BCHRMA Conference

Jeremy Gutsche. Attracting close to a billion views, TrendHunter.com is the #1 trend-spotting site in the world -- the largest, most influential, most updated collection of cutting edge ideas available anywhere. It attracts roughly fifteen times more page views than its competitors. Its founder, Jeremy Gutsche, relentlessly tracks and finds the next big thing -- that valuable but elusive commodity -- for a global audience that generates millions of views a month. Gutsche is a creative, globe-roaming individual with a broad appeal that stretches from The Economist, which uses him as a source, to MTV, which places him at "the forefront of cool."

With phenomenal speed, Gutsche has grown Trendhunter into a trusted showcase for "what's next" in marketing, design, technology, and other categories. The site's been featured or cited in over 40,000 articles, and Gutsche has appeared everywhere from Entertainment Tonight to the BBC. He's also sought out by leading companies to speak on cool-hunting, innovation, marketing strategies, and the next big thing and its relevance to their business. In bold, interactive keynotes, he delivers a blend of viral new trends, strategic frameworks, and a contagious enthusiasm for innovation. He possesses a unique perspective on innovation in the business context, and draws on his background in both corporate strategy and Web 2.0 to provide you with inspiration and tools to generate ideas, stimulate creativity and unlock potential.

At 28, as one of Capital One's youngest Business Directors, Gutsche led his team to grow a billion dollar portfolio of market leading products. And as a Management Consultant for the Monitor Group, he advised Fortune 50 clients on top level strategy. His book Exploiting Chaos has won an Axiom Business Book Award, was named an Inc. Best Book for Business Owners and was a #1 bestseller on the 800 CEO Read list. He holds an MBA from Queen's, is a CFA, studied innovation at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, and was named the 2010 Graduate of the Last Decade by the University of Calgary.

Presentation:
Times of change and uncertainty can spark the greatest opportunities for innovation. Many multi-billion dollar corporations like Hewlett-Packard, Disney, and Microsoft were started during periods of economic recession. Jeremy Gutsche, North America's most sought after authority on trend hunting, shows you how to gain an edge in business by harnessing the creativity that will help your company survive and flourish in any economic climate. With a respected understanding of exploiting what's cool and predicting future trends, Gutsche shows how to create a culture of innovation in your company, maximize the exposure of your marketing message, and think big while acting small. A fascinating and valuable talk; Gutsche details how to stimulate creativity and unlock the powerful strategies of trend-hunting to help your business thrive in these uncertain times.

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For over ten years, Bill Baker has been using storytelling to help brands - and the people and businesses behind them - work smarter. More specifically, Bill and his team use storytelling to help clients not only set a strategic vision for their brand, but also to align, inspire and unlock the human energy needed to make that vision real. Bill's company, BB&Co, works with clients in Canada and across the globe, including Relais & Chateaux, Dubai Holdings, the Tourism Ministry of Spain, Cadillac Fairview, The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and the University of British Columbia. In addition, Bill teaches "Leadership Through Storytelling" to executives of companies such as GE, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson. A US citizen by birth, a Canadian citizen by choice, Bill has spent the last 13 years living in Vancouver. Prior to that, he was in New York City for 10 years working in the ad business for clients such as Procter & Gamble, Nabisco and Delta Air Lines. When Bill is not helping others tell their stories, he's busy creating some of his own in Vancouver, Whistler or wherever in the world his work has taken him.

Presentation:
Considerable time and energy are typically spent by companies on the positioning of their brands and setting a strategic vision for their future. Despite the importance of these efforts, however, companies often struggle with connecting their outcomes with the very employees needed to bring those outcomes to life. If these core elements of strategic planning aren't real and meaningful for employees, they run the risk of becoming "corporate rhetoric." In this dynamic presentation, you will learn how the timeless and familiar craft of storytelling can be used to strategically engage and align a workforce around your company's strategic and brand planning efforts. You will hear how other organizations have used storytelling to amplify the uptake and understanding of those planning efforts. Finally, you will learn how storytelling can keep the fruits of strategic efforts alive, most notably in the hearts and minds of employees.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the role storytelling can play in engaging and aligning employees around a company's strategic plan and brand positioning
• Identify core tactics and approaches that organizations can use to incorporate storytelling into their culture building and human resource management efforts
• Recognize the characteristics and traits that distinguish effective storytellers in a corporate environment

