On March 27, 2012, TechAlliance will be hosting the Gearing Up for Growth conference, showcasing top-notch international business leaders and welcoming over 350 participants from across Southwestern Ontario.

This highly-anticipated conference will feature three engaging keynotes:

• Leonard Brody – An Emmy nominated business and technology visionary, and highly respected entrepreneur and author. Leonard joins us at the Power Breakfast speaking to how technology has fundamentally changed us as a society and what these changes mean to our bottom line.
• Dani Reiss – As CEO of Canada Goose and Ernst & Young's 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year, Dani will join us over lunch to share how he has grown Canada Goose into an internationally recognized brand of extreme cold weather, high quality outerwear.
• Tod Maffin –  Renowned speaker, tech entrepreneur and one of North America’s leading digital marketing experts will close off the conference by sharing his comprehensive knowledge on Generation Y and how to attract, inspire and retain talent from the 'Facebook generation'.

To complement the keynote speakers, TechAlliance is seeking proposals from our community for the breakout sessions. The 2012 conference will be following the below listed streams:

• Growing leaders - The strength of your business relies on the strength of your leaders and people. These breakout sessions will engage the speaker and all participants in a discussion sharing advice and methods to grow our businesses and community leaders. Topics could include fostering leadership in your organization, encouraging community leadership, or passing on leadership skills.
• Growing innovation - To expand your business and to grow our next economy, innovation is a necessity. These breakout sessions will help you to inspire innovation in your company or organization. Topics for these sessions could include tools necessary to encourage innovation, methods for managing processes that foster innovation, or local examples of organizations known for being innovative and lessons that can be learned from them.
• Growing sales - The growth of a business is inextricably linked to its sales management and resulting successes. These breakout sessions will address challenges faced in increasing your sales targets. Topics for these sessions could include maximizing customer relationships, discovering new markets, using social media to nurture leads, or improving your sales process.

If you or your organization has expertise in any of the above streams, we want to hear from you! To be considered for the opportunity to host a breakout session at Gearing up for Growth, please submit a proposal to allison [dot] fishertechalliance [dot] ca (Allison Fisher) by Friday, January 20, 2012 including the following:

• Detailed description of the topic you are interested in presenting
• The stream your topic applies to
• Detailed biography of who will be presenting the session
• Whether your organization would be interested in sponsoring the session 

We thank you in advance for your time in developing a proposal but wish to note that we are only able to choose two sessions per conference stream. Should your proposal not be selected for this year’s conference, please know that we may contact you in the future to offer your expertise at a different TechAlliance event.

Should you require additional information or if you have a topic idea not listed above, please allison [dot] fishertechalliance [dot] ca (email Allison Fisher )or phone 519.858.5059.