2012 Agenda

Start the Inc. 500|5000 conference off in full swing with an exciting golf tournament at the prestigious Wildfire Golf Club. The club features two picturesque 18-hole courses designed by two of golf’s greatest legends–Arnold Palmer and Nick Faldo. Voted by Golfweek Magazine as one of the “Best Courses You Can Play” and “America’s Top Golf Courses” by Zagat, don’t the chance to experience for yourself what everyone else is talking about. Participation is limited. Fee of $300 per player.

Enjoy an inspiring day of networking and spectacular sightseeing as you travel by motorcycle with fellow Inc 5000 CEOs and team members. Hosted by Bob LaPointe, the president of Inc., this guided excursion will venture northwest of Phoenix into the Tonto National Forest, one of the largest national forests in the country. A delicious box lunch as well as refreshing beverages will be served along the way. Participants will return to the hotel at approximately 4:30 p.m. Open to licensed riders only, please. Additional fees and insurance are required and must be paid in advance. There will be no onsite signup available. Bikes provided by Harley Davidson of Scottsdale. Learn more.

Join us as we host our annual mentoring fair designed uniquely for service personnel—active and veteran—as well as military spouses. Business leaders and industry experts attending the conference are welcome to participate as mentors for the day, to share experiences with and provide insight to servicemen and -women on how to start, build, or expand a successful business. Besides a networking lunch and one-on-one mentoring sessions, partake in an exclusive workshop led by Simon Sinek, best-selling author of Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. The event closes with a special keynote featuring beloved Inc. columnist and serial entrepreneur Norm Brodsky. Space is limited. Pre-registration is required.

Speakers:

Norm Brodsky, founder, CitiStorage; partner, Black Gold Suites; columnist, Inc.; co-author, The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up

Simon Sinek, author, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

So, you’ve been working out and growing your business—prove it. Network with your peers and colleagues as you join in friendly competition to see who the fastest entrepreneur of them all is. Enjoy a healthy lunch, sessions on nutrition and productivity as well as professional coaching all for the working athlete. Hear from World Champion and Olympic triathlete Michellie Jones; Jason Weisberg, founder and CEO of Advitam Sports, 4-time Ironman finisher; and Jason Womack, productivity expert and author of Your Best Just Got Better. Participants will also compete in swims and races for the title, Inc’s Supreme Athlete-Entrepreneur. All levels of competitors are welcome, prizes will be given. Fee of $100 per person. Learn More.

The workplace is evolving. Company-issued devices, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops, are not the only way your employees are connecting to business resources. To stay competitive, companies need to offer choices that are tailored to the employee, not to the device. Employee– driven computing is about what the device and technology enable workers to do and when and how they prefer to do it. Before you deploy employee-owned devices in the workplace, there are a lot of options to consider: OS migration, compatibility, and security. This session, in partnership with Microsoft, explains how to exploit this trend to your advantage, by developing policies and solutions that reduce upfront costs and improve employee productivity, without jeopardizing important information and resources.

Pre-Conference Session Sponsored by the Principal Financial Group®

Learn how employee stock ownership plans as well as other business and executive solutions can help you save money all the while investing in and protecting your business. And plan to stay for the Principal Financial Group’s pre-conference networking event from 5pm-6pm to mingle with conference attendees and enjoy refreshments.

Grab a bite, enjoy a cocktail, and mingle with colleagues and hundreds of your peers during this fun and casual soiree. See you there!

Stop by to chat and talk tweets, posts, and check-ins. Those savvy in social media will be on hand throughout the day to offer quick useful tips. Or if you’re the social media know-it-all in your organization, come join the conversation and share your own tricks and tactics. All levels of expertise are welcome.

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Wake up early and join us for a 4.2 mile run in support of the Pat Tillman Foundation and Tillman Military Scholars nationwide. Participants will learn more about our nonprofit partner, the Pat Tillman Foundation, the various ways to get involved, and meet some of the scholars who honor Pat Tillman’s legacy by creating their own. During the workout, Advitam Sports experts will lead running drills and stretching exercises and provide expert tips on workout regimens. All runners from the casual to the committed are welcomed to join. Advitam will personalize the experience for your level. Space is limited; please sign up at registration.

We’re talking social media and more here. From tweets to posts to check-ins, those savvy in social media will be on hand throughout the day to offer quick useful tips. Also, make time in your schedule each day to attend a roundtable discussion or a Networking With Purpose session. Seating is limited.

Eric Schurenberg, editor-in-chief, Inc.

