Contact: Heather Griswold, Exec Director 405-815-5295; 405-412-5990 or heather@oklahomaquality.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A forum for sharing ideas to help businesses and organizations to reach their maximum performance potential
Oklahoma City – Oklahoma business leaders will join the Oklahoma Quality Foundation to exchange ideas on organizational excellence at the Foundation’s second annual “Sharing of Best Practices Conference.”
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (check-in starting at 7:00 am)
Date: Friday, November 8, 2013
Place: Cox Convention Center, Downtown Oklahoma City
1 Myriad Gardens, Oklahoma City, OK 73102
This one day conference will feature presentations and panel discussions by regional and local leaders of successful companies, discussing The ROI of Excellence: Investing in Your Future.
Terry May, CEO/President of MESA, a cathodic protection and integrity solutions company based in Tulsa, chairs the foundation. MESA won the Baldrige Award in 2006 and 2012. According to May continuous improvement has played a major role in his company’s ability to survive and thrive. “The quality journey has completely changed our company. Quality has made us more focused, systematic and disciplined. We have high expectations for our future,” he said.
“Twenty years ago, MESA was a small, relatively successful organization. Our problem was that we were outgrowing our capabilities, and we didn’t know how to go forward,” he continued. “I learned that a lot of companies had been in our same position. In our search for solutions, I was lucky enough to sit with a couple of Tulsa CEOs at a TQM conference. I heard them talking about their knowledge and understanding of quality in their businesses. It was my light bulb moment.”
That kind of sharing is the mission of the Sharing of Best Practices Conference. “This conference offers organizations of all sizes the opportunity to hear really smart people discuss how they have brought Quality into their businesses, how it works for them, how they engage their people and how it has helped them succeed,” May said. “There will be lots of great ideas, things they can take home and adapt to their company’s needs. A speaker may just make one comment that resonates, but if you are not sitting there, you will never hear it.”
Featured presentations and speakers include:
- Transformational Leadership Workshop & Leadership Showcase, GiANT Partners – David Woods & Brent Douglas will discuss the predominant leadership culture that rewards personal ambition over service and sacrifice has led to a death of true leaders. The objective of this session is to develop a new culture of leadership that’s focused on empowering versus overpowering, and that’s driven by humility instead of pride. Then, we have a panel of CEOs discussing their good to great leadership moments.
- Creating a Culture of Improvement & Customer Focus – Presenter Tommy Gonzales from the City of Irving, Texas and recipient of the 2012 Baldridge Award.
- How Effective Leadership Results in Employee Engagement, Terry May, CEO of MESA and recipient of the 2012 Baldridge Award.
- Establishing & Maintaining Long-Term Customer Relationships – Bob Pence, CEO of Freese & Nichols and recipient of the 2010 Baldrige Award.
- From ‘Have To’ to ‘Want To’ – Moving from Status Quo to a Culture of Excellence, Doug Serrano & Denise Haynes, Quiet Excellence.
- Best Practices on Integrated Lean Project Delivery, Will Lichtig of The Boldt Company
- The 3 E’s: Education, Employment & the Economy, Dr. Terry Holliday, Kentucky Commissioner of Education.
- Using Social Media to Engage Workforce & Customers, Allyson Young of K&N Management and recipient of the 2010 Baldrige Award.
“This conference is a great opportunity,” May said. “I will go, and I will walk away with multiple good ideas. Challenge yourself to take a look at it. There’s something for everyone.”
The Sharing of Best Practices Conference is sponsored by the Oklahoma Business Roundtable, Oklahoma Department of Commerce, INTEGRIS Health, Bama Companies, Metro Technology Center, MTM Recognition, Oklahoma State Department of Career Tech, Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, and The Journal Record (as of September 30th).
To register for the event online, visit https://okcconference.eventbrite.com/, contact the Oklahoma Quality Foundation at 405-815-5295 or email heather@oklahomaquality.com. To get updates on the Conference, please follow us on Twitter @okquality1 #bestpracticesok.
ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA QUALITY FOUNDATION: The Oklahoma Quality Foundation is the only official program in Oklahoma that works to determine the level of an organization’s performance and in turn, provide public recognition to award recipients based on their level of accomplishment. It is patterned after the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce and enables all Oklahoma companies and organizations access to apply for the national award via a local, versus out-of-state sponsorship entity.
The Oklahoma Quality Foundation’s mission is to help Oklahoma organizations improve results and become more competitive through performance excellence. The Foundation achieves this by administering the annual Oklahoma Quality Awards and examiner training program; providing learning opportunities through the Sharing of Best Practices Speaker Series, which informs stakeholders of the benefits of continuous improvement and performance excellence.
The Oklahoma Quality Foundation’s vision is to be recognized as a major contributor to Oklahoma’s economic prosperity by promoting quality standards and achievements. To learn more about the Foundation, please visit our website at www.oklahomaquality.com. ###
