Body and Brain in Business 2008

16 September 2008

How do you make your organisation more sucessful, without destroying yourself or the planet?

What do you need to guide your business through challenging times?

This conference brings together some of the most informed and exciting thinkers from business, science and the contemplative arts to demonstrate how we can use the greater ‘Intelligence’ offered by our bodies and brains acting in unison to re-vitalize ourselves and our businesses.

The day includes: 

• 10 speakers and 7 table hosts who have advised or work with many of the world's leading businesses and business leaders
• Opportunity to put your questions to experts in human potential, performance, innovation and creativity
• Break-out sessions to try out state of the art techniques and technologies
• 3 course organic lunch

Who should attend?

• Independent thinkers who want to lead with wisdom and clarity
• Entrepreneurs and managers who want to grow into their potential
• Those who want to step up to creativity and change

The Business Case

The Body and Brain in Business Conference will deliver practical solutions to key business problems at source, with the potential for reducing costs while increasing productivity, creativity and innovation.

Stress - overcoming the root causes
In 2007, sickness absence cost the UK over £12 billion – The CBI suggests that this figure could be more than doubled when factors such as reduced customer satisfaction, lower productivity and higher staff turnover are factored in the total average cost of absence.  The mental health charity Mind estimates that 80% of modern diseases have their beginnings in stress, as prolonged stress depresses the immune system making us more vulnerable to other illnesses.

In their 2005 survey of leading UK businesses, Henderson Global Investors concluded, “Most stress management interventions focus on stress awareness training and treatment of symptoms.  We believe the most effective interventions are those which tackle the underlying causes of stress, rather than the symptoms alone.”  This conference introduces the validated science, experience and tested techniques that engage our bodies and brains as a single unified system; essential knowledge to enable us to manage ourselves efficiently and reduce the incidence of stress related damage and illness.

Creativity – unlocking innovation
In addition to reducing stress and sickness, applying the learning and techniques explored in Body and Brain in Business will show you how to unlock latent creativity and innovation in your organisation.  According to a report compiled by Synectics in 2006, companies that excel at innovation see their annual sales increase by 10.8%, as compared to 5.7% for those that do not and their profits increase by 51% as opposed to 15%.

Summary
The Body and Brain in Business Conference brings together a range of highly successful experts and business people who use mind and body practices in their daily lives.  This is a rare opportunity to explore and try-out a range of tested techniques that deliver: 

• Reduced stress related sickness
• Operational cost savings
• Higher staff motivation and reduced turnover
• Improved creativity and innovation leading to higher sales and profit

Venue:  in or near central London - watch this space!

Learning outcomes: 

• Clear understanding of the mental, physical and emotional processes involved in thinking, learning, collaboration and creativity
• How to achieve and maintain a state of mental stability and flexibility, regardless of what is going on around you
• How to be smarter, faster and have more stamina than ever before
• How to increase capacity and performance for yourself, your staff and your business, without stress or burn-out.

Morning sessions:

Chaired by:

Gifford Booth, Co-founder and Director, The TAI Group, which was founded as The Actor’s Institute in 1977 to use the principles of the theatre to unleash creativity in the workplace.

Gifford, has spent the past 25 years guiding business leaders in leadership and personal effectiveness. He currently divides his time between Boston and New York in the United States and all over the UK, leading programmes on changing culture and creating effective teams in both large organizations and complex family businesses. His key interest is in changing personal perceptions to find the courage to take risks and be compelling in a new world of possibilities.

As Chair, Gifford will draw on his experiences working with individuals and groups in using theatre techniques to overcome fear and connect with core values to enhance performance and productivity, in a wide range of business settings. This will be further explored in the ‘from fear to creativity’ break-out session.

Keynote Speakers

The morning session includes two keynote speakers and a panel discussion.

Keynote speaker, Peter Russell is a writer/futurist and a pioneer of self-development and creative management for the corporate world, having run programmes for IBM, Apple, American Express, Barclays Bank, Swedish Telecom, ICI, Shell Oil and British Petroleum. He studied mathematics and theoretical physics at Cambridge, before switching to experimental psychology and studying meditation and eastern philosophy in India, also finding the time for a post-graduate degree in computer science.

