Author

<p>Lisa Ford has over 20 years of experience presenting to businesses, associations, and government. She designs content personalized for each audience and the challenges they face. Her presentations focus on customer service, leadership, teamwork, and change.</p><p>As the creator of <i>How to Give Exceptional Customer Service</i>, the #1 selling business video series in the U.S. for over 3 years, Lisa is best known for her work in the areas of customer service.

<p>Joe Piscatella is one of the nation&#39;s foremost authorities on the link between lifestyle habits and cardiac health, and one of the longest-lived survivors of cardiac bypass surgery in the country. In his motivational seminars, which have been called "a force for positive change" by <em>TIME</em> magazine, he teaches how to live a healthier, better-balanced life in our stressful modern society.</p><p>At 32 years old, Joe Piscatella was a successful businessman with a new home and two young children--a bright future lie ahead of him.

Michael Rogers is a technology pioneer, author and journalist, who is also futurist-in-residence for The New York Times Company. His consultancy, Practical Futurist, has worked with organizations ranging from NBC Universal and FedEx to Boeing, GE and Microsoft.

<p>One of the biggest national abduction news stories of our time, the kidnapping and recovery of Elizabeth Smart captured the nation’s attention from June 5, 2002, when she was taken at knifepoint, to when the police safely returned her back to her family on March 12, 2003. Held prisoner for 9 grueling months, repeatedly threatened and tormented, Smart emerged a symbol of perseverance and strength when she triumphantly testified before her captor and the world about her very private nightmare.</p>

<p>True survivor of extreme challenge, and business leader, Lauren Manning shares experiences that help organizations thrive even in the most difficult of times.</p><p>“It was my moment. my choice. Keep fighting or surrender and die. I made the choice. I decided to live.”</p><p>The most catastrophically wounded survivor in the September 11th attacks, Lauren battled against all odds to emerge from the fires. A world-renowned role model for her resilience and fortitude surmounting personal and professional challenges.

<p>As the ultimate sales and marketing truth slayer, Scott helps organizations see their business through a new lens with his unconventional “unmarketing” views and vanguard approach to building and maintaining real customer relationships. </p><p>As the president of Un-Marketing, he has transformed how corporations like PepsiCo, Century 21, Fidelity and Microsoft do business with radical insights on how to engage better with customers through social and viral marketing.

<p>David Stillman is not new to the generational conversation. For almost twenty years he has been called on by business executives, politicians and the media to share his expertise on how best to bridge generational gaps. David has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and the TODAY Show as well as NPR and in Fast Company, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. </p>

<p>Former inner-city high school English teacher Erin Gruwell changed the lives of her students and became a change agent for the future of education with her philosophy of tolerance, respect, and the power of writing one’s own story.</p><p>Charged with turning around a class of low performing, underserved kids who lived in a community plagued by gang violence and racial hostility, Gruwell compared the family feud in <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> to a gang war and used the stories of Anne Frank and Zlata Filipović—students who wrote about their lives during wartime—t

<p>An award-winning legal journalist, Jan Crawford has covered the Supreme Court for more than 10 years and has had extensive interviews with nine of its justices. She is also the <i>New York Times</i> best-selling author of <i>Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court</i>, hailed by CBS&#39;s Bob Schieffer as a "masterpiece of reporting."</p>

Michael Beschloss is an award-winning historian and the author of eight books, including the acclaimed New York Times best-sellers "The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945" and "Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965".