Opening Keynote:

Monday, April 23th  8:00 am–- 9:00 am

Raising innovation and quality to new levels synergistically.

Bob King, CEO and founder of GOAL/QPC

Creativity and innovation significantly strengthen quality efforts by generating more and better ideas thus improving problem solving, planning and new product development. It is a strategic advantage. Quality tools such as voice of the customer, concept engineering, DFSS, focus innovation on the customer and provide the structure to bring new ideas to light. It greatly improves the success of innovation and the payoff of the investment. This opening keynote will also give and overview of the conference and the various themes, such as innovation TRIZ, hoshin and strategic planning and tools for improving leadership.

Overview Keynote:

Tuesday April 24th 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 pm

Improving leadership agility and innovation using creativity innovation and quality methods and thinking.

Bob King, CEO and founder of GOAL/QPC

Rapid change and growing complexity are making agility key for each executive and resilience key for each organization and community. Some of the tools this conference presents to accomplish agility and resilience are advanced innovation, TRIZ, hoshin, breakthrough methods, and transformation. This session will tie together the various threads of the conference into a coherent thread of agility and resilience.

Bob King, Founder and CEO of GOAL/QPC, has spent over 25 years in discovering and creating the cutting edge of quality and innovation and distributing them to the masses through its over 10 million memory joggers and pocket guides. Bob was the first to teach courses in Hoshin and QFD in the US and wrote the first books in English on those topics. He was the first person outside Japan to be recognized with the Akao prize for leadership in the quality of product design. He was also the first international recipient of the Georges Borel Award for his work and promoting and teaching quality and innovation in Europe. He is a member of the International Academy of Quality and responsible for applying advanced quality and innovation to societal problems such as obesity and pandemic flu.