SPONSOR For This Conference	The Facilities for the 32nd Midwest Facilitation Conference are provided by Loyola University's Center for Information Management and Technology (CIMT), 25 East Pearson (Corner of Wabash & Pearson), Chicago, Illinois 60611, http://www.cimt.luc.edu
SPONSOR: Nightingale Conant	Since 1993, Nightingale-Conant (Niles, Illinois) has been a most significant contributing sponsor to MFN providing the vast majority of door prizes. Nightingale-Conant is the largest producer and distributor of instructional and motivational audio and video tapes for Personal and Business Development, Wealth Building, Sales, Mind Technology, Health & Wellness and Spiritual Growth. Nightingale-Conant also provides Coaching Services and has a full-service Speakers' Bureau. Please visit their website at: http://www.nightingale.com
SPONSOR: University Associates	Since 1993, University Associates, has been another significant sponsor and supporter of MFN activities, providing products and a number of high-value door prizes, such as tuition-free seats in their workshops. Please visit their website at: http://www.universityassociates.com
Conference Fees	$99.00 per participant on or before October 14th (Early Registration Discount) $119.00 per participant after October 14th $119.00 per participant at the door (no guarantee of availability) Fee includes Conference, Materials, Continental Breakfast & Lunch.  Fee Does NOT include Lodging (see suggestions below). Cancellations after October 14th or no shows may be assessed a cancellation fee
5 Ways to Register	Click Here to go to Registration Information Page Phone: (773)-463-2288 - During the recording press the "2" key. Please announce 'MFN Conference Registration', your company name, and the name, phone # and payment information of each registrant. Fax: (773)-463-9322 - Fax completed registration form with payment information for each registrant. E-Mail: register@midwest-facilitators.net - E-mail completed registration form with payment information and subject: 'MFN Conference Registration'. Snail-mail: Mail completed registration form with payment information to: MFN c/o Jordan-Webb, 2656 W Montrose Ave,  Suite 110, Chicago, IL 60618. On-Site: Registration and payment ($119.00) on-site is subject to availability. No guarantee without pre-registration.
On-Line Information	Chicago, IL Information Websites: Weather Information - http://www.weather.com/weather/local/60601 City of Chicago - http://www.cityofchicago.org  or  http://www.ci.chi.il.us City Search for Chicago - http://www.chicago.citysearch.com  World Web Travel Guide - http://www.chicago.worldweb.com Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau - http://www.choosechicago.com All About Chicago - http://www.allabout-chicago.com AreaGuides.Net - http://chicago.areaguides.net Chicago Tribune - http://www.chicagotribune.com Chicago Sun-Times - http://www.suntimes.com Chicago Reader - http://www.chireader.com Navy Pier - http://www.navypier.com Wendella Boat Rides - http://www.wendellaboats.com Mercury Boat Cruises - http://centerstage.net/other/mercury-boat-cruises.html Daily Herald - http://www.dailyherald.com Chicago Public Library - http://cpl.lib.uic.edu Fun Places to Go With Kids - http://www.FunPlacesToGoWithKids.com Ken Schessler's America/Chicago Tours - http://members.aol.com/KSchessler/wizzk.html Palmer's Walking Guide - http://www.palmersguide.com/chicago Sears Tower - http://www.searstower.com Museum of Science & Industry - http://www.msichicago.org Field Museum of Natural History - http://www.fmnh.org Shedd Aquarium - http://www.sheddnet.org Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum - http://www.adlerplanetarium.org Art Institute of Chicago - http://www.artic.edu Museum of Contemporary Art - http://www.mcachicago.org Chicago Historical Society - http://www.chicagohs.org Chicago Children's Museum - http://www.chichildrensmuseum.org Morton Arboretum - http://www.mortonarb.org Chicago Botanic Garden - http://www.chicago-botanic.org Chicago Architecture - http://www.yelodog.com Chicago's Greektown - http://www.chicagosgreektown.com Chicago's Chinatown - http://www.chicagochinatown.net Musicals - http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Performing_Arts/Theater/Musicals/Shows/Chicago Theater - http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/U_S__States/Illinois/Cities/Chicago/Entertainment_and_Arts/Theater Chicago White Sox - http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/cws/homepage/cws_homepage.jsp Chicago Cubs - http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/homepage/chc_homepage.jsp
Meals	Continental breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack are included in the Conference fee.  Participants with special dietary needs contact David De Witt: david.dewitt@dsc-logistics.com
Dress Code	Business Casual.

