NALC’s speakers include opening dinner speaker Ishmael Beah, economist Dr. Arthur Laffer and UC Berkley’s Toby Stuart.
The 2016 PPAI North American Leadership Conference (NALC) opens next week in San Francisco, California. Running August 14-16 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, the three-day event brings industry leaders from across the country together with a high-powered speaker lineup.
NALC offers attendees opportunities to connect with and learn from innovators and thought leaders drawn from a variety of fields and backgrounds. The event begins Sunday night with an opening dinner, a presentation of the 2016 PPB Rising Stars and guest speaker Ishmael Beah, who will share his inspirational story of redemption and hope. Born in Sierra Leone, Beah fought in the country’s civil war for two years as a child soldier following the death of his parents and two brothers. Removed from the army by UNICEF and rehabilitated in Freetown, the country’s capital, Beah spoke at a United Nations conference in 1996 on the war’s effects on children in his country.
Famed economist Dr. Arthur Laffer opens the first full day of NALC with a presentation on the economy and the potential impact of the election. Laffer has been called the father of supply-side economics and is credited with triggering a worldwide tax-cutting movement in the 1980s. The Laffer Curve is one of the main theoretical constructs of supply-side economics, illustrating the tradeoff between tax rates and actual tax revenues.
The agenda also includes entrepreneur Jay Samit, consultant and business speaker Dan Barnett, and RocketSpace founder Duncan Logan, among others.
The schedule continues Monday with presentations by Eric McDermott, managing partner of financial services firm Pacific Advisors, on competing through innovation and marketing; Toby Stuart, chair of the Department of Management of Organizations at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, on business model innovation; and entrepreneur and expert on disruption Jay Samit on the changing landscape for promotional products. The afternoon’s agenda closes with breakout sessions on economics and mobile technology, and a gathering of industry thought leaders on promotional products’ future.
On Tuesday, August 16, NALC begins with a morning session featuring Dan Barnett, consultant, business speaker, and CEO and owner of real estate and natural gas firm The Primavera Company followed by breakout sessions throughout the day on consultative selling, PPAI’s industry research, managing profit erosion and an update on the development of industry technology standards. During a midday session, PPAI Board Chair Tom Goos, MAS, will be joined on stage by Duncan Logan, the founder and CEO of RocketSpace, a technology campus headquartered in the heart of San Francisco, for a discussion on changes in technology. Seats at NALC are still available. Register now.
The third annual PPAI Technology Summit gets under way in San Francisco immediately after NALC, August 17-18. The Summit brings together industry IT professionals at all levels to share best practices and case studies, and to discuss critical topics such as order management and some of the solutions available. Find the full schedule and register here.