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Brent Bolling brings more than 10 years of experience to his role as Manager of Consulting Services for DDI Canada. Since joining DDI in 2006, he has had a key focus on supporting client organizations in Continental Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. He has been responsible for leading a number of delivery project teams whose focus was designing and executing talent management systems for global organizations.

Brent leads the consulting services team in Canada. His expertise is in developing integrated talent management solutions. He consults with clients at all levels, partnering with organizational leaders to improve operating performance through aligning people systems with business strategy.

Presentation:
Organizations have set their sights on significant growth and innovation is the key to achieving it. Innovation has been identified as one of the top skills required for leaders in the future, according to DDI's Global Leadership Forecast; but leaders don't feel they have the skills to lead innovation. What does it mean to create a culture of innovation? What barriers will prevent it - and how can leaders overcome barriers and be the catalyst for organizational innovation? It's not about leaders themselves providing the innovative ideas and answers - equipping themselves with leadership skills that inspire curiosity, get their teams into the habit of challenging assumptions, providing freedom and rigor to experiment, iterate and execute on potentially game-changing ideas. Attendees will complete an audit to understand the innovation barriers in their own organization and be introduced to some key design methods to overcome organizational barriers and foster an innovative culture.

Learning Objectives:

• Examine organizations for innovation barriers
• Identify tools to support leaders to be innovation catalysts
• Create one action to inject innovation into their culture and sustain

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Erica Pinsky, B.A., MSc, CHRP is a respectful workplace solutions expert. As a speaker, trainer, author and consultant she provides a full range of customized services and solutions to eliminate discrimination, harassment, bullying and destructive conflict in the workplace. Creative, dynamic and results oriented, Erica partners with employers to build respectful workplace cultures where employees feel connected, valued and enthusiastic about their jobs. Her highly acclaimed book, Road to Respect: Path to Profit is filled with engaging stories, powerful insights and concrete strategies on how to become an employer of choice by building a respectful workplace culture. Using the proven Road to Respect^TM Culture Alignment Process, Erica eliminates disrespectful practices to create respectful workplaces where employees love to work and employers achieve sustainable business success. A gifted and passionate presenter, possessing specific strengths in training, dispute resolution as well as diagnostic and analytic thinking, Erica has a solid track record of policy development, alignment of organizational practices and motivation of leaders and teams.

Prior to starting her consulting practice in 1998, Erica acted as the corporate harassment and conflict specialist at Canadian Airlines International. This experience, combined with her work as a Labour Relations practitioner, provides her with the expertise to successfully facilitate multi-party disputes, investigate and mediate complaints, and handle emotionally charged conflict situations. Erica is a regular contributor to Respectfulworkplace.com, and has been featured in HRIQ, Business in Vancouver, BC Business Magazine, the Globe and Mail, The Economic Times of India, and Canadian Retailer. Erica is a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, and has served on the Board of her local chapter for several years. She received her Conflict Resolution Certificate from the Justice Institute of British Columbia and is a member of the Canadian Conflict Resolution Network, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the BC Human Resources Management Association (BC HRMA), and the BC Organizational Development Network (BCODN). In 2010 she participated as a mentor for the Women in Leadership foundation mentorship program.

Presentation:
A cohesive workplace community is by definition, relationship based. This session will explore HR's role in creating a connected workplace community. The first part of the session will focus on respect and power at work. Power is a critically important dynamic in every relationship we have both at work and in life, and yet, most of us spend very little if any time thinking about how this dynamic influences us, our behaviour, our relationships and our outcomes. The second part of the session will focus on how HR professionals can work proactively to become workplace connectors. We will continue to explore the factors that prevent us from making change and stepping into our power: fear, cultural norms, skill gaps. Participants will be asked to reflect on the values and intention they seek to express in their work as HR Professionals. To be a connector one must be both authentic and curious. How do we develop and express these attitudes respectfully in a workplace?

