BLC Sessions2021

Opening Session: Economic Outlook 2021 (and Beyond) for Integrators

Presented by Dr. Chris Kuehl
Moderator: Chuck Wilson

Get a better handle on how the economy will impact business in 2021 and the years to come. This high-level economic overview kicks off the Business & Leadership Conference with an analysis of long-term trends, current conditions, and an economic outlook tailored to our industry by our expert economist. What impacts will COVID-19, the election, and a possible recession have on business for integrators? Take notes during this vital planning session so you’ll be ready for what the year will bring. The session concludes with a performance summary of key U.S. indicators: inflation, job creation, housing, and GDP.

Opening Keynote: Making the Agility Shift: Creating Agile and Effective Leaders, Teams, and Organizations

Presented by Pamela Meyer
Moderator: Mike Boettcher

Success today depends on your ability to learn and adapt in the midst of change. This means shifting your mindset and organizational practices to improve the bottom line and sustain success. Dr. Pamela Meyer draws on her years of experience and research in helping teams and organizations become more agile and innovative to show you how other organizations are thriving in the midst of today’s uncertainty. She’ll also offer unique ideas you can use right away to make your own agility shift. Learn how to improve your capacity to respond to unexpected challenges, discover six dynamics that make up an agility shift, and find out what types of best practices are followed by agile leaders, teams, and organizations.

Keynote: Business Benefits of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Presented by Ivan Joseph
Moderator: Akintayo Adewole

Current data suggests that companies with an active diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plan are likely to outpace their peers. Empirical data from McKinsey & Company (a global leader in management consulting) demonstrates that embracing DEI makes great business sense: A DEI program produces an 11% likelihood of increased performance over similar companies and a 19% decrease in the likelihood of outperforming your peers without one. NSCA’s Ignite 2.0 initiative supports the belief that DEI implementation should be a core tenet for all integrators to build better, higher-performing businesses—especially critical now with the economic pressures of COVID-19. Get started with your own DEI plan in this session.

Breakout #1 Track: Executive Leadership

Agility Champion Training: Developing Agility is a Continuous Endeavor

Presenter: Pamela Meyer
Moderator: Kyle Habben

To become and stay agile, your leaders, teams, and organizational systems need ongoing support, fresh ideas, and inspiration. With effective training and coaching, the best and most consistent support can be harnessed within your organization from your own Agility Champions. This workshop prepares you to designate internal leaders (at any level) to serve as agility shift catalysts, facilitators, resource people, and, yes, champions of agile initiatives. Whether you’re in the midst of an agile transformation or your leaders, teams, or organizations are still understanding the need to be more agile and innovative, your strategy needs to include internal champions for ongoing support and inspiration.

Breakout #2 Track: Growth Strategies & Sales Enablement

Think Like a Scientist, Not an Engineer

Co-Presenters: Laurie Englert & Lisa Perrine
Moderator: Jay Rogina

This workshop features industry leaders who share best practices and action steps for building successful client engagement programs and processes. Combine the best of design-thinking practices and strategies with scenario planning and execution exercises to create more effective client interactions and help sales professionals collaborate with key stakeholders during the discovery phase. In today’s world of relationship-building opportunities, we help you find new ways to become a trusted advisor for your clients and lead them to solutions they help create along with your team.

Breakout #3 Track: Finance & Risk Management

Rethinking Finance, Legal, and HR Leadership

Presenters: Jeff Bronswick, Joel Harris, Brad Dempsey, Eric Morris, Dave Taccone & Chris Mounts (NSCA Financial Leadership Council)
Moderator: Dan Schmidtendorff

This session could easily be the most important session you experience at the Business & Leadership Conference! Change the way you think about the finance, legal, and human resources leadership within your integration business. In this session, which leverages key metrics from NSCA's newly released Financial Analysis of the Industry report, learn how the role of today’s CFO is changing, with increasing levels of responsibility for groups beyond accounting and finance. Discover the challenges that lie ahead for workplace safety. Determine how to support employee engagement and manage behaviors and habits for remote workers without as much face-to-face interaction.

Breakout #4 Track: Operations & Process Improvement

Predictable Outcomes: Getting Ourselves Back on Track

Presenter: Leonard Lynskey
Moderators: Ingolf deJong & Ray Railey

We hear it all the time: I’m busier now than ever, yet we aren’t making the profit we should. Integrators often believe that if we stay busy, we must be winning. Obsolete processes and systems that just don’t scale create so many inefficiencies that we end up wasting valuable time trying to hold onto the way “we’ve always done things." Likewise, we hear from integrators that since the pandemic their well-planned newer processes have been bypassed and old habits and bad behaviors resumed.

This workshop explores the common message we hear when integration firm employees are derailed to handle urgent matters (translating to too much work!). Leading EOS implementer Leonard Lynskey teaches you how to right the ship when the desire to get better gets to the breaking point.

