposal Series™:

First, create a proposal template in your favorite word processing program. Include appropriate headers, footers, logos, title page, placeholders for tables of contents, compliance matrices and the like. Take the time now to consider your colors, use of borders and other elements. This file can then be placed on a central server or behind a password protected webpage for access by all the right people.

Next, create a database (use a simple program that you probably already have on your computer). Include a table for resumes, and another for past performance data. Create two databases if you are more comfortable with that. In each table, include all the information categories that you are often asked for in a proposal AND all those that you wish they would ask for. ALL relevant information should be there. You will pick and choose categories later. Take the time now to design the reports area of your database to look like your proposal templates (headers and such just the way you like them).

The point of all this preparation will become abundantly clear when you start your next proposal. Looking at the RFP, tweak your master report to reveal only those categories requested in each of the resumes and past performance sections. The reports will automatically produce properly formatted resumes and past performance sections that are ready to insert and match your templates perfectly! Now THAT is efficiency! Your stress gone, you are free to fret over the real meat of the proposal.

That is what great preparation is all about. You cannot measure the relief when you first gain the fruits of good preparation…but you can try...Then let me know how it goes!

Link: http://trendfactorpress.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=2&osCsid=3e3b1b597335583f4c435a524ee8e069

TREND: The social media age has driven businesses into faster proposal cycles

EFFECT: Smaller agile teams have an advantage

SOLUTION IN FOCUS: Any size team can learn to produce proposals with the agility of a small business.

Yes – I went there. But I got your attention, didn’t I? This is a point that a lot of businesses large and small seem to miss. Large businesses with large proposal teams and large proposal resources can start to get an equally large assumption that size alone means they are good at what they do and their proposals will automatically be works of art because they are the big name company with all of the experience. But the proposal team is only as experienced as its most senior member and I doubt anyone on the proposal team has been there for the decades of existence that the large business has enjoyed. In today’s marketplace, that average employee stays put in any one company for far less time than that.

The team is only as good as its members and in that fact we see that any business – large, medium or small – has an equal chance of writing the winning proposal. Think about the factors that go into a really great proposal team: experience, technical ability, an efficient and effective process. All of these may be found as easily at a company of 6 as in a company of 60 thousand. So why is it that so many small companies have such a hard time producing fantastic proposals? The answer lies in practical matters. The small business begins with a small number of very talented individuals who often know more about how to execute the work than how to propose it. Now they must do both. Demands of time, direct charge work, and the like often push the task of writing a great proposal to the bottom of the list and somehow just getting a proposal out the door seems good enough. It is a frustrating balance to maintain and weighs on the minds of small and medium and even some large business professionals.

But it does not have to be like that. What if you could spend less time working on proposals but still produce the most stellar documents ever to leave your hands? In years past you would say SURE! And you would know at the same time that it would mean calling in a team of experienced proposal professionals to do the job for you. That will be expensive; and unless you have that kind of working capital, it may not be an option. To make matters worse, there are more than financial resources at play here. EVERY resource you have is strained whether you are a major player or Little Company on the Corner. Money, Time, People: they are all stretched to the edge.

The answer lies in streamlining your proposal processes to get the most compliant, competitive and complete proposal possible with the fewest people and the least amount of time, effort and money. That means getting the right members of your talented staff engaged in a process that will ensure they produce the highest quality content in the least amount of time so they can get back to the direct charge work that keeps the company running. Via years of experience, Ray Etter and yours truly have developed what we call the Lean Proposal Process™. For any company large or small we developed an optimized version of industry best practices that will do just that for your company. While it won’t guarantee you any extra work with the Government(standard CYA clause), it will make a marked difference in the maturity of your team, and the quality of your proposals which in turn should make a difference in your bottom line.

