Margaret Morford is President of The HR Edge, Inc., an international management consulting and training company. Previous to owning her own company, Margaret was Senior Vice President, Human Resources Consulting for a national consulting firm out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has a BS degree from the University of Alabama and a JD degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. She has worked as an attorney, specializing in employment law as well as been Vice President of Human Resources for three large companies. She serves on the Board of Directors for Aegis Sciences Corporation. She is often quoted as a business expert in newspapers and magazines across the country including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today and Entrepreneur and appears regularly on local ABC, CBS and Fox television affiliates. She is the author of the business book, Management Courage - Having the Heart of a Lion.

This session presents a radically new concept that exceptional managers must possess - "Management Courage." Participants learn what "Management Courage" is and why the best employees will demand it. "Management Courage" will become a distinctive benchmark for excellence in the future. Courageous managers will no longer treat everyone the same. They will choose unpleasant short-term management strategies in order to be more effective in their organizations and with their employees in the long-term.

Peter Sheahan has spent a decade teaching businesses how to flip their thinking and find opportunity where others cannot. He believes that the real money gets made in the cracks, and that the opportunity for mind-blowing success is all around us. The problem is we get conditioned by our experience, blinded by our business models and conned by the popular media to believe success is a product of the economic conditions. Peter's clients include Newscorp, Google, Hilton Hotels, GlaxoSmithKline, Harley Davidson, Cisco and Goldman Sachs. Many of which engage him on an ongoing basis to provoke their leaders to re-think their assumptions and challenge them to find innovative ways of doing business. He has been described by one of his clients as the "guy to call when you want your answers questioned".

Peter's success is driven by his ability to identify areas of untapped potential within organizations, develop the unique thought processes needed to profit from them, and then catalyze the key individuals to take the risks required to make it a reality.

Peter's fifth book Fl!p, an international best-seller available in 25 countries, emphasizes the need for leaders to have mindset flexibility. It explores the changing nature of leadership; evolving business models; and unpacks dozens of strategies for finding opportunity and making money in tough economic times.

People are not really your greatest asset. The right kind of people, who are highly engaged are. Mind-blowing future success will require a new kind of thinker, or at the very least a new kind of thinking from the people we have. If you are to attract and engage this kind of innovative talent you will need to build a powerful employer brand, and then have your leaders deliver on the promise it implies.

Having worked on the employment brands of organizations which include Toys’r’Us , KFC and the Australian Defence Force, Peter brings first-hand knowledge to the topic of Employer Branding. Bringing this experience together with the latest research on human behavior, Peter will:

• Outline the characteristics of the most powerful employer brands in the world, and present you with tools for developing your own thinking in the same areas
• Bring to light to the biggest mistakes we make when trying to build our brands and create a framework for avoiding these same mistakes
• Talk about why times of unrest are the most potent opportunities for building powerful employer brands
• Show you why this is no fad and will sit at the heart of organizational success in the future
• Give you a powerful filter for determining what techno logy, trends and new thinking you should and should not engage with

Theo Arsenault BIO

Adriana Wills of Harris & Company LLP represents a broad range of clients in both the private and public sectors. These include clients in the forest, manufacturing, service, chemical industries, local government, health care and educational industries. She provides the full scope of legal services to those clients including: strategic planning, risk management, collective bargaining, policy development, training and advocacy. Adriana believes in providing practical solutions to the legal challenges faced by clients. Effective legal advice is contextual, taking into account not only the law, but also the client's business objectives and realities. Adriana believes strongly in training and speaks regularly at seminars sponsored by the Continuing Legal Education Society (CLE); BC HRMA; MATI and other organizations. She has presented sessions provincially and nationally through a number of organizations as well as to the firm's clients.

Many employers have questions about managing absenteeism, especially where an employee claims to suffer from a disability. In this session we will role play an absenteeism situation to give you some tools to deal with this troublesome issue. Be prepared to have some fun as the employee leads her supervisor, human resources manager, company lawyer, and union lawyer down a long and winding path littered with explosive employment issues.

Bestselling author Christine Comaford is CEO of Mighty Ventures, an innovation accelerator that helps businesses to massively increase sales, product offerings, and company value. Bill Gates called her "super high bandwidth." Bill Clinton has thanked her for "fostering American entrepreneurship," and Newsweek has said, "By reputation, Christine is the person you want to partner with."

Comaford has built and sold five of her own businesses with an average 700% return on investment, served as a board director or in-the-trenches advisor to 36 start-ups, and has invested in over 200 start-ups (including Google) as a venture capitalist or angel investor. Comaford has been a consultant to the White House (Clinton and Bush Administrations), 700 of the Fortune 1000, and over 300 small businesses. She has repeatedly identified and championed key trends and technologies years before market acceptance.

