James Surowiecki
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Keynote Speaker

Credentials:

Columnist for The New Yorker
Author, The Wisdom of Crowds

Information and Bio:

Speakers of Substance Website
Wikipedia Bio
Wikipedia: The Wisdom of Crowds

Bob Johansen
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Keynote Speaker

Credentials:

IFTF Distinguished Fellow
Author, Get There Early

Information and Bio:

Institute for the Future Biography
Get There Early

Dave Drach   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Lunch Special Guest

Credentials:

Managing Director, Emerging Business Team, Microsoft Corporation

Information and Bio:

Dave Drach is a Managing Director for the Microsoft Emerging Business Team. Dave works with venture capitalists and early stage start-ups helping them to develop their businesses and effectively partner with Microsoft. Recently Dave has been actively engaged with SaaS companies in the ERP, CRM, SCM, BI and Human Resource areas, both on the Microsoft platform and on other platforms. Dave has 6 years of experience navigating through the Microsoft development organization as a Product Unit Manager.

Dave’s previous roles include V.P. CTO of FRx Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft and General Manager for Platform and Technology at Great Plains Software. Dave has participated in numerous acquisitions, and integrations, as a buyer, and as an executive in an acquired company. Dave managed enterprise level systems implementations for 3 years at Ernst & Young and built numerous, large scale, enterprise solutions over 8 years at Boeing Computer Services. Dave holds a graduate degree in business and information systems technology from Carnegie Mellon University, and an undergraduate engineering degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

David Spencer 
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Credentials:

Executive Director of the Oakland University SmartZone Business Incubator in Oakland County, Michigan

Information and Bio:

Dr. David A. Spencer presently serves as the Executive Director of the Oakland University SmartZone Business Incubator in Oakland County, Michigan.  As the Executive Director, David Spencer works with area emerging companies, those primarily focused on commercializing ideas, technology transfer, patents and other potential opportunities arising out of research and development activities. The incubator is directly affiliated with Oakland University and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation of the State of Michigan to bring together business, research, training and support services in one location, allowing for easy collaboration and business development.

OU INCubator gives birth to business

Mick Blasik   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: ThinkTank Trainer

Information and Bio:

Mick Blasik is founder and principal of Collaborative Strategies, Inc., a company specializing in innovative collaboration processes and electronic meeting tools. For more than 15 years, Mick has helped hundreds of clients conduct strategic and tactical planning sessions that leverage technology, bringing maximum results in minimal time. His skills include experience in both software collaboration technology and advanced planning methodologies.

Sam Racine   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

Sam Racine has 20 years of experience in computer-mediated communication, facilitation, and interface design. She joined the Six Sigma program at Unisys in 2005 and was certified in Spring of 2007. Sam has worked in sales process definition, particular consultative selling, innovation, and Open Source. As a Master Black Belt, Sam is assigned to a Blueprint 50 account in the Midwest where she works as a facilitator, leads cooperative Unisys-client projects into team building and process improvements, and is active in proposal creation and client presentations.

Sam earned her Ph.D. in Technical Communication/Human Factors from the University of Minnesota, is a published researcher with a recognized track record in professional journals and periodicals, is a frequent presenter/speaker at national and regional conferences, and holds three patents.

Alan Chute   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

Alan Chute is a Six Sigma Lean Master Black Belt and Business Excellence Director for Unisys Corporation. For over 25 years he has been designing and establishing information technology, telecommunications, and knowledge management systems for corporate, higher education, and government settings. He has been elected to the Halls of Fame of the United States Distance Learning Association and the International Teleconferencing Association. He was awarded The Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, the highest civilian award of the Department of the Army for four years of consulting on Secretary of the Army’s $850M Distance Learning Task Force. Dr. Chute has also published over 50 articles and books on information technology and innovative telecommunications solutions.

Doug Griffen   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

Douglas Griffen is the Director of Strategy and Facilitation at the Advanced Strategy Center and is widely regarded as one of the top meeting facilitators in the country. He is a pioneer in the use of electronic brainstorming methods such as our Advanced Strategy Lab tools, and has personally facilitated over a thousand strategic sessions for fortune 100 clients across the country and literally around the world. Mr. Griffen founded his own firm DS Griffen & Associates in 1996 after spending some 19 years in IBM in a variety of marketing, technology and development assignments. Articles on his work have appeared in Inc. Magazine, Delta SKY, Quirk's Marketing Review, the Arizona Business Journal and the Research Department Report. He has acknowledged expertise in strategic planning, leadership development, organizational development and high performance coaching and mentoring training. Mr. Griffen is a native Arizonan, married with four children, and is an avid runner, tennis player and ultramarathoner. His coaching skills extend from the executive boardroom to the little league fields.

