Thursday, September 24

General Sessions
 Get Happy: How a Positive Company Culture Begets an Enduring Brand
Tony Hsieh wants to unlock the secrets of human happiness. At a time when most business leaders are making deep cuts, Hsieh compels his staff at Zappos.com to shower time, attention, and free upgrades on customers. Sure, he’s a nice guy, but he also knows how to capture a customer for life. He took Zappos.com from an unremarkable online shoe store in 1999 to a billion dollars in gross sales in 2008.
Speaker: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com
Potomac A/B


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 Aging Well: Sometimes Bigger is Not Better
Randall Grahm’s winery, Bonny Doon, had mushroomed into a $29 million company. He was producing good wines and even better marketing campaigns. But this form of success required Grahm’s full attention and distracted him from what he really wanted to do: make the best wines he was capable of making. He will talk about how he has changed his business model, and more, in the pursuit of a different kind of success.
Speaker: Randall Grahm, founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard
Potomac A/B


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 What It Takes: Robert L. Johnson
Robert L. Johnson blasted through social and economic barriers to establish himself in the media business and in Washington politics. With Black Entertainment Television, Johnson made a massive impact on the visibility of African American issues in the public eye. Now he has plans for an urban television network that will cater to a multicultural audience interested in health, education, and other issues. Hear the story of this massively successful, and sometimes controversial, serial entrepreneur.
Speaker: Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, and founder and chairman of the RLJ Companies
Potomac A/B


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Concurrent Sessions
Conquer Challenges to Come out on Top
Why do some companies flourish in times of adversity while others simply melt down? As he conducted a five-year study of 7,000 growth companies, Keith McFarland noticed that each of the top-performing companies had faced a challenge that nearly ended its life. Executives at those companies explained that the companies had excelled because adversity had taught them the most important lessons. Attendees will be among the first to hear McFarland talk about the six principles, distilled from these lessons, for managing in tough economic times.
Speaker: Keith McFarland, founder of McFarland Strategy Partners and author of Bounce: The Art of Turning Tough Times into Triumph
Potomac C


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The Knack: When Life Knocks You Down, Get up Again
Longtime Inc. Street Smarts columnist Norm Brodsky and co-author Bo Burlingham call it "the knack" -- a set of mental habits that allow an entrepreneur to deal with whatever comes up. Developing such instincts doesn't come easily. Successful leaders learn these habits over the course of a lifetime in the trenches, often by making painful mistakes--and figuring out how not to make them again. In this session, Brodsky identifies 10 key lessons he has learned that all entrepreneurs absolutely, positively must understand to succeed.
Moderator: Bo Burlingham, editor-at-large of Inc., author of Small Giants and co-author of The Knack
Speaker: Norm Brodsky, Inc. columnist, founder of CitiStorage, Perfect Courier, and U.S. Document Security, and co-author of The Knack
Potomac D


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Innovation: Fostering It, Managing It, Profiting from It
These days, every business is in the innovation business. The challenge is to figure out ways to come up with new ideas, vet them, and bring them to market. This panel will discuss how to foster innovation by tapping the creativity of employees, customers, and even competitors and developing systems to ensure constant incremental improvement in whatever it is
your company does.
Moderator: David H. Freedman, contributing editor of Inc. and author of the forthcoming book Wrong: Why Experts Mislead Us, and How to Be a Savvy Consumer of Advice
Panelists: Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s and CEO of uWink; Tan Le, co-founder of Emotiv; Rodney Brooks, co-founder of iRobot and founder, chairman, and CTO of Heartland Robotics
Potomac 1/2


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Being Strategic: Building the Castle on the Hill
Difficult times can narrow our focus, making us too cautious and reactive. The alternative? Stay strategic. Expand your view as opposed to contracting it; make the choices and take the risks that will best position you for continued success. Erika Andersen has worked with senior executives for 20 years, helping them propel their companies toward the future they most want, through good times and bad. In this highly interactive session, Andersen will offer skills and models to help you make best use of you current assets while positioning your organization to take full advantage of a re-set world.
Speaker: Erika Andersen, CEO of Proteus International and author of Stay Ahead of Change
Potomac 3/4


