RIBX Schedule – Tuesday May 3

Time/Location	Event
8:30 a.m. 3rd Floor, Show Entrance	Ribbon Cutting
9:30 a.m Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Theater	KEYNOTE: Jon Iwata, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications – IBM Corporation As our planet becomes more instrumented, intelligent and interconnected, it offers incredible opportunities and challenges for businesses and institutions around the world. Join Jon Iwata, senior vice president for Marketing and Communications at IBM as he talks about the role of leadership in making markets, drawing on the lessons learned from the globalization of the world’s economies over the last 100 years.The father of IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative, Iwata and his team have led the development of a strategy, which describes the company’s view of the next era of information technology and its impact on business and society. Iwata is expected to talk about the program’s local impact as Providence was recently selected from more than 200 cities across the globe that applied to participate in IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge. Rhode Island’s capital city, one of 24 globally and 1 of 9 in North America, will receive $400,000 worth of IBM technology and services to develop a computerized land-management model for the efficient redevelopment of the city’s Jewelry District.
10:00 a.m RIBX Platform A	“The Status Quon’t: If You Don’t Break the Rules, They’ll Break You” Jeremy Crisp & Jeanette Palmer – Nail Communications This seminar will provide practical advice supported by real world examples of how innovative marketing can be the difference-maker for a business’ growth. Whether a commodity (think fresh Lobsters), a service (like a restaurant chain), an ingredient brand (like fabric) or a new product launch (the fastest growing footwear brand in America today), you will learn how marketing and communications can set you apart from your competition. This seminar will help the audience learn to truly influence the behavior of their customers. The interactive format will touch on the fundamentals, including research, strategy, brand positioning, branding and customer connection. We’ll also cover how the Internet has leveled the playing field for many marketers and enabled David’s to take on some of their Goliaths in recent years.Attendees will leave with a head full of new ideas and practical applications for their business. There will also be a raffle for two business owners in attendance to benefit from a complementary small business marketing consultancy specific to their needs.
10:00 a.m. RIBX Platform B	“Navigating Rough Waters: Leading, Innovating, Partnering” MJ Kaplan – Kaplan Consulting, LLC The stressful economic climate has challenged all of us to reconsider how to create success organizationally and personally. No matter your role or industry, each of us has been forced to step back, question assumptions and assess new approaches. This workshop will start with you. How have you changed your approach to work? What differences are positive and what causes you to be frustrated or discouraged? We will identify specific personal priorities that will lead to better results and a more positive attitude about work. Next we’ll focus on everyone else. Whether you manage staff or participate in groups, we’ll cover how to shift from spinning wheels to driving innovation. Then we’ll apply these tips to leverage strategic partnerships and networks. In the new economy, working across boundaries is an imperative.
11:00 a.m. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Theater	KEYNOTE: Helena Foulkes, Executive Vice President and Chief Health Care Strategy and Marketing Officer – CVS Caremark A marketing visionary that has helped successfully brand and grow one of the state’s leading health care companies, Helena Foulkes, executive vice president and chief health care strategy and marketing officer for CVS Caremark Corporation has recently taken on the challenge of expanding Rhode Island’s industry base as vice chair of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. Learn how she tackles both challenges when she delivers her keynote address at RIBX 2011.
11:00 a.m RIBX Platform A	“How Twitter, Facebook, WordPress and YouTube Can Grow Your Business. Create a social media Footprint” Audrey McClelland – Mom Generations Engagement and communication on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and through blogs is KEY. Dialogue back-and-forth needs to be done by YOU, not by a puppet. Find your target audience, there are ways to dig deeper to find who it is you need to be talking to. Learn the do’s and the don’ts of Twitter and Facebook and how you can connect with brands and companies who will in turn help your business grow, including the 2 things that always help increase #s on Facebook and Twitter.
11:00 a.m. RIBX Platform B	“Faster, Better, Cheaper: How to Achieve Operational Excellence” William Wray – Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Every business is under pressure to do more with less. Customer expectations grow ever higher, while operating budgets are reduced and prices are forced to drop. Rules and regulations abound and grow more complicated every day. How can a business get better in every way under such pressure? Bill Wray will explain how! He’s had to lead operational excellence programs in financial services and healthcare under significant pressure to produce results. He will explain how to approach this problem systematically – in terms of organization, culture change, toolsets, methodologies, technology, etc. providing a recipe for success based on hard-won lessons from his frontline experience.
11:45 a.m.- 1:00 p.m. Hall D	2011 Economic Outlook Luncheon featuring RI General Treasurer Gina Raimondo Rhode Island General Treasurer Gina Raimondo will talk about ideas for developing the state’s entrepreneurial base. Her presentation is expected to highlight ideas including the potential of creating programs through the Office of the Treasurer, with and without public funding, to spur new company formation and other plans for growing the state’s Knowledge Economy. A firm believer in innovation, prior to being elected in November, Raimondo worked for a decade as co-founder and general partner of Point Judith Capital, Rhode Island’s only venture capital firm. She has also served as the senior vice president of fund development at Village Ventures, where she managed a team that established 12 venture capital funds nationwide. Throughout her career as a venture capital investor, Raimondo has been involved in dozens of successful start-up companies, primarily in the health care industry. Feature Sponsor:
12 noon Show Floor	Bizbites Lunchtime Networking A great networking opportunity that also includes a chance to sample the food from some of the area’s finest restaurants and caterers!
