News of Interest: WPO Boston Conference Update

What a great post about our conference here. Many thanks to Athena Schindelheim at Inc.com's blog for covering our event so meticulously!

News of Interest: Enter 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year Award

The UPS Store and Entrepreneur announced Entrepreneur magazine's 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year award. There are two awards: one for an emerging business (less than five years in business with fewer that five employees) and one for an established business owner. Candidates will be judged based on the positive impact they've had on their industries, customers, employees and communities.

Winners will be featured in Entrepreneur magazine and honored at a luncheon in Long Beach, CA, in December 2008.

For more information and to enter (deadline is 6/30/08) go here.

News of Interest: Next Level Learning

More often than not during WPO chapter sessions members claim when running their businesses that they just need to get out of their own way to move the company ahead.

Is that you, too? If it is, you might find the new initiatives offered by the Women's Entrepreneurship Institute (WEI) and the New York Times Knowledge Network of value.

For more information, read the press release here.

Article of Interest: New Breed of Business Gurus Rises

On May 6th, we sent out the following message privately to all WPO Chicago members:

Many of you participated in the WPO annual conference in Chicago 2006 when we had Gary Hamel as our keynote speaker. According to yesterday's WSJ article he continues to be ranked No. 1 as an author, consultant and key influential business thinker.

And for those who had the opportunity to attend this year's conference in Boston with Malcolm Gladwell, he's featured as No. 4 on the list.

The question becomes and the article points this out ... where are the women?

Afterwards, I followed up with the author of the article, Erin White, and mentioned how I had the great privilege of listening to Gary Hamel, Jim Collins and Malcolm Gladwell at WPO annual conferences over the past three years and that I am glad she asked the question, where are the women? I ended my message with "please remember my name" for perhaps some day I might be a part of the list (gutsy, I know).

I think we should all strive to make the A-list of business gurus, don't you?

This morning (5/10), I received an email from the top publicist at Babson College asking me if I care to comment on a professor's post regarding the same article.

Anyone else care to weigh in?

P.S. Rosabeth M. Kanter (pictured) is the only woman who made the list in 2003.

NOTE: Added 5/19/08:
The Dearth of Female "Management Gurus"

News of Interest: WPO Boston Conference Update

More, more, more on our fabulous Boston conference.

Pictured is Marc Lautenbach, General Manager of the Americas, IBM, addressing attendees in the America Ballroom at the Westin Copley Place on the changing nature of innovation for a globalized economy. He sees new technologies leading to the connectedness of everything.

My notes from one of his presentation slides indicates:

"Global integration is the new playing field ... and innovation is the way you win the game."