Storytelling expert Alicia Korten is an author, speaker, facilitator and trainer. She is the Founder and CEO of Renual, a consulting company that works with foundations, socially responsible businesses and not-for-profits to grow enduring institutions and initiatives. Ms. Korten has led strategic planning processes, conducted workshops on leadership and storytelling, and has written publications for the Ford Foundation, Levi Strauss & Co., the Inter-American Foundation, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the Smithsonian Associates Program, the Aspen Institute and many others.

She is the co-author of the recently released book Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results

Bob Harris has worked with thousands of associations and chambers of commerce to focus on operations and board governance. Bob's career passions are demonstrated in two principles: promoting the impact of nonprofit organizations and sharining the tools to make associations successful. His career started in Washington D.C. with Presidential Classroom, and he later he built an association management company in Tallahassee. He is on the faculty for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and works with the US State Department to develop associations in Amman, Jordan. In addition to authoring books on association management, he created the Association Self-Auditing Process, which has-been used by over 10,000 organizations. He has received awards and recognition for promoted association excellence and professional development. He has worked for Hyatt Hotels of Florida since 1984.

His website has hundreds of pages of free management tips and templates. (www.nonprofitcenter.com)

Marc is a partner with the consulting company Decisions Decisions in Portland, Oregon. He has been an organizational development consultant for more than 20 years, working with nonprofit and public organizations nationally involved in a spectrum of issues including land and river conservation, energy conservation, affordable housing, historic preservation and human service. He serves as a Trustee and with the Columbia Land Trust and a Commissioner for the national Land Trust Accreditation Commission. He has served in a variety of leadership roles previously with several organizations, including Online Networking for the Environment Northwest (ONE/Northwest), and REACH Community Development.

Marc teaches graduate and undergraduate courses as an adjunct professor for the Institute for the Management Organizations at Portland State University. Topics taught include Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations and Effective Board Governance. Marc Smiley was formerly the Executive Director for the Oregon Natural Resources Council and the Yakima Greenway Foundation. He was the first Training Director for River Network, and served as project director for United Way of the Columbia Willamette's 1991 Guide to Oregon Foundations, as well as coordinator of the BoardWALK training program.

William P. Ryan is a research fellow at the Hauser Center and a consultant to nonprofit organizations and foundations. Both his consulting and research focus on nonprofit organizational effectiveness. He has explored how several forces -- including board governance, access to capital, foundation grantmaking practices, and competition with for-profit firms -- shape the capacity of nonprofits to deliver on their missions. He currently directs the Nonprofit Governance and Accountability Project, a joint initiative of the Hauser Center and Harvard Law School aimed at engaging Harvard researchers in critical questions related to nonprofit governance.

He is co-author, most recently, of Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards , which has been honored with awards from the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and Independent Sector. He is also co-author of High Performance Nonprofit Organizations: Managing Upstream for Greater Impact

Andrew Gilman, President and CEO of CommCore Consulting Group, has been a communications strategist, crisis counselor and keynote speaker for more than twenty-five years. Co-author of the best-selling book Get To The Point (Bantam 1990), Andrew is also a lawyer and award-winning journalist. Most recently he was selected as Educator/Trainer of the Year by PR News. He frequently is called upon to help senior executives prepare for media interviews, new business presentations, board meetings, testimony before Congressional committees and regulatory agencies, expert witnessing in lawsuits, appearances on TV and radio, road shows, analyst presentations, and investor meetings.

Andrew also develops and directs the CommCore training and consulting services. His copyrighted training innovations include the Two-Minute Talking Memo, Art of the Sound Bite and Message Mapping for media interviews. As a crisis communications expert, Andrew’s experience includes providing advice to the University of Virginia Medical Center in the baby-switching incident and counsel to Johnson & Johnson during Tylenol I. The J&J assignment included coaching Chairman James Burke for interviews on 60 Minutes and in other national media. He also prepared senior Lockheed/Martin executives for Congressional hearings following the Challenger accident. Andrew conducts crisis simulations for General Motors, pharmaceutical companies and industry associations, where he teaches participants how to take control of news events instead of just reacting to the next fact.

Brian Beaulieu has been an economist with the Institute for Trend Research since 1982, serving as its Executive Director since 1987. At the Institute, he has been engaged in applied research regarding business cycle trend analysis and the utilization of that research at a practical business level.

Mr. Beaulieu’s views have appeared in/on: the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Barron’s, USA Today, CNBC TV, FOX Business TV, Knight Ridder News Services, Reuters, CBS Radio, The Washington Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution, KERA TV, Canadian TV, and numerous other outlets. He is a regular columnist and contributing economist to national trade associations and publications.

Mr. Beaulieu is Chief Economist for Vistage Int’l and TEC, global organizations comprised of over 13,000 CEO’s. Mr. Beaulieu has been providing workshops and economic analysis seminars across the US and Canada to literally thousands of business owners and executives for the last 25 years.