In August of 2004, guitarist Jason Crigler suffered an AVM brain hemorrhage while performing at a concert in Manhattan. He was rushed to the hospital where doctors gave Jason’s family a grim prognosis: “Even if he lives through the night, there won’t be much left of the man you know.”

Life.Support.Music. is a feature-length documentary about Jason’s recovery which will air on PBS’ POV series on July 7, 2009. The film, which ran at New York’s Cinema Village movie theatre, has screened at dozens of local and international film festivals, picking up several awards and earning rave reviews. “Heart-wrenching and inspiring,” says The Boston Globe. “Incredibly powerful,” says VOX Magazine. Click here to visit the film’s web site. Click here to find your local PBS station.

Jason and his sister Marjorie have developed a powerful multimedia presentation that explains how and why Jason recovered. Using video footage of Jason’s rehabilitation taken by hospital staff and drawing on their unique, personal experience, they show how intense family involvement makes the difference in a positive recovery. Click here to see Jason and Marjorie Speak.

PROGRAMS:Defying the Odds: How One Man Recovered from a Stroke with the Help of His Family
In this 45-60 minute multimedia presentation, Jason and Marjorie share their insight into the mindset that enabled Jason’s recovery from a devastating brain injury. Providing both survivor and caregiver points of view, Jason and Marjorie show the many ways in which their attitudes made the difference in surviving—and even benefiting from—an extreme crisis. This inspiring presentation includes a Q&A session and a brief musical performance by Jason.

Defying the Odds for Health Care Groups
Jason and Marjorie deliver a 45-60 minute multimedia presentation examining the various factors that helped Jason recover from a brain injury when most of his doctors said it couldn’t be done. Offering both survivor and caregiver points of view, Jason and Marjorie’s presentation is practical, educational and incredibly inspiring. The presentation is followed by a Q&A session and a brief musical performance by Jason.

Defying the Odds Screening & Speech
This presentation begins with a screening of the award-winning documentary Life.Support.Music., which chronicles guitarist Jason Crigler’s recovery from a brain injury with the help of his family. Following the screening, Jason and Marjorie deliver a 30-minute talk with a Q&A session. The presentation closes with a brief musical performance by Jason.

Testimonials

I am the attending physician in charge of Jason Crigler’s rehabilitation from brain injury. His remarkable recovery has reshaped my own medical practice. His inspiring story caused me to give everyone a chance for multidisciplinary rehabilitation and reevaluate various factors that can influence the outcome. It is my sincere hope that every practitioner in post-acute care hear his story or watch the movie about his recovery.
Heechin Chae, MD, Medical Director, Brain Injury, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston, MA

Life.Support.Music. should be required viewing for all who work with brain injury survivors and their families. Jason’s remarkable story humbles those of us who try to predict recovery. It reminds us that we still have much to learn about the power of hope and the brain’s ability to heal itself.
Christopher Carter, Pys.D, Director of Behavior Medicine, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston, MA

I have decided to do my community rotation in an area that focuses on brain injury. I also want to work with TBIs [traumatic brain injuries] and rehabilitation when I graduate. I was having a hard time deciding where I wanted to focus my nursing practice, and your story was like a revelation. In short, I want to thank you for helping me find my path. I will continue to update you about my nursing practice so that, as time goes on, you can see how far the ripples of your story have spread.
Lee Anna, nursing student, Asheville, NC

Wal-Mart & The Future Of Health Care

From in-store health care clinics to eyeglasses, from flu shots to urgent care, Wal-Mart has its designs on leveraging its 3700 stores into the largest force in American healthcare. How does this affect you and your industry? 

Will Wal-Mart become the largest referral source in medicine through their in-store clinics? Will Wal-Mart “Mom and Pop” certain specialties into economic hardship? How will Wal-Mart’s plans for a “Healthcare Data Card” affect physician providers? 

Ron’s one-hour presentation “Wal-Mart & The Future of Healthcare” addresses these questions and more, and is food for thought for you face a new competitive force on the horizon.

Rebooting Healthcare

Rebooting Healthcare is directed by Ron Galloway, the director of the provocative documentary Why Wal-Mart Works, a film which made news worldwide and had its premiere inside the U.S. Capitol Building.

