Lawyers. Accountants. Engineers. That's what our parents encouraged us to become when we grew up. But Mom and Dad were wrong.

Actually, the future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind, people like artists, inventors, storytellers, caregivers. These right-brained people are the next business elite - the women and men who will power your organization. Best-selling author Daniel Pink presents evidence from around the world to reveal how the forces of Abundance, Asia, and Automation are nudging us into an era defined not by traditional "knowledge workers," but by creators and empathizers. He explains what this transformation means for your organization - and he offers hands-on tools and tips, as well as real-life examples, for how you can navigate this new terrain.

Pink will show you:

Daniel Pink is a contributing editor at Wired and Yahoo! Finance, and his articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind, a frequent guest on television and radio programs, and a consultant to companies large and small on human resources, communications and innovation.

Oh sure, Chester Elton has a real name; but he is best known as one of "The Carrot Guys." And his message on employee engagement will change the way you do business. Chester is co-author of the critically acclaimed, best-selling business book The 24-Carrot Manager and the newly-released A Carrot A Day, a Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestseller.

Elton illustrates that there is a way to retain your best employees and win the commitment of all your people. It's called employee recognition. He shows you how to create powerful, bonding recognition experiences and present case studies of effective recognition from some of North America's finest companies.

Plentiful examples show you how to choose the right reward for your employees, how to time the giving of a reward to motivate performance, how to effectively present rewards, when to give praise in public and when to make it a private celebration, and how to motivate employees to work harder and smarter - with the company's goals in mind.

Dr. David K. Foot shares insights from his research on the economic impact of demographic change, and the resulting impacts for industry sectors and the workplace of the future.

David is an outspoken and controversial demographics expert who brings demographic statistics to life and makes the aging of society relevant. He explores how changing demographics, especially the aging of the massive Boomer generation and the coming into the marketplace of their children, the Echo generation, will redefine society's needs. He will also discuss the workplace implications of aging populations in the developed world and the movement of workers around the world. Demographics are about people, and people are both employees and customers.

David Foot is uniquely qualified to address the geography of demography. He explores issues from a global perspective, having been born in England, raised in Australia, educated in the United States (PhD Harvard) and living in Canada. David is Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto, and is the author of the best-selling book Boom, Bust & Echo: Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the 21st Century.

The ability to identify, retain, and develop your most valuable talent - will forever elude those who refuse to build a relationship-centric culture. Relationship-centric cultures, unafraid of retribution, develop the courage to fail and innovate by asking not only how we can do things better, but how we can achieve greater results differently.

Business relationship consultant David Nour will present a unique transformation process for achieving a relationship-centric culture. This framework allows both individuals and organizations to tackle the big talent issues:

David Nour is one of the foremost thought leaders on the quantifiable value of business relationships. He consults regularly with members of the Fortune 500. This past year, David was named to Georgia Trend's 40 Under 40, and has been featured in a variety of publications, including The Wall Street Journal, and Success magazine.

"People first, profits follow." Do you believe it? Most companies don't.

Next Generation Consulting's research of 120 companies in the U.S. and Europe shows that bottom line performance is directly tied to how well companies engage their employees. Companies like Harley Davidson, Southwest Airlines and Google use surprising techniques to consistently outperform their competitors ... not by treating their employees like an expense to be minimized, but as an investment to be maximized. In return, they get breakthrough bottom line performance and fiercely loyal employees.

Acclaimed consultant Rebecca Ryan will
help you to understand:

Rebecca Ryan's eye for trends and irreverence in presenting them makes her an in-demand consultant for clients who want to engage the next generation. Rebecca was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and has just released her new book, Live First Work Second. Rebecca's passion is teaching today's leaders how to engage tomorrow's.