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The Art of Market Validation
Leaders from industry and academia will join Inc. in a discussion on the subtle art of understanding and growing your market. Eric Ryan has built his non-toxic and eco-friendly soap company into a $100 million brand; Rob Adams runs the nation’s most prestigious business-plan competition; and Lexy Funk more than doubled her sales by taking a hard look at how well her advertising was really working. This interactive discussion will outline actionable ways of developing and testing new products and ideas with existing customers.

Speakers: Lexy Funk, co-founder of Brooklyn Industries; Rob Adams, director of Moot Corp at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business; and Eric Ryan, co-founder of Method; with Mike Hofman, Deputy Editor, Inc.com
Potomac 5/6

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General Sessions
Forget Everything You Know About Advertising: The Wexley Way
Wexley School for Girls is a media agnostic advertising agency that will do just about anything to attract business for clients. Whether driving snowmobiles through Dallas, organizing a world-record paper-airplane launch, or sending a recruiter in a hot tub to college campuses, Wexley demands attention. Here, the Wexley team pulls back the curtain on the creative process.
Speakers: Ian Cohen and Cal McAllister, co-founders of Wexley School for Girls
Potomac A/B


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 Picking Up Speed: The Zipcar story
Until Scott Griffith came along in 2003, Zipcar was a great idea with a dubious future. Six years later, the company has increased fiftyfold, bought out its biggest rival, and become a case study in how to turn a mission-driven enterprise into a thriving one without compromising its core values.
Speaker: Scott Griffith, CEO of Zipcar
Potomac A/B


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Meet the Bill Gates of Ghana
Brash, ambitious, and optimistic, Herman Chinery-Hesse has accomplished the near impossible—he built what is widely considered the fi rst and largest software company in Ghana, theSOFTtribe. His new venture, BSL, will let African entrepreneurs sell products online and accept payments via mobile phone. Chinery-Hesse could drastically improve the lives of African craftspeople by giving them access to global markets. He could also walk away with billions of dollars.
Speaker: Herman Chinery-Hesse, founder of theSOFTtribe and BSL
Potomac A/B


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Miracle on Luckie Street
Bob Williamson hitch-hiked into Atlanta at 24. He was homeless, penniless, addicted to meth and heroin with a prison record. He sold a pint of blood for $7 the day he arrived. With little formal education and no start-up capital he went from that desperate beginning to founding nine successful family-owned businesses. Recently he sold his latest company, Horizon Software, for $75 million. Hear the story of his transformation from drug addled pauper into the king of cafeterias.
Speaker: Bob Williamson, founder, and former chairman and CEO of Horizon Software International
Potomac A/B


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Small Beginnings and Big Dreams
In 1995, Jill Blashack Strahan founded Tastefully Simple in a 1,200-square-foot shed with no running water, using a pool table as a packing station. Three years into the business, Blashack Strahan experienced a series of tragedy. A fall killed her brother, and only a few months later, her husband suddenly died. Faced with raising her 5-year-old son alone and a skyrocketing business, Blashack Strahan chose to persevere. She turned Tastefully Simple into a $140 million-plus, award-winning company, with more than 350 employees and some 28,000 independent consultants, and steered it into the Inc. 500 Hall of Fame.
Speaker: Jill Blashack Strahan, founder and CEO of Tastefully Simple and author of Simply Shine
Potomac A/B


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The Business Logic of Sustainability
Interface merges economic growth with social responsibility. At his carpet company, Ray Anderson has increased sales and doubled profits while turning the traditional "take/make/waste" industrial system on its head. Ray Anderson takes huge lakes of petroleum and spins them into elegant brocades—he turns petrochemicals into textiles. On stage, he will share a powerful vision for sustainable commerce.
Speaker: Ray Anderson, founder and chairman of Interface
Potomac A/B


