22nd ISPI EMEA Annual Conference
Performance Improvement in Turbulent and Transitionary Times
September 26 - 29, 2023 - 1st Hybrid Event
Tbilisi, Georgia and Online
Overview and Registration
Program and Sessions
Open Assist Experience
WHAT IT IS
As in previous years, the 2023 hybrid conference will be organized around an opportunity for participants to be immersed in a unique live teamwork experience recently renamed, Open Assist. This important centrepiece, which runs throughout our conference, provides an exciting opportunity for teams of participants to engage directly with senior management representing a real organization (client). The objective for the teams is to respond to the organization’s (client’s) Request For Proposals (RFP) to outline an approach for resolving a current problem the organization is facing and/or to identify and take advantage of opportunities to perform and produce “even better” results.
Through the Open Assist process the client organization receives real value for their participation, as measured by their immediate feedback at the end of the process and also, importantly, one year later. Participant teams gain valuable knowledge and actual experience, working on a diverse multinational team, as they interact directly with, present to and get feedback from a senior management team, all in a “safe”, supportive, constructive environment of learning, sharing and enriching each participant’s experience and ability to grow their professional network.
OPEN ASSIST RATIONALE
“open“: looking outside of the organization’s boundaries to get something (innovation, solutions, ideas, etc.) from external individuals or organizations in a crowdsourcing environment.
“assist“: putting the client in the best conditions to achieve its objectives. In basketball, an assist (the proposal) happens when a player (team at the conference) passes the ball to a teammate (the client) in a way that leads to a score by field goal (achieve the objectives illustrated in the RFP). It reminds the magic chemistry of Karl Malone (the second scoring leaders of NBA ever: 36,928 points, more than the legend Michael Jordan) and John Stockton (holding the NBA records for most career assists: 15,806): in the NBA, there is no other combination of passer and scorer that even comes close to Malone and Stockton.
At the conference, client is the scorer (the champion) and teams are the passer (who sets up the best conditions for the champion to make a field goal).
HOW IT WORKS
Seven steps:
TEAM LEADERS SELECTION AND INTRODUCTION
The process begins by inviting professionals, who are already registered to participate in the upcoming conference, to volunteer for the important role of Open Assist Team Leader, in advance of the conference. In order to properly introduce them, we ask them to provide us with a brief bio and a short statement about why they were willing to take on the Team Leader role.
THE CLIENT’S REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
The Request for Proposals (RFP) made by the Client is delivered to each participant at the registration desks. Team Leaders are provided with a package of Open Assist Overview Materials before the conference. The Client explains the key elements of the RFP during the opening session of the Conference.
RECRUITING TEAM MEMBERS
Each Team Leader has 60 seconds to introduce herself during the opening session and invite participants to join her team. Participants that want to try the Open Assist exprerience can join the preferred team. At the end of the “recruiting” session, team members of a bigger team are invited to join a smaller team on a voluntary basis, to balance the number of members of each team.
QUESTIONS AND ASWERS SESSION WITH THE CLIENT
In order to develop an effective proposal, teams often need more information than what is detailed in the request. Information about the request itself, the business of the client, the context in which it operates, its organization, structure and culture. A 2 hours session of questions and answers with the client held on Friday morning should help to clarify each additional detail.
TEAM WORKING ON PROPOSAL
The time to work on the proposal is never enough. An hour and a half on Thursday after the opening session, two hours on Friday afternoon, an hour and a half Saturday morning. These are the slots for team working. In a very short time you need to contribute in creating a collaborative team, exploring the request and making a winner proposal. This is the challenge.
PRESENTATION OF TEAM PROPOSALS
On the last afternoon, all the proposals are presented to the Client. Each team has 10 to 15 minutes to deliver its presententation, answer questions, and convince the Client that its proposal is absolutely perfect for them. The advice is to use few Powerpoint slides, and make them very effective.
FINAL EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS
After the presentation of proposals made by teams, the Client people move in another room, take some time to closely evaluate each proposal and choose the one that most suits their request and needs. Then they come back to the plenary room and announce who is the winner. No prize, just glory.