Monday, October 20, 2003

A major responsibility of a facilitator is to develop and conduct the most effective process possible for each workshop. Many times, this is accomplished by following "cookbook" agendas. These are workshop agendas that have been used before and are tested. Other times, the facilitator works with an expert in a given method (I call this person a "methodologist") to develop a workshop agenda based on the method. Both of these means of developing a workshop agenda work very well and cover the majority of situations. Cookbook agendas and working with a methodologist are the most effective ways to develop agendas. However, not all situations fit into a cookbook agenda or have a methodologist to help. In those cases, the facilitator must develop the process another way. The following is a way that I use to develop new methods that lead to workshop agendas. This method is based on a problem-solving agenda called the "Single Question" approach. It begins with a single question. This single question is the overriding reason for the workshop. Participants will work in small teams to practice developing questions, sub-questions, sequencing and organizing of the questions into agenda steps.

---

Gary Rush MG Rush Systems, Inc Barrington, IL http://www.mgrush.com

Gary Rush is president and founder of MG Rush Systems, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in the finest facilitation services. MG Rush Systems was formed in 1985 to offer consulting, training, and facilitator services. Prior to starting MG Rush Systems, Gary worked in the insurance and the oil and gas industries. After extensive research into interactive design ("JAD") techniques and over 3000 hours of experi-ence leading sessions, Mr. Rush created a proprietary facilitation process called FAST. Since developing FAST in 1985, Mr. Rush has trained over 2500 people in 200+ companies in 18 countries. Each year, Gary teaches between 20 and 30 6-day facilitation classes, numerous 3-day facilitation classes, and data modeling classes. He also facilitates critical workshops for companies on a regular basis. Mr. Rush has helped implement FAST at numerous companies, including some of the largest in the world. He is widely published and is a recognized leader in the movement towards using facilitated workshops.

For more information visit: http://www.mgrush.com  

What is the re-occurring "buzz" about Object Oriented Modeling and, as a facilitator, why should you care? Hear what Object Oriented is and isn't, it's promise, and what a facilitator should know to be most effective during Object Oriented collaborative sessions. Experience a few techniques to help shift your modeling perspective in order to help build sound business models.

Learner Objectives: As a result of attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

• Understand key concepts of Object Oriented Modeling, including responsibility, system-centric approach, and multi-perspective analysis
• Identify deliverables that can be created collaboratively
• Reference several facilitation techniques to be used in an Object Oriented collaborative session.
• Continue to develop their knowledge on Object Oriented Modeling using a list of resources.

 




---

Jack Hilty SentientPoint, Inc Chicago, IL http://www.sentientpoint.com

Ann Marie Calistro Educate! Facilitate! Innovate! Western Springs, IL

Jack Hilty is the founder and principal of SentientPoint, Inc. He has over 20 years of experience leading IT organizations in the development of enterprise business models, design standards, data management guidelines and methodologies in Relational and Object Oriented/UML environments. Jack has developed and teaches courses in Relational Data Modeling, Business Process Modeling, Object Oriented Business/UML Modeling and Business Requirements to Use Cases with Facilitation Techniques.

Ann Marie Calistro has been the Managing Principal of Educate! Facilitate! Innovate! for six years and specializes in customized training applications and creative meeting facilitation services. Ann Marie facilitates meetings while using a visual language to capture meeting progress. As a certified meeting facilitator, Ann Marie has designed and facilitated meetings with a diverse range of objectives: information gathering/design, mission/vision definitions, strategic planning and creative problem solving. Her style in the meeting forum and the classroom is energizing, very visual and fun.

For more information visit: http://www.sentientpoint.com

Faster! Cheaper! Consensus! Quality! Communication! How can Project Managers meet all of these expectations? Project Managers need to rapidly identify the scope requirements on their projects. Accurate and comprehensive Scope Planning and Scope Identification is also a must. Then, how will project scope be successfully managed without "scope creep?" Facilitated workshops are the key to helping Project Managers and Project Stakeholders define, document, reach consensus and manage the Project Scope Management deliverables. This workshop will provide experienced facilitators with the tools needed to facilitate a successful Project Scope Management Workshop. This interactive session will provide participants with an overview of how to facilitate a group of project stakeholders though a series of activities to define the Scope of their project. The Scope Management deliverables presented in this workshop will be based upon the recommendations of the Project Management Institute (PMI). PMI is recognized worldwide as the standards setting body for Project Management standards, and any facilitator who will be involved in facilitating Scope Management workshops should be familiar with this group and their standards.