Learning Objectives:

• To embrace and manifest power respectfully at work
• To shift from being reactive to proactive, from assumption to curiosity
• To be a workplace connector through conversations that develop workplace relationships

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Russel Horwitz is one of two founders of Kwela Leadership & Talent Management. His expertise includes leadership development, team development, executive coaching, and training on a wide variety of topics. He has worked extensively as a leadership consultant / trainer since 2004 across a wide variety of sectors, including government, publically-held, private and non-profit organizations. Russel's experience also includes 14 years in the high technology/engineering sector, where he held management roles in product development, marketing, customer service and training. Russel holds a Masters degree in Engineering from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Presentation:
Paradoxically, poor organizational habits are often encouraged by the same technology that was designed to make us more effective: it is not uncommon for business people to spend most of their days swamped with e-mail, meeting requests and piles of paper around the office. This typically results in a reduced ability to get work done (particularly strategic work), coupled with high levels of stress and even burnout. This highly interactive session will help participants develop superior organizational skills by providing a simple, yet effective workflow system that is integrated with standard tools and technology such as Microsoft Outlook. Participants will learn practical tools that can be applied back on the job.

Learning Objectives:

• Greater ability to get strategic work done
• Reduced stress
• Improved ability to manage information
• Increased role clarity

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Lewisa Anciano leads 21 high performing individuals responsible for innovative people programs and practices at Coast Capital Savings. She is also an entrepreneur, who founded Kickstart HR Inc, a ready-to-go HR toolkit to jump start any HR initiative/department with clients in Canada, US and Australia. She is a Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) with a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Arts in Organizational Management. She has completed the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business Advanced Management program. Lewisa has served on the Board of Directors of BC HRMA since 2007 and was Chair of the Finance Committee. Between 2005 and 2008, she taught Management Courses in the Business Continuing Studies Program at Langara College. Lewisa is passionate about organizational transformation and effectiveness, and igniting the power of teams and individuals to execute on corporate strategy.

Jay-Ann Fordy provides strategic leadership to Human Resources and Corporate Learning to ensure Coast Capital Savings employees are engaged and delivering the customer experience through the How can we help you?® brand. She has a BA from McMaster University and a post graduate diploma in human resources from Humber College. Jay-Ann is also a Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) and has held senior management positions in crown, private and municipal corporations. She has just finished a term as President of BCHRMA and has had the fortune of being the head of HR with two companies on the Best Employers List. She is passionate about connecting the people promise to the customer promise and the HR strategy to the business strategy.

Presentation:
Why should work have to feel like work? One of Canada's largest Credit Unions decided to challenge that orthodoxy and has promised to change the way its employees feel about work. Come hear the Coast Capital Savings story as they share practical insights and lessons learned from their real-life case study: their creative journey in supporting corporate strategy and retaining top performers. You'll leave with user-friendly tools and templates to align talent management and business results. And maybe an elephant or two.

Learning Objectives:

• How talent management works at Coast Capital Savings
• How to align talent with the current and future needs of the organization through workforce planning
• Find ways to select, develop, and retain top performers

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TJ Schmaltz, LLB, BCL, CHRP is currently the Director of Human Resources and Payroll Services for the District of West Vancouver as well as the founder of Pacific Employee Relations, Training & Management Consulting (PERT). Through his firm, he provides practical solutions tailored to organizational needs by combining business management principles with human resource and legal considerations. PERT provides a variety of management consulting, training, policy development, employee engagement and teambuilding services to clients that include Rona Canada, Deloitte and Vancouver's Loden Boutique Hotel. TJ and his firm have earned a reputation for bringing endless enthusiasm and a down to earth perspective to complex people issues. TJ joined BCIT as a part-time instructor in 2005 where he teaches a variety of management, human resources and law courses within the Business School. He also guest lectures at Douglas College, Capilano University and the University of British Columbia.