Best-selling author Simon Sinek explains and teaches us the unconventional way of thinking, acting and communicating that gives some leaders the ability to inspire those around them. Such inspiration leads to some people and organizations being more innovative, more profitable, commanding greater loyalties from customers and employees alike and, more importantly, having the ability to repeat their success again and again. This session is not just about fixing the things that aren’t working. Rather, it’s all about learning how to focus on and amplify the things that do work. Come with the willingness to learn not a course of action but rather the cause of action.

Speaker: Simon Sinek, author, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

From the mundane to the monumental we make decisions daily. But as inevitable as it is, our decision-making process is often plagued with problems like irrationality or bias. How can we do better? In this exclusive session, brothers Chip and Dan Heath – bestselling authors of Made to Stick and Switch – offer insight and share strategies from their forthcoming book Decisive. With their four-step process as your guide, learn how to make smarter choices as a leader and better, more confident decisions for your business and family.

Chip and Dan Heath, authors, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die; and Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard

Chip and Dan Heath; Simon Sinek

What’s a GoPro? A front-row seat to point-of-view action, duh! Invented by Nick Woodman—a risk-taker and authentic action-sports fanatic—the line of tiny (about 2 inches) wearable, mountable, and affordable high-definition video cameras and accessories are available in about 10,000 stores worldwide. Over 800,000 GoPro cameras have been sold to date. From fearlessly bootstrapping to cleverly putting the marketing/sales strategy in the hands (or strapped to the heads) of its customers, learn just how Woodman reinvented the camera and in the process, created a $250 million company that saw 300% growth last year.

Speaker: Nick Woodman, inventor, GoPro camera; founder and CEO, Woodman Labs

Is your glass half empty or half full? With just $78 bucks in the bank, brothers Bert and John Jacobs took their stick-figure mascot, Jake, and a slogan centered on positive-thinking, and built a $100 million-dollar brand and for-profit and non-profit business. Of course, success never happens overnight and takes an ongoing effort. Through humorous, honest storytelling, Bert shares him and brothers’ entrepreneurial journey to grow their colorful apparel and accessories company, Life is good®. Learn just how they did it. What can we all take away from the simple truth the Jacobses live and work by: that optimism can take you anywhere?

Speaker: Bert Jacobs, co-founder and chief executive optimist, Life is good®

The first conference lunch offers a great opportunity to meet fellow attendees, honorees and alumni of the Inc. 500|5000. (for all attendees)

Chip and Dan Heath

The Exit Strategy
Whats Your Number?
Beyond the List:  Sustain Growth and Build Breakthroughs—hosted by The Build Network
Social Media: Do or Die!
How To Innovate at Any Stage

Norm Brodsky, Bo Burlingham, Dave Kerpen, Keith R. McFarland, and Lewis Schiff

We asked. You answered. In Merara Village, Ethiopia, there is now a drilling rig bringing clean drinking water to people in this developing nation. Last year’s Inc. 500|5000 Conference served as the catalyst for unprecedented generosity from the Inc. family to help fund this project. It’s no secret that a business leader is always most powerful when he or she works with others. Scott Harrison, founder and CEO of charity:water, returns to share how his non profit organization—with your help—is changing life.

Speaker: Scott Harrison, founder and CEO, charity:water

As one of the most influential women in technology, Caterina Fake’s approach to business has clearly paid off. Her previous ventures Flickr and Hunch sold to Yahoo in 2005 for a reported $35 million and eBay for a reported $80 million, respectively. Fake’s latest tech startup, Findery (Formally known as Pinwheel), is an online platform on which users can tag a map of the world with personal stories, messages, and photos. Learn for Fake the challenges and consequences involved with vying to stay relevant in the ever-changing tech world. Also, from raising capital to launching startups, hear how she juggles her innovative efforts effortlessly (or so it seems).

Speaker: Caterina Fake, founder, Findery; co-founder, Flickr, and Hunch

With traditional marketing ineffective and so easily avoidable by consumers these days, what’s a business to do? Keep up. For you to be found (and thrive) in the new natural marketplace, you’ve got to attract modern marketers and implement inbound marketing strategies. This can be done by using the width of your brain not the width of your wallet, says Brian Halligan, the founder and CEO of HubSpot. Halligan explains this transformational shift that has taken place in marketing. Learn from his business playbook what’s really going on; why your business must adapt; exactly how to convert your efforts; and where within your organization should change take place. By rethinking the way you look at and approach content, the Internet, social media, and your clients/customers, you can reposition (and solidify) your place in this ever-changing business landscape. Who’s ready?

