IBM Retail User Group
2012 Speakers

35th Annual Conference

"Keeping Pace with Retail Evolution"

GUEST SPEAKER
Sam Glenn
The Authority on Attitude
Entrepreneur, Business Author, Inspirational Speaker

Monday - May 21, 2012
9:30 am - 10:30 am

Sam Glenn knows success and failure. At one time, Sam was negative, broke, depressed, jobless, had no place to live and got by working odd jobs at night. Sam’s attitude was in the dumps until a dear friend gave him what he calls a “Kick in the Attitude,” a gift that changed his attitude for the better. Sam began to work on his attitude and made some life changing discoveries. Within two years, Sam went from sleeping on the floor, to achieving dreams he once thought were impossible. Today, Sam energizes audiences as large as 75,000 at stadium events with his inspiration and sidesplitting humor. His book, A Kick in the Attitude, highlights his own journey and energizing principles on how to find opportunities in your adversities and how to use courage to conquer your fears.

For the past 15 years Sam Glenn has worked with hundreds of organizations on Training and Development, Peak Performance, Employee Motivation, Staff development, Leadership Training, Fundraisers or simply kicking off an event with the purpose to create a positive tone.

In Sam’s Words:
The topic of attitude has become my passion ever since I knocked Zig Ziglar over at a buffet. I didn’t know who he was, but his advice to me served me well: “If you don’t like the output in your life, then you need to change the input.” I was struggling to survive and had an attitude that made people want to run the other way, so I listened up.

When I made a choice to change my attitude, I began to read quote books and listen to inspirational speakers to reshape my outlook. However, I had been sleeping on the floor for close to two years. I needed more. While my attitude was improving, I needed to put it into action through developing a purpose.

I began to volunteer at a youth program, and found purpose in encouraging others. Being shy by nature meant that getting up to speak was a tough obstacle (still is some days!). I persevered, however, and it paid off. Today, I speak for a living and get to help a lot of people.

I want others to hear my story and know that whatever they are going through, they can make it. It’s never too late to start over, pursue a dream, turn things around, and become the best version of yourself.

My book, A Kick in the Attitude, is really a story of my journey, filled with emotion and stories. You are gonna feel like you are in a time machine, ‘cause I mentally take you to the moment when I was struggling, and show you how I used my attitude to change circumstances. This book is energizing. Often, we get tired, frustrated, burned out and feel a sense of hopelessness. A Kick in the Attitude is a jolt to wake you up, and get you refocused and headed in a better direction. Even if you are a positive person, it still juices you in the right way. It’s refreshing. 

Attitude is such a personal subject to most, but my hope is that people feel encouraged by my story.  Attitude is a choice, and some days the hardest choice we can make. I often ask people, how valuable is your attitude to you? If you were to buy your attitude, how much would you pay? This gets people thinking about the value of something they already own. I love taking a garage-sale attitude and transforming it to something priceless. That’s makes it all worth it for me. And it’s something you can do.

Today, I no longer sleep on the floor, unless I fall off the bed. But, I am more alive, happier, healthier and successful in the sense that I am doing what I love. Is this possible for anyone? I believe it is.

Monday - May 21, 2012
8:40 am - 9:00 am

"IBM Executive Perspectives"

Steve will share with you, our view of the revolution taking place in Retail.  How that is driving our Global retail strategy and how we are setting our priorities.

Steve Ladwig was named general manager, Retail Store Solutions in January, 2006. He is responsible for leading IBM's activities in all facets of implementing technology products and solutions in store environments. His worldwide responsibilities include strategy, development, manufacturing, marketing and sales for IBM's portfolio of total store offerings.

Previous to this position, he was general manager for Global Retail Industry responsible for definition, marketing, selling and servicing of "on demand" business solutions to IBM's worldwide customers in the retail industry.

A graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato, Mr. Ladwig first joined IBM in 1979.

Monday - May 21, 2012
9:00 am - 9:30 am

"The Future of Mobile Payments"

Alternate payments are rapidly evolving as are the resources required to support them. Will you have to change out hardware and software? Learn the current trends and the future directions.

---

John Gaydac
Vice President, WW Retail Store Solution Sales
IBM Retail Store Solutions

Monday - May 21, 2012
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm

"IBM 2012 Retail Strategy"

John will review the IBM solutions portfolio of today and tomorrow, focused on driving smarter operations and delivering a smarter shopping experience, and how these solutions align with retailer priorities.