David Haedtler  
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

David Haedtler has over 20 years experience in helping working teams be more productive. He is recognized as a leader in the use of electronic facilitation systems and techniques and has extensive experience in managing real-time and asynchronous meetings using web-enabled communities and interactive presentation tools.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Mr. Haedtler was a Vice President at Gartner, Inc. and was responsible for creating and managing sharing forums in which senior managers learn from one another about critical information technology and business issues.

David Altman  
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Credentials:

Senior Vice President, Research and Innovation at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)

Information and Bio:

David is Senior Vice President, Research and Innovation at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), a not-for-profit research and educational institution with headquarters in Greensboro, NC. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Public Health Education at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy (SSHP) at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Don Lynch   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Credentials:

Major General B Don Lynch, US Marine Corps (Retired)

Information and Bio:

While in the Marine Corps, General Lynch served in leadership roles in every rank to include platoon, company, battalion, regimental and brigade sized organizations. As a General Officer, he served as the Commanding General, Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California and as the Director, Marine Corps Staff, Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, D.C. During his time in the Marine Corps, General Lynch was instrumental in introducing Group Systems to the Marine Corps. He placed decision rooms at Camp Pendleton, Headquarters, US Marine Corps, and at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA.

After retirement, he relocated to Dallas, Texas where he was the Manager for Operations of the Microlithography Division of FSI International. In 2001, he accepted a position with Bechtel Corporation to serve as the manager of a joint venture company, Senimdi Kurylys, in Kazakhstan. Bechtel then moved him to Sao Paulo, Brazil where he served as the President of Bechtel Brazil until July 2005. He returned from Brazil during July 2005 and assumed responsibility as the Human Resources Manager for the Oil, Gas & Chemical Global Business Unit of Bechtel in Houston and left Bechtel on 31 December 2005.

General Lynch currently serves on the Group Systems Advisory Board.

Joaquin Alvarado   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Credentials:

Founding Director of the Institute for Next Generation Internet at
San Francisco State University

Information and Bio:

Joaquin Alvarado is the Founding Director of the Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State University. The Institute focuses on technology, policy and community development in the Next Generation Internet environment. The Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State University was founded in 2005 to provide leadership in the evolution of Next Generation Internet focusing on issues of public policy, industry collaboration, research and development, and community engagement.

Rick Gregory   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

I joined P&G in 1977 in the Analytical Chemistry Section of the Toilet Goods Division. I moved to Heath & Personal Care Product Development in 1981 when the Toilet Goods Division split into Health & Personal and Beauty Care. I left P&G in 1985 to pursue fame and fortune at PepsiCo in Valhalla, NY (didn’t really work out). I was re-hired by P&G in August 1986 in Health Care Technology Division at MVL (now MVIC – Miami Valley Innovation Center). I highlighted my leaving and returning to P&G in a joint presentation with Tony Balchunas entitled “If the Grass Looks Greener, Check First for Septic Tanks” (apologies to Erma Bombeck).

I remained in Analytical until 1993, when I co-designed and led (with Jim Donovan) the Seminar of Dreams R&D ideation workshop at the Museum Center in Cincinnati. This proved to be the launching pad of my career focus on the designing and facilitating workshops and sessions to enable groups to creatively transform ideas into action. Since 1994, I have been the Innovation Evangelist at P&G R&D leading “on the ground” efforts for cross-fertilization, collaboration, and Communities of Practice. I have facilitated more than 1,000 P&G creative sessions/workshops since 1995. I first began using computer-based collaborative software in 1994, beginning with VisionQuest, moving to GroupSystems Workgroup Edition, and then to ThinkTank™ in the Fall of 2007.

Steve Bather   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Credentials:

Has used GroupSystems to help build a Nation (Bosnia Hertzogovinia), review and solve cold case murders and facilitate new crime reduction strategies in the UK.

Information and Bio:

Steve Bather is a professional facilitator with over 15 years experience running large workshops and conferences. He has worked with diverse organizations such as NATO, several UK Police forces, The MOD and Military and the Civil service. He has also worked with many corporations including IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, British Telecom, BP and Shell.

Steve has been using GroupSystems for most of the last 15 years and has run over 1000 workshops using tools supporting between 12 and 800 participants. During his career he has also trained and coached over 200 people to facilitate using GroupSystems, including risk experts, proposal managers, JDEF consultants and TQM professionals.

Peter Beck   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: ThinkTank Trainer

Information and Bio:

An expert team facilitator and an expert in the use of computer assisted meeting facilitation, Mr. Beck has established advanced meeting facilities, trained professional staffs, and personally uses these capabilities to help clients solve their most complex and challenging problems. Proficient in both face-to-face and virtual team facilitation his expertise includes meeting design, meeting planning and meeting facilitation. Currently Mr. Beck is a consultant to SAIC and he consults under his own company, Decision Technology. Mr. Beck has trained clients in the Washington DC area on ThinkTank and the Survey tool.