Adriana Wills is a lawyer with Harris & Company in Vancouver who represents clients in both the private and public sectors. She provides advice and assistance with strategic planning; risk management; collective bargaining; policy development; training; and, advocacy. Adriana believes that legal advice is contextual, taking into account not only the law, but also the client's business needs. As a result, she focuses on obtaining familiarity with the client's industry, business and objectives. Adriana speaks regularly at seminars, including the Continuing Legal Education Society (CLE); HRMA; CACE; MATI and other organizations.

Rob Sider is partner at Lawson Lundell where his practice focuses on management-side labour and employment law. He advises on labour and employment aspects of commercial transactions and day-to-day labour and employment issues. His work includes labour and employment litigation, arbitrations, human rights, employment standards (including director and officer liability issues), collective bargaining and workers compensation

Presentation:
A senior human resources practitioner will challenge two leading lawyers to address the difficult and evolving issues of accommodation related to family status and invisible disabilities (eg. mental health, psychiatric disorders, chronic pain/fatigue). Strategies and procedures for responding to family status requests and addressing medical conditions that impact the workplace will be discussed including the collection of medical information and the use of attendance support (management) programs. Recent case law will be considered as part of an interactive panel presentation that seeks to offer practical suggestions to help HR professionals tackle the toughest challenges surrounding the duty to accommodate.

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Dr. David Rock coined the term "NeuroLeadership" and co-founded the NeuroLeadership Institute, a global initiative bringing neuroscientists and leadership experts together to build a new science for leadership development. He co-edits the NeuroLeadership Journal and heads up an annual global summit. He is the author of 4 books including the 2009 business-best-seller Your Brain at Work. David is also the founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Group a global consulting and training firm with operations in 24 countries.

Academically, David is on the faculty and advisory board of Cimba, an international business school based in Europe. He is a guest lecturer at universities in 5 countries including Oxford University's Said Business School, and on the board of the BlueSchool, a new educational initiative in New York City. He received his professional doctorate in the Neuroscience of Leadership from Middlesex University in 2010.

Presentation:
Most work today involves thinking, or influencing other people's thinking. This boils down to improving how our brains function, both individually and collectively. It may be that in the future, HR folks need to understand a lot more about the human brain than they do today. This session outlines why HR should be learning about the brain, what they should be learning, and the possible benefits to this. We also explore some of the surprises emerging out of brain research, that explain many of the pain points that HR has to deal with.

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Debbie Eerkes is a Principal in the Group Benefits Practice of Morneau Shepell's Vancouver office. She works extensively on activities such as the design, pricing, funding, and implementation of traditional and flexible benefits programs, including managing strategic reviews and competitive positioning for her clients. Conducting benchmarking studies is one of her specialities, having completed extensive surveys in the legal and high-tech sectors. Debbie holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Washington State University and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University. She also holds the Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) designation and served as President of the BC CEBS Chapter in 2002. She is a co-author of the Morneau Sobeco Handbook of Canadian Pension and Benefit Plans.

Dan Barraclough is currently the People & Culture Development Leader at Creation Technologies, an Electronics Manufacturing Services company headquartered in Burnaby, BC. With over 25 years in manufacturing operations, Dan has held roles from Process Engineer to Business Unit General Manager to company-wide People & Culture Leader for Creation. As People & Culture Development Leader he continues to share his expertise and experience throughout Creation with a focus on people development. Dan is a certified trainer of programs such as VitalSmarts' Crucial Conversations and Franklin-Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. These are foundational programs for leadership development at Creation. Dan's responsibilities have also included: Engagement, Wellness, Recognition, Benefits and Health & Safety programs. Dan has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Queen's University and holds an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.

Rochelle Morandini is a Partner in the Health and Productivity Consulting practice of Morneau Shepell, based in Vancouver. Rochelle has over 18 years of experience providing health strategy consulting that focuses on enhancing both individual health and productivity along with organizational health and performance. Prior to joining Morneau Shepell, she held a national leadership role in organizational health consulting for a global consulting firm. Rochelle has worked with leading employers across Canada to evaluate, design and implement disability and health strategies. Rochelle has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia, an MBA from Pepperdine University, and is a Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP).