Rebooting Healthcare examines these issues through in-depth conversations with the leading thinkers and prime movers involved in the healthcare field. Through a structured series of questions the film offers what amounts to a macro comparative study of the thoughts of the most influential people in healthcare,  the very people whose opinions and policies will shape the decisions that will influence the lives of all U.S. citizens.

Rather than pushing a particular point of view, the film will let the viewer draw his or her own conclusions based upon the data presented. The goal of the film is to present as much data as possible within the feature documentary structure. The film has no sponsors and is internally financed.

Trends In Electronic Medical Records

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is one of the areas of most intense interest in healthcare this year, due in large part to attention paid to it by the new administration. Nearly $19 billion in tax inventives are being directed to EMR adoption by hospitals and physicians.

In this presentation, Ron takes a look at 3 trends that are converging to dramatically affect this area of intense interest. First is the emergence of open source standards (OSS) in EMR software. Companies such as Microsoft and other software vendors are pushing proprietary formats for records, the analogy being the “.doc” standard in word processing. Open source advocates, including Google, are pushing for a single open standard for EMR files. Billions of dollars are at stake. Who has the advantage? Will the VA’s Vista format prevail?

The second major trend in EMR is the reconciliation of privacy standards as regards the individual records themselves. How does HIPAA apply? How do individual state regulations inhibit or help the adoption of EMR? Who owns the records themselves? Are they the intellectual property of the hospital, physician, or patient? As Personal Health Records (PHR), as inplemented by Google and Dossia, increase in popularity will there be a conflict between PHR’s and EMR’s?

Finally, Ron will examine the role of semantics, or “tagging” of information contained in the records, and the huge part this overlooked component of EMR 2.0 will play in the coherence of EMRs, and the reason why tagging may ultimately be the driving factor in the growth of the EMR industry.

Ron Galloway

Ron Galloway directed the noted documentary film “Why Wal-Mart Works & Why That Makes Some People Crazy,” an Ayn Randian look at Wal-Mart which premiered inside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC. 

He is a frequent public speaker whose presentations include a variety of business topics, notably regarding Wal-Mart and innovations in business technology. Ron is the lone conservative on The Huffington Post.

Ron is a graduate of Georgia Tech and was an investment advisor and analyst for nearly 20 years. In a feat of optimal timing he retired from investments in 2004. 

Ron has been featured on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, ABC’s World News Tonight and The Daily Show. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and New Yorker magazine. 

Future Money: Virtual Currencies & Payment Systems

Money is a medium of exchange. The exchange is still taking place but the “mediums” are rapidly changing. From stored value cards, to mobile device payments systems, the very nature of money is changing. The “QQ’” a virtual currency in China, is so popular it is having an effect on the money supply. A $195 million dollar bank run occurred inside a video game. Google, Paypal, and Amazon want to be your wallet. Ron examines these new forms of “Future money” and assesses their impact on our financial system.

Boxed In: Competitive Threats to Financial Services Firms

From Wal-Mart to Google, Paypal to Amazon, more and more businesses are leveraging information technology and distribution to enter the retail financial services industry.Assets are the name of the game in financial services, and there is increased pressure as financial service firms, “non-bank” banks, and now retailers are leveraging their existing distribution “footprints” to grab more of the pie.

For example, if just 5% of the people who walk into one of Wal-Mart’s 4000 stores in one week opened a $3000 deposit account in a “Wal-Mart Bank,” the company would raise $22 billion that week alone. Wal-Mart withdrew their ILC application, but GMAC, Merrill Lynch, and Target all have ILCs. The assets of all ILCs chartered in Utah are 12 times the assets of all Utah banks, S&L’s and credit unions combined. 

Meanwhile, Paypal and Google have developed payment systems that do a complete end-around the traditional banking system. All the while hedge funds use their huge, unregulated pools of capital to draw assets away from banking. 

Find out how you can compete with the overwhelming distribution and resources of these emerging threats in this presentation.
 
The Top 12 Tech Trends Of 2009 & How You Can Benefit From Them

The past year has brought forth startling changes in technology. You can shake your iPhone and it will recommend restaurants near your physical location. Have your DNA analyzed for $300 and find out if your prone to cancer. 250 million people in China use virtual cash instead of Chinese currency. Online news sites are destroying the newspaper industry. Cars talk to you. The Amazon Kindle is changing the way we read and buy books. Google can predict flu outbreaks faster than the CDC. 