Target Audience:

• Experienced facilitators involved in any project where defining and managing the project scope is critical to the ongoing success of the project
• Newly trained facilitators who need to experience different facilitation methods to determine what specialization areas they may want to pursue.

Learning Objectives. In this session, you'll learn:

• What are the Scope Management deliverables recommended by the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).
• The meaning, content and format of each Scope Management deliverable.
• How to facilitate activities in a workshop setting to build each Scope Management deliverable
• How to effectively capture Scope Management content using both graphic and text deliverable templates.

---

Chester Sparks & Paul Burek JADCore, LLC Irving, TX http://jadcorellc.com

Paul Burek is a certified JAD facilitator, and co-owner of JADCore, LLC. He is an excellent project manager and trainer with a wide range of project and development experiences. He has a well respected track record and has demonstrated leadership in several turnaround situations, taking over struggling projects and achieving successful product implementations. His career spans more than twenty five years in software development, project management, education delivery and business consulting. Mr. Burek has also managed professional software development staffs of up to 40 people and is well respected for his ability to build winning relationships between internal clients and Information Services groups. Currently his focus is facilitating business requirement and project management workshops, and conducting facilitation training courses.

Chester F. Sparks is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Principal with JADCore, LLC. He has over twenty years experience in Information Systems directing and participating in the full life cycle of system development. He has successfully utilized facilitation throughout his career to "bridge the communication gap" between information system professionals and end users. He is a highly skilled and experienced facilitator, program manager, project manager, systems analyst and trainer. Mr. Sparks has also managed professional software development and business system analyst staffs of up to 40 people, and is well respected for his ability to scope and manage multi-project program efforts. Currently his focus is facilitating business requirement and project management workshops, and conducting facilitation training courses.

For more information visit: http://jadcorellc.com

(back to agenda)

 

A multitude of forces has challenged all types of organizations to revamp the way that they conduct business with their constituents: employees, contractors, clients, vendors, etc. The notion of centralizing activities in a single office location has evolved as more companies allow (or require) employees to work from home or satellite offices. "Traditional" companies such as IBM and Xerox have been moving in this direction for nearly ten years. This trend parallels the evolution of many organizations from structured, top-down hierarchies to flatter networked structures. At the same time, other entities are merging to form new enterprises or emerging from reorganizations. In short, many organizations are struggling with change. Prior to 9/11, reducing decision cycle time and controlling decision costs were not the highest priorities. Today, travel is drastically cut, expenses are tightly controlled and organizations are fighting for survival with limited resources as they delay decisions, cancel programs & projects, etc. The advent of web-based conferencing applications has prompted many organizations to use the internet as a channel for conducting business meetings. Before 9/11, many organizations viewed such platforms as "nice to have" and an article published just after 9/11 even predicted the death of "on-line" meetings. Today, contrary to predictions, on-line meetings are a growth market and applications that support such meetings are maturing. These applications can indeed help organizations and people communicate and collaborate at any time and place. Web-based meetings will never totally supplant face-to-face meetings. Today we find ourselves in a transitional period where there is institutional resistance to doing things on-line that have heretofore been done in face-to-face mode. Many of the causes for such resistance are likely to be rooted in the perception of the amount of risk involved and confusion in the marketplace of what web-based collaboration is and what it isn't. This workshop will be conducted simultaneously over the world-wide-web from two locations, across two time zones - from the Collaboration 2003 Conference in Annapolis, MD from the Midwest Facilitation Conference in Chicago. The workshop will use the WebIQ environment that will enable participants in the two conferences to work collaboratively over the internet with and an audio connection between the two sessions.

This workshop's objectives are to help participants

• identify a list of business drivers for using web-based collaboration
• develop a portfolio of likely applications for web-based meetings
• examine possible risks of moving these applications on-line
• work through a business process in a web-based distributed environment
• understand the difference between web-based collaboration and web-based communication

Paul Collins has been an independent consultant since 1981 and since 1989, he has focused on facilitating collaborative work groups and helping in helping client organizations develop and sustain competencies using group decision support applications on the internet. Paul's facilitation style would be described as empowering and leading without directing, helping participants quickly overcome technophobia, and making work sessions highly productive and fun. Some of Paul's client experience includes the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), GATX Corporation, Mc Donald's Corporation, Motorola, BP Amoco Corporation, Motiva Enterprises, U.S. Cellular Corporation and the State of Wisconsin. Paul is active in a number of professional organizations, including the Midwest Facilitation Network (MFN), where he is a co-founder, director and webmaster. Paul is also a member of the Midwest Society of Professional Consultants (Program Committee Chair), the National Black MBA Association (Lifetime Member), the International Association of Facilitators and the American Management Association. Paul is a member of the Board of Advisors for Loyola University's Center for Information Management and Technology (CIMT). He has also been a lecturer in the Management Certificate Program of the University of Wisconsin Executive Education Program.