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Friday, September 25

General Sessions
 How to Thrive in These Crazy Times
Jim Collins, perhaps the most influential business thinker of our time, is returning to the Inc. 500|5000 Conference by popular demand. Collins will challenge participants to think about what distinguishes great institutions from others. Greatness, Collins says, is not primarily a function of circumstance but of conscious choice and discipline. He will discuss how you can apply these tenets to your growing company.
Speaker: Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, and How the Mighty Fall
Potomac A/B


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The Adversity Paradox
Barry Griswell, former executive chairman and CEO of Principal Financial Group, brings deep experience and a distinctive approach to being a successful leader. His hands-on approach to management, strong support for employees, and deep involvement in his community have made him a leader to learn from.
Speaker: J. Barry Griswell, Retired Chairman and CEO, Principal Financial Group, president of the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, and co-author of The Adversity Paradox, An Unconventional Guide to Achieving Unusual Business Success
Potomac A/B


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 Learning from JetBlue: Customer Service as Entrepreneurship
The bigger your company gets, the less contact you have with the people who are indispensable to your operation: your customers. David Neeleman knows the power of connecting with his customers and will share his insights on building a successful company by turning customer feedback into innovation.
Speaker: David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue Airways Corp. and founder, chairman, and CEO of Azul
Potomac A/B


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Who’s Got Your Back?: Mutual Support for Mutual Success
Keith Ferrazzi is one of the rare individuals to discover the essential formula for reaching the top – a powerful combination of marketing acumen and ability to connect with others. This session will give you the roadmap to maximizing your success through developing strong relationships.
Speaker: Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight and author of Who's Got Your Back?
Potomac A/B

To make sure that you maximize the return on your (and your organization's investment), click here for 15 tips on networking from Keith Ferrazzi.

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Concurrent Sessions
Who’s Got Your Back?: How to Design Deeper Relationships 
The way Keith Ferrazzi sees it, no one succeeds alone. In fact, the most accomplished leaders are those who are best able to connect with othersÑand then effectively leverage those personal connections. In this session, Ferrazzi presents the road map for maximizing personal success through developing strong relationships with others and shares greater detail on his insights into professional networking.
Speaker: Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight and author of Who's Got Your Back?
Potomac C


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Message and Brand: Two Lanes Merge on the Communication Highway
A successful business needs to effectively communicate its value proposition and to infuse its brand with meaning. It is not easy. Michael Sheehan is the go-to guy to learn how to effectively communicate your brand -- for up and coming politicians, nervous CEOs and others who are hoping to become good, if not, great communicators both with the media and internal/external audiences.  Sheehan has spent 28 years coaching the top CEOs in the US, Europe and Asia and politicians including the Clintons and the Obamas. He will share his insights and skill-building secrets with you.
Speaker: Michael Sheehan, founder of Sheehan Associates
Potomac D


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The Game: Driving Results with Open Book Management
Opening the books to your employees may feel a little, well, revealing. But it's the best way to ensure that everyone in your organization is focused on--and working toward--the common goal, and consequently drive financial performance. In this interactive session, learn how to teach your team forecasting to improve bottom-line results. Bill Fotsch, who has advised over 300 companies on the Great Game of Business, will describe scoreboards, huddling, and fostering communication. While the economy continues its streak of uncertainty, planning has become more difficult and that much more critical.
Speaker: Bill Fotsch, The Great Game of Business coach
Potomac 1/2
Download the Great Game of Business Forecast handout by clicking here.


