Thursday, May 13, 2010 – 12:30 pm – 5 pm
University Center of Lake County
1200 University Center Drive, Grayslake, IL 60030

Bring your business vision to life through this innovative and motivational program. In this edition of the acclaimed Vision 2020 conference series, experts will share advanced techniques to plan and achieve your ideal business, today.

Plus, business owners and job seekers alike will have ample opportunity to meet and connect to expand your network, facilitate referrals and collaborate to build the local business community.

ENERGIZE YOUR BUSINESS

Kathy Brown, Owner, Kathy Brown TLC (Transformation & Leadership)

How do you take your dreams and bring them to fruition in your business? How do you take the abstract and seemingly unattainable potential and make it work for you? You can accomplish this if you take a new perspective. Join Kathy as she shares her four steps to creating your business success story.

Kathy Brown has been featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, numerous network TV shows such as NBC’s Nightly News, and radio talk shows such as Crain Business News. She has been honored by Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine as one of the 100 most InfluentialWomen in Chicago. She was also voted Chicago’s Best Dance Instructor by Chicago Magazine. She’s the author of A Different Perspective – A Passionate Journey, The Secret to the Zone, and Intellectual Energy.

MONETIZING LINKEDIN

J.D. Gershbein, President, Owlish Communications

So you’re on LinkedIn, but you don’t really know how to use it to make money. Perhaps you’ve tinkered with your profile, spent a little time on the site, and sent and accepted several invitations. Have you noticed any changes in your bottom line?

With over 60 million users, LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world. Join noted LinkedIn super-strategist J.D. Gershbein, President of Owlish Communications for a no-nonsense presentation on
HOW TO MONETIZE LINKEDIN.

Cost: $39, Earlybird Online registration - $49.00 at the Door

Register Now!

Click the Pay Now button below to register today!

Vision 20/20 Brings You:

FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER

TECHNIQUES TO ATTRACT CLIENTS

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 –

12:30 pm – 5 pm

University Center of Lake County
1200 University Center Drive, Grayslake, IL 60030

It’s the biggest factor in the success of any business – quality customers. But as the landscape changes, how do you create a relationship with customers and potential customers that will keep them buying for years to come?

In this edition of the acclaimed Vision 2020 conference series, experts will share advanced techniques to attract customers to your business, as well as provide easy-to-implement solutions that can improve your bottom line today.

Plus, business owners and job seekers alike will have ample opportunity to meet and connect to expand your network, facilitate referrals and collaborate to build the local business community.

REGISTRATION:

Cost: $39, Earlybird Online registration

$49.00 at the Door

Click Here to learn more and register.

Two area businessmen are not waiting for the economy to turn around — they are working to make it happen through the Vision 2020: Maximum Potential, Building a Platform for Success.

The event, geared for small business owners, entrepreneurs and job seekers, will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 17 at the University Center of Lake County, 1200 University Center Drive in Grayslake. Participants will learn networking skills, business plans and strategies, how to build an online presence, customer service and technology tools.

Read the rest of the article online.

Have you registered yet? It’s not too late.

Maximum Potential: Building a Platform for Success

November 17th 2009, 11:30am to 5pm

University Center, 1200 University Center Drive, Grayslake, IL 60030

• Lunch is included with this event.

Click Here to learn more and register.

In these challenging times, it is now up to us as individuals to collaborate together and commit to each other to be the change that we want to see in our communities. Whether you are a small business owner or a person in transition, the time has come to join hands in building a vibrant business community in Lake County.

Look forward to renewing old partnerships and building new ones.

Best,

Anup

At that conference, I’ll be presenting information on Social Networking for Business. The first presentation will be in the networking track of the event. In that time, I’ll be showing just how similar social networking is to face-to-face networking.

There are many people afraid to jump into the social networking arena. I correlate that to businesses who did not think there was a need for a website 10 or even 5 years ago. I don’t meet business owners any more who don’t think it’s necessary to have a website. The time has also come for social networking.

There are many excuses for not doing social networking.  People are always telling me things like – I grew up with a phone that had a cord, with a tv that had tubes, without a computer… -  so did I – Get over it! If you want your business to be found on the web today, social networking is absolutely necessary. A website alone is not good enough anymore. Even a website that has great search engine optimization needs more. Having your profile on LinkedIn, updating your info on Twitter and having a business page on Facebook are just a few of the steps that need to be taken in social media to get people to know about your business.

The other piece of what I’m doing is presenting on using Facebook pages for business. Facebook is not just for connecting with friends and finding old classmates. When it’s used correctly, Facebook can be a great business tool. Jobs are found, business is transacted and money is made.

Hope to see many familiar and new faces at this great conference. Did I forget to mention that there will be plenty of time for face-to-face networking?

