You have successfully navigated your company into a favorable market position and have developed disruptive products that are on the "leading edge". You now seek a different course to rapidly grow and expand the business into new areas and have developed a differentiating strategy to do so. However, this move into uncharted waters could also sink the enterprise.

• How do you: Evaluate the strategy versus other strategic alternatives? Determine the ideal point of market entry and exit?
• How do you: Quantify and qualify the strategic alternatives? Develop the key measurements used to evaluate the strategic alternatives?
• Now that you've locked on a strategic course, how do you insure alignment with the organization's mission, values, and vision?
• How do you set objectives that define what you must do well in order to implement the strategy? What processes are used to track the success of the new strategy?

We are proud to have a very distinguished panel of speakers, all of which have "been there and done that" and who will discuss this topic from many perspectives.

Featured Panel

• Bob McCandles, President/CEO, Alphalogix
• Keith Pape, President, Virtual Image Consulting
• Nicolaas Vlok, Chairman & CEO, Vision Solutions

Moderator: Blaine Ornburg, Member, Software Council and Tech Coast Angels

Panel and Moderator Bios

Bob McCandless is the co-founder, President and CEO of Alphalogix, an award winning software firm that opened the doors in 1996 with one mission: to provide the product, skills, and knowledge necessary for our customers to plan, develop, and deploy software technologies that transform business communication into value. Prior to Alphalogix, Bob was instrumental in the merger of IBM and Lotus in the software and sales divisions and was responsible for software sales strategies and business and channel development in the Americas. Bob is on the Board of Advisors for e-Pro Magazine, and is a valued contributor to industry publications and a regular speaker at industry events.

Keith Pape has worked for companies such as; Toshiba, Cisco, Ameriquest Mortgage, and Western Financial. Prior to acquiring Virtual-Image, he served in various technical and executive positions. Keith acquired Virtual-Image from a sole proprietor in early 2001, and subsequently obtained 'friends and family' investment and financing to grow the company. He is currently working a merger deal to combine several similar, but complimentary, companies to leverage new technologies and gain economies of scale.

Nicolaas Vlok, while studying engineering at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, started TST, a computer hardware and network integration company. Vlok rebranded the business IDION and in August 1998 listed IDION Technology Holdings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. As IDION continued to grow, Vlok's focus shifted to solutions and services. He set his sight on turning the company into an international software developer that could meet the growing needs for information availability through world-class software and services. Through four strategic acquisitions, Vlok started building IDION into a proprietary software solutions business that lead to IDION's acquisition of US-based Vision Solutions, Inc. Since the acquisition, Vlok has led Vision Solutions to become a force in the industry providing information availability management solutions to customers around the world.

Blaine Ornburg is an experienced strategic consultant and private equity investor. An astute strategist and investor with a track record of strengthening profit margins and maximizing value. He is the Managing Partner of Optima Performance Partners, a business performance consulting firm that enables companies to maximize value. Blaine is also a Partner in Angel-Led Venture Partners, a venture capital operating company that co invests with angel groups. He is a member of the Software Council and Tech Coast Angels.