Recent & Upcoming Events

For your convenience, below is a detailed itinerary for this event. We will continue to update this page as more speakers and topics are finalized.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

7 – 8 a.m.	Registration, Networking Breakfast and Exhibitor Showcase
8 – 9 a.m.	Panel Discussion: Economic Update • Douglas Porter, CFA, Chief Economist and Managing Director, Economic Research, BMO Financial Group • More panelists to be announced
9:15 – 12 noon	Concurrent Sessions (Select One) Building a High Performance Team Peter Taylor, Founder, Peter Taylor & Associates Inc.Equip yourself to become an effective team leader or team member.

In this 90-minute workshop, explore some of the factors that may be holding back your team from performing at its optimal level. Gain applicable tips for reinforcing performance and encouraging change in team members, and end your session with an example of the investment necessary to create a high performing team.

• Powerful Advanced Outlook Techniques for Leadership
  Paul Mascarenhas, Principal and Founder, Avancer Learning Inc.

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most powerful office productivity applications available today. Many people spend up to a quarter of their workday in Outlook. However, being able to tap into its more powerful tools for inbox management, mail handling and automation, editor shortcuts and calendar techniques can save a significant amount of time. This workshop explores some of these lesser known power techniques that will allow you to increase your productivity and organizational skills. Participants will work hands-on in Outlook with the instructor, using their own Outlook installation.

1. Setting up Your Inbox – How to set up and use ‘views’ on single and multiple folders; how to add views with conditional formatting, layouts and more.
2. Managing your Inbox – How to customize your inbox using user-defined fields such as formula fields, text fields, checkboxes and tags to make email management easier and semi-automated
3. Quick Parts and Shortcuts – How to use re-usable content in Outlook and speed up the creation of mail through quick parts and key board shortcuts.
4. Rules – How to automate mail handling for incoming and outgoing mail by implementing rules.

OPTIONAL (Time Dependent)
5. Exploring Templates – How to speed up recurrent mail (such as monthly reports and bulletins) and recurrent meetings through templates, and access them with a couple of clicks.

• Risk Management Primer and Risk Management Tools
  Bill Wesioly , CPA, CMA, Senior Risk Management Consultant and Professional Transition CoachA prime understanding and knowledge of risk management is especially important in today’s business climate.  And finance professionals are right at the forefront of that demand for knowledge.

Brush up on the fundamentals of risk management and arm yourself with two new tools – Key Risk Indicators and Risk and Control Assessments that will assist organizations in understanding and acting upon perceived risk.

• Tools for Optimizing Cash Management
  Jeffrey Sherman, FCPA, FCA, Chief Financial Officer, Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation

When was the last time you thought about changing how you manage cash? By using the right cash management strategies, businesses can profoundly improve their operations and bottom lines. You may be surprised at the pervasive impact that effective cash management can have on your business.

Learn the building blocks of cash management, how to control and optimize cash, mapping your cash flows and other tools that you can take back to the office and begin using right away.

12 – 1 p.m.Networking Lunch and Exhibitor Showcase
1 – 2 p.m.

TBD

2 – 3 p.m.

Retaining and Optimizing Talent: Preparing for Effective Succession Planning
Gerlinde Herrmann, CDir, GPHR, CHRL, Founder, President, The Herrmann Group Limited

As leading financial professionals, you probably already know that one of the biggest financial impacts to an organization is the cost of identifying, attracting, developing, retaining and engaging a high performing workforce.  And, more importantly the risk to the organization if you don’t.

This session will deal with succession planning, a key component to talent management.  Effective Succession planning can contribute greatly to the positive management of human capital risk.  In this session we will discuss the differences between effective and less effective succession planning and its direct impact on your bottom-line.

3 – 3:30 p.m.Networking Break and Exhibitor Showcase3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Productivity and Collaboration in the Age of Digital Distraction
Jesse Brown, Digital Media Expert and Futurist

Has technology actually made us more productive, or does it just distract us with endless diversions? In this interactive presentation, Jesse Brown explains how the world’s most progressive organizations are rethinking productivity and tapping into the collaborative social dynamics of the transparent, networked workplace.

4:30 – 5:30 p.m.Networking Reception and Exhibitor Showcase

Thursday, March 31, 2016

7 – 8 a.m.

Registration, Networking Breakfast and Exhibitor Showcase

8 – 9 a.m.

The Future of Performance Management in a Multigenerational Workplace Giselle Kovary, President and Co-founder, n-gen People Performance Inc.Managing performance is a difficult exercise in any size of organization. There are numerous elements to performance management–from setting goals that align to strategy, to measuring what people do, and evaluating how they do it. In n-gen’s national survey in 2009, they measured employees’ perceptions on how well their performance is being measured by their employer. The good news is that many employees felt strongly that their performance is being accurately measured. However, feedback from the hundreds of organizations with which n-gen has worked, is that performance management remains one of the leading people challenges. One reason it is viewed as a difficult process is that the four generations (Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Gen Ys) have different expectations as to how their performance should be measured, and how managers should conduct performance management practices on a day-to-day basis.

