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ASPPA Women Business Leaders Forum: The Best and the Brightest

June 5-8, 2017, the ASPPA Women Business Leaders Forum (WBLF) will be held in Denver, CO at the Brown Palace Hotel. This conference is a gathering of some of the best, brightest and most innovative women business owners and managers in the compliance consulting and retirement plan service industry. It is a premier event designed to offer business leaders new ideas for growing their businesses and making them thrive in an ever-changing industry. This is accomplished through presentations from nationally recognized presenters and through the breakout sessions where participants share openly in a noncompetitive atmosphere about their ideas and experiences as leaders of their firms.

The WBLF is a small, intimate conference that offers the opportunity for all participants to get to know one another and develop relationships that extend far beyond the days that we gather together each June. It offers the opportunity to develop contacts with leaders in our industry who can be called upon for ideas, assistance and sharing of information long after the conference itself is over.

Each business represented at the conference differs from the others. The types of service providers range from large regional TPA firms to small local firms, large daily record keepers to balance forward only firms, or firms who only work with vendor platforms or partner with daily record keepers. Both producing and nonproducing firms are represented, as are CPA firms who offer administration, some who specialize in auditing plans, firms who primarily do DB work, and those who only do DC work. However, even though all of the firms come in different shapes and sizes, each leader of her firm has unique ideas and solutions for managing her firm and growing it. Those ideas are openly shared with other attendees.

This year, the sessions will include:

1. Leadership Speaking & Development – Avoiding the Quit & Stay Phenomenon presented by Shari Harley of Candid Culture and back by popular demand
2. Washington Update & Late-Breaking Regulatory Developments presented by ASPPA’s own Craig Hoffman
3. The Power of Ethics – Why Hiring for Character and Competence Matters presented by Dr. Nathan Mellor, president of Strata Leadership, LLC
4. If Disney Ran Your Business, What Would It Look Like? Secrets to Creating a Customer Experience That is Magical and Build Customer Loyalty for Life presented by John Formica, former Disney executive and founder of John Formica Enterprises, LLC
5. You and the DOL Regs: How the TPA Biz has Changed…Or Has it? presented by Ilene Ferenczy of Ferenczy Benefits Law Center
6. The Cyber Blacklist: Top Security Threats & Countermeasures presented by John Sileo of The Sileo Group
7. The Yin and Yang of Remote Employees presented by Sheri Alsguth and Amanda Iverson of Pinnacle Plan Design, LLC; Norman Levinrad, president of Summit Benefit & Actuarial Services; and Adam Pozek of DWC ERISA Consultants, Inc.

For detailed descriptions of sessions, please watch for upcoming articles in ASPPA Connect or download the conference brochure.

The attendees will also have the opportunity to attend the Historical Ladies of the Brown and Ghost Tour on the evening of Monday, June 5. The conference sponsors will treat all of the attendees to a fabulous dinner at Palettes Restaurant on Tuesday night where the conversations and sharing can continue. Finally, on Wednesday night, the attendees will get to exercise their puzzle-solving skills at Escape Works Denver and enjoy a wonderful reception at Baur’s Restaurant.

In this short article, I do not have enough room to mention all of the benefits that I have personally received from attending this conference each year. It is amazing that every year, year after year, I am able to take away multiple ideas that have helped me to build, grow and ignite my business. I have developed relationships and friendships with peers in my industry that I may not have had the opportunity to develop at a larger conference. It is a unique experience that cannot be found at any other conference. The openness that people share with, the welcoming attitude of all of the attendees and the smaller, more intimate environment make this conference one that I never miss.

If you are interested in attending, please do. Once you attend you will never want to miss it again. Take a few days away from the office to work on your business instead of in it. You will reap the rewards long into the future.

Remember that space is limited so you should register soon before it sells out. You can download the full agenda and register for the conference here.

Shannon M. Edwards, ERPA, QPA, QKA, is with TriStar Pension Consulting.