Plenary Speakers

Bob Trask
Wednesday, May 21
8:30am - 9:45am
Opening Ceremony: Building Successful Communities with Small Business

For thirty years Bob Trask has been traveling the world as a consultant, keynote speaker and seminar presenter; telling his stories and teaching people step-by-step how to realize and actualize their dreams.

The sum of his many life experiences as an author, actor and comedian as well as having survived a hurricane at sea, working as a forest firefighter, and an ambulance attendant have made him one of the world’s most dynamic and entertaining motivational speakers for businesses such as General Dynamics, Prudential Life Insurance International and Nissan. Over half a million people have now been uplifted by Bob Trask’s distinctive teachings, including well-known authors, performers and leaders in business, politics and sports.

Bob is founder and president of the non-profit ARAS Foundation, where he and his team organize community service programs and donations to assist those less fortunate to get a new start on life. (www.arasfoundation.org)

Bob Trask has published three successful books: Living Free and God’s Phone Number in English, Spanish and Portuguese; and Romancing The Soul now in Japanese and coming soon in English. His fully illustrated children’s series: Tales From The Great Meadow is now awaiting publication.

Michael Shuman
Wednesday, May 21
8:30am - 9:45am
Opening Ceremony: Building Successful Communities with Small Business

Michael Shuman, an attorney and economist, is vice president for Enterprise Development for the Training and Development Corporation (TDC) of Bucksport, Maine. He has authored, coauthored, and edited seven books, including The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006) and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age (Free Press, 1998). The Small-Mart Revolution was just awarded a bronze medal for best business book by the Independent Publishers’ Association.

Mr. Shuman is currently preparing studies on state business subsidies for the Kellogg Foundation and on global models of local food businesses for the Gates Foundation. He served as a senior editor for the recently published Encyclopedia of Community. And he is a cofounder and active participant in the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and a founder of Bay Friendly Chicken, a community-owned company located in Salisbury, Maryland.

Mr. Shuman received an A.B. with distinction in economics and international relations from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Over the past 25 years Mr. Shuman has given an average of more than one invited talk a week.

Michelle Long
Thursday, May 22
8:30am - 9:45am
General Session: Buy Local, Build Your Community

Michelle Long is the Executive Director of Sustainable Connections, a membership organization of 600+ NW Washington local, independent businesses working to transform and model an economy built on sustainable practices. Programs include a wildly successful Think Local First campaign that has altered the purchasing behaviors of 3 in 5 local households, Food & Farming, Green Building, Energy, and Sustainable Business Development. The organization wins kudos from elected officials who call it the community's most important economic development organization, environmental groups that have awarded the organization their Business Hero award, and the general community that has chosen it as their 'favorite non-profit' in the newspaper's annual poll. The organization has been written up extensively in books and in the national media -- including a recent NPR Marketplace story that called Bellingham the "epicenter of a new economic model".

Ms. Long is the co-author of Local First: a How to Guide, teaches workshops on creating effective networks of sustainable businesses, and is a regular keynote speaker. Ms. Long is Chair of the Board of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, (BALLE), an alliance of almost 60 business networks similar to Sustainable Connections, and on the board of the Sightline Institute.

Jeremy Nowak
Thursday, May 22
8:30am - 9:45am
General Session: Buy Local, Build Your Community

Jeremy Nowak is the President of The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a community development financial institution that manages $450 million in assets. TRF provides financing in support of affordable housing, small businesses, commercial real estate and community facilities.

TRF has financed 17,000 housing units, $7 million square feet of commercial real estate, 20,000 charter school seats, and 10,000 child care slots. The Reinvestment Fund's Fresh Food Financing Initiative has supported the development and expansion of 35 fresh food markets in the underserved communities of Pennsylvania.

The Reinvestment Fund also provides policy analysis and high quality data in support of its mission. The Fund is a thought leader in the creative use of geo-spatial data to facilitate investments into distressed urban markets. It recently launched www.policymap.com a national mapping tool to aid public, non-profit, and private organizations in their investment decision-making.