Sharon Batchelor has been a senior HR practitioner for over 18 years and has over 10 years experience as a professional management consultant. She is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and has her Certified Human Resources Practitioner certification (CHRP). Sharon has worked for organizations in the technology, telecommunications, engineering and consulting sectors overseeing human resources programs for up to 2,000 employees. Sharon has been involved in developing full spectrum Human Resource and Benefits programs and leading teams through significant growth, acquisitions and divestitures.

Currently, Sharon is the Director of Human Resources for Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd., an international engineering consulting firm with offices in Canada, Peru, the UK and Australia. In addition to being an active community volunteer and soccer mom, Sharon has been a member of the BCHRMA for 25 years and previously was the Regional Director for the Pacific Region of the Engineering Human Resources Association.

Presentation:
In 1986, IBM unveiled the first laptop, email was invented. Top Gun was the top movie and the first flex benefits plan was implemented in Canada. Today laptops, email, and even Tom Cruise are still going strong! And with millions of employees across Canada now flexing, it's clear flex has not been a one-hit wonder. But many HR professionals are still unsure if flex is right for their company. It sounds great for employees, but is it really? Can flex improve attraction and retention? Is it a strategic tool for benefits sustainability? And what about the additional work? This session helps to demystify flex, shows the feasibility for smaller employers and discusses the next flex generation with the incorporation of health incentives! Most importantly, you will hear directly from HR "flex veterans" who have been through flex and understand your questions and concerns. This is an interactive session that provides a great opportunity to ask your "flex" questions.

Participants will:

• receive a practical review of how flex works;
• receive first hand knowledge from HR peers on the reality of flex - the insider view; and
• better see the longer term strategy associated with flex and where it can go, how it can link to health and what it can do for an organization.

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Graham Dodd has over twenty years of experience in Human Capital and Organizational Effectiveness consulting. Before joining Mercer in 2011 Graham led consulting teams for Deloitte, Watson Wyatt and the Hay Group in North America and Europe. Prior to consulting Graham worked for ten years in industry as an Operations and Engineering Director in large scale manufacturing. Graham's areas of expertise include people strategy, employee engagement, employee analytics, human resource function transformation, talent management and reward. Graham has worked with organizations in a number of sectors including: financial services, transportation, energy, mining, utilities, crown corporations, provincial government, healthcare and manufacturing. Graham led the team that developed the concept of Productive Engagement. This approach was adopted by many organizations and was the foundation of BC Business Magazine's Best Companies to Work For programme. Graham is on faculty at BCIT for Compensation, Total Rewards and Talent Management and is a frequent speaker and writer.

Dan Eisner works with human resources and finance professionals who share the belief that there is a better way when it comes to employee benefits and broader human capital strategies. Using his experience as a human resource consultant and employee benefits specialist, and his skills as a Chartered Accountant to partner with organizations to maximize the value from their benefits plans and to ensure the sustainability and relevance of those plans. His passion is helping human resource professionals develop employee benefit strategies that recognize benefits as an increasingly complex financial issue but that also integrate those benefits plans into the broader business strategy.Dan regularly speaks at industry events, most recently focusing on workforce strategies to enhance the level of employee choice and flexibility, to implement proactive benefit plan management strategies, and to address issues related to the aging workforce.

Presentation:
Organizations typically make concerted efforts to identify and mitigate risks that adversely impact business results but often overlook not having the right workforce in place. The best business strategy has little value unless it can be successfully implemented around the right people in the right places with the right rewards package. Organizations need an integrated process that identifies and addresses critical gaps between current workforce resources and future needs to drive organizational performance. Organizations need to forecast the quantity, quality and location of critical talent, at the right cost, and then integrate those findings into policies and practices, including the total rewards framework.

Participants will be exposed to new research and discuss those findings with peers and experts. They will be better able to identify and prioritize workforce gaps and develop strategic workforce plans, and integrate these key concepts into a total rewards framework.