It’s a brave new fascinating world out there, and in this 60 minute presentation Ron Galloway looks forward to 2009 and predicts the top technology trends and how you can adapt to, and prosper from these new innovations. For example, will Twitter become a primary tool for communicating? Will artificial intelligence “bots” manage and trade funds for traders? Will cable companies adoption of IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) allow you to have their own low cost cable channel that customers can watch and communicate through? Will debit cards contain member healthcare information? Will the mobile phone finally become your “wallet?” 

Ron is a graduate of Georgia Tech, writes on technology for the Huffington Post, and revels in all things nerd. “The Top 12 Technology Trends For 2009 & How Credit Unions Can Benefit From Them” is a fun, informative, forward-looking presentation that will have your attendees talking for quite a while.

Dr Larry Chimerine

For more than 25 years as an economic consultant, Dr. Chimerine has lent his advice and council to an impressive resume of major Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions and government agencies, providing private consultation on the state of the U.S. and world economics, specific industries and sectors, and the impact of economic conditions on decision making, budgeting, and strategic planning. He serves on numerous corporate boards, is a member of various professional associations and has held teaching positions at three universities.

? Key Business and Economic Trends and Issues
? The New Business Realities
? Competing Successfully in the New Economy
? Technology, the Internet and the new Economy
? Business planning in the Global Economy

Dr Larry Chimerine Video

Todd Buchholz

Trend Forecaster, Investor, Author Expert, Global Economy
Todd Buchholz “lights up economics with a wickedly sparkling wit,” says the Associated Press. His editorials in the Wall Street Journal correctly forecast the 2001 slowdown in the U.S., and BusinessWeek raved about his book Market Shock, which warned of the quicksand facing the stock market. Buchholz shows audiences how to thrive in a challenging economy, and how to gear up for future prosperity. Successful Meetings Magazine named him one of the “21 Top Speakers for the Twentieth Century.”

? Is the Economy Headed Higher — or Off a Cliff?
? How To Compete in A Chaotic Economy
? The Inside Story on the White House, the Fed and Congress
? The Leaning Tower of Technobabble: Investing in Technology Todd Buchholz’s geopolitical speech topics include:
? Containing the Flames: How the US Can Regain Prosperity Amid World Turmoil
? The Hope and Danger Behind World Terror

Todd Buchholz Video

Joseph Stiglitz

A graduate of Amherst College, he received his PHD from MIT in 1967, became a full professor at Yale in 1970, and in 1979 was awarded the John Bates Clark Award, given biennially by the American Economic Association to the economist under 40 who has made the most significant contribution to the field. He has taught at Princeton, Stanford, MIT and was the Drummond Professor and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He is now University Professor at Columbia University in New York and Chair of Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought. He is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information.

? Globalization
? Managing Crises
? Development and Aid
? Environment and Natural Resources
? Trade
? International Economic Institutions
? Economics and Economic Theory

Jeffrey Garten

Jeffrey E. Garten is a uniquely qualified speaker on the subjects of globalization, the economy, finance, trade and foreign policy. As a Professor at the Yale School of Management, he oversees the education of the leaders of tomorrow. A contributor to many leading publications, Garten currently writes a monthly column for Business Week on major challenges facing global business leaders. He is regularly sought after to lecture today’s business leaders on globalization and the many facets it encompasses.

? Where is the Global Economy Headed? Business Leadership in the 21st Century Five Burning Questions

Jeffrey Garten Video

Content driven speakers for tough times…give your attendees walk away value, provide them with content they can implement the next day!

Steven Little

Steven S. Little is a much sought after expert on the subject of business growth and the future of opportunity. As a Senior Consultant for Inc. Magazine since 1998, he speaks to thousands of owners and managers of growing organizations each year.
He also regularly speaks for some of the world’s leading companies, institutions and associations, including UPS, Sprint, Microsoft, Bank of America, and the Small Business Administration (SBA.) His style has been described as “real-world” “highly credible” and “uniquely engaging.”
Steven Little Video

Dan Coughlin

Dan Coughlin is president of The Coughlin Company, Inc., a consulting firm at the forefront of work on business acceleration. The discipline of business acceleration examines how corporations can continually increase their rate of sustainable, profitable growth. The practice of business acceleration concentrates on the Role of the Individual, Role of the Group, and the Role of the Organization.  