Mr. Nowak is the Chairman of the Board of Mastery Charter Schools, a network of four inner city high schools in Philadelphia. He is the Board Chair for Alex's Lemonade Stand, a charity that raises money for pediatric cancer research. He recently began a three year term as a member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve.

David Zach
Thursday, May 22
1:15 pm - 2:45 pm
General Session: Entrepreneurship - A Look at the Future

David Zach is one of the few professionally trained futurists on this planet, having earned a master’s degree in Studies of the Future from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. As a futurist, Mr. Zach has worked with over 1200 associations, corporations and colleges offering insights on the personal and professional impact of strategic trends. In other words, he gives funny and thought-provoking talks about the future of technology, economics, business, education, demographics and society.

Mr. Zach previously worked at Johnson Controls and Northwestern Mutual Life in the roles of environmental scanning and strategic planning. He also taught Future Studies in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Since 1987, he mostly sits and read everything he can. He gives talks about 50 times a year and really wishes he would write more. He is the author of two books, so far . . . .

Mr. Zach is a member of the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center Advisory Council. Past activities include: Future Milwaukee Advisory Board, Community Advisory Board for public radio station WUWM, board member of eInnovate, member of the downtown Rotary Club of Milwaukee, board member of the American Institute of Architects–Wisconsin, chairman of the Goals for Greater Milwaukee 2000 Education Committee and co–chair for Design Milwaukee.

Mini Plenary Speakers

A. Jeffrey Taylor
Wednesday, May 21
10:00 am - 11:30 am
Leading Organizational Growth in the 21st Century

Jeff Taylor, Principal and Vice President of RCTaylor & Associates, Inc., a full service consulting, training and development company, is a successful businessman with a proven track record. Since 1989, Jeff has been instrumental in creating RCTaylor’s philosophical approach to help organizations develop their People Operating Systems™. Recognizing that each organization is unique, RCTaylor’s goal is to help organizations and individuals identify needs, establish objectives, measure results, and maximize personal and business success.

Jeff has worked with small, medium and Fortune 500 companies at every level of management, providing services as a trainer, executive coach and mentor. He has facilitated RCTaylor’s Leadership Development Process™ for clients across the country, impacting hundreds of leaders across multiple industries. This “total corporate” experience is used when interacting with senior leadership teams and executives.

Jeff serves as a program advisor for Vital Learning Corporation, Inscape Publishing, and Integro Leadership Institute, all of whom are international publishers of training processes, materials and assessment tools. He is certified to implement the Vital Learning L2E [Leading to Engage™] process under the direction of Curt Coffman, co-author of First Break All the Rules, and in partnership with Majers, Inc.

Prior to co-founding RCTaylor & Associates, Jeff was the Director of Information Services at Sun Oil Company and V.P. of Internal Operations at Maryland National Bank. In these roles, he received numerous awards including a Governor’s Citation.

Robert L.E. Egger
Thursday, May 22
10:00 am - 11:30 am
The How and Why of Social Enterprise

Robert Egger is the Founder and President of the DC Central Kitchen, where unemployed men and women learn marketable culinary skills while foods donated by restaurants, hotels and caterers are converted into balanced meals. Since opening in 1989, the Kitchen has distributed 17.4 million meals and helped over 605 men and women gain full-time employment. Currently, Mr. Egger is the Chairperson of the DC Mayor’s Commission on Nutrition, as well as the Chair of the Board of Street Sense, Washington’s “homeless” newspaper, and RESULTS, a multinational microcredit and citizen advocacy organization. He serves on the Boards of TimeBanks USA and the Food Systems Leadership Institute. He was also the Co-Convener of the first ever Nonprofit Congress.

Mr. Egger’s book on the non-profit sector, Begging for Change: The Dollars and Sense of Making Nonprofits Responsive, Efficient and Rewarding For All, which was released in 2004 by HarperCollins, received the 2005 McAdam Prize for “Best Nonprofit Management Book” by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management. Mr. Egger speaks throughout the country and writes blogs and editorials to share his ideas about the nonprofit sector and the future of America.