Event Overview

Innovation. Courage. Decisions.

You show up for your peers and your business with full dedication — at any hour. It’s what makes the Vistage community of business leaders so special.

Now more than ever, it is imperative to innovate at the speed of life. As things continue to change in the blink of an eye, make sure you’re equipped to continue your climb. In the company of your Vistage peers (back in person!), access the insights you need to power your ascent in 2022 and beyond.

Join us at the Vistage Executive Summit for:

Critical keynotes. Your local economy. Your hot-button issues. Your leadership, to the next level.
Targeted learning sessions. Deep dives into topics keeping members up at night.
Peer-to-peer connections. Get to know your greater Vistage community and share your unique perspective — face to face!

Have the Summit in your pocket
All event materials will be available when you need them, from your mobile device in the Digital Event Folder. By logging into My Vistage day-of the event, access:
– agenda
– presentation downloads
– takeaways
– and more!
Look for the link to the Digital Event Folder in your inbox leading up to the event.

Download the My Vistage mobile app for quicker access day-of the Summit.

Available for Vistage members only.

Event Speakers

Michael Brody-Waite

Founder & CEO, Addictive Leadership

Addictive Leadership

Drawing on his own journey of recovery from addiction, Michael helps leaders identify their “Leadership Addiction” and apply the system created 80 years ago to transform the lives of addicts in order to transform their leadership. Participants walk away with the tools to:

Reclaim Time: Save 500 hours per year (seriously)
Realign Priorities: Say no to the things that limit high performance
Reconnect Relationships: Build stronger bonds and trust with rigorous authenticity
Revive Communication: Stop avoiding difficult conversations
Reach Potential: Grow talent by asking for what you need
Refresh Leadership: Increase energy and engagement with a unique approach

Lauren Saidel-Baker, CFA

Economist, ITR Economics

The Climb Ahead

Inform your decision-making in a changing economic landscape with this data-packed presentation from ITR Economics. Tailored to your local market, ITR’s analysis will:

Assess business demand for 2022, 2023 and into 2024.
Evaluate the labor market and present expectations for availability and labor costs.
Present a clear picture of inflation and interest rates.
Discuss lingering supply chain issues and ongoing pricing concerns.
Look at key leading indicators and what they foretell for your market.
Present relevant market outlooks and discuss issues that impact your profitability.
And more!

Joe Galvin

Chief Research Officer, Vistage Worldwide

Decision Factors 2022: Unleashing Workforce Productivity

CEOs are facing a dynamic set of rapidly evolving factors that will influence their decisions as the post pandemic reality comes into focus. Once an emerging trend, remote work and the demands of an empowered workforce are challenging CEOs to attract and retain high performers. In this session, you'll gain perspectives on how adapt the workplace to unleash workforce productivity with the latest data and insights from Vistage Research.

Breakout sessions

7:45 - 8:45 am

Breakfast Session | M&A – A Means to Supporting Your Strategic Growth Plans for the Business

Presenter: Al Melchiorre, President, MelCap Partners, LLC

During this session, we will provide an overview of the current state of the M&A market, as well as how mergers and acquisitions involving both private equity and strategic capital providers can support the business owner’s vision for the company and support strategic growth initiatives. We will provide specific examples of each as well as case studies outlining how M&A benefited the company, its customers, suppliers, and employees. We will also explore these benefits from both the buyer and seller perspective alike. Topic: Financials: Mergers & Acquisitions

7:45 - 8:45 am

Breakfast Session | Turn on the Financial Headlights: Maximize Your Profitability & Success

Presenter: K. Scott Crawford, Partner, Preferred CFO

The future can't be predicted, but with proper tools and strategies, businesses can “Turn on the Headlights,” increasing their opportunity for prosperity while reducing risk of failure. In this session, Scott Crawford of Preferred CFO presents tools and strategies that help stakeholders elevate their company's fiscal health, confidence, and strategy by:

Understanding the importance and intricacies of a forward-facing financial strategy—and how to execute it.
Evaluating a financial teams' capabilities and ability to provide actionable information.
Tracking the right metrics to better inform the future.
Harnessing the power of forecasting to more confidently achieve goals through data-backed decision making.

