2008 Business Agenda

Now, more than ever, developing great leaders matters. A lack of existing or future leaders who are prepared to assume key management and leadership positions can be debilitating to organizational results and growth. Given this strategic imperative, many organizations are raising the bar on leadership development professionals who are tasked with assessing, developing and growing the quality and quantity of their managers and leaders. In times of forecasted or real economic hardship, the challenge is even greater as organizations want leadership development to remain a top priority, but with manageable expenses.

With 2008 well underway, some industries are tackling these challenges head on. While some organizations battle with budget cuts, others excel by aligning the entire organization around innovative methods that maximize results. This concept of low-cost, high-impact leadership development is one that we believe will differentiate the best from the rest.

Organizations that have successfully overcome these challenges have done so by institutionalizing leadership development such that a stable core of qualified leaders are always prepared to move into key roles, execute the corporate strategy, and deliver results while exhibiting the values and behaviors expected of top leaders.

Linkage's 12th Annual Best Practices in Leadership Development Summit: Tools, Processes & Systems for Developing Leaders is an advanced forum where leadership development practitioners can learn proven techniques and latest best practices for creating, sustaining, and evaluating low-cost, high-impact leadership development systems. Through thought leaders, world-class practitioners, benchmarking, and expert instructors, this Summit will enable you and your organization to maximize leadership strength and reach competitive success.

Keynote Speakers - Developing Yourself as a Leader

A faculty of world-renowned leaders, thinkers and teachers including:

• Warren Bennis
• Roger Nierenberg
• Nicholas Negroponte
• Renée Mauborgne
• Tim Sanders
• George Mitchell
• Michael Abrashoff
• Patrick Lencioni
• Saj-nicole Joni

Best Practices Session

Attendees have the opportunity to work as a part of a team to synthesize their learning from the Summit and apply it to their specific business challenges. Learning teams are organized through a pre-Summit survey to identify each participant's key challenges, leadership development goals and objectives, years of experience, industry focus and company size. Each learning team will consist of 15-20 peers with similar learning goals for the Summit and will meet daily with an experienced facilitator to maximize their Summit learnings and practical take-aways.