12 noon Platform A	“Drive Revenue and Build a High Performing Sales Organization Chuck Mollor, MCG Partners Increasing sales and building revenue in a competitive economy is one of the most difficult challenges facing an organization today. Building and sustaining consistent sales performance and client relationships has never been more critical for all companies. Top line revenue growth is a must to stay competitive in today’s economic climate and the right people executing is critical to taking sales to the next level. A competitive market will bring out the true colors of your sales staff and management. Those employees who have the appropriate skills and behaviors find ways to be successful. Business leaders must deliver consistent sales results at the same time tweaking their organization to ensure the right people are in the right roles with the right strategy. The greatest impact to achieving and sustaining consistent sales results is understanding your people – their strengths, targeting help to where they need it, and motivating them to perform at their full potential. McKinsey research shows that star sales people outperform average sales people 14 to 1. This gap widens even further when compared to underperforming sales people. And underperforming sales people significantly cost a business. In addition to salary and benefits you lose sales opportunities, clients, management time, administrative and training costs.
12 Noon Platform B	Social Is the New Normal – How Every Company Benefits from a Digital Campaign Opt in Media This seminar is designed for every business and every brand, big and small. In fewer than 10 years, Facebook has become a nation unto itself while blogging, tweeting and ‘checking in’ adds new ways for us to communicate in the fast paced world of today. New applications are designed to help businesses reach their customers in a more socially engaging way every day. How do you separate the signal from the noise and take part in this revolution?
12:30 Blue Cross & Blue Shield of RI Theater p.m.	Finding the Soul of Big Business Patricia Raskin & Paula Marshall Join local radio host Patricia Raskin as she interviews award winning CEO and nationally known author Paula Marshall. Head of the Bama Companies, a dessert company started in her grandmother’s pie shop that has grown to be the sole dessert supplier for the nation’s largest fast food chain, Marshall recently released her second book Sweet As Pie: Tough As Nails.The story tells of her inspirational journey from a pregnant teen to CEO of a global company in a male dominated era. Raskin will also share success stories of guests interviewed on her radio show Positive Business, and will interview Paula on success strategies from an award winning CEO. The audience will be invited to ask questions.
1:00 p.m. Hispanic Business Showcase – Booth 911	“Meet & Greet” – RI Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce 11th Annual Meeting Keynote Erik Dyson President of Latin America – GTECH
1:00 p.m. RIBX Platform A	“The Valuable Return on Investment of Financial Education in the Workplace” Mel, Stiller, Money Management International Studies show the 25 percent of the workforce come into their job with financial problems severe enough to affect their productivity at work. It shows up not just in reduced productivity, but in also in tardiness, absenteeism, disability claims and theft. In addition, there is a strong correlation between financial stress and increased health care expenditures. Researchers have found that financially unhealthy employees are more likely to smoke, have unhealthy diets, become overweight and not exercise enough, contributing to illness and higher health care costs. Also those with financial problems are less likely to contribute to a retirement plan, hurting the employer’s testing requirements and to Section 125 plans, adding to the employer’s social security costs. Learn how you as a company owner or manager can help your employees become more financially independent and more productive at work.
1:00 p.m. RIBX Platform B	B2B Shouldn’t Stand for Boring to Business April Williams, North Star Marketing The marketing landscape is in flux. In Consumerville, customers are taking control and deciding what a brand is or is not. That phenomenon is happening in B2B as well/where customers are interacting with brands more differently than ever before. For example, trade show attendance is slipping, trade publications are down advertising pages. What does that mean? It means targeted one-on-one conversations between a brand and a prospect/customer are becoming more prevalent. Who says these conversations and interactions can’t be entertaining, interesting or memorable? They actually need to be. Because while we are talking about brands, products, companies, customers and prospects the reality is we’re talking about people. And today people are being over communicated to. Each of us is exposed to 3000-4000 messages a day. 80% of which are forgotten, ignored or disliked.So what better way to break through than by telling your prospects/customers something new and different in a memorable, imaginative, creative way. When you communicate to people versus prospects/customers everything changes. Including your bottom line. Through examples and case studies this seminar shows that creativity needs to be a tool in today’s world of successful B2B marketing.
