• Ron P. Wacks, President, American Association of Microbusinesses - 612.721.4249
  Co-chair, Minnesota Small Business Expo & Conference
  2003 SBA Homebased Business Advocate of the Year, Midwest Region
• Bill Hermann - Event Emcee, Entertainment Director, Blue Chip Productions - 952.440.1617
• Scott Litman, Co-chairman, Breakthrough Ideas - Organizer of The Minnesota Cup

Special Guest Keynote Introduction
Frank Vascellaro - Former KARE11 TV News Anchor, the Twin Cities most high profile stay at home dad

Fear, Change, and Principle as it Relates to Decision Making and Business

Frank Vascellaro may currently be the Twins Cities most high profile stay at home dad. The father of three young children, Frank resigned from KARE11 Television in December of 2005 and is now considering a number of new opportunities. Most recently, he has been the fill-in host on several talk radio stations and in his schedule is full with public speaking engagements.

During his nine-year tenure at KARE, Frank was the anchor of the 5,6, & 10 pm newscasts, hosted the Saturday morning show, and anchored the early morning news for seven years as well. He has received individual honors in addition to a number of awards for the various new shows with which he was involved.

Frank attended the University of Colorado at Boulder. He studied the broadcasting industry at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois, and he also attended the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Frank is an Honorary Chair of the Greater Minneapolis Crisis nursery. He and his wife are also involved with a number of charities and organizations in the Twin Cities. They are regularly the master of ceremonies for the annual events of the Cancer Kids Fund, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, The Children’s Cancer Research Fund, the Minnesota Children’s Museum, Children’s Heartlink, and many other organizations.

Frank married television anchor Amelia Santaniello in 2000 in Florence, Italy. They have 3 children, a son Sam and twins Joseph and Francesca. They live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Learning from Challenge and Change: the Best Buy Journey

What makes a man quit his job to start a business? What makes him bounce back when that business knocks him down?

Where does the stamina come from to work 60, 70, or 80 hours a week—not just for years but for decades? What are the personal costs? What are the lessons learned? And what are the rewards?

Confirming some entrepreneurial axioms and challenging others, Best Buy founder and chairman Richard M. Schulze tells the story of how he parlayed his love of electronics into North America’s leading consumer electronics company—and why he could not have done it alone.

Prepare to be inspired from a bona-fide Minnesota success story. This will be a can't miss presentation!

3 ^1/2 Simple Ways to Make More Money And Work Less

If you are tired of struggling with your business or If you are worried that starting a business will take too many years of “hard labor” or You want to start a business, but don’t know how, then this session is just for you.

According to the Small Business Administration, over 500,000 small businesses fail each year. What is the one factor new small businesses are missing that continues these failure rates?

One myth of running a small business is that it takes years of hard work to create a really successful business. Recently there have been some dramatic changes in the business environment that have made that myth a fallacy.

Although this session is not about time management, it is about creative techniques that can transform your business and give you the freedom you dream about.

You will learn:

• The biggest mistake small business make … and how to avoid it!
• 3 Powerful methods for getting more clients … without cold calling
• How to generate sales even if you are on vacation
• The most important element needed for making your competition non-existent
• The Biggest Bonus you can give yourself for ultimate success

If you want to learn the secrets of Super-successful entrepreneurs, You can’t afford to miss this session. For those attending, we will be giving away valuable prizes.

Big Branding and Marketing Ideas for Small Business

Good branding is about developing a “positioning” for your company, products and services in the minds of target customers that stands out from competitors and substitute suppliers. It is also about building trust by fulfilling on “promise” of your brand and providing continued positive impressions and associations.

In this seminar, you will learn the following:

1. How a brand can be one of your biggest “intangible” assets
2. The difference between brand potential and brand equity
3. The 3 primary qualities of a good name
4. Six naming strategies and the strength and weaknesses of each
5. The elements of the marketing mix and the distinction between image and identity
6. How to optimize your mix and think in multiple dimensions
7. The difference between “core”, “natural extensions” and “peripherals”
8. The 3 objectives of Marketing for growing a business
9. How traditional and new media compare and how they can be integrated
10. The DNA of the sales process and how it should be in all your marketing
11. The importance of tracking and the importance of focus
12. How companies have bootstrapped it big without venture capital

A Billion Dollars in Sales and No Advertising: The Hello Kitty Story

How This Strategy Can Work For Small Business

Ken Belson will be presenting via video link from Tokyo, Japan.

Ken will discuss how Japan's most famous character goods company found gold in a two-dimensional expressionless cartoon cat, Hello Kitty. Many adults dismiss Hello Kitty as a vapid cartoon that is plastered in too many places. But behind its ubiquity is a well-oiled marketing plan that, when dissected, can provide clues to other companies looking to cash in on animated characters, gift-giving items, brand management and anything marketed virally.

Take cues from his book, Hello Kitty: The Remarkable Story of Sanrio and the Billion Dollar Feline Phenomenon, Ken will outline the history of the company and how its founder, Shintaro Tsuji, followed his heart and intuition to transform a sleepy maker of silk products into Japan's version of Walt Disney. Tsuji, like many designers, was unaware of how powerful Hello Kitty would become. He also did not know why kids went crazy for it. But he did manage to build a sophisticated marketing and development system around keeping the brand and product alive.

There are, of course, big differences between Tsuji's experience in Japan and the much more competitive -- and fragmented -- American market. Yet Hello Kitty's success in the United States has shown that Sanrio's formula does indeed translate to the American market. Ken will discuss these points and how they translate to the world of the microbusiness owner and entrepreneur.