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Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

Words always sound more persuasive when they are said with a British accent, and perhaps that will be one of the secrets of our presenter Simon Brown, Executive Vice-President, PMMS Consulting Group (North America) Inc., who has a British accent and led a session on the five methods of persuasion. 

So speaking in a British accent wasn’t one of Simon’s methods of persuasion, but these were:

1) Emotion – cheapest and simplest way to get people to do what you want.
2) Logic – give them simple reasons to do what you want.
3) Threats – risky because they can damage relationships.
4) Bargain – when dealing with multiple items, don’t be too quick to reveal your position and always accept anything that’s offered.
5) Compromise – don’t always go for the 50/50 compromise, and research shows that the first person to make a concession usually loses.

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

There are many things to watch for when drafting contracts, but in the morning session, Top 10 Contract Drafting Mistakes, Sandy Chalkoun, Lawyer, Altura Legal Strategies Inc., lists the top 10 mistakes most commonly made.

10) Not knowing if it is a contract – civil law, common law, verbal agreements, understand each to be sure you know what you are promising.
9) Using the other party’s draft of terms and conditions – better practice to start with your own document.
8 ) Reusing templates – by reusing templates you might not catch the unique subtleties of each contract.
7) Not knowing the other party – know who you are entering into agreement with and how they fit into the structure of the organization they represent.
6) Keeping things too simple – relying on good faith can become a problem if the people you are dealing with leave the company.
5) Not understanding term – what are the renewal options?
4) Forgetting intellectual property – unless you specify who owns the copyright, you do not own it.
3) Not understanding choice of law – if there is a problem, where do we go to solve it?
2) Limitation of liability – if things go wrong, how much can you sue for?
1) Not using legal counsel!

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

The crowd may have been a bit sluggish from a night on the town after our cruise, but former Canadian Women’s Hockey Coach Danièle Sauvageau got the crowd on its feet, literally, and had everyone do an impromptu early morning dance before beginning her Keynote address. This also helped show one important point of leadership, leaders need to be able to transfer their energy to their audiences.

Danièle recounted her tales of adversity during the long journey to Olympic gold. Communication was key for her and her team. People will not follow you blindly and nor should they, but she stressed that if you can communicate the logic behind your decisions it will build trust and help you and your team to succeed.

She also reminded the audience that as long as our success depends on someone else, we are in a position of leadership, so in essence, we are all leaders. The audience responded by leading us all in a standing ovation for Danièle.

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

The Discover the City Networking Event was set on the decks of the M/V Louis Jolliet, sponsored by Staples Advantage. As we set sail on the waves of the St. Lawrence River, we were enchanted by the soulful voice of jazz singer Lisa Gary.

Hors d’oeuvres, drinks, good company and fantastic music, what more could we want while we took in the sights and enjoyed the sweet evening weather. It was a perfect event, on the calm rivers, off the high cliffs of majestic Quebec City.

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

The title of this afternoon session read like a headline from a current newspaper, “The Economy: Where Do We Go from Here?”  Joining us to make sense of the latest economic news was Peter Hall, Vice-President and Chief Economist, Export Development Canada and Douglas Porter, CFA, Deputy Chief Economist & Managing Director, BMO Capital Markets.

While both economist generally agree that there are opportunities to be had in this downturn, with a lower Canadian dollar and the large amounts of stimulus money being spent by governments worldwide, they do differ on how long this uncertainty will last.

Peter doesn’t feel that we have hit the bottom of the cycle and doesn’t expect to see signs of an economic recovery until the later part of 2010, where Douglas believes that we’ve already hit rock-bottom and expects to see a recovery by the end of this year. It was truly a sight to see these two leading economists sparring about the economy.

But despite the doom and gloom, both economists expect that we will be led out of this downturn by the same country that led us into it, the United States. It has always been the safe harbour for the world’s economies, and when confidence is down, money has traditionally flowed into the U.S., and neither economist has any reason to believe that things will be different this time.

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

The afternoon Keynote address was presented by renowned web expert Mitch Joel. While most people do realize that use of Web 2.0 and social media is on the rise, attendees wanted to know why this should matter to them on a professional level.

Mitch explained that supply chain professionals should be very interested because Web 2.0 and social media offer a unique opportunity to connect with peers who are interested in the same things you are, no matter how specialized.

He used the example of the rock group Journey trying to find a new lead singer, and one who sounded like their old one, and ended their “journey” in the Philippines after hearing a YouTube video performance of one of their songs. They were looking for something very specialized and might never have found it without the help of Web 2.0.

With people spending more time online than ever before, including 48% of their leisure time, it makes perfect sense to reach out to your peers in a place where you will find them.