CIBC 2023 Breakout Sessions & Speakers

When Christina founded Crème Cupcake + Dessert in 2010, she was a marketing and management business woman without a culinary degree. She took a special recipe, some unique flavor combinations and the enthusiastic support of her friends and family and transformed it into a thriving business creating the most popular cupcakes and desserts in Des Moines. Even during a pandemic, she continues to thrive, pivot and give back to her community.

Christina shares stories and strategies—how to transform a skill and product into a marketable idea and break out of the pack.

Key Takeaways: 

1. The top four short cuts every business should avoid
2. How to charge more for what you do by standing up for what you do
3. Transitioning from subject matter expert to business owner.
4. How to give your product a personality. Strategies to look beyond your produce and incorporate your personality.
5. How to create a long-term strategy that builds on the success of a simple idea.

The Business Optimization System is for any business owner or business leader who desires to increase profits, streamline workflow, maximize team talent, increase performance, and have a thriving culture. After the session, you will have actionable strategies you can implement and see results right away. Imagine everything in your business in a smooth state of flow, working with ease, excellence, and efficiency. The Business Optimization System will help make it possible. Attending this session is your first step.

This session will offer ways to redefine what productivity and organization looks like in the workplace. This group of panelists will reflect on mindset and the impact it can make in your day to day routine. When thinking about it, the equation seems simple: more hours = more productivity. Unfortunately, many individuals (and businesses) have found that burning the candle at both ends ensures a quick burnout. Join this diverse and top level line up of panelists in a discussion of new ways to look at productivity, work/life integration, and business success that helps you and your team become more productive and remain free of burn-out.

In this session we will compare a traditional leadership model vs. a servant leader one and the psychology behind the differences and how they play out in employees. We will paint the vision for leadership and all the things that go into executing a Servant Leadership model. Participants will walk away with the understanding, ability, motivation, and tools to drive this in their organizations.. creating empowered high performing teams.

Key Takeaways: 

1. The difference between traditional and servant leadership and how they cause outcomes in people
2. How to approach leadership differently to create psychological security in teams
3. All the actions to drive a servant leadership model for empowerment, engagement, and high performing teams

Some sales talents are natural, other competencies can be learned, but honing a skill requires practice!  Join us as we take a closer look at which prospects should be getting the most of your attention and how to secure time with the right clients for the right reasons.

StoryStruck Marketing CEO Mackenzie Walters shares a counter-cultural message: As a business, you don’t have to be everywhere all at once on social media. Mackenzie helps companies create strategic marketing plans, and she guides marketing teams on what to focus their time and energy on and what to stop doing because the return is no longer there. During this session, she’ll share how to align your business objectives and current marketing initiatives with various approaches on social media. She’ll also share frameworks and examples of marketing research that can help you create a strategic social media plan that aligns with your business objectives and growth strategy. You’ll walk away with less angst about investing in social media and see examples of how to leverage the right platform the right way with a targeted, strategic approach.

The S’marriage of S’marketing requires a commitment to collaboration and communication unlike any other union within your organization. Learn about their unique roles and goals and how to communicate, collaborate and align these similar yet very distinct departments.

Supervisors, are you tired of having the same conversation over and over again with your direct reports? Are you at your wits end trying to find ways to come up with performance improvement plans that actually work? Do you feel like your employees or direct reports are constantly asking you for help? Are you too busy? Are you too stressed? Is there high turnover at your organization? The office has become a more and more increasingly stressful place to work. This workshop, Coaching: The Art of Improvement and Development will give you easy, quick and successful strategies to de-stress your workplace.  Practicing the art of coaching with your employees or co-workers, can help to alleviate some of today’s workplace plagues – overdependence, overwhelm, disconnectedness and high turnover. The benefits of using coaching as a leadership style are numerous. Do we really have a lack of talent problem in today’s environment? Or do we have a lack of good, strong employers? Research has proven that the coaching leadership style provides the organization’s team with more autonomy, higher performance, better commitment, stronger personal relationships and a better response to change in the workplace. Coaching provides the employer or manager more freedom, high retention, more creativity and a strong culture. Taking action and moving teams from blame, excuse and denial to ownership, accountability and responsibility will make you the employer of choice in your community.

Key Takeaways: 

1. Definition of Coaching
2. Performance Improvement Meeting Must-Haves
3. 7 Powerful Questions to ask

Cybersecurity breaches have become alarmingly commonplace, and the threats are increasing at a rapid pace. Whether you’ve narrowly avoided disaster, recovered from a recent breach, or simply want to stay prepared, this session is a must-attend for you. Be prepared for an interactive and lively panel discussion from three Iowa technology, cybersecurity, and insurance leaders on what Iowa business leaders need to know to prepare for and recover.