LAKE COUNTY, ILLINOIS – July 1st, 2009 – The committee for Vision 2020: Insights Needed to Grow Your Business is proud to announce their first business conference and expo being held Tuesday July 21, 2009, at the University Center of Lake County in Grayslake.

Senator Dan Duffy, Illinois Senator representing the 26th District and Suzy Schmidt, Chairman of the Lake County Board are expected to be present at the conference and will share their views. More local officials are also expected to attend.

Improv Playhouse an entertainment organization and full-service acting school that specializes in comprehensive improv – comedy and acting classes for adults and youth, corporate and private entertainment, business training and development, and talent management will be kicking off the event and will have interactive workshops to coach the audience on various business tactics.

Presentations, panel discussions, workshops, product showcases and networking opportunities will center around business growth topics, such as Business Plans & Strategies, Networking Skills, Customer Service, Technology Tools and Online Presence. Over 22 speakers and 9 sessions packed with content, workshops, success stories, go to market lessons from people who have started or grown their business. Jeff Weber, who started his business in his basement and grew it to $30 million dollar in revenues before selling it to CDW Tom Drugan, Founder, Naymz.com will be some of the speakers and sharing their secret to success.

A must-attend event if you are interested in investing in the future of your business.

“The perfect event for all entrepreneurs, small business owners and anyone who is interested in starting or growing their own business” Mario Feijoo, VP of Elite Accounting and Business Services, and co-chair of the Vision 2020.

Sponsors include EverybodySafe.com, NorStates Bank, Teleprime Inc., Elite Accounting and Business Services, Office Plus of Lake County, Quality Business Solutions, Lake County Prosperity Forum, TDS, Improv Playhouse, Libertyville, Corporate Portrait Chicago, Imasion Corporation, Ruggeri Consulting, Next Level Ventures have joined the ranks of the sponsors.

“We believe that small and medium sized businesses will be a driving force in leading the economy out of this recession. Through collaboration, commitment and change, we can make a difference in our own lives and in our communities,” commented Anup Manchanda, co-chair of the Vision 2020 event.

Kris Schroder, Social Media Evangelist and Director of Internet Operations for EverybodySafe.com, one of the sponsors, had this say about the event, “We are excited to be part of an event that is focused on helping small business. This works hand in hand with the focus of our company, which is helping people.”

“This is a wonderful networking opportunity for those who have been negatively impacted by large corporate layoffs during the last year, and who are interested in exploring opportunities in entrepreneurship or with local, small businesses. The price value of the full-day event is well worth the investment.” Heather Richtfort, Finance Manager, co-founder of the Lake County Prosperity Forum.

For more information go to http://www.vision2020conf.info or call (847) 833-8822.

To all our Successes-

Markus

As a follow up to the post I wrote asking “What are YOU creating,” I’m also working with fellow members of the Lake County Prosperity Forum on a volunteer basis on a business conference that will be occuring later this summer (details to be released once our site is up and running). I’ll be a panel speaker on the topic of using Social Media to build your brand, as I’ve become one of the in-house gurus on all things Twitter.

In order to create BUZZ for the event, I’ve set up a Twitter account for our conference, @Vision2020Conf, and just yesterday stumbled across a wonderful blogpost by @MariSmith about using a free application called Group Tweet that will allow several Twitter users to post through the @Vision2020Conf account so that no one person is running around like a maniac from one exhibitor booth or conference room to the next during the all-day event.

So here is the “HOT” part about the post. After looking through a few more of the posts on Mari’s Blog, I clicked to mark her blog as one of my favorites via Technorati, and stumbled across a new widget (now in our far right column) that lets you graph the top searched tags / key-words in the blogosphere, and was blown away by how much more popular Twitter is in searches than LinkedIn. (Twitter is the blue line way on the top; LinkedIn is the line that’s nearly non-existent on the bottom.)

I have run into so many people in the last year (during my “Job Search 1.0″)that were finally starting to understand that having a compelling LinkedIn profile is no longer an option in today’s professional world — it is a must. Linked in went from 10 million users two years ago to 40 million as of the end of April, 2009.

I heard of and joined Twitter last summer. Estimates were that it had roughly 5 million users last year April, this article estimates that the site had nearly 17 million “unique visitors” (not sure if that means user accounts) in the month of April, 2009 alone, during my “Job Search 2.0″.

So now go look at that graph widget I’ve posted on the top right of Unleashed Abundance again — as of this posting, Twitter’s search rate is kicking LinkedIn’s butt. Ponder this a few secs….

A couple years ago, LinkedIn was hot stuff. Many business professionals are just NOW starting to understand they NEED to be there. Fast forward to today. Twitter is HOT STUFF. You might want to consider whether YOU should be there…

Cheers,
@Hrichtfort — looking forward to seeing y’all at @Vision2020Conf with a shout-out to my fellow #Vision2020Conf partners in crime: @Anup25 @EverybodySafe @MasterSF @RealtyFreak @JDGershbein and @FootballChic