Developing long-term, trusted business relationships doesn’t just happen.  At the most senior levels, business takes place face-to-face.  It’s about making true connections, sharing ideas, and connecting with the right people.  The Premier Business Leadership Series (PBLS) offers just such an opportunity, a chance for business executives to build connections with like-minded executives.

The Series offers incredible value and access to peers and thought leaders who challenge conventional thinking.  Looking to grow business opportunities and extend your executive network, PBLS provides a highly interactive opportunity for deep engagement with peers.  The next event takes place October 22-24 in Orlando, Florida.

The most recent event in The Series was held earlier this summer in Amsterdam.  Participants were challenged to consider ways to improve business performance, create business intelligence and apply business analytics.  Here are some highlights from the conference.

The subject of big data was big at the Amsterdam conference.  In an opening keynote address, Jim Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, SAS tackled this much talked about business issue.  His comments highlighted how today’s most successful organizations are harnessing the deluge of big data for operations, customers, finances, risk, and more.  Applying advanced analytics, they transform these data into value that helps drive their business.

Jim Davis on analytics and the decision-making process.

Transforming data into valuable, actionable information is only productive when coupled with speed of delivery.  The ability to make proactive decisions requires an environment optimized for analytic processing.  More and more, businesses demand lightning-fast analytic insights to gain competitive advantage.  That was the message delivered by Andy McGowan, Managing Director – Communications, Media and Technology, UK and Ireland, at Accenture.

Andy McGowan on analytics and speed of delivery.

Mining the rich potential of big data and speeding analytic results can provide insights both large and small.  Read anything about big data and the impression is one of monumental change.  But in business success is often about making small changes, optimizing performance, and building upon the success.  The process doesn’t make for sexy media headlines, but more often than not, it’s how business gets done.  Tim Harford, Senior Columnist Financial Times and author, reminded the audience in Amsterdam that small changes over time can have enormous impact.

Tim Harford on optimization and marginal improvements.

Magnus Lindkvist, Trendspotter, Futurologist, and Author wove together the conference’s many themes into a challenging view of the future.  In a thought-provoking and humorous talk, he challenged the audience to think beyond the next quarter and consider what current trends forecast for the business world of tomorrow.

Magnus Lindkvist on expectations, reality, and big data.

The Amsterdam conference concluded with a challenging look how we use information.  Malcolm Gladwell, internationally well-known speaker, author, and writer for The New Yorker, drew a sharp distinction between the normal mistakes that result from incompetence (not knowing enough) and mistakes made because of the overconfidence of experts (miscalibration).  “Normally we think of failure in terms of a deficiency of knowledge, but the truth is that society is suffering far more from failures because of expertise.”

Malcolm Gladwell on knowledge and expertise.

Step back from your day-to-day responsibilities and come join with other senior business leaders for two days of engaging dialogue that will challenge and broaden your thinking.  The Series next stop is at the fabulous Peabody Orlando.  Register today for the October 22-24 event and begin your own journey of exploring new ideas for competing in a world of globalized business.