Special Thanks to This Year's Sponsors!
Keynote Speakers
Two dynamic keynote speakers will appear at the 2009 Fall Conference:
Jason Young and Cynthia Golden. Both talks will be dynamic, relevant and
inspirational!
Opening Plenary Speaker
Jason Young has been called a “rare breed”
when it comes to developing leaders, teams and customer service initiatives.
As a former senior-level manager at Southwest Airlines, Jason learned
the value of a successful workplace culture. During his 10-years with
the airline consistently rated No. 1 in customer service and employee
satisfaction, he was a key driver in creating and developing the company’s
innovative training programs for its successful leadership and customer
service culture that have become renowned in the business world today.
Driven by the need to extend his unique insight in leadership development
to others outside Southwest, Jason separated from the pack in 1998, when
he left the airline to launch his own consulting practice to focus on
corporate training and development services provider specializing in leadership,
customer service and team building. Today, as president of LeadSmart,
Inc., Jason shares his vision in developing successful corporate cultures
and workplace environments with forward-thinking companies, including
Starbucks, Coca Cola, Radio Shack and Tyson Foods. He has even captured
his philosophy of creating high performance cultures in his recent book,
Culturetopia - the ultimate high performance workplace.
Abstract for Opening Plenary
Smart Service - Customer Service Excellence
Jason Young will present a comprehensive approach on how to create and sustain a culture of customer defined excellence. As the competition heats up for goods and services, organizations today struggle to be characterized by their customer service initiatives. During this presentation by Jason Young, participants will find out what outrageous customer service can really do for their bottom line. Discover the meaning behind “customer-defined” service and how that may very well separate you from your competitors. Learn to make the most of those moments of truth that face your organization to leave a legacy of service. Identify the sources of service breakdowns and what it really takes to make a clear path to recovery.
Participants will discover that a strong commitment to service excellence can help an organization make a name for itself and leave its mark.
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Closing Plenary Speaker
Cynthia Golden currently serves as director of the Center
for Instructional Development and Distance Education at the University
of Pittsburgh. This Center serves the teaching and learning mission of
the university by providing support for instructional excellence and innovation
through instructional development and support, faculty development, online
learning, and media services.
Prior to joining Pitt, she was Vice President of EDUCAUSE, the professional association whose mission it is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. At EDUCAUSE she led professional development activities as well as the association's content and knowledge management initiatives. Her portfolio included program and curricula development for management and leadership institutes, web-based seminars and other programs that serve higher education. She was also responsible for creating relevant and compelling learning experiences for members through the annual EDUCAUSE conference program, as well as the regional and special-topic conferences. Cynthia had general oversight for EDUCAUSE services and operations, and coordinated efforts with affiliate organizations.
Before joining EDUCAUSE in 2001, she served as Executive Director of Computing and Technology Services at Duquesne University, where she had been the CIO since 1998. Before coming to Duquesne, Golden was manager of business applications in the Information Systems division at MIT, where she also coordinated administrative computing architecture. She was Associate Director of Administrative Systems at Carnegie Mellon University before joining the staff at MIT.
Golden has been a consistent contributor to professional development, as editor of the book "Cultivating Careers: Professional Development for Campus IT;" scores of articles, and even more conference presentations. She served on the Boards of Directors of the IMS Global Learning Consortium, the Seminars of Academic Computing and CAUSE; participated on two national program committees for EDUCAUSE; and served as a member of many professional association committees over a twenty-year period. She is a sought after speaker both in the U.S. and internationally, most recently at an invitational international conference in Japan in the summer of 2009.
Abstract for Closing Plenary
Leadership is Everybody’s Business
Forces have combined to make the job of a campus IT leader more challenging than ever before – we are faced with shrinking budgets, a rapidly changing “web 2.0” world, cloud computing, the consumerization of IT, and an aging workforce. New skills and new ways of thinking are being required for our institutions to move forward. And if that isn’t enough, research shows that there are not enough aspiring leaders in the pipeline to meet the projected needs. Now is NOT the time to ignore the development of leadership skills – both your own or those of your staff. Everyone has leadership potential but it won’t flourish unless it is cultivated. It is not about position – leadership comes from throughout the organization. So what can you do, right now, to help you move forward in your career? What does the research really tell us? What strategies can you employ that will help your institution today, and prepare your institution for the future? Let’s talk about what’s practical and what’s possible and how leadership development will make a difference in your organization.
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