Building the Conference Community

Whether you’re attending the conference for the first time or the fifteenth, start it off by joining us for an evening of creativity and fun! Through a variety of engaging activities, set the stage for learning and deepen connections—with ideas, with practices, and, most importantly, with old and new friends. Discover how you can gain the most from the conference, both while you’re here and after you return home. Prepare to meet your individual and team learning objectives by making your goals explicit and committing to plans that work for you. Finally, learn how to take the lessons back to your organization and share them with others. This is a great opportunity to get acquainted with one another, share what we have in common, and embrace our interdependence.

Charles Alday is the founder and principal consultant with Alday Consulting Services, Inc. He launched the firm in 2005 after a successful career in private industry. The company specializes in organizational development and operational excellence through improving performance, building learning cultures, and implementing systemic processes and practices. Charles works with individuals and groups to enhance safety culture, human factors knowledge and applications, risk management, and corporate performance. He also serves as a leadership consultant and executive coach.

Michelle M. Boos-Stone is founder and principal of Gecko Graphics, a firm specializing in corporate Mindscaping™, the process of transforming ideas and concepts into powerful pictures, words, and key icons. As a presenter or speaker is talking, Michelle captures the “flow” of the session in bold, colorful images, while synthesizing thoughts and information, to help stimulate visual learners to understand processes and clearly see interrelationships. She is also a consultant and trainer and has done extensive work with companies in organizational learning, communication, culture change, and leadership development.