Hundreds of business leaders from across southeastern Wisconsin gathered once again for BizTimes Media’s annual BizExpo, held Wednesday at the Brookfield Conference Center.
Now in its 18th year, the daylong business-to-business education and networking event was headlined by leadership consultant Scott Wozniak, who shared strategies for creating a cult brand. The keynote presentation, called Elevate Your Leadership, was sponsored by Ixonia Bank.
Wozniak, who is CEO of Atlanta-based Swoz Consulting and author of the book “Make Your Brand Legendary: Create Raving Fans With the Customer Experience Engine,” has studied how iconic brands such as Disney, Nike and Delta Airlines have achieved cult status and turned their customers into raving fans. He spent eight years at Chick-fil-A, working directly with the founding family and executive team on leadership development and strategy.
Wozniak demonstrates his formula for creating raving fan customers with a “Customer Experience Engine” diagram, showing an engine powered by customer insight, powering gears for operational excellence, personalized service and memorable moments, all held together by a healthy leadership team.
“You need to hire with excellence. The quality of your people is the biggest factor in determining the quality of your operations,” Wozniak said during his keynote. “If you asked me to pick between all the best management systems and tools in the world and great people, I’d pick great people any day. … If you’ve got great people, they will make up their own system, they will figure it out.”
Attendees gained additional insight on topics such as leadership, technology and culture at nearly a dozen business strategy seminars throughout the day. Seminar sponsors were 7Rivers, Breakthrough Business Advisors, EWH University, MSOE Center for Professional Education, QPS Employment Group, River Run, Saturn Lounge and SVA.
The event also featured an exhibit floor with more than 80 Milwaukee-area businesses representing a cross section of industries.
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- BizExpo kicked off with the Elevate Your Leadership keynote session.
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- Keynote speaker Scott Wozniak.
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- Paul Stillmank of 7Rivers led a seminar focused on AI.
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- Rosario Sanchez Ledesma led a seminar on self-awareness.
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- Exhibitors
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- Susan Wehrley of BIZremedies led a seminar on effective leadership in a hybrid workplace.
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- Patrick Lubar of Ixonia Bank
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- Carroll University Business School Dean Tim Sullivan
