Upcoming Events Archived Events Before and After: July 18 - June 21 - June 13

Location: Metropolitan Ballroom, Hwy 394 & 100 - 5418 Wayzata Blvd. Minneapolis
Directions

Morning Workshop
What You Organize Is Your Business - How You Organize It Is Ours
Smead Manufacturing
Al Arends, Vice President of Marketing; Scott Ward, CRM, Director of Smead Software Products; John Willett, Channel Manager, Smead Software Solutions

You may think of file folders when you think of Smead. There are many things in your life that need to be organized – business records, of course, personal records, have you considered your electronic files or even CDs? Vendors often come into your organization with one or a few products to sell you. How do you know their product is the right solution for you? Proper diagnosis and understanding of your current pain is essential in developing the best solution. This session will enable you to know the difference between a salesperson and a sales consultant that cares about your specific needs.

Al Arends is a graduate of the Loyola University of Chicago with an MBA in Marketing.  Al has been working in the office products industry for 14 years.  He currently is the Vice President of Marketing and has been with Smead since June of 1997.

Scott W. Ward has been active in the Information and Document Management Industry for 17 years. He graduated from UND with a dual major in Information and Records Management and Cultural Anthropology. He worked at commercial nuclear power and nuclear research sites around the country after spending 6 years on submarines in the US Navy. He is a Certified Records Manager and is currently the Director of Software Products at Smead Manufacturing in Hastings MN where he has worked for the last 7 years. He is responsible for all areas of the software products business unit.

John Willett began his career in the Records Management industry in 1969 as a territory and account manager. In 1976 he purchased a franchise from Remington Rand Office Systems in Topeka, Kansas. The company grew and a Kansas City office was formed in 1987.

Willett was elected to the board of the International Systems Dealer Association for two consecutive terms. In addition to other duties as a board member and officer, he chaired "Hi-Tech" committee for five years. This committee investigated and reported to the board and membership marketing opportunities and capabilities for Records Management software and Imaging Systems.

The dealership was sold in April, 2000 and he accepted a position with Smead Manufacturing as Channel Manager for the Software Solutions division in October of that year. This year Smead Software Solutions will introduce several new products in addition to many upgrades and enhancements to current products that help keep businesses organized with cutting edge technology.

Luncheon Presentation
Webify & Prosper?
Al Stroucken, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer; H.B. Fuller Company

Al Stroucken

The advent and ultimate impact of eBusiness is the single most important factor in the business community's collective future. But if we use the Internet merely to conduct transactions, we will have missed a golden opportunity to leap ahead and transform our respective organizations. In a thought-provoking discussion, Al Stroucken, chairman, president and chief executive officer of H.B. Fuller Company, will explore the forces that are combining to form a new business landscape, and the importance of re-designing companies from the inside out, rather that simply web-ifying existing businesses in order to survive and prosper in a changing environment.

Al Stroucken joined H.B. Fuller Company, a global manufacturer and marketer of specialty chemical products, in 1998. In the ensuing four years, he has realigned the company's operations into five groups that serve unique markets, led a major restructuring effort, and is currently championing the 114-year-old adhesive company's aggressive efforts to become digitized. Prior to H.B. Fuller, Stroucken spent a nearly 30-year career with Bayer AG, a diversified international chemical and pharmaceutical company based in Leverkusen, Germany. A native of Nieuwenhagen, the Netherlands, he is fluent in English, Dutch, German, and French, and has a working knowledge of Spanish.