2:00 p.m. 5th Floor	“How Health Care Reforms Affect Your Business” Ed Bleiler, Baystate Financial Services
2:00 p.m. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Theater	KEYNOTE: New Providence College Men’s Basketball Coach Newly appointed Providence College Men’s Basketball Coach Ed Cooley will share his keys to motivation and achievement as the afternoon keynote speaker at RIBX. Making one of his first public appearances in Rhode Island since being named the 15th Men’s Basketball Head Coach at Providence College, Cooley is expected to give a high level motivational presentation highlighting the importance of hard work and dedication as the fundamentals for success, whether you are on the court or in the office. Cooley, a native of Providence, came to PC after spending the last five seasons as the head coach at Fairfield University. He attended Central High School and earned two Rhode Island High School Player of the Year honors before attending Stonehill College.
2:00 p.m. RIBX Platform A	“Leveraging the Knowledge Economy to Innovate Business Productivity” Katharine White, Workplace Renaissance, Inc. Every US business and owner is challenged by the new economy. Experts agree the US economy’s future growth projects at 2 percent, while that of emerging economies is 8 percent. As a percentage of the economy, the national debt has never been higher and we are learning more each day about the unfunded liabilities of many states, including Rhode Island. There is only one answer: Leverage our Knowledge Economy to grow your business with productivity innovations like Lead Leadership Culture. Recently launched at the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI-CIE), this innovation engages and empowers staff and managers to activate the essential infrastructure for high performance work cultures. Best practice culture and leadership behaviors are defined, blue-printed and spread organization-wide, transforming employees to do much more with less. Managers, experientially learn best practice leadership, supported by the user-friendly tools guiding a win-win communication and accountability system. Participants will learn how this innovation taps into newly discovered properties of business capital – and will experience/learn first hand about how the inter-relatedness of financial, human, organizational and innovation capitals drive productivity and business value – by calculating case examples during the seminar.
2:00 p.m. RIBX Platform B	“Goals, Technology and Profits! – Knowing Your ROI in Social Media” C.J. Bordeleau & Daniel Faggella, Arsenal Social In this presentation we’ll be going over the best methods for calculating the ROI of a social media campaign. Most people make early mistakes and fail to understand the best way to measure results through non-traditional marketing avenues. This presentation will show you not only where everyone starts off wrong, but how to make sure that your initial investments are best spent – through the right social media avenues and the best practices for tracking real progress.We’ll explore the different tools of social media and how they can be used individually for profits. These details are not for techies! They are for regular business people with computers and will be easily understood by everyone in the audience. We’ll look into structuring initial goals for social media campaigns, and the remarkably simple secrets to calibrating your ROI and increasing it with simple tweaks. Lastly, everyone will leave the room with an easy method to set up their social media presence quickly and do so with the least financial and time risk possible. Avoid common mistakes – Set the game up to Win – Determine your tools – Drive Profits.
3:00 p.m. RIBX Platform A	Cloud Computing, This Technology Changes Everything Chuck Cyr, Cloudy IT This interactive seminar will explain how Cloud Computing is a game changer, a disruptive technology that totally effects the way new application software solutions are implemented. Attendees will learn how using Cloud Computing will dramatically reduce traditional IT costs, including upfront investment and long term obligations. The result of this “disruptive technology” is that small businesses will have a totally new approach to acquiring the systems they need to survive at a price they can afford. Savings of 70% are easily achieved through this new technology.
3:00 p.m. RIBX Platform B	“Fewer, Faster, Better: How One Small Company Beat China Manufacturers” Michael Woody, International Marketing Advantages This seminar is a case study of a small Rhode Island company that seemed a lost cause, a bit player in an industry that had long ago sent most of its manufacturing overseas. It is the story of a company, like so many others over the past few decades, with a dead or dying domestic customer base and few international prospects. It is also the story of two domestic industries – textiles and promotional products – one half-dead and one in a state of drastic change due to Pacific Rim sourcing. Learn from a participant and an observer in the efforts to transform this small company. And hear about what was initially just another consulting gig became a chance to prove, against all that had been seen and learned, that a small company, in a marketplace pummeled by the effects of technology, globalization and outsourcing, could find a way to beat China manufacturers.
3:30 p.m. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Theater	2011 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition Winners Named at RIBX The Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, one of the richest business plan competitions in New England, will award more than $250,000 in prizes at RIBX 2011. The only event of its kind in the region that is supported by a broad consortium of business and civic organizations, public and private companies, universities and colleges, foundations and public agencies, The Rhode Island Business Plan Competition aims to encourage entrepreneurship in Rhode Island through the development of start-up and early stage companies! After months of learning about business planning, financial strategy and marketing, the finalists will be narrowed down to the winners and at the final event of the 2011 competition, being held at RIBX, winners will be selected from the entrepreneur and student tracks. In addition, a green prize will be given to an applicant who proposes to create a new business that aims to accelerate development of the green economy in Rhode Island.
5:00 p.m.	Show Floor Closes
5:30 p.m. 5th Floor	“Celebrating Business Success with Sabor Latino!” RI Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce 11th Annual Meeting & Gala (Paid event) Erik Dyson – Keynote Speaker Vice President of Latin America – GTECH