Institute for International Research

5:30 p.m. KEYNOTE KICKOFF
Becoming a Maverick: Increasing the Return on Connection with Your Customers

Polly LaBarre, Former Senior Editor, FAST COMPANY; Co-Author, "Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win"

Cheaper may be better, but values are priceless. If you want to win the loyalty of your customers, don't confuse manipulating dollars and cents with making a genuine connection. There is a paradox at the heart of the relationship between most companies and their customers. Companies are offering better deals than ever-literally the best bargains in history. It has never been cheaper to fly from Dallas to Los Angeles, to make a phone call from Boston to Brussels, to buy a computer or a DVD player. Yet the harder companies work to make products cheaper and better, the less they seem to impress their customers.

If companies compete on the power and originality of their ideas, than what's wrong with how they're thinking about customers? One honest answer is that they're not thinking about customers. The wave of consolidation, downsizing, and restructuring in so many industries - airlines, telecom, banking, retail - has become an unofficial declaration of war on customers. But the bigger problem is that companies mistake selling at a good price with striking a genuine relationship. When almost everything gets cheaper every year, merely offering customers "a great deal" won't win them over or keep them happy because there's always someone else prepared to offer them a better deal. In an era of overcapacity, oversupply, and sensory overload - when companies are selling too much of everything - the most precious commodity in business is an emotional connection with customers, a bond that cuts through the clutter.

In this bracing presentation, Polly will show you how to create products, services, and companies that stand for something special in the eyes of your customers. She'll introduce a collection of maverick companies and innovative leaders who are increasing their return on connection with their customers. The audience will learn how to stop targeting their customers and to start engaging them, how to stop crafting messages and to start real conversations, and how to recharge your own energy and creativity in the process.

6:30 Book Signing with Polly LaBarre & Conclusion of Monday Activities