For more information visit: http://www.jordan-webb.net

Ray Bejarano is currently the Vice President of Operations for WebIQ, LLC, a Decision Support Systems developer, and also heads the Collaborative Technologies Division of KBM Group, Inc.; WebIQ's parent company. As part of his responsibilities at WebIQ, Mr. Bejarano oversees the development of and modifications to the WebIQ system. . Included in the electronic meeting services provided by KBM Group, Mr. Bejarano's division provides setup, programming, and training of groupware systems for use in group meetings, workshops, conferences (including local, remote, nationwide, and/or global). Mr. Bejarano is also a certified GroupSystems and WebIQ senior facilitator and as such facilitates groupware-enabled meetings for KBM clients. As Project Director for KBM Group, Mr. Bejarano managed and directed several computer operations projects on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that called for the re-systematization of the Bureau through the migration of the legacy mainframe systems to Oracle-based client/server systems. Part of Mr. Bejarano's mandate called for ensuring that all of ATF's mission-critical systems were migrated and verified for Y2K compliance prior to March of 1999. In 2000, using Group Decision Support Systems, Mr. Bejarano conducted a Knowledge Management pilot on behalf of ATF, capturing critical tacit knowledge from experienced field agents and formatting it for easy access by agents throughout the bureau. As Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean for Soza, Mr. Bejarano established Soza International partnerships with offices in Puerto Rico, Panama, El Salvador, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. In Puerto Rico, in conjunction with the University of Puerto Rico, he established the first Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS) Center on the Island. Mr. Bejarano also translated the Ventana GroupSystems Groupware into Spanish, for use throughout Latin America and beyond. Mr. Bejarano was also personally involved in the set-up, programming, training, and facilitation of groupware sessions as part of the services provided by Soza to its customers. Mr. Bejarano joined General Technology, a software developer, and became President of the same in early 1989. Mr. Bejarano personally participated in multiple projects, involving a complete systems re-engineering effort. This included needs analysis, design, development, integration, implementation, and training. He also conducted analyses of business processes and information requirements to determine potential problem areas and possible courses of action. Mr. Bejarano was involved in projects that called for the evaluation of hardware, peripherals, and software and made recommendations for meeting the customer's requirements. Furthermore, Mr. Bejarano was involved in the acquisition/lease, maintenance and repair of primary as well as peripheral equipment, thereby providing office automation and help desk services to his customers. As part of the company's turnkey services, Mr. Bejarano provided network planning, troubleshooting, integration, acquisition, and maintenance services. During his tenure, the company went from a locally known software developer to one nationally recognized within its industry.

For more information visit: http://www.webiq.net

 

Diane Kubal is principal of Fulcrum Network, Michael Baker is VP, Client Relations. Both have over 20 years business experience in management, internal and external consulting roles. Their knowledge of the industry and market is extensive, as Fulcrum continuously scouts the market for top talent and innovative products and services.

For more information visit: http://www.fulcrumnetwork.com

Jody Lentz (Director of Outreach, Executive Discovery), is an evangelist and facilitator for Executive Discovery, which develops and markets LEGO SERIOUS PLAY, an innovative tool for thinking, communicating and problem solving (more information at www.seriousplay.com). Since 2000, Jody has conducted LEGO SERIOUS PLAY workshops for over 1000 adults on three continents, from an hour of imagination & innovation to a day of executive team building to two days of strategic planning. He is also a writer, editor, designer, teacher and musician, and has even been paid for some of those jobs.

David Goodridge (Manager of Business Development, Executive Discovery), wants to bring LEGO SERIOUS PLAY to your company and make it THE tool for your organization, whether it be for leadership development, change management or strategic planning. David is a LEGO SERIOUS PLAY facilitator and has facilitated numerous workshops, from introductory workshops to longer workshops that have dealt with mergers and acquisitions and team development. David received his MBA (with a concentration in Human and Organizational Performance) from Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management in 2002. In his spare time he likes to cook and watch baseball.

For more information visit: http://www.seriousplay.com