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Preparing Your Company for Sale
Norm Brodsky has been writing street-smart advice in a regular Inc. column since 1995. Over the course of a year and a half, he shared a real-time, blow-by-blow account of the negotiations that led to his sale of his company for $110 million. Two years later, the credit squeeze has him at it again. Brodsky will walk you through how to know you have a company thatÕs salable, how to prepare for a sale, and how to evaluate a buyer.
Speaker: Norm Brodsky, Inc. columnist, founder of CitiStorage, Perfect Courier, and U.S. Document Security, and co-author of The Knack
Potomac 3/4


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How Hard Could It Be?
Running a technology company in today’s environment is not for the faint of heart. Inc. columnist and software entrepreneur Joel Spolsky leads a lively discussion on developing new products, recruiting top talent, coming up with a smart pricing strategy, and finding success in technology.
Speaker: Joel Spolsky, Inc. columnist and co-founder and CEO of Fog Creek Software
Potomac 5/6


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Concurrent Sessions
Should You Stay Small or Go Big in This Economy?
What do you do when your company is too big to be small but too small to be big? Doug Tatum wrote the book on the subject. It’s called No Man’s Land, and it describes one of the most important decisions you will ever have to make as an entrepreneur. Don’t miss this if you are interested in taking your company to the next level.
Speaker: Doug Tatum, founding chairman of Tatum and author of No Man’s Land: What to Do When Your Company Is Too Big to Be Small but Too Small to Be Big
Potomac C


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Servant Leadership: Zingerman's Innovative Approach to Management
Strong leadership and innovative management practices have been key to Zingerman's success. In an era of increased competition and uncertain labor markets, a positive company culture and identity--together with an inspiring vision for the future--can have an enormous impact on customer and staff loyalty. In this presentation, Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman's co-founder and CEO, shares how Zingerman's teaches and implements the philosophy of servant leadership, a management approach that focuses on the leader's role in giving great service to staff members--and to the organization as a whole.
Speaker: Ari Weinzweig, co-founder and CEO of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses
Potomac D
Download Ari Weinzweig’s Servant Leadership handout by clicking here.


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Plan B: A Little Paranoia Goes a Long Way
For nearly three decades, in good times and bad, Jack Stack has run his company as though disaster could strike at any moment. Now, with the economy so badly damaged, he's glad he has. Stack's rules: Constantly look at your vulnerabilities, ask a lot of what-ifs, think about what goes up in a down market--and be ready when the economy comes roaring back.
Moderator: Bo Burlingham, Inc. editor-at-large and co-author of The Great Game of Business
Speakers: Jack Stack, president and CEO of SRC Holdings and co-author of The Great Game of Business
Potomac 1/2


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What Happened Next: A Look at Past No. 1 Inc. 500 Companies
Clinching the top spot on the Inc. 500 is a remarkable achievement. But as many successful CEOs have learned, companies that expand rapidly can sometimes crash and burn. So, what happens to companies after they hit the top spot? John Baackes, David Giuliani, and David Steinberg--all of whom piloted companies to the top of the Inc. 500--discuss the challenges they have faced in sustaining both rapid growth and the entrepreneurial spirit as their organizations have grown larger and more complex.
Moderator: Mike Hofman, deputy editor of Inc.com
Speakers: John Baackes, founder of Senior Whole Health; David Giuliani, founder of Optiva and Clarisonic; David Steinberg, founder of InPhonic, chairman and CEO of CAIVIS Acquisition Corporation, chairman and founder of Spire Vision, and chairman and founder of Ward Media
Potomac 3/4


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IT Strategies: From the Backroom to the Boardroom
Best practices from high growth entrepreneurs on leveraging technology to delight customers and grow business. Research shows that companies putting technology at the forefront of their business strategy grow faster and more profitably than the competition. Hear from Dell executives and three high-growth entrepreneurs on how you can put IT strategies to work in your own growing business. Learn and share your own strategies for reducing IT management costs and time, smart cost-cutting technology investments, and how to maximize the IT you already have.
Moderator: Ayman El Tarabishy, Executive Director of the International Council of Small Business
Featured Panelists: Erik Dithmer, GM & VP of SMB Americas Sales; Dell Inc; Debra Ruh, Founder, TecAccess; Warren Brown, Founder, CakeLove; Joe Zenas, President, Thinkwell Design

Be one of 10 lucky Session Attendees to win a Dell Mini Netbook, Dell Wasabi Ultramobile Photo Printer, or a Dell M109S On-the-go Projector just by attending!