Learning Objectives:

• Develop a better understanding of strategic workforce planning
• Translate those issues into a business plan relevant to their organization
• Articulate the elements of strategic workforce planning into their total rewards framework

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Dr. Brian Fraser launched Jazzthink in 2002 to explore how the wisdom and workings of jazz might provide provocative foundations for productive teamwork. For the previous 17 years, he was dean of St. Andrew's Hall, the Presbyterian college at UBC, and taught leadership and organizational development at Vancouver School of Theology. He graduated from the executive coaching program at Royal Roads University in 2002 and has taught in the Core Alignment Professional Coach Training program offered by the Demers Group. His current practice includes professional speaking, facilitation and coaching in private, public, and not-for-profit organizations along with leadership in local Presbyterian congregations. He is an active member of the Vancouver chapters of ICF, CAPS, ISPI, and BCODN. He is on the faculty of Leadership Development at the Banff Centre. He is the author of Jazzthink: Playing with the Stuff of Success (2004).

Presentation:
This conference is focused on strengthening your foundations for future success. HR professionals exercise their influence primarily through their conversations. The quality of your influence in your organization and the quality of your contribution to enhancing the credibility of your profession relies, in large part, on the quality of your conversations - one conversation after another. Honing your skills in conversing will greatly enhance your personal and professional influence.

Drawing on the workings and wisdom of jazz and using his unique acronym for SMARTer, Dr. Brian Fraser, lead provocateur of Jazzthink, will help participants learn to pay greater attention to the 5 essential conversations that generate positive influence in the workplace. The most common form of jazz in human experience, after all, is ordinary conversation. This session will allow you to consider how to hone the sounds and impact of your voices like jazz musicians hone the sounds and impact of their instruments. The result is a solid foundation for generating the sweet swing of success in both personal and professional development.

Participants will learn:

• The flow of positive influence and how to sustain it one conversation after another
• The 5 essential conversations for practising SMARTer HR
• That they all have a jazz musician within

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Dr. Henryk Krajewski is Vice-President and Senior Leadership Advisor at The Anderson Leadership Group, an independent firm committed to world-class advisory and research on the topic of leadership and management. Henryk is a consultant, researcher, facilitator, and leadership coach to CEOs and senior executives in public, private, crown and 3rd sector organizations, and was most recently the Canadian Practice Lead at a top global consultancy. Henryk helps his clients build firm value through focus on intangibles like commitment to customers, brand, culture, leadership, strategy, and alignment. Aside from his rich background in management consulting, Henryk sharpened his acumen as a business leader himself, founding an on-line fitness and wellness business during the dot-com boom that pre-dated many of the current industry stars. It was through developing this business that Henryk learned about the special challenges business leaders face in developing, growing, and sustaining performance. Henryk remains active in research and continues to publish peer-reviewed articles on the topic of leadership. His articles have recently appeared in Leadership Quarterly, the Journal of Business Psychology, and the Journal of Organizational and Occupational Psychology. These are in addition to his many popular media articles and interviews published in Profit, the Financial Post, The Globe and Mail, HR Reporter, the Ottawa Business Journal, HR.com, and The National Post. Henryk has also been invited to speak on the podium and deliver keynote addresses for the Conference Board of Canada, HRPA, BC HRMA, IPM, HRPA, and at the Rotman Business School.

Presentation:
Over the last 50 years, the science of selection has evolved to become its own field, with many choices regarding technologies, surveys, and systems. How is the HR leader to decide among a plethora of approaches, or ground themselves in the volumes of research that have been published in this field? For starters, this session will review what works, what doesn't, and the latest thinking in terms of selecting the right people for the right role. Participants should look forward to discussing approaches being used at their own organizations, and a provocative examination of how to improve what they are already doing.

