American Creativity Association
International Conference 2007

Pre-Conference Institutes
2007 ACA International Conference - March 21 - 23, 2007
pre-Conference Institutes - March 20, 2007
in Austin, Texas

To Register for Conference

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

• The Story Factor: The Narrative Way to Create Leaders, Brands, Plans, and Organizational Culture led by Gerry Lantz (9:00 am - 5:00 pm)

• Thinking Expedition led by Rolf Smith (1:00 - 5:00 pm)

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The Story Factor: The Narrative Way to Create Leaders, Brands, Plans, and Organizational Culture. led by Gerry Lantz (9:00 am - 5:00 pm)

Registration fee:

• $95 if registering for full ACA Conference
• $500 if not attending ACA Conference
  Value: $1000 (Presenter services being donated so that all proceeds benefit ACA and help underwrite ACA programs and services)

All will find this Experiential/ Hands-On experience of interest and useful. Intensive full day working seminar with lunch break.

Tired of business blah-blah? Bored with bullets and spreadsheets? Tap the power of story to create a more powerful vision and plan. Set your brand apart as truly different and better by telling the story only you can tell. Build a positive culture or fix a broken one.

Tell your personal or organizational BrandStory™ which differentiates you from your competitors. Use a powerful SuccessStory™ to support your uniqueness. Build your plans collaboratively with StrategicStory™. So simple, you can boil a plan down to 9 words. Tell a CultureStory™ to shape an organization’s character. No preparation needed. You will tell stories.

Participants will:

• Reach new levels of authentic leadership, organizational commitment, and success.
• Set strategic direction so plans get buy-in and action toward expected results.
• Glue teams together by communicating “what works” and “how we do things around here” with less reliance on policy and procedures.
• Get work done and have some fun doing it by creating a community of story tellers and listeners.

Gerry Lantz describes himself as a “creative guy in a business suit.” After 27 years of high-level advertising and marketing experience, he has created STORIES THAT WORK®. Gerry applies storytelling and story structure to create compelling corporate identity, marketing strategies, branding, sales presentations, and corporate culture and leadership development.

Gerry consults with national and international corporations, large pharmaceutical companies, design firms, ad/PR/internet agencies, professional service and consulting firms, executives, and entrepreneurs.

While an officer at Ogilvy, DDB, and Ferrero USA, Gerry received three Effies and two David Ogilvy Awards—both awards for marketing and communications effectiveness--and the Toy Marketing Association’s Award for Best Marketing, Advertising, & Promotion. In his crazy youth, he drove stock cars on dirt tracks in the Midwest. He’s never slowed down.

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Registration fee:

• $65 if registering for full ACA Conference
• $250 if not attending ACA Conference
  Value: $600 (Presenter services being donated so that all proceeds benefit ACA and help underwrite ACA programs and services)

All will find this Experiential/ Hands-On experience of interest and useful.

Description coming

Participants will:

Colonel Rolf Smith (U.S. Air Force, retired) is managing director of The Virtual Thinking Expedition Company (vTx), a process consulting group, and the School for Innovators where he teaches innovation skills that transmogrify everyday heroes into change agents. He spent 24 controversial and innovative years on active duty with the U.S. military and NATO, and in 1986 created the first military Office of Innovation and a worldwide network of Innovation Centers. Rolf retired from active duty in 1987. Since then, his focus has been on helping organizations think creatively and differently. He worked with Exxon Marketing's Innovations Group as a contract executive for four years, and in 1988 founded The School for Innovators to kick-start Exxon's Continuous Improvement & Innovation initiative.

His passion lies in organizing and leading Thinking Expeditions into the unknown to explore uncharted areas and discover unusual opportunities. Since 1994, his Expeditions have brought back ideas, changes and innovations which have contributed to more than $1 Billion in bottom line business results in chunks ranging from $2.5 Million to $305 Million. He has also led a number of Thinking Expeditions for the Navy, Army and Air Force, and both Procter & Gamble and General Mills have sent five different teams each off on a variety of Thinking Expeditions with Rolf. He recently led the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on a 5-stage Thinking Expedition exploring and defining an Enterprise Information Technology Architecture - one of the largest in the Federal government.

Rolf is the author of The 7 Levels of Change (2nd Edition 2002), a field guide for thinking differently for different results.