• Already Registered?
Skip Navigation
2018_GMAC_LC_banner_GMAC_1920x519_v4
    • Home
    • Overview
    • Advisory Group
    • Keynote
    • Agenda
    • Presentations
    • Contact
    • Registration
    • Hotel & Travel
  • Leadership Conference 2018
  • Agenda

Agenda

Search
Advanced Search
Date:
  
Select a date
Search
Clear

Close Search

January 16, 2018

Conference Registration & Information

Start Time: 4:00 PM | End Time: 7:30 PM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom Pre-Function

New Director Orientation

Start Time: 4:30 PM | End Time: 6:30 PM | Panelists: Jeff Bieganek, Joseph Fox, Kate Klepper, Valerie Suslow | Session Location: Echo Room

View DescriptionHide Description

Although we can’t guarantee you’ll be an overnight sensation, this panel of seasoned program directors will give you valuable guidance about how to become a hit in your new role. As well, you’ll hear from newer directors about their experiences so far. This interactive session will cover topics including managing student and faculty relations, managing up and down the organization, and surviving the first year. This is an ideal opportunity to start networking with colleagues who are also new to their positions. Join in as we face the day-to-day challenges of program management with a sense of humor and a shared commitment to helping each other.

Welcome Reception

Start Time: 6:30 PM | End Time: 7:30 PM | Session Location: Camelback Overlook

January 17, 2018

Conference Breakfast

Start Time: 7:30 AM | End Time: 8:30 AM | Session Location: Paradise Terrace

Conference Registration & Information

Start Time: 7:30 AM | End Time: 4:30 PM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom Pre-Function

Conference Welcome

Start Time: 8:30 AM | End Time: 8:45 AM | Speakers: Sabrina White

The Sounds of Change w/Sangeet Chowfla, GMAC President & CEO

Start Time: 8:45 AM | End Time: 9:30 AM | Speakers: Sangeet Chowfla | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom

Keynote: Creating Great Choices w/Jennifer Riel

Start Time: 9:30 AM | End Time: 10:45 AM | Keynote Speaker: Jennifer Riel | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom

View DescriptionHide Description

What stops us from generating great new ideas within our organizations? And what stops the good ideas that do come up from gaining traction? Too often, it is because we use the same old approaches to decision-making. Conventional wisdom, and business school curricula, says it is essential to make trade‐offs. And that is at least partially true. But sometimes, accepting the obvious trade‐off just isn’t good enough. The choices in front of us don’t get us what we need. In those cases, rather than choosing the least worst option, we can use the models in front of us to create a new and better answer. This is integrative thinking. It is about solving wicked problems in new ways, using a robust set of tools for thinking differently about those problems. Integrative thinking is an approach to problem solving that uses opposing ideas as the basis for innovation. It was introduced in a 2007 book called The Opposable Mind, by then-Rotman School dean Roger Martin. That book highlighted stories of Jack Welch, AG Lafley, Isadore Sharp and others to illustrate how top business leaders used integrative thinking in their strategic decision-making. Now, in this talk based on the new book Creating Great Choices, Jennifer Riel will explain the practice of integrative thinking, as demonstrated by business and non‐profit executives, MBA students, even kids. The focus will be on how we can apply integrative thinking in our own work.

Networking Break

Start Time: 10:45 AM | End Time: 11:15 AM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom Pre-Function

The Speed of Change in PMBA Programs: Approaches for Keeping Up

Start Time: 11:15 AM | End Time: 12:30 PM | Moderators: Joseph Stephens | Panelists: Gonzalo Freixes, Matt Hazenbush, Megan Krueger | Session Location: Echo Room

View DescriptionHide Description

PMBA programs increase brand connection and support strategic initiatives for the business school; however, they also require significant attention as evolving student expectations move well beyond attending classes and taking exams. Brief presentations regarding PMBA-specific GMAC data, community building, flexibility, and career management will be followed by an interactive activity and Q&A. Join us to discuss insights on these overarching trends and tackling such challenges with a solutions-based focus.

From Service to Care: Mapping the Student Experience and Enhancing the Journey

Start Time: 11:15 AM | End Time: 12:30 PM | Moderators: Gareth Howells | Panelists: Wendy Huber, Minh Huy Lai | Session Location: Valley Room North

View DescriptionHide Description

As classroom demographics and student interests become increasingly varied, a “one-size-fits-all” approach to program design simply doesn’t work to deliver high degrees of student satisfaction. As the cost of GME continues to increase, so do student expectations of the experience. To deliver extraordinary program experiences, schools should look beyond surveys to develop a deeper understanding of student-as-client. The concept of Design Thinking is becoming increasingly relevant in business problem solving and business schools themselves can benefit from this approach. This session will explore the process, and outcomes of three institutions who are leading exciting innovations in journey mapping, including Darden, the original school that deployed design thinking to overhaul their curriculum in 2012.