2023 Open Assist Client TBA Soon
ISPI EMEA 2022 Open Assist Client
Georgian National Tourism Administration
The Open Assist experience is designed to give conference participants the very valuable opportunity to respond to an actual request for consulting support. We are pleased, this year, to introduce the Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA), a Legal Entity of Public Law (LEPL) that is one (1) of a system of sixteen (16) Legal Entities that come under the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. The GNTA plays an important role in support of the economy of Georgia. Prior to the pandemic, it was the greatest single contributor to the country’s GDP. Therefore, since tourism revenues are largely from foreign sources, the GNTA influences revenues that contribute directly to the objective of a positive Balance of Trade for Georgia.
The goals and objectives of the GNTA include the:
• Creation and implementation of the Georgian tourism development state policy,
• Promotion of sustainable tourism development,
• Promotion of export income growth and related job creation (based on tourism development),
• Attraction of foreign tourists to Georgia (and development of domestic tourism, as well), and,
• Promotion of human resources development in the field of tourism destinations, infrastructure, and tourism.
As so many countries around the world, the Georgian economy suffered the consequences of Covid-19, and, in Georgia’s case, GDP went from a positive (5%) for 2019 to a negative (-6.2%) for 2020. Travel and tourism certainly felt the consequences, because of lock down rules and travel restrictions on a global scale. However, tourism did begin to rebound in Georgia during 2021.
2023 OPEN ASSIST TEAM LEADERS
Rose Baker
Associate Professor, University of North Texas
Dr. Rose Baker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Learning Technologies, College of Information, University of North Texas. Her research includes open learning, management techniques and statistical applications for operations and performance improvement, survey and evaluation design, theory development, and game design. Rose holds a PhD in Instructional Systems and an M.Ed. in Adult Education Theory and Practice from The Pennsylvania State University and is certified as a PMP® by the Project Management Institute.
WHAT THEY SAY
“The Simulation Case Study (now Open Assist) was a great, interactive way to meet people, try out new ideas, and get practice making a pitch to a potential client. I met great people and thoroughly enjoyed the valuable experience. I hope I am able to return again in the future.“
PREVIOUS CLIENTS
2022 – Online Conference – Georgia National Tourism Administration
The Open Assist experience is designed to give conference participants the very valuable opportunity to respond to an actual request for consulting support. We are pleased, this year, to introduce the Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA), a Legal Entity of Public Law (LEPL) that is one (1) of a system of sixteen (16) Legal Entities that come under the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. The GNTA plays an important role in support of the economy of Georgia. Prior to the pandemic, it was the greatest single contributor to the country’s GDP. Therefore, since tourism revenues are largely from foreign sources, the GNTA influences revenues that contribute directly to the objective of a positive Balance of Trade for Georgia.
The goals and objectives of the GNTA include the:
• Creation and implementation of the Georgian tourism development state policy,
• Promotion of sustainable tourism development,
• Promotion of export income growth and related job creation (based on tourism development),
• Attraction of foreign tourists to Georgia (and development of domestic tourism, as well), and,
• Promotion of human resources development in the field of tourism destinations, infrastructure, and tourism.
As so many countries around the world, the Georgian economy suffered the consequences of Covid-19, and, in Georgia’s case, GDP went from a positive (5%) for 2019 to a negative (-6.2%) for 2020. Travel and tourism certainly felt the consequences, because of lock down rules and travel restrictions on a global scale. However, tourism did begin to rebound in Georgia during 2021.
2021 – Online Conference – Namibia Statistics Agency
Before Namibian independence in 1990, there was no stand-alone statistical authority. Statistical data was managed through a department of the South African Statistical Services. After independence the Central Statistical Office was established as a division of the Namibia National Planning Commission. The Central Statistical Office was later renamed the Central Bureau of Statistics.
In 2011, the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) was formally established on the basis of the Statistics Act, 2011 (Act No 9 of 2011), which was passed by the Parliament and signed by the President, in terms of the Namibian Constitution. The NSA reports to and is funded by the Namibian Government through the National Planning Commission (NPC).
The Statistics Act No. 9 of 2011 provides for the development of