John Gaydac is Vice President of IBM’s Retail Store Global Solution Sales. In his position, Johns is responsible for delivering IBM’s Total store solutions to worldwide retail clients. John brings 25 years of experience in selling and implementing solutions to IBM’s Retail and Industrial Sector clients. Prior to his current assignment, John was VP, Retail Store Solution Sales, Americas. His previous experience includes leadership positions in Sales, IBM Global Services, Software Development and Engineering. John holds a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a MBA from Florida Atlantic University.

---

David T. Giambruno
SVP & CIO
Revlon

Tuesday - May 22, 2012
8:30 pm - 9:00 am

"Harnessing the Big Cloud"

How do you make sense out of Big Data in the cloud. How do you keep petabytes clean and secure. Data scientists are starting to become necessary to keep a big cloud from becoming a thunderstorm. Learn the best practices for Big Data.

• Mr. Giambruno is responsible for driving global technology capabilities to provide competitive advantages to the company’s business units and shareholders.
• Latest contribution to Revlon capabilities is the deployment of an internal Cloud which supports over 500 applications, providing over 99.9999% uptime and cost savings / avoidence of 70.4M in 2 years.
• Prior to Revlon, he was Director of Global Engineering, Security & Deployment for Pitney Bowes, Inc. where he built global security capabilities and frameworks to managed FDIC, PCI, HIPPA, and SOX compliance.
• Mr. Giambruno has also held diverse and global positions, including CTO of venture capital firm, Selway Partners, Founder and CTO of leading web services companies, such as Econium, Inc., and turn around CEO for Milestone Software Systems, where he worked on behalf of its venture capitalists to restructure the company and energize its product portfolio. He possesses extensive expertise in product development, product distribution, mergers and acquisition, global network sales, technology sales and media sales, as well as raising capital.

Graduation S.U.N.Y Buffalo
B.A. In Communications with Public Relations minor

Mr. Giambruno has been recognized by the industry:
- 2011: VMWorld Keynote speaker
- 2011: ComuterWorld 100
- 2011: Present to MIT on Cloud
- 2009: InfoWorld CTO of the year
- 2008: NetApp green Award
- 2006: Tri State Security Executive of the Year: Finalis

Wednesday - May 23, 2012
9:30 am - 10:30 am

"Extreme Couponing - implementing to combat fraud"

Given all of the recent media attention to extreme couponing, along with the coupon policy changes that many of you are implementing to combat the fraud, the panel comprised of experts will update you on some of the upcoming changes which are currently being planned.

Wednesday - May 23, 2012
11:00 am - 11:30 am

"The Future of Social Network Communities"

Few technologies have had the dramatic impact that we have seen with Social Networking on the Web. The fascination with these applications for the consumer is the human connection - A sense of belonging and a sense of community. It started with free e-mail and now to many people, it is the documentation of their life and their circle of friends. It will change dramatically over the next five years. This topic is a discussion of what will change, what will cause the change and how retailers should take advantage of it.

Daniel Hopping is a global technology futurist, author, inventor, consultant and speaker.

With four decades of hands-on experience, Dan’s area of expertise is forecasting the impact that technology will have on the retail industry and tomorrow’s consumer.

Dan Hopping has worked with hundreds of retail companies and has been involved with dozens of retail “store of the future” projects in almost every segment of Retail. His company, Next Retail Group, works with retailers to keep them abreast of the latest technologies and how their utilization of technology affects the enterprise’s competitiveness. The consumer is now changing faster than retailers can change their systems, making planning for change a critical function.

As a keynote speaker Dan has inspired audiences worldwide including NRF, FMI, NACS, APLA, CCFA, EHI, Euroshop, Retail Solutions UK, Retail Systems and WLA. In addition to his many speaking engagements, he is often invited to speak at University MBA programs.

Dan has been a keynote presenter at conferences in Canada, Chile, China, England, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Philippines, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, and. US,

Dan’s background includes a long tenure in many management roles and as retail executive consultant for IBM Corporation‘s Retail Store Solutions. He holds degrees from the Purdue University’s, Krannert School of Business in both Computer Science and Industrial Management. While at Purdue he worked as a Systems Analyst for the University writing business management simulation games.