Driving in the Dark: How to Find Strategy in Data

Start Time: 11:15 AM | End Time: 12:30 PM | Speakers: Jana Kierstead | Session Location: Mountain View Room

View DescriptionHide Description

We are all in very different places along the data journey – some of us have so much data we don’t quite know how to leverage while others can’t figure out how to access the data available to us. The objective of this session is to identify common challenges in gathering, culling and making sense of data; discuss lessons learned from schools that have been successful in finding strategy in data; and identify a potential path forward for those that haven’t. To start us off, Harvard Business School will share some of the frameworks and analyses that have (or haven’t) worked for them and how these have informed key decisions. Participants will then join small group discussions to share where they are in the data journey and what they have learned in the process. Please come ready to share and discuss best practices and ideas that have (or haven’t) worked for you so that we can all leave a bit smarter about data analytics within graduate management education.

See the Future to Be the Future: Implications for the Future of Work and Higher Ed

Start Time: 11:15 AM | End Time: 12:30 PM | Speakers: Margaret Regan | Session Location: Valley Room South

View DescriptionHide Description

Take a visual journey into the future with futurist Margaret Regan, CEO of The FutureWork Institute to see how the workplace and workforce will change over the next 10 years? What will careers look like with Artificial Intelligence, Freetainers, Anybots, ESIs and the Evaporating Office? How will we handle Talent Management as Generation Y and Z become the majority and define work differently? This interactive multimedia presentation, including a trip into immersive virtual reality for Higher Ed, will focus on current challenges and opportunities and what you need to do to see the future so you can embrace the future of Higher Ed in a VUCA world.

Conference Lunch

Start Time: 12:30 PM | End Time: 1:45 PM | Session Location: Paradise Terrace

Catch the Wave: Innovation in Experiential Learning

Start Time: 1:45 PM | End Time: 3:00 PM | Moderators: Jeff Bieganek | Panelists: Jeffrey Beavers, Bradley Killaly, Loredana Padurean | Session Location: Echo Room

View DescriptionHide Description

Experiential learning is no longer a differentiator in program delivery, but a must-have as direct exposure to real business problems enhances managerial thinking and execution. This session will review three innovative examples in experiential learning design, each with its own complexity and focus: first ASB, in partnership with MIT Sloan and Bank Negara Malaysia (the country’s central bank), launched what they claim is “the most innovative MBA program in the world” where students are required to complete five major projects in five different countries with five different companies in order to graduate. Their curriculum was designed exclusively around action learning from inception. Second, Ross School of Business is piloting the “Living Business Leadership Experience” elective, which gives students the opportunity to lead a functional team within a sponsoring company to launch a new product or service. Ross has established long term relationships with its partner companies and as a result, students cycle in/out of projects supporting real product lifecycle needs (i.e. from prototype design to launch) year over year. Finally, the University of Illinois, which runs the largest student-run consulting program, is leveraging their online MBA platforms and tools partnering with local in-country students to manage global relations and details of their consulting projects worldwide. Join this session to benchmark what’s possible, how to scale up and asess the best experiential learning projects for your school.

The Power of a Positive Culture

Start Time: 1:45 PM | End Time: 3:00 PM | Moderators: Kenneth White | Panelists: Peter Johnson, Matthew Merrick | Session Location: Valley Room North

View DescriptionHide Description

Today’s MBA students want more than just an education; they want to be part of something special---a unique, successful, and positive student culture. This panel of business school professionals explores how they strategically instituted frameworks to create a positive student culture.