Dan Coughlin Video

Clyde Fessler

As the vice president of business development for Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Clyde Fessler has spent over 20 years building one of the most famous brands in the world.  He played an integral role in the company’s dramatic turnaround - providing creative strategies, clever positioning, hard work, and passion.  Clyde motivates audiences to a renewed level of achievement - and inspires them to reach their goals with pride.  Drawing on his success in addressing Harley’s management, manufacturing and marketing challenges.  Clyde shows how to create a vision and a mission, build a brand, define goals and strategies, create customer loyalty by exceeding expectations, and most importantly - how to stay on track.

Clyde Fessler Video

David DeLong

Dr. DeLong is the author of the widely-praised book Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce from Oxford University Press. He has spent more than a decade studying the impacts of changing workforce demographics and knowledge loss on organizational performance. In recent years, he has conducted over 400 interviews with dozens of knowledge-intensive organizations to develop solutions for the knowledge retention and workforce development challenges posed by increased baby boomer retirements and more mid-career turnover.

David DeLong Video

Doug Lipp

What is the magic of Disney? Join Doug Lipp as he takes you on an entertaining and insightful journey behind the scenes to discover the secret of Disney’s success.

Formerly head trainer at The Walt Disney University, Doug’s informative and humorous style brings audiences into the unique culture of customer service that sets Disney apart. He relates how to design a system that works for your industry and outlines a plan that will enable you to create “service magic” in your organization. His practical information changes employees’ lives and improves the company’s bottom line.

Doug Lipp Video

A new year is at hand and most organizations are facing new challenges and smaller event budgets.  Check out some of our value added speakers and programs to help pull off a big dollar event on a smaller budget!

Jim Carroll - Author - Futurist - Speaker - Session Leader - Moderator-

Click here for a video of Jim

The Mark of a Leader - A unique program using a story teller and a multimedia video and audio program to give your event bang for the buck!

Click here for The Mark of a Leader Video

Derek Daly Former Race Car Great and Speaker

Click here for Derek’s video

Have a great New Year and do not hesitate to call us at 617-243-3889 with any Speaker or Entertainer needs.

THE ECONOMY IS WEAK.

YOUR BUDGETS ARE BEING CHALLENGED?

HOW DO YOU ADD VALUE?

Simple…The Mark of a Leader.

In this economy, surely you are looking for great value.
And in the conference industry, there is no better value than The Mark of a Leader.

The Mark of a Leader is the incredible program that uses electrifying video and music, along with a live storyteller, to inspire, teach, challenge, and ignite an audience’s passion to make an even greater mark on your business or association.

This unique program showcases amazing stories of many of history’s greatest leaders and brands, revealing how their principles and secrets can be applied to today’s workforce. Our subjects range from Apple to Oprah, Roger Bannister to The Beatles, Anita Roddick to Starbucks, Sir Winston Churchill to JFK, Golf to Music, and dozens more. Some will make you laugh. Some will make you cry. All of them will make you think. All of them are unforgettable.

This is not another “Leadership Theory 101″.

This is not another traditional keynote.

This is something completely different and incredibly powerful.

That’s why our client list includes companies like ADP, Bank of America, Coke, Disney, Frito Lay, HP, Microsoft, Pepsi, Starbucks, Universal Studios, Xerox, and many more. Many of them have used us at multiple events including sales conferences, management meetings, dealer and franchise conferences, association and all-employee events, recognition programs, and more.

AND WHERE IS THE GREAT VALUE?

First, our program uses incredible video and music throughout to create an unforgettable experience. Audiences never forget our stories or their messages.

What a production company would charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to create as thematic videos or vignettes comes loaded on our laptop. Off the shelf.

Second, we encourage clients to intersperse our stories throughout their agenda - to open and close, before and after breaks, to start and end days, and so on. Our amazing stories will keep their audience riveted, and our storyteller will tie their presenters’ messages and our leadership principles together through the conference.

The result? Not just one great hour - an incredible event from beginning to end!

Third, as part of our program we will MC, facilitate, build workshops, or conduct on-stage interviews - all as part of our affordable per-day fee.

Fourth, of course we have an incredible 60 or 90 minute keynote presentation. We do keynotes all the time. Like all of our programs, it is completely unique and highly customized to each client’s audience and messages.