Comaford believes we can do well and do good, using business as a path for personal development, wealth creation, and philanthropy. She has volunteered for the Hospice of Napa Valley, Litquake, Lifeworks and Impact Online/VolunteerMatch. Her goal is to offer insights that enable people to discover both their personal and business potential, and her presentations reflect the human experiences that are funny, intense, thought provoking and poignant.

Starting and running your own company seems very exciting...at the beginning. Yet more often than not, most entrepreneurs end up finding out they’ve created a JOB for themselves, rather than a company.

Entrepreneurs begin their business endeavors with the great intention of creating fabulous freedom in their life..yet they quickly find themselves chained to their desks, working harder and longer than they ever imagined.

They began with the hopes and dreams of abundant cash flow...and yet find themselves in the reality of a "less than thrilling" personal income, paying their staff more than they pay themselves – and wondering what the heck is going on! The friends and family that mean so much to them end up taking a back seat to the business that consumes them.

Their health begins to plummet. Their happiness fades. And they end up wondering why they are building a business at all.

Join CEO Freedom Fighter Christine Comaford as she reveals, "3 Massive Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make That Keep Them Overworked, Underpaid, and Feeling Trapped by Their Business." More importantly, find out exactly how to AVOID these common blunders so you can KEEP YOUR COMPANY and create more money, freedom and fun in your life!

Margaret Morford is President of The HR Edge, Inc., an international management consulting and training company. Previous to owning her own company, Margaret was Senior Vice President, Human Resources Consulting for a national consulting firm out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has a BS degree from the University of Alabama and a JD degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. She has worked as an attorney, specializing in employment law as well as been Vice President of Human Resources for three large companies. She serves on the Board of Directors for Aegis Sciences Corporation. She is often quoted as a business expert in newspapers and magazines across the country including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today and Entrepreneur and appears regularly on local ABC, CBS and Fox television affiliates. She is the author of the business book, Management Courage - Having the Heart of a Lion.

Accomplishing the goals and objectives of any organization requires more than just smart employees who work hard. It requires savvy employees who know how to forge alliances and avoid animosities in order to be effective. Participants identify which of the rules of "positive politics" they are most likely to violate as well as obtain guidelines for being smart about their own conduct, about their business communication, about their relationships with co-workers and about their relationship with their supervisor. In addition, they learn numerous ways to recognize who really holds power and has influence and how to tap into the power structure within any organization.

David C. Thomas, a naturalized New Zealander, received his PhD in Organizational Behaviour and International Business from the University of South Carolina. His research into the interaction of individuals from different cultures in organizational settings has led to research studies in more than a dozen countries, and he is currently directing an international research team in the development of a measure of 'Cultural Intelligence'. Dr. Thomas previously served as a vice-president with NationsBank (now Bank of America), and has held academic positions at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Auckland, New Zealand where he also directed the Master of International Business program. He has held visiting positions at a number of universities around the world. Dr. Thomas is currently Associate Editor of the International Journal of Cross Cultural Management and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of Management and the Journal of World Business.

Lee-Anne Ragan, M.Ed., B.SW., President of Rock.Paper.Scissors, Vancouver's award winning international corporate training company, works with organizations to improve their effectiveness by using innovation and improvisation to help staff grow and develop. Lee-Anne's cross-cultural work has taken her worldwide. From working with the United Nations on peace building training in East Africa to program evaluation work in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside you'll never know where she'll turn up next. With over 19 years experience designing and delivering training in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors, she deftly adapts workshops to meet client's specific needs. Lee-Anne has won several awards including Entrepreneur of the Year, Business in Vancouver's 40 under 40 and the Abhi Ahluwalia Cross-Cultural Conflict Resolution Award. She will have you laughing, learning and leading in no time. In fact while she can't promise you'll laugh all the way to the bank, she does promise a memorable return on your investment.

The purpose of this workshop is to explore the field of cultural intelligence as it relates to helping companies build organization-wide structures and systems that take into account the global and culturally diverse nature of business. We tend to be hired for our qualifications, promoted for our performance, and fired for our lack of interpersonal skills. Because of an increasingly diverse workforce these interpersonal skills include cultural intelligence. In a world where diversity is broadly defined to include ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, generation, physical ability etc. we are constantly inundated with cultural questions. Many otherwise intelligent, socially skilled, emotionally mature workers fail when it comes to effectively dealing with culturally different others. What is required is a combination of cultural knowledge and intercultural skills and cultural metacognition that promoted culturally intelligent behaviour. From designing culturally appropriate products to respectful HR practices, culture is a commanding force to recognize and reap the benefits from. Failure to do so can limit employees’ advancement, hiring and retention, and prevent your company from reaching its culturally creative capacity. This engaging, interactive and practical workshop will include activities that focus on:

• an overview of cultural intelligence and its increasing importance to organizations,
• four key skills for acquiring and developing culturally intelligent mindfulness and awareness
• case studies and examples of where cultural intelligence has been used successfully and examples of where it has been lacking (both at the interpersonal and organizational levels)
• implications for strategic organizational development, for example both employee and organizational assessment

Lorene Novakowski is a partner in the Labour, Employment and Human Rights Group of Fasken Martineau. Her primary practice focuses on providing advice to clients on labour, employment and human rights issues. She assists clients in developing and implementing employment and benefit policies and gives advice on termination issues and administration of collective agreements. Lorene has experience in providing advice on drafting harassment policies, conducting harassment investigations, providing training on harassment issues and duty to accommodate issues, appearing as counsel in duty to accommodate cases, representing clients before the BC Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. With a keen interest in privacy law, Lorene leads the firm's regional Privacy Practice Group and is a member of the firm's national Practice Group on Privacy and Information Protection. Lorene assists employers and businesses to implement privacy policies and procedures, provides training, assists with access requests and provides timely and strategic advice in the event of a privacy breach. Lorene also works closely with the firm's Technology Practice Group, providing advice to clients regarding employment contracts, consultant agreements, non-competition clauses, and employment standards compliance. Lorene is a popular speaker and avid author on all matters related to her practice.

Larry Page is the senior Partner of Bull, Housser & Tupper's Labour & Employment Group. He has extensive experience in all aspects of labour relations including Labour Relations Board hearings, arbitrations, hearings in court, the negotiation and interpretation of collective agreements and labour relations planning. Larry's extensive experience in the labour relations field has afforded him the depth of knowledge necessary to advise clients on all matters in respect of labour relations planning and strategy. He has been directly involved in the labour relations issues of concern to all major industries in British Columbia and has practiced labour relations in B.C. for over 30 years. Larry provides ongoing labour relations advice to employers in the public and private sectors and has as clients a number of major national and multinational corporations in the manufacturing, retail, entertainment, health and forestry sectors, as well as municipal and provincial governments. Larry joined Bull, Housser & Tupper as a Partner in 1987 after practicing labour relations with Davis & Company in Vancouver for 16 years.

Social networking has transformed the modern day workplace. The average user spends thirty minutes per day on networking websites, and millions of dollars in lost productivity have resulted. Learn all about the legal issues surrounding social media and what you can do to address abuses.

Vice President of Strategic Insight at Concerto Marketing Group, Nick Black is North America’s only expert in morphological research and strategy. With experience leading projects across Australia, Asia and North America, he has delivered deep insight and strategy for clients including Coca-Cola, Dell, Foster’s, George Weston Foods, Intel, Yellow Pages and 20th Century Fox.

Nick holds a Bachelor of Business and a Master of Arts. He's taught at Monash University and has been a guest lecturer at Melbourne University and Simon Fraser University. Nick is a frequent writer and speaker in the areas of market research, strategy and innovation.

As human beings, we inherently understand the importance of trust. Every time we drop our kids off at school, or meet a date over coffee, or hand our credit card to a store assistant, we rely on trust as a form of social currency.

In organizations, the role of trust is no less important. As a concept, trust has been shown to influence the effectiveness of leadership and the very function of an organization (including things like co-operation and effective working relationships). Try getting a staff member to remain loyal without trust, or convince a customer to buy without trust. As Niall FitzGerald, the former chairman and CEO of Unilever once said, "You can have all the facts and figures, all the supporting evidence, all the endorsement that you want, but if at the end of the day you don’t command trust, you won’t get anywhere."

So if being trusted is important, and commanding trust is essential, how do you build trust?

That’s the topic of this presentation, and the focus of research Concerto Marketing recently conducted with 1,000 Canadians. Using the findings from this groundbreaking study, and real-life examples from Europe, Australia and Canada, this presentation will explain:

• Why trust is the key to building a strong organization and brand
• What the six psychological drivers of trust are
• How organizations and brands can harness trust

Coro Strandberg is the Principal of Strandberg Consulting which provides sustainability and corporate social responsibility consulting services to firms and helps organizations turn sustainability challenges into market opportunities. She specializes in using market levers such as socially responsible investment, financial vehicles, supply chain management and corporate governance to catalyze sustainable growth and development. Known for her exceptional networking skills, Coro connects people and ideas to create solutions for a sustainable world. Her clients have included retail, transportation and finance firms, environmental organizations, governments and the 2010 Olympics. Coro has worked in the sustainability field for over twenty years. She was a Director of Vancity Credit Union for 12 years where as Chair of the Board she helped position the credit union as an international leader in corporate social responsibility. Coro founded the Vancity Community Foundation and co-founded the Victoria Values-Based Business Network. She was also instrumental in creating the Sustainability Purchasing Network, which provides training and advisory services to organizations seeking to integrate environmental, social and ethical perspectives into their buying decisions. Coro is an active public speaker and an associate with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility. In 2009 Coro was appointed to the UBC President's Advisory Council – Sustainability External Advisory Board.