Micro-Credentialing: Threat, Opportunity, or Both? A Working Session

Start Time: 1:45 PM | End Time: 3:00 PM | Speakers: Tawnya Means | Session Location: Mountain View Room

View DescriptionHide Description

In 2016, a survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that more than two-thirds of organizations are having trouble filling positions, due in part to applicants with a lack of technical and soft skills. Some of the deficit skills include writing and speaking, basic computer skills, reading comprehension, professionalism and work ethic, leadership, and teamwork. As these skills are not always a good fit for further college course work, the concept of micro-credentialing is gaining ground. In addition, nearly two-thirds of undergrad students have one or more characteristics that identified them as nontraditional. These students are older and many are already in the workforce looking to further their career and/or switch career paths. They have experience and skills that could be leveraged toward degree completion, are more likely to take online courses, are hesitant to leave their job for school, and need flexibility that can be found in portable and stackable learning. As b-schools consider the opportunities and threats of these new models for delivering education, this session will provide a brief introduction to define micro-credentialing and other alternative educational models. Following this introduction, the session will consist of small group discussions and a SWOT analysis that will help you evaluate next steps for your institution.

Unpacking the For-Profit Graduate Management Institution's Appeal to URMs

Start Time: 1:45 PM | End Time: 3:00 PM | Moderators: Camille Coppock | Panelists: Matt Hazenbush, Diego Osuna, Jeffrey Rea | Session Location: Valley Room South

View DescriptionHide Description

Americans are more racially and ethnically diverse than ever before, and projected to become even more so in the coming decade. GMAC, in partnership with marketing strategy and research firm Global Sojourn, recently conducted research into For Profit Graduate Management Institutions who target and have been successful in recruiting students from underrepresented populations, specifically African Americans and US Hispanics.  Join this session to learn more about the For Profit candidate base and its perceptions about For Profit and Non for Profit education. You will walk away with a better understanding of the For Profit recruitment model and what you can do to differentiate your institution and better attract the qualified candidates you need.

Networking Break

Start Time: 3:00 PM | End Time: 3:30 PM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom Pre-Function

Learning Teams

Start Time: 3:30 PM | End Time: 4:45 PM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom

View DescriptionHide Description

Back by popular demand, these small, 10-person teams are designed to encourage deeper networking among attendees, providing a formal avenue for reflection and idea sharing on conference learnings and general industry topics. Come prepared with questions you may have on issues that are affecting your own institution or share views and conclusions following a conference session or workshop. To promote diversity and networking, you will be randomly assigned to a Learning Team.

Reception & Dinner

Start Time: 5:30 PM | End Time: 7:30 PM | Session Location: Rusty's Patio and Paradise Ter

January 18, 2018

Conference Breakfast

Start Time: 7:30 AM | End Time: 8:30 AM | Session Location: Paradise Terrace

Conference Registration & Information

Start Time: 7:30 AM | End Time: 4:30 PM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom Pre-Function

MBA Roundtable Update

Start Time: 8:45 AM | End Time: 9:30 AM | Speakers: Jeff Bieganek, Joseph Fox | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom

Keynote: Tomorrow's MBA? A Deans'-Eye View

Start Time: 9:30 AM | End Time: 10:45 AM | Moderators: Della Bradshaw | Panelists: Martin Boehm, Sarah Gardial, Amy Hillman | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom

View DescriptionHide Description

The Leadership Conference audience annually engages in discussions about the type and pace of change in graduate business education. What are the factors influencing our current and future offerings? Are we meeting employer and student demands? Given technological advancements, rising tuition costs, shifting employer needs, geopolitics, and the proliferation of graduate management degrees by format, delivery, location and type, where should we be focusing our attention to best strategize for our programs, our schools and the industry? We’ll ask these complex questions to those who wrestle with them on a daily basis.

Networking Break

Start Time: 10:45 AM | End Time: 11:15 AM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom Pre-Function

How Technology Is Disrupting Education: A Work Session

Start Time: 11:15 AM | End Time: 12:30 PM | Speakers: Elisa Alabaster | Session Location: Echo Room

View DescriptionHide Description

Digitally savvy students want to learn in a way that makes sense to them. Their digital world isn’t something new, it’s an extension of who they are. As technology becomes more pervasive in our everyday lives (and in the business world), so it should become a staple in how we deliver graduate management education (GME). However, which trends and technology developments will drive educational change? Of these, which are critical to GME today and in a five to eight year time horizon? This session will provide a brief overview of trends and examples of how technology is disrupting education. You will then be asked to join in small group discussions around key questions that will help evaluate challenges and opportunities, laying the foundation to develop a roadmap for your institution.

