Next Scheduled Event:

Date & Time: May 21, 2012. Please note that this is the third Monday of the month to avoid the Memorial Day holiday. Networking starts at 6:00 p.m. The meeting begins at 6:30, and ends at 8:30. Refreshments are served in the lobby before the meeting and during the break.

Where: KCBXnet Computer Training Center, 4100 Vachell Lane, San Luis Obispo (at the intersection of S. Higuera St. and Vachell Lane). Click here for maps and driving directions from your starting point.

Description: Collaboration experts Delia Horwitz and Paula Vigneault usually focus on helping individuals and groups build teams, prevent and resolve conflict, hold more effective meetings, and produce satisfying agreements. Even though all of those aspects of collaboration are valuable to us as business owners and service providers, Delia and Paula have something even more fascinating to share with us: the ancient and future-pacing concept of "collaborative commerce." This is a trend that Time and CNN named "one of the ten ideas that will change the world" and some have called the "currency of the future."

Learn what video game players, soccer moms, and great music groups all have in common, and why it's so important to you and your business or solo profession. Find out how this novel slant on production and consumption creates large-scale economic benefits for collaborative communities, and can produce meaningful results for you and your business partners individually!

Paula and Delia will frame the big picture, and then take us all the way down to the most practical tools, tips, and takeaways that we can apply right away:

Topic 1: Global trends in collaborative commerce

Is your business taking advantage of the trend that Time and CNN named "one of the ten ideas that will change the world?" Delia and Paula will explain how a host of diverse groups and enterprises are successfully practicing what might best be called "collaborative commerce," and how this trend can produce meaningful and more profitable results for you and your business.

Topic 2: Personal opportunities to engage in collaborative commerce

You don't need to pursue a large-scale commercial idea, hire employees, or pay high priced specialists to successfully apply the core ideas behind collaborative commerce. Instead, you can grow your business using Collaborative Business Relationships (CBRs). Once you clearly define your CBRs, you'll be able to form satisfying, rewarding, win-win business relationships that bring great results for customers and business owners alike.

Topic 3: Practical tools for enhancing everyday collaboration

Developing successful CBRs requires an expanded entrepreneurial mindset as well as a series of logical actions. As creative professionals, solo-preneurs, and project managers, we know we can't do it all ourselves. Personal and group success requires collaborating with people who have similar values and goals to leverage our skills, talents, and resources. In this practical and interactive format, you will have an opportunity to better understand how this can work for you by developing your own criteria, questions, and road map to find, create, and maintain profitable CBRs!

Don't miss this important opportunity to discover the actions, choices, and criteria that matter most to you when developing your collaborative relationships!

Event Facilitators:

Delia Horwitz has had extensive experience consulting and facilitating with hundreds of groups in a wide variety of circumstances, beginning in the late 1970’s. Her projects include strategic planning with non-profit Boards of Directors, teambuilding with small and large corporations, goal setting with City Councils, corporate culture work with Fortune 500 senior leadership teams, and visioning with community stakeholders. She also co-founded and served for three years as Executive Director of Leadership Santa Barbara County. In addition to partnering with Paula on Collaboration Soup, Delia owns and is the principal of Business Relationship Consultants. She is also the author of The Achieving Agreement Workbook: Managing Your Internal and External Conflicts and Letters From My Future Self: Musings of a Mid-Life Seeker.

Paula Vigneault has had several careers working with and managing teams in the medical, construction and retail fields. As an entrepreneur, she founded and managed for 15 years a successful book and gift store in Santa Barbara, California. Paula has continually pursued her passion for collaboration and has volunteered her time with many non-profit groups as a Director, event organizer and meeting facilitator. Some of those projects include Women Waging Peace at the Harvard School of Government, Project Esperanza in Guatemala, and the International Dances of Peace Strategic Planning Conference in Holland with contributors from 20 countries. She now works as a SCORE volunteer, is a Hub member of SLO Transition Towns, and is co-owner of Energy Efficiency Solutions in San Luis Obispo.

Cost: Visitors are always welcome and there is no charge. But we gladly accept donations to cover the cost of refreshments and overhead!

Door Prize: We have an assortment of recent publications from which to choose. The drawing occurs at the break; you must be present to win.

RSVP: Optional. For more information or if you have questions, please contact us.

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SLO TBC usually holds its events on the 4th Monday of the month from October through June. We generally take a break over the summer and resume in the fall. For more information, please contact us.