Fifth, all of this comes for one simple day rate, which is less than what clients pay for a typical thematic opening video. We will do whatever a client wants during the day or days - keynote, interstitials, interviews, workshops, MC - all for one flat rate. The incredible AV production comes at no extra cost!

Finally, because all the video and music runs off a laptop, we simply need projection and audio. We don’t require any special AV staging support above what they probably already have in place for their conference.

Does this sound revolutionary?

Does this sound like good value?

It is.

The Mark of a Leader was created by a team of veteran meeting producers who believe the conference industry desperately needs something different and affordable. So we built it.

They know that using powerful stories using video, music and live presentation is the best way to make a lasting impact on people.

Our storytellers are business experts who have run multi-million dollar businesses and worked with many of the best leaders of Fortune 500 companies for over 30 years.

Put it all together and you have an affordable way to make your next conference!

The Mark of a Leader

Speakers 2.0 - The Evolution of the Speaking Industry
——————————————————————————————

The business of speaking has evolved dramatically in the last five years - have you noticed?

It used to be event planners would spend quite a bit of time planning for next years annual conference. A committee would begin a slow, careful, and routine process of planning a program agenda, which would include finding a celebrity speaker or two to fill the agenda. Year in, year out, they’d carefully follow the same old process. Often, they’d end up with the same old conference.

Today, of course, faster is the new fast, and we’re witnessing a different role for both the speakers and the bureaus who represent them. Let’s call it “strategic knowledge delivery” - we’re helping organizations to get the right knowledge in the right place, at the right time, for the right purpose. Events have evolved from, well, events, to critical get-togethers that help a company, association or organization adapt to sudden new realities.

Today, a company might find itself in the midst of a rapid product launch - after all, product lifecycles are collapsing. (Just look at your iPod, and think of the rapid changes occurring in the consumer electronics industry!) There’s now a new requirement for fast knowledge - they need to pull together their sales force quickly, update them on the forthcoming marketing plans and sales strategy, and give them a strong motivational push out the door. They call a speakers bureau, and quickly line up a retail expert, an expert on selling strategies, and a top motivational speaker to boot.

Oh - and they need these people in two weeks!

That’s the new reality of the speaking business today. It has now evolved into a highly specialized industry, in which knowledge-brokers (formerly known as “speakers bureaus”) provide their highly specialized insight into who-knows-what, to provide their clients with the key knowledge-experts that they need. By doing so, they’re helping the client to quickly solve new business challenges, adapt to new markets, stay competitive, and deal with the reality of all the circumstances that come with our fast-paced world of today.

Every organization on the planet today is working hard to ensure that it can “keep-up.” I’ve certainly witnessed the trend first hand through the last five years, doing exactly this type of thing with some of the largest organizations in the world.

When you end up advising companies like Disney as to how to be creative, you get a different perspective of the world. Disney, for all of its vaunted reputation as a cauldron of creative genius, is like every other organization out there: it finds itself immersed in a whirlwind of rapid change, whether with its’ business model, product line, or rapidly changing consumer demand. (Anyone with pre-teen kids has seen the huge and sudden take-off of the hit High School Musical, or the explosive growth of the Hanna Montanna franchise, knows what I am talking about!)

Like any organization, Disney is constantly working to ensure that they can remain on top, by understanding the trends that will continue to impact them, and by ensuring they keep their creative spark fresh by seeking to learn what other innovative organizations are doing. For Disney, it’s almost as if they are beyond faster-is-the-new-fast :

they’re in an industry in which tomorrow is simply today’s urgent problem. And that’s why they call in outside experts — someone like me.

The changes in the speaking industry - and the role that bureaus and speakers play - mirror the changes occurring in the fast paced world of business today. It’s all about just-in-time knowledge delivery.

Understand that, and you’ll understand the context of the solutions that this industry and speakers bureaus can provide you.

Jim Carroll’s demo video

THE COLLABORATIVE Speakers Bureau a division of the Athlete & Artist Business Collaborative Inc. THE COLLABORATIVE is dedicated to working with corporate and association clients in securing keynote speakers, seminar leaders, sport celebrities and newsmakers. Our purpose is to make your next event, whether it is an annual meeting, regional sales event or pr campaign the most successful event yet by integrating our talent in innovative ways.

You can look to The Collaborative Speakers for superior customer service, reliable and friendly agents and innovative talent ideas to create unique events that are remembered.