The Executive Assessment: The UCLA and Rice University Experiences

Start Time: 11:15 AM | End Time: 12:30 PM | Moderators: Manish Dharia | Panelists: George Andrews, Gonzalo Freixes | Session Location: Mountain View Room

View DescriptionHide Description

Designed in partnership with selective business schools from around the world, the Executive Assessment launched in 2016 and is currently accepted by 18 Executive MBA programs globally. The Assessment was designed specifically for Executive MBA programs to quickly assess the business school readiness of their candidates and is comprised of three short 30-minute sections. It requires modest preparation and its results are highly correlated to EMBA classroom performance.  Learn more about the new Executive Assessment and hear from UCLA and Rice University about their first-hand experiences as early users.

The MiM Expansion: Market Analysis and Implications

Start Time: 11:15 AM | End Time: 12:30 PM | Moderators: Matt Hazenbush | Panelists: Nick Barniville, Leila Guerra, Stephen Taylor | Session Location: Valley Room South

View DescriptionHide Description

In 2017, GMAC conducted an in-depth study of the Masters in Management space. This panel session provides highlights from that research and also shares perspectives and insights from schools across the globe.

MBA Roundtable Innovator Award Winner: Carlson School of Management’s Medical Industry Valuation Lab

Start Time: 11:15 AM | End Time: 12:30 PM | Moderators: Jeff Bieganek | Panelists: Michael Finch, Philip Miller, Stephen Parente | Session Location: Valley Room North

View DescriptionHide Description

The Medical Industry Valuation Lab at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management conducts rapid market assessments for new medical innovations. The students in the course produce over 30 analyses per year based on a proven methodology that is the basis of the course curriculum. these projects help assess life-saving ideas and streamline the time-to market for critical new products. Since 2008 more than 300 innovations have run through the Lab. The Valuation Lab has a wide audience, from students in eight different colleges at the University of Minnesota who want to gain hands-on, real-world experience, to clients and inventors who want a top-to- bottom analysis of their medical technology and its prospect in the market to recruiters who look for the rigor and skills learned by their future employees.

Conference Lunch

Start Time: 12:30 PM | End Time: 1:45 PM | Session Location: Paradise Terrace

Female Protagonists: Women in Business Case Studies

Start Time: 1:45 PM | End Time: 3:00 PM | Speakers: Joseph Fox, Elissa Sangster | Session Location: Valley Room South

View DescriptionHide Description

The Case for Women organization conducted ground-breaking research on MBA programs' best-selling cases from 2009 to 2017 which demonstrated an overall lack of women in these cases. The Forté Foundation is now working with AACSB, MBA Roundtable and The Case for Women to begin an in-depth analysis by gender of characters and protagonists present in a number of schools’ MBA core curriculum, and this session details the study highlights.

Developing a Winning Organizational Structure to Best Serve Prospects & Students

Start Time: 1:45 PM | End Time: 3:00 PM | Speakers: George Andrews, Leila Guerra, Brian Jennings, Toby McChesney, Monica Powell | Session Location: Valley Room North

View DescriptionHide Description

Program administration has become very complex as formats continue to morph and delivery mechanisms adapt to changing student needs, teams face continued pressure to do-more-with-less. In this context, program leaders are looking for organizational structures that can help them retain the ability to deliver top-notch programs. During this highly interactive session, attendees will first be exposed to 5 different organizational structures (small and large public schools, small and large private schools and one international school), followed by small table discussions to learn how peer institutions are organized, increasing your opportunity to walk away with winning ideas to support your own organizational challenges.

Employer Perspectives on Specialty Masters Programs

Start Time: 1:45 PM | End Time: 3:00 PM | Moderators: Cameron Robb | Panelists: John Helmers, Karen Phillips, Gay Meyer, Rose van Loben Sels | Session Location: Echo Room

View DescriptionHide Description

The proliferation of Masters Programs throughout GME has been a hot topic in recent years. What has the impact of these programs been on employers hiring this talent and career services offices trying to help these students launch their careers? This panel brings multiple perspectives – from employers and career services – on questions including compensation, professional development and how these students are shifting the hiring landscape.

Digital Transformation’s Effect on Business and Its Implications on Graduate Management Education

Start Time: 1:45 PM | End Time: 3:00 PM | Speakers: Margarethe Wiersema | Session Location: Mountain View Room

View DescriptionHide Description

Digital technologies are transforming markets and industries while creating significant opportunities as well as major challenges. Managers need to recognize and anticipate technology disruption, its potential impact and how to leverage digital technology to capture value for their companies. Managing in a digital world requires rethinking one’s approach to go to market, business models, as well as the key business drivers for success. To better understand the business challenges and opportunities that managers face due to digital technologies requires new capabilities and skills.  How should Business Schools develop the leaders needed to navigate in a digital world? This session will provide a brief overview of the digital technology landscape including examples of how industries are being disrupted. Following this introduction, the session will consist of small group discussions around key questions that will help you evaluate potential next steps for your institution.

