Want to see reinvention at work? Watch this video from the Motz Corporation (parent company of two external brands: The Motz Group and USGreentech):
Last March, five weeks before our annual Employee Ownership Conference, we transitioned the 2,000-attendee in-person event into a virtual one. With over 110 panels (one including the Motz Corporation's Joe Motz), a new platform for the meeting, a technology none of us had used, and a meeting concept we had never attempted, it was a fire hose of learning. But thanks to an all-hands-on-board effort, we pulled it off successfully. If it had failed, it would have put the NCEO’s future at risk.
Around the same time, many of our members faced similar existential issues. How would they make changes to the new environment that would help them survive and even thrive? Our 2020 Fall ESOP Forum keynote speaker, Joe Motz, was one of those members. Motz, a supplier of turf solutions for (then-empty) sports stadiums, had to find new ways to conduct business remotely, and, more importantly, new business opportunities. During the downtime, employee-owners learned new skills and met virtually to brainstorm new ideas. “With lots of empty stadiums,” Motz said, “employees came up with the idea of how they can blast air over the turf surface to make the grass bend in ways that create images.” The video went viral, and lots of stadiums asked them to do it.
Reinvention is the theme of this year’s first-ever virtual Fall ESOP Forum. If you attend, you will learn how ESOP companies are adapting to the new environment. How do they make remote work work? How do they engage employees in finding solutions and opportunities? What changes in their plan operations can help them get through the crisis? How do you communicate in difficult times? Sessions on these issues, as well as others ranging from ESOP feasibility to executive compensation to ESOP acquisitions to ESOP governance and many more topics will be available. We have passed along our savings on food and other live meeting costs to make this an eminently affordable event.
This is a big step forward, with lots of innovative ways to interact and learn. It is much more than a bunch of webinars.
If you want to stay ahead of the curve and thrive past this pandemic, join me at the 2020 Fall ESOP Forum. I guarantee you will find the investment of your time more than worthwhile.