This keynote highlights what employees and managers are saying about performance management, based on both the n-gen Generational Index survey and from n-gen consulting work. Kovary uses this data, in conjunction with research on generational expectations and performance management theory, to highlight the future of performance management.9:30 – 12 noon

Concurrent Sessions (Select One)

1. OKRs: Objective and Key Results to Drive Business Performance
   Brett Knowles, Executive Partner, pm2 – Performance Measurement and ManagementThis workshop is the perfect entry into the world of the Objectives and Key Results. Get to know how the leadership methods from Intel, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter can lead to better results in your company or team. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) is a management method that connects the company’s goals of each employee and sets a clear focus for the next three months. OKRs help companies establish a disciplined goal setting process and clarify for their employees that they are working on the right things. Learn how OKRs support communication through transparency and clarity, how they connect vision, mission and strategy for short-term operational planning, and how they will help you decide how to use scarce resources.

The session will cover frequently asked questions and outline common implementation pitfalls. Numerous practical examples of the OKR model in start-ups and small to medium enterprises will be used to illustrate the benefits of OKRs.

• The Power of the Plan – Project Management for Non-Project Managers
  David Barrett, National Program Director, Centre of Excellence in Project ManagementWe all manage projects regardless of how small they are. Some are extremely important and time sensitive to us personally. Others are just as critical to our organizations, our jobs and our careers.   But we have never thought of ourselves as project managers. And we never will. We have never taken a project management course and we won’t.

In this high-energy session, David Barrett, author of The Power of the Plan: Empowering the Leader within You, will lead the audience through a process that will empower anyone to be able to say “Yes” to the next challenge or project.  From the “go, no-go” decision, to the basic plan, the budget, through to the all-important ‘”Managing the people”, David’s simple, easy-to-understand process will leave everyone with tools they can use on any project — empowering the leader within us all.

• Respect in the Workplace and Harassment and Investigation
  Jordan Rodney, President, MaxPeoplePerform
  Miriam Anbar, Legal Advisor, MaxPeoplePerformThis workshop will provide you with an overview of harassment and violence under the legislation. Although aspects of Bill 168 (which is specific to Ontario) will be highlighted, the spirit of the legislation is applicable across all jurisdictions.  This workshop will also educate you on human rights and diversity issues with the objective of providing a guide to appropriate behavior in today’s workplace while, at the same time, satisfying due diligence requirements.

In addition, you will be provided with practical guidelines for conducting workplace investigations as well as an understanding of the importance of conducting a comprehensive investigation in today’s challenging work environment. Given the legislative changes, new technology and social media enhancements and the increasing level of employee sophistication, managers need to be fully equipped to carry out workplace investigations pertaining to harassment, bullying and workplace violence.12 – 12:45 p.m.Networking Lunch and Exhibitor Showcase12:45 – 1:45 p.m.The Gamification of Business
Brett Knowles, Executive Partner, pm2 – Performance Measurement and ManagementGamification takes the data-driven techniques that game designers use to engage players, and applies them to non-game experiences to motivate actions that add value to your business.

Seventy-one per cent of employees are not fully engaged – and the cost of disengaged employees in Canada is estimated at $37 billion annually or between 100 per cent and 300 per cent of an organization’s base salary.

Gamification is transforming business models by creating new ways to extend relationships, craft longer-term engagement, and drive customer and employee loyalty. Organizations with engaged employees outperform those without by more than 200 per cent.  They enjoy a 50 per cent higher shareholder return, 18 per cent higher productivity, 60 per cent higher quality and have 48 per cent fewer safety incidents.

Gamification appeals to our intrinsic motivators – most importantly to our need to understand our purpose, mastery of the skills to achieve that purpose, and autonomy to get the work done.

In this keynote speech, Brett Knowles will share his deep knowledge in gamification and stories from his clients – organizations like Google, Yahoo and CPA Canada. This session is sure to provide you with many ideas that you can apply to your organization.1:45 – 2:45 p.m.Proactively Dealing with Human Rights and Accommodation at Work
Jordan Rodney, President, MaxPeoplePerformHarassment in the workplace is a serious issue that is a growing concern in businesses across the country.  Discrimination in the workplace is common and often occurs under the employer’s radar. These types of matters not only decrease productivity among the workforce but may lead to severe legal complications for your business. As an employer, you have a mandatory legal obligation to ensure that your workplace is free from any form of discrimination.  It is also an employer’s responsibility to cultivate a healthy work environment.

This session will review the different types of discrimination and the general principles governing the concept of the “Duty to Accommodate.”  You will learn how to manage discrimination or harassment-related complaints and how to better protect your organization against potential claims.2:45 – 3 p.m.Networking Break and Exhibitor Showcase3 – 4 p.m.TBD