I
had the pleasure of attending the 63rd Annual Indiana University
Business Conference put on by our very own Kelley School. This was my
second time attending the conference and I was a little concerned that
this year's event wouldn't live up to my expectations after last year's
great event that featured presentations by the CEO's of FedEx
Corporation, Simon Property Management, The Indianapolis Motor
Speedway, and Langham Logistics as well as Indiana University President
Michael McRobbie and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels - but it did.
At
first blush, this year's speakers didn't jump out at me as the same
level of "household names" as before. However, that doesn't mean that
they (and their companies) weren't impressive or didn't provide equal
or greater value to those of us in attendance - they certainly did.
These year's lineup included Susan Dentzer, Editor-in-Chief of Health Affairs,
Bill McKibben, Environmentalist, Amory Lovins, Co-founder and Chief
Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Michael Evans, Founder and
President of AIT Laboratories, Douglas Lattner, Chairman and CEO of
Deloitte Consulting and Michael Rippey, President of ArcelorMittal USA.
The moderator and keynote speaker was New York Times Columnist David Brooks
(who is a household name, despite what I mentioned earlier) was
amusing, informative and insightful in his discussion of political
leadership in the midst of this economic crisis. He offered
behind-the-scenes stories and personal impressions of both President
Obama and the second President Bush that put into perspective how I
view those in power.
As good as Mr. Brooks
keynote was, my favorite presentation was actually by Mr. Lovins, whose
physical appearance matches his title of "Chief Scientist" but his
communication skills do not. His presentation was quite understandable
for the non-technical 50,000 foot decision makers in the room as well
as compelling in its arguments (such as the value in automotive and
aviation companies switching from steel to carbon fiber for
construction materials).
In a first for me, I attempted to keep a running Twitter account
of the goings on throughout the day and was joined in by others hailing
from the Bloomington and IU East campuses (click here for the archive at #kelleyconf).
I
would strongly recommend that any Kelley student, especially those of
us evening MBA candidates who have lost our continuing education
budgets in our full time jobs, take full advantage of the no-cost or
low-cost opportunities provided for learning of this kind. The next one
is coming up quickly - register now for the IU Entrepreneurial Connection event in Bloomington on March 27th.
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