We recently decided to make this process accessible to every company regardless of size and resources by releasing a series of books designed to show you the way to compliant, complete and competitive proposals on little time, effort and resources. The most interesting thing about this process, in our experience, is the improvement that proposal teams from ALL sizes of company show with each round through the process. Quite literally, novices and experts alike found their skills improved each time. The key is in the simplicity – take the best practices of experts in the proposal development field and optimize them to work quickly for every member of your team; even those with little or no experience. Make it easy to follow and quick to carry out and there you have the Lean Proposal Process™.

Link: http://www.vanderbilt.paradisenetwork.com

TREND: Travel is getting expensive

EFFECT: Many people are opting for company-paid conferences instead of personal vacations as a way to have both for less!

SOLUTION IN FOCUS: The Los Angeles Convention Scene

When most people think of Los Angeles they think of Hollywood, Pink’s Hotdogs, limos and movie stars. A few also think of the Tar Pits (excellent if you like history and unusual sites). I am here to tell you that LA is also a fantastic expo town. That’s right! Think if whatever you are into and there is likely to be an expo held in LA on that subject at some point in the near future. For this review, I enjoyed Book Expo to support my latest book and to see my many favorite authors as well as to check out the LA convention scene.

I took the non-stop from Dulles out to LAX and a taxi to my hotel ($43). The taxi ride takes about (25) minutes from LAX in rush hour traffic. You should be aware that taxis in LA are required to accept credit cards, but would often rather not. I was staying at the RADISSON HOTEL LOS ANGELES AT USC for this convention. With nearly 50 hotels within shuttle distance of the Los Angeles Convention Center, there were plenty of rooms to choose from at reasonable convention rates.

The Radisson USC
When I arrived, they placed me near the elevator in a room that did not have the King bed I had requested upon booking. This is not so uncommon as I was arriving about dinner time on a night when they were destined to be sold out. As a very nice gesture, they did comp me free full breakfast for myself and my husband for the entire stay. I thought it was nice of them, although it came with an air that this was standard procedure because it happens so often…Hmmmm.

I was looking forward to the sleep number beds advertised…oh, sorry, that is only on the top floor. My room had apparently not been redone in about twenty years. I can say that it was very quiet. Even though we were directly in front of the elevators, you really could not hear anything. Kudos for that.

However…the beds were not comfortable, the safe advertised to be in the room was not, the internet was wired only (but free!) and the bathroom was not exactly up to “clean” standards. I am not being a prima donna here; keep in mind I am used to traveling on government rate. It does not take a lot to impress me. So you can imagine. Overall, it was not worth the price and next time I will stay somewhere else.

Shuttle Service to the Expo
One redeeming factor of the Radisson was that we had our own shuttle route dedicated just to that hotel. Freeman did an amazing job of arranging the expo including shuttle service – WOW – I am still in awe at the dozen coordinated and perfectly timed routes running back and forth from the convention center to the various hotels.

Service was on time, clean, and friendly; and the coaches were quiet and conversation inducing. PERFECT!

The Los Angeles Convention Center

The LACC is actually two large facilities in one. You could, if you time it right, attend two completely different conferences at the same time here. Large enough to hold this world-scale expo like it was no big deal; the LACC is equipped to handle the largest and most complex events.

The show floor was well-secured and large enough to accommodate 56 rows of up to 20-30booths each. Each booth was where it should be and if there was any chaos behind the scenes I was not aware.

The LACC has your tummy covered too. Two Starbucks, one Gordon Biersch, and several café-style grab-and-go eateries provided most kinds of food that you could want (and some you know you shouldn’t). Bathroom facilities were maintained very well in the midst of the large crowds and were plentiful (a good thing after all of that Starbucks!).

Overall Impressions
Overall, LA is a great town for conventions. Pick your favorite topic and get a ticket. Be careful about your hotel choice and BOOK EARLY (months in advance if you can). For the event planners thinking about a large event and wondering who can handle it – it will be worth your while to consider the LACC.

*of course I will be writing this all off my taxes thanks to my travel business! Get one for yourself at the link above.