The Executive Power Hour: Designing for Digital-First Customers: Focus on Experience as a Driver for Breakthrough Innovation

Presented by Brian Solis
Moderator: Tim Hennen

Experience design and innovation are key differentiators and beacons for the way forward—especially in these times of disruption. While it’s counterintuitive to think about investments when everyone else is exploring cost-cutting, this is exactly the time to break new ground. Those who study customer dynamics, needs, emotions, and aspirations to reveal meaningful and empathetic ways to innovate will succeed in business and customer experiences.

NSCA Annual Business Meeting

Presenters: Chuck Wilson & Michael Boettcher

NSCA is your voice, your business resource, and your trusted advisor. Our annual business meeting will cover the state of our industry, the election of our leadership, and our 2021 legislative agenda. This interactive session is led by NSCA and industry leaders who have specific experience and knowledge about codes and compliance, emerging technologies, risk management, industry trends, growth strategies, and running successful integration companies. Make it a priority to learn what NSCA is doing to support your business, keep you informed, and help you take action when necessary. Special Feature: Government affairs representatives from the Connected Technologies Industry Consortium share perspectives on the 2021 legislative outlook, highlighting issues of major importance for integrators.

Opening General Session: Making Strategy Happen

Presented by Michael Canic, PhD
Moderator: Mike Bradley

According to Harvard Business Review, “most studies show a 60% to 70% failure rate for organizational change projects―a statistic that has stayed constant from the 1970s to now.” Learn how to drive the odds in your favor by turning strategy into reality, making sure your change efforts result in actual change, engaging your people’s hearts and minds, and embodying the right commitment. You’ll leave equipped and inspired to Make Strategy Happen.

Breakout #5 Track: Executive Leadership

Leadership: Pivot, Don’t Panic

Presenters: Chuck Wilson & Bill Bozeman
Moderator: Christina DeBono

Our panel of industry experts uncovers answers to NSCA members’ most frequently asked questions. This fast-paced workshop discusses key issues for scaling your business properly in 2021 and beyond. We’ll discuss ways to find new revenue, uncover new opportunities amid changes in commercial real estate, cope with uncertainty, consider mergers and acquisitions in unpredictable times, and leadership development and employee engagement in 2021.

Breakout #6 Track: Growth Strategies & Sales/Marketing

Living Your Brand on the Front Lines

Presenters: Gerry O'Brion
Moderator: Tom LeBlanc

Your front lines are the last mile and may be your most important point of influence for generating repeat business. To your customers, your front lines are your brand. Don’t leave this important interaction to chance. With all the work it takes to land the business, make sure that you’re putting your best foot forward in your execution. There are some simple and powerful strategies you can implement in your business now to maximize the effectiveness of your front lines. Your front-line experience begins with hiring, continues through training, is built with your company culture, and comes to life on the front lines. In this session, Gerry O’Brion, founder of What Big Brands Know®, will share strategies, case studies and personal experiences from his time as a corporate executive for brands like Red Robin, Coors and P&G. The presentation is a fun, thought-provoking dialogue that reveals the strategies you can use to maximize the effectiveness of your front lines.

Breakout #7 Track: Finance & Risk Management

Execution with Ruthless Consistency

Presenter: Michael Canic
Moderator: Laurie MacKeigan

Tired of developing strategies and plans that are never executed? When all is said and done, a lot more is said than done. What’s the solution? Ruthless consistency. When focusing on customers, employees, and execution, your company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) will see vast improvements. Michael guides you through his strategic management system, which has driven results in some of the world’s leading organizations.

Breakout #8 Track: Operations & Process Improvement

Process Optimization Using EOS and Lean Principles

Presenter: Heidi Berger
Moderator: Brad Caron

Knowing what to do to solve a problem is one thing. Being 100% committed to process improvement is something completely different. The majority of organizational issues are related to people and process. Without documented processes for your people to follow, you’re likely solving the same problems over and over—and aren’t maximizing ROI on labor, which is likely your biggest operating expense. This interactive workshop guides you through using an assessment tool that will be sent out in advance.

Closing Keynote: Becoming No. 1 in a Crowded Market: What Big Brands Know

Presented by Gerry O'Brion
Moderator: Dale Bottcher

Find the right types of clients and turn them into vocal fans. Even though we all seem the same, there are ways integrators can truly become different. Learn a framework in innovation and influence that will show you how to become the top choice. Gerry’s “Power of BECAUSE” framework has been used by manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and businesses of all kinds to clarify their messages, drive referrals, and close sales. You’ll also uncover the four critical questions you should ask to stand out in the sea of sameness.

Schedule At-A-Glance

All times are in Central Time Zone

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Detailed Schedule At-A-Glance