Participants will:

• Learn about the most effective selection techniques
• Discuss how to build on existing approaches
• Learn some key DIY techniques that can save time and money

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Herb Isherwood is partner at Bull, Housser & Tupper in Vancouver and maintains a busy practice advising employers on labour and employment matters including corporate reorganization and downsizing, collective agreement negotiation, collective agreement interpretation, labour relations strategy, grievance arbitration, employment standards, wrongful dismissal and human rights. Herb has extensive experience in mergers, acquisitions and other corporate restructuring and is frequently called upon to advise on complex transactions. He advises on employment and labour relations matters including executive compensation, short and long term incentive plans and employment agreements.

Nicole Byres is a partner with Clark Wilson LLP. Nearly half of Nicole's 28 year career was spent as in-house counsel for a large, mining and resource company where she acquired a broad range of business, leadership and human resources training and skills. The other half of Nicole's career has been in private practice, and she has chaired Clark Wilson's Labour & Employment Practice group for the past 5 years where she provides advice on a broad range of employment and labour matters. Nicole has appeared before various administrative tribunals including the Labour Relations Board, Human Rights Tribunal and Employment Standards Tribunal, and all levels of courts in BC. Nicole has also spent many years as a director on public sector boards, has authored numerous articles and frequently speaks on a variety of employment, governance and leadership topics. She writes an employment blog on BC Business Online called the Legalist. Nicole is a member of BC HRMA's Leadership Forum and is currently the Vice Chair of the CBA, BC Women Lawyers Forum.

Gavin Marshall is a lawyer with Roper Greyell in Vancouver with a broad range of knowledge in the areas of employment and labour law, wrongful dismissal, contract disputes, enforcement of restrictive covenants, administrative law and picketing issues. He has acted as counsel in labour arbitrations for businesses in the retail and pulp and paper industries, as well as for federally regulated employers, before the Labour Relations Board, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, and has considerable experience as litigation counsel before the B.C. Supreme Court. Gavin is a member of the Labour Law and Employment Law subsections of the Canadian Bar Association. Gavin is also a member of the Human Resource Management Association and a frequent speaker at Continuing Legal Education seminars. Gavin is the author of the BC Employment Standards Act: Quick Reference, and in 2006 was listed by Carswell as one of Canada's top employment lawyers.

Presentation:
Human Resources is under financial restraint like every other aspect of your organization, and even a small departure from a human resources best practice can become an expensive legal headache that can drag down your budget. In this session, a panel of leading employment and human resources legal practitioners will identify and discuss several simple but critically valuable legal risk management tools and practices, and will briefly address the ways to implement them. Topics will include the content of employment contracts and the importance of protecting intellectual property; independent contractors and how to use them with less risk; a legal due diligence toolkit for HR in M&A; training that can assist in ensuring your workforce is on the same page and avoiding unnecessary conflicts. The panel session will include an interactive aspect between participants and attendees with the structure to be determined.

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Dr. David Rock coined the term "NeuroLeadership" and co-founded the NeuroLeadership Institute, a global initiative bringing neuroscientists and leadership experts together to build a new science for leadership development. He co-edits the NeuroLeadership Journal and heads up an annual global summit. He is the author of 4 books including the 2009 business-best-seller "Your Brain at Work". David is also the founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Group a global consulting and training firm with operations in 24 countries.

Academically, David is on the faculty and advisory board of Cimba, an international business school based in Europe. He is a guest lecturer at universities in 5 countries including Oxford University's Said Business School, and on the board of the BlueSchool, a new educational initiative in New York City. He received his professional doctorate in the Neuroscience of Leadership from Middlesex University in 2010.

Presentation:
A recent study of 6,000 employees showed that 10% of people did their best thinking at work. Clearly we could be doing better at designing and organizing our time and space at work. For most people today this means getting the most out of our brain. This session explores the deeper neuroscience behind getting things done at work. You will understand the limitations of conscious attention and learn how to utilize it better, while discovering how to keep your brain in just the right conditions for great thinking, for longer. You'll also learn why emotions are so hard to wrestle to the ground and how to do it better, while discovering the deeper neuroscience behind being mindful, and why it's so important in the workplace.

You will discover new insights about how the brain functions that will help you:

• Increase your ability to focus
• Become more productive
• Develop your creativity

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