Donna Wilson is the Executive Vice President - People and Sustainability of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Donna has made working with people and organizations the focus of her career. She is playing a key role in helping VANOC define and develop its culture. She will guide the organization through its dynamic stages of growth, operation and wind-down and help the organization to live its vision of sustainability. Wilson sums up her broad scope of responsibilities in one short sentence: "I'm responsible for everything that has to do with people, relationships, and lasting legacy." Donna's other key area is sustainability where she has lead the shaping of the Games Carbon Management Program, social inclusion programs and sustainable procurement program.

Underscoring all these functions is what Wilson sees as her most critical role: VANOC's culture keeper and catalyst. "I've always enjoyed taking care of the health of an organization and helping it identify what it needs to flourish," says Wilson. "My goal is to ensure our values are integrated into all of our people practices, enabling our employees to galvanize around them and be partners in key decisions that impact the organization."

Wilson draws on an impressive track record of creating and sustaining admirable work environments: while leading the human resources team as Vice President of Human Resources for Vancity and its family of subsidiaries, the financial institution achieved top "100 Employers" recognition in 2004 and 2005, with a "Best Employer in Canada" ranking by Macleans magazine in 2004.

With over 20 years of human resources experience, Marjorie Calibaba, CHRP has held senior positions in both the public and private sector, including the Etobicoke Board of Education and City of Vancouver. In March 1998, she joined The Oppenheimer Group as their first Director of Human Resources and was promoted to Vice President of Human Resources in 2006.

During her time at Oppenheimer Marjorie has strengthened their corporate culture by introducing many initiatives that support employees' personal and professional self-improvement. Marjorie has also taken a leadership role in enhancing Oppenheimer's understanding of sustainability issues. The company now takes a triple bottom line approach, focusing on the impact they have on the environment, community and employees. She also represents the company at various industry conferences, speaking on a variety of timely HR issues.

Marjorie has sat on the Board of the Canadian Council of Human Resources Association as well as on the Board of the British Columbia Human Resources Association (BCHRMA). In 2003, she was a finalist for the BCHRMA 2003 Award of Excellence, recognizing individuals whose innovative people skills deliver results.

The session will provide an overview of the strategic role HR plays in ensuring organizations ready themselves for the business trend toward sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Through an interactive armchair dialogue of seasoned CSR and HR professionals, this session will define sustainability/CSR and demonstrate why this business trend is so important to attracting and retaining top talent as well as customers. It will provide a practical, simple checklist that unpacks the complexity of this evolving management approach. The session will help HR practitioners understand their unique contribution to advancing CSR across their organization, while providing tools and practical examples for developing confidence in this area.

Tracy Bosch is a Hay Group consultant, based in the Vancouver office, who specializes in reward strategy, total rewards, performance management, organization design and talent management. She helps organizations build capability and commitment by designing and implementing pragmatic business solutions.

A dynamic presenter and engaging facilitator, Tracy has delivered successful business solutions for a wide range of organizations in Canada, Europe and Africa over her 14 year consulting career. Tracy has presented at numerous conferences and seminars on issues relating to reward strategy and trends, organization effectiveness, and talent management.

Shereen Nicol is the Manager, Total Rewards for Methanex Corporation, the world's largest producer and marketer of methanol. Based in Vancouver, Methanex is a truly global enterprise with approximately 800 employees in 12 countries on 7 continents. Shereen provides leadership to a global HR team in compensation governance and communication, manages compliance and consistency of total rewards philosophy, practices and procedures worldwide, and manages the global executive and management compensation programs.

The ability of organizations to implement reward strategy effectively is key to driving the motivation, engagement, and high levels of performance that are needed to survive tough economic times. In other words, reward strategy has the rarely harnessed potential to instil passion and motivate people while ensuring the organization’s profitability. Compensation professionals are challenged to design reward strategies that are aligned with business and HR strategy and that balance the needs of the business with the needs of employees. But most critically, we need to translate that into effective implementation that engages employees, drives change and delivers return on investment.

This facilitated discussion traces the challenges of four BC-based organizations through a framework for developing and implementing a reward strategy that works. Participants will draw on best practice principles for engaging the business in design and implementation as they explore case studies in:

• ensuring strategic alignment
• harnessing employee engagement
• driving culture change
• delivering return on investment