Networking Break

Start Time: 3:00 PM | End Time: 3:30 PM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom Pre-Function

Learning Teams

Start Time: 3:30 PM | End Time: 4:30 PM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom

View DescriptionHide Description

Back by popular demand, these small, 10-person teams are designed to encourage deeper networking among attendees, providing a formal avenue for reflection and idea sharing on conference learnings and general industry topics. Come prepared with questions you may have on issues that are affecting your own institution or share views and conclusions following a conference session or workshop. To promote diversity and networking, attendees will be randomly assigned to a Learning Team.

Networking Reception

Start Time: 5:00 PM | End Time: 6:00 PM | Session Location: Mountain Shadow Lawn

January 19, 2018

Conference Breakfast

Start Time: 7:30 AM | End Time: 8:30 AM | Session Location: Paradise Terrace

Using GMAC Tools/Data to Manage Myths & Realities of Rankings and Other Challenging Expectations

Start Time: 8:45 AM | End Time: 10:00 AM | Speakers: Matt Hazenbush, Dan Poston | Session Location: Valley Room North

View DescriptionHide Description

All of us in GME work in an environment surrounded by stakeholders who think they know how our business works or should work. Candidates for our programs, students, business executives and high end donors often question our strategies and priorities, sometimes even our competence. We hear things like you’re not recruiting enough women, you’re failing at diversity recruiting, you need to recruit more students like those at school “X” and of course they ask what are you doing to get this school ranked in the top 25 or top 10. This session will show you how to use GMAC tools and data sets, new and old, including some built for other purposes, to craft a pragmatic strategy for success customized to your school’s position in the GME market. We will discuss how to counter widely believed myths and misconceptions embraced by stakeholders with realities of data and how to tap data sources you may have overlooked to build approaches that work.

How Culture Shapes Innovation

Start Time: 8:45 AM | End Time: 10:00 AM | Speakers: Jaclyn Conner | Session Location: Valley Room South

View DescriptionHide Description

Innovation is ubiquitous with success for much of today’s society. While many industries have been able to encourage a culture of risk taking and creativity among their employees, higher education has notoriously lagged behind for a plethora of reasons. Yet, as business schools we are tasked with educating students who can seamlessly integrate into, and provide leadership, in today’s workforce. Therefore it is imperative that we not only create curricula that address innovation but that we also foster a culture that supports it. In this interactive session we will discuss strategies for overcoming some of the hurdles business education leaders face in creating a culture of innovation, particularly among faculty and staff, and review best practices for identifying the right types of innovation that fit your school’s culture. Goizueta Business School’s recently formed Creativity and Innovation Steering Committee and fund will be used as a case study to outline a potential roadmap.

Broken or Not, Fix It Anyway: Tackling Programmatic Change with Multiple Stakeholders

Start Time: 8:45 AM | End Time: 10:00 AM | Speakers: Brian Cameron, Stacey Dorang Peeler, Janet Duck | Session Location: Echo Room

View DescriptionHide Description

The Penn State Online MBA, now led by the Smeal College of Business, has gone through dramatic leadership, administrative, governance, and programmatic change over the last two years. The program was transformed from a rigid, cohort-based program, led and administered by commonwealth campuses of Penn State, with little involvement from the business school at University Park to a flexible program with many electives and many paths to completion. This successful transformation of the leadership of the program and the overhaul of the curriculum was not easily accomplished. This transformation involved multiple stakeholders, as well as multiple campuses and colleges and required assessment and modification of both internal and external processes. This session will discuss the main phases of this transformation and the issues and lessons learned in each phase as well as discuss the on-going challenges with growing and operating a successful Online MBA program in a joint governance model.

Refreshment Break

Start Time: 10:00 AM | End Time: 10:15 AM | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom Pre-Function

Pulling It All Together: Turning Conference Learnings into Action

Start Time: 10:15 AM | End Time: 11:30 AM | Moderators: Kenneth White, Beth Wickline | Session Location: Paradise Ballroom

Conference Closing Remarks

Start Time: 11:30 AM | End Time: 11:45 AM | Speakers: Jeff Bieganek

Networking Lunch

Start Time: 11:45 AM | End Time: 12:45 PM | Session Location: Paradise Terrace

Already Registered?

footer_web2

Top