Randy Dean   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

Randy is a member of the principal professional staff of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and has been involved with multiple projects involving modeling and simulation, the analysis of information networks, and systems engineering. He joined JHUAPL in 1989.

Since 1996, he has been the manager of JHUAPL’s Warfare Analysis Laboratory which included the design and stand up of its current fourth generation facility in 2000.

Randy received a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, CA (1982) and an MS in computer science from the Johns Hopkins University (1996). Prior to joining APL in 1989, he served for more than 5 years as a naval submarine officer onboard USS BERGALL (SSN 667).

Scott Williams   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Credentials:

President- Remarkabilize and Managing Director- MagaDesign

Information and Bio:

As president of Maga Design, Scott Williams combines 15 years of Navy technical and business experience with five years’ marketing and strategy acumen. As a proponent of design, innovation, brand strategy and leadership principles, Scott applies his skill set to a variety of industries. In his own consulting company, Meridian Hill Partners, and as COO of the national thought leadership company, Remarkabalize*, Scott has worked in both commercial and federal sectors developing customer relationship management strategies, branding and innovation initiatives.

Rich DeMasi   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Credentials:

Manager, Business Development and Facilitation Services, Northrop Grumman Corporation

Information and Bio:

Rich DeMasi is a business development manager and facilitator with the Northrop Grumman Corporation. He has 26 years of experience encompassing business development, marketing, systems engineering, knowledge management, strategic planning, proposal development and group facilitation. He is actively involved with the company’s strategic business capture initiatives and runs their Electronic Meeting Center in McLean, Virginia, using GroupSystems software. He has used GroupSystems tools to facilitate and improve business development activities for the past 4 years. In 2007 his staff facilitated over 200 engagements resulting in numerous winning bids for the company.

Brad Jackson   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

Brad has been working at the intersection of technology, organization, and process for over twenty years. His current work focuses on the project team-based organization and digital group memory. Two recent papers, Virtual Teams: Getting Beyond Email and cOrdin8: The Organizational Operating System, focus on the problems that arise for teams, and more importantly, organizations, that have a high degree of dependence on email and file/document management systems to manage work. He calls for a more structured approach to the design of a collaborative system that considers the team in the context of the organization, rather than standalone entities with no relationship to each other or the organization as a whole. As such, data, e.g., project status, health, critical issues and risks, created and shared within the team are immediately available for consolidation with other team’s data for review and action at the management level.

Linda Macaulay   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Credentials:

Professor of Information Systems Design Manchester Business School

Information and Bio:

Linda Macaulay (B.Sc, M.Sc, PhD, CEng, Cert. Ed., FBCS) Professor of Information System Design Manchester Business School. She is twice holder of the prestigious IBM Faculty Award 2004 and 2006; a Fellow of the British Computer Society; an elected member of the EPSRC College for IT and Computer Science and an advocate of Services Science Management and Engineering. Professor Macaulay has proven leadership experience as Head of the Information Systems Research Group from 2003 to 2006; Head of the Department of Computation at UMIST from 2001 to 2003; member of UMIST Council and member of the Board of Directors, Project Unity CLG. She has facilitated collaboration between academics and industry partners in her role as Director of the Centre of Expertise in e-Commerce from 1998 to 2001 and as Director of External Relations in the School of Informatics 2003-2005.

Richard Varn   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

Richard J. H. Varn has served as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of San Antonio since November of 2007. He twice served as the Interim CIO for COSA in 2005 and again in 2007. Previously, he was a small business entrepreneur and started his own consulting company. Founded in 1988, RJV Consulting serves public and private sector clients in the areas of information technology, business strategy, innovation, education, and public policy. He is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Digital Government, the Technology Policy Advisor to the National Retail Federation, Director of the Coalition for Sensible Public Records Access, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Educational Testing Service. Previously he served as the Chief Technology Officer and consultant for the Business Gateway, a federal e-government initiative to implement electronic forms and streamline regulatory processes.

Ellen Kolstö   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

Ellen is a Senior Marketplace Planner at GSD&M’s Idea City. She’s been working in advertising and marketing for over 15 years with previous planning stints at Y&R San Francisco and Mullen. She has worked on a variety of national brands including AT&T, Adobe Software, 7-Eleven and Golfsmith. Ellen has facilitated dozens of ideation and brainstorming sessions during her career and is currently working with online tools to foster collaboration and research opportunities.

Tiffany Miller   
Expediting Innovation 2008 Role: Session Presenter

Information and Bio:

Tiffany is the Manager of Idea City’s Ideation Lab™ tool. She has been working in the marketing and advertising industry for over 12 years. Her experience includes working as a project manager at Millward Brown and Mindwave Research conducting market research studies and building and managing online panels. For the past two years, Tiffany has focused on developing and enhancing usage of Idea City’s Ideation Lab for both clients and internal use, using both technology and facilitation skills to help develop new solutions and generate new ideas .