Topic: Financials: Financial Management

7:45 - 8:45 am

Breakfast Session | Transforming Your Business Through Intelligent Process Automation

Presenter: Joe Gabiger, COO and Head of Automation Operations, Ignite IPA; Tim Fleming, Head of Process & Client Experience, Ignite IPA; Hari Murali, Head of Global Delivery, Ignite IPA

Are you worried about hiring/retaining staff? Are you nervous about inflation or a potential recession/depression? Are you looking to grow your business but are concerned about the increased costs? Leveraging automation can help companies of all sizes support their corporate strategy and achieve high ROI by reducing expenses, avoiding costs, accelerating revenue, and creating more efficient business processes. In this session you will learn about intelligent process automation technologies, and how other companies have leveraged them to achieve higher margins. Opt-in-participants will receive a complimentary opportunity identification assessment focused on creating a quantifiable pipeline of value-based automation opportunities. Topic: Business Operations: Technology

12:30 - 1:30 pm

Lunch Session | How to Grow Enterprise Value to Outpace Inflation

Presenter: Dave Heymann, Senior Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor, Generational Group and Vistage Speaker

Businesses and their value tend to grow to the limit of the available resources. Working harder (or smarter) will NOT grow the business beyond that ceiling. Inflation makes this even worse by reducing resources. This session discusses growing without increasing resources, how to get more resources for growth, and how business value is REALLY determined. If we want to release some or all of that value, how do we do it? Finally, if I want to transfer the business and its value to the next generation, how do I protect my family, my financial future, and the business? Topic: Merger & Acquisition Advisory

12:30 - 1:30 pm

Lunch Session | A CEO's Guide To Increase Productivity and Revenue at the Edge

Presenter: Michelle Moran, Involta SVP Sales, Mark Cooley Involta VP of Security and Compliance, Josh Holst, Involta VP of Cloud Services, David Hummes, Involta Director of Product Development

IT and OT transformation is taking place at Mach speed. Urgency in development and deployment of a Cloud and Edge strategy is necessary, yet there are still many variables. After decades of ambiguity, Cloud is defined, while the definition of edge is uncertain – complicating security, network and infrastructure decisions. This discussion will explore how technology is transforming organizations’ abilities to deploy and monitor performance of critical systems. Learn how a Cloud strategy, at the Edge, will enable business outcomes such as improved productivity, reduced downtime, cost containment and enhanced security. Learn several key takeaways through industry examples to help understand where these strategies fit in your business. Topic: Business Operations: Technology

12:30 - 1:30 pm

Lunch Session | CEO's Candid Guide to Right People, Right Job, Right Fit to Scale the Business

Presenter: Jason Williford, Executive Advisor, Mike DePauw, Executive Advisor, Walter Greeson, Client Services Manager, Culture Index

Join the Culture Index team to reveal the true fit of your executive team and leaders- who is in the right seat and who is not? Do you have the right team in place to scale your business? Not getting the top and bottom line growth by not hiring and obtaining the right team? In this session, you will be prepped to utilize data to make more objective human decisions in securing the right talent in order to drive sustainable growth. Walk away with new insights, tips, and practices to implement into your business and better align your people. Topic: Leadership: Communication & Alignment

12:30 - 1:30 pm

Lunch Session | The Clarity of Hindsight: Tales of Building a Business of Real, Transferrable Value & Why We Failed

Presenter: Jim Gilbride, Area President, FocusCFO

We all know the adage, “If I knew then what I know now…” Well, here’s your chance to learn from an entrepreneur reflecting back on what he’s now learned, and wishes he knew then. Jim and team built a $100 million business over 10 years to see it crash to $15M and rebuilt to $40M. Even so, he muses about “what we could have done, if only...” We all want to build a business of value. For ourselves and those close, and for future investors or buyers. While advice abounds on “what” to do, we often underestimate and get stuck on the “how”. Join Jim as he shares practical insights you can put into action right away. Organizing his battle-scarred lessons learned into a 4-level Climb to Building Real, Sustainable and Transferrable Business Value. You will come away with:

What are the four levels of a value building process?
How these 4 levels work together – if done right – to build healthy, scalable growth that ultimately maximizes value.

Share a chuckle or two from Jim’s lessons learned the hard way, particularly those that may hit close to home Topic: Financials: Financial Management

Event Overview