Speaker: Brian Halligan, founder and CEO, HubSpot; and author, Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead, and Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs

Pat Tillman is remembered by most as a charismatic football star, patriotic army ranger, and fallen war hero. But to Marie Tillman he was her high school sweetheart, best friend and beloved husband who decided to walk away from success in order to serve. In the days, weeks, and even years following his untimely death in 2004, Marie found herself unable to cope. Here, she candidly shares her journey of through love, loss, and life. And as she now builds her own legacy, Marie is also honoring her late husband’s mission to serve. Whether it is inconceivable sorrow or a devastating setback, learn what it takes to bounce back, live authentically, and do something greater than you.

Speaker: Marie Tillman, founder, Pat Tillman Foundation; author, The Letter: My Journey Through Love, Loss, and Life
Interviewer: Eric Schurenberg, editor-in-chief, Inc.

Brian Halligan, Marie Tillman, Norm Brodsky, Jason Womack

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Partake in a fresh, fun way to relax your mind and body before you start your day. Suitable for all levels of experience, come release yourself from your daily stresses as you prepare to focus on the rest of the conference. Space is limited; please sign up at registration.

How does someone who is obsessed live peacefully with others who are not?  That question summarizes the quandary faced by company founders and their families.  Join Meg Hirshberg, Inc. columnist and author of For Better or For Work: A Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs and Their Families for a candid discussion about the challenges, choices, and compromises that surround being married to a business—as well as to each other. Entrepreneurs as well as their significant others are welcome to attend. Space is limited to 35 people and registration is first-come, first-served. Email events@inc.com to reserve your space today!

Stop by to chat and talk tweets, posts, and check-ins. Those savvy in social media will be on hand throughout the day to offer quick useful tips. Or if you’re the social media know-it-all in your organization, come join the conversation and share your own tricks and tactics. All levels of expertise are welcome.

Eric Schurenberg, editor in chief, Inc.

When artfully mastered, the power of enchantment enables you to maneuver through difficult decisions, break entrenched habits, defy the wisdom of crowds, and get those in your team to work for long-term, mutually beneficial goals. Learn from Tech entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and best-selling author Guy Kawasaki how to achieve likability and trustworthiness with clients and/or customers as well as those who work for you in order to overcome resistance and build a business that thrives successfully ever after.

Speaker: Guy Kawasaki, founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence, Garage Technology Ventures; author, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

With over 1 million Twitter followers Doug Ulman uses his social media powers for good. The president and CEO of LIVESTRONG—both the brand and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) it’s a derivative of— helps engages its audience across digital platforms, informing them about the resources the nonprofit offers to those affected by cancer. How did LAF utilize social media to help evolve itself into the iconic LIVESTRONG brand as well as scale its cause? A lot goes into developing and implementing a social media strategy, defining goals, targeting your audience, and measuring impact. Learn how to leverage social media to a move causes, grow businesses, and change the world.

Speaker: Doug Ulman, president and CEO, LIVESTRONG; founder, The Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults

Guy Kawasaki

Last year, American astronaut Captain Mark Kelly commanded the final flight of the NASA Space Shuttle program. At the same time, his wife, former Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, underwent brain surgery following a horrific assassination attempt. Though Kelly is unlike anyone, everything he’s gone through is entirely relatable. Because, like everyone, he still dealt with stressful work environments, working to achieve major goals, and balancing home- and work-life. Kelly teaches us how to anticipate and accept change while reminding us that risk-taking teamwork, focused leadership, open communication, and family in an unwavering commitment are necessary to accomplish any mission.

Speaker: Captain Mark Kelly, retired American astronaut, U.S. Navy captain and naval aviator; and co-author, Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope

Captain Mark Kelly

Going for Growth
Better Your Best
The Founder’s Dilemma
Kill Your Competition with Creativity

7 Emerging Trends from a Serial Entrepreneur

Kevin Daum; Meg Cadoux Hirshberg; Indigo Johnson; Josh Linkner; Jason Womack

The festivities commence with a lovely champagne reception in honor of our awardees. Come dressed in your finest attire for an evening of celebratory splendor.

Feast on a four-course gourmet meal as the evening continues in celebration of this year’s Inc. 500|5000 companies. The program will include presentations highlighting the awardees, including the top company, as well as congratulatory remarks. A representative from each honored company will accept an award. A live band and dancing will follow.

For information on tuxedo rental click here.

Hosts:
Norm Brodsky, founder, CitiStorage; partner, Black Gold Suites; columnist, Inc.; co-author, The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up
Eric Schurenberg, editor-in-chief, Inc.
Opening Remarks: Bob LaPointe, president, Inc.