Peter will explore how our attitudes and beliefs affect the way we perceive, our feelings, and our creativity. The most important choice we can make is to open to a new way of seeing, letting go of our assumptions and emotional attachments to access the innate wisdom deep inside each of us. By relaxing the mind, we can be more productive, with more stamina and less stress.

Peter is a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, of The World Business Academy and of the Findhorn Foundation and Honorary Member of The Club of Budapest.  He is the author of The TM Technique, The Upanishads, The Brain Book, The Global Brain Awakens, The Creative Manager, The Consciousness Revolution, Waking Up in Time, and From Science to God.

He is also an early spokesperson for the environment, voted "Eco-Philosopher Extraordinaire" of the year in 1993 by the environmental magazine Buzzworm.

Keynote speaker, Michael Soth,, is a psychotherapist, group facilitator, consultant and writer who has developed a wide-ranging integrative approach that takes both individual as well as organisational psychology into the 21st century. 

Revolutionary developments in neuroscience, consciousness studies, genetics and interdisciplinary sciences such as complexity theory have now established the interconnections between mind, brain and body, confirming the principles of holistic approaches.  

Considering that many businesses would now refuse 20th century information technology, but are running on out-dated psychological paradigms not only harking back to the 1950’s, but often to the 19th century, Michael will provide some basic pointers for accessing your own and your organisation’s full bodymind potential. 

As an experienced body psychotherapist and facilitator, Michael is uniquely positioned to explain how the mind and body work as a complex, multi-dimensional system of reciprocal feedback loops and parallel processes. This inter-disciplinary cutting-edge knowledge, not yet taught at school or university, is an essential foundation for understanding human resources in holistic terms. 

See the Programme 

Panel Session Speakers

Jo Salter, is a writer, coach, facilitator and a highly successful motivational speaker, renowned as the UK’s first female jet fighter pilot, flying the Tornado GR1.  She still flies on weekends, as a volunteer pilot with the RAF instructing air cadets.  Jo also managed to earn her MBA while on active duty and nursing her first baby.
As a panellist, Jo will share her experience on relaxed alertness and the stamina to perform in high-pressured situations, as well as leadership and trust.  From an interview in The Times last year, “Consider leadership in the air, where you have to lead a formation of aircraft, sometimes without being able to speak.  How do you lead people when you’re not with them? It’s all done by trust, team-working and understanding what all the processes are.”

Jeff Patmore, is Head of Strategic University Research Programme, BT Group CTO.   He currently leads an innovative research initiative involving a large number of universities, institutions and business schools across the planet, investigating the future of information communication technology. Jeff is interested in innovation, openness and collaboration, which he explores through the leadership of creative, innovative and multi-disciplinary teams. 
As a panellist, Jeff will share insights on how technology is changing the way we work and communicate. “The world is undergoing a truly major change in both our perception of it and the way in which we communicate our thinking. The next ten years will see more old barriers to free communication and collaboration crumble and the ease of access to knowledge increase to a point where literally anyone anywhere will be able to call up the totality of the human knowledge base and discuss and debate it with others. We will become a global society of minds.”
Jeff is also a long distance runner.

André Oszmann is CEO of Skandia International, a member of the Old Mutual Group.  Skandia International is a leading provider of offshore investment solutions, employing over 500 people worldwide.  André has enjoyed a successful career in the financial services arena and has worked for the Skandia Group for over 25 years.  During this time, André was instrumental in the creation of the first successful multi-manager investment offering in the UK market. More recently, André held the position of Chief Marketing Officer for the Skandia Group.

André will speak about his experience of harnessing the benefit of energy management techniques to achieve significant business performance. 

Patrick Harris founded Thoughtengine in 2003, a consultancy focusing on creativity, strategy, brand and futures and is a director of Medinge, a brand think tank focusing on furthering the humanitarian efforts of brands and their organisations. Much of his expertise and recognition emanates from his work as Director of Creaticity for the Orange Group. Working for the executive board, Patrick co-designed and managed the corporate strategic think tank that underpinned the company’s group-wide strategy during the octane-fuelled period of 1998 – 2002.
As a panellist, Patrick will share his experiences as a blue-sky thinker and inspiring creativity in individuals and being driven by an ultimate desire to reach practical, workable solutions. He also augmented his early career with a 10-year span as an amateur competitive water skier.

Professor Les Lancaster, is the UK’s first full Professor of Transpersonal Psychology, a position he holds at Liverpool John Moores University, where he co-directs the Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology Research Unit. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Jewish Studies at Manchester University, and Emeritus Chair of the Transpersonal Psychology section of the British Psychological Society.
Les is a frequent broadcaster and has written numerous articles on mysticism and the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness.  His most recent books are The Essence of Kabbalah and Approaches to Consciousness: the Marriage of Science and Mysticism. He is at the cutting edge of research investigating the crossover between science and spirituality and adds academic and scientific weight to the panel.

After an organic three-course lunch and informal discussion facilitated by carefully selected table hosts, delegates will divide into three groups for break-out sessions that will use experiential learning techniques to bring home the concepts introduced in the morning sessions. 

Afternoon Sessions

The afternoon sessions will be run concurrently and consecutively, enabling all delegates to participate in all sessions. (The slight exception to this is Session 3, which sub-divides into two groups, and delegates need to choose one group only.)

Drawing on the words of Confucius from around 450 BC:

"Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand."

Session 1: Moving from fear to creativity

"The enemy of creativity is fear.…the enemy of fear is creativity.” Seth Godin

How to recognise fear and turn it into creative and productive energy, using breath, voice and body work and drawing on techniques used in the performing arts, specially adapted for business usage.

Led by Jessica Bockler, a professional theatre director and performer and lecturer in Drama and Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, where she is also nearing completion of a PhD. She has facilitated workshops with actors and non-actors, working in any setting conceivable - community centres, corporate boardrooms, hospitals, art galleries, supermarkets, forests and caves.  She has a BA (Hons) in Performing Arts and an MSc (with distinction) in Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology, as well as a Certificate in Conflict Resolution from the Centre de Médiation et de Formation à la Médiation (CMFM) in Paris.

Session 2: Meditation and relaxation
A calm mind is essential for creativity and complex learning.  Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex—brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex.

Introducing the essential forms of meditation and how to evoke the relaxation response to promote clear thinking and energy recovery. 
Led by Peter Russell

Session 3 will be sub-divided for either:

A: NLP double induction
Aligning conscious and unconscious mind, using techniques from NLP and Ericksonian Hypnosis.  Led by Tiffany Kay and Kate Trafford who are both certified NLP/HNLP Trainers, Master Practitioners of NLP, Master Practitioners of Ericksonian Hypnosis and provide training, development, coaching and consultancy to individuals and organisations.

During this session delegates will be able to use HeartMath biofeedback technology offering direct personal measurement and interpretation of what is happening in your body and brain, facilitated by Hunter Kane.

B: Managing with mind, body and brain
How to use your whole mind-body-brain without changing anything at all in a real-life management challenge.

Led by Michael Soth

All groups will then reconvene for a Q&A session with all speakers, panellists and facilitators and a round-up on the day’s learning and points of interest by the Chairman.

Who should attend?

• business leaders in commercial enterprises
• directors and executives in corporations
• directors and senior managers in the NHS
• professional service providers
• team leaders and department heads in charities and NGOs
• learning and development professionals
• HR professionals
• business consultants

The size or nature of your business is less important than the demands made of you and that you make of yourself.  Whether you run your own business, report to the board or are in public service, there is never enough time.

Specific issues addressed in this conference:
• How to use the body and brain as a unified system to improve performance without increased stress
• How to recognize physiological symptoms associated with fear and convert them to creative energy
• How to manage stress and recover lost energy
• How to recognize intuition and use it in day-to-day business to support rational processes
• More efficient decision-making processes, based on oxygen uptake and brainwave entrainment
• How to gain more time in demanding circumstances, by developing an instantaneous multi-perspective approach to any situation

Who should attend?

Pricing:

To end April - £325 +VAT

To end June - £350 +VAT

To end July - £375 +VAT

Thereafter - £395 +VAT

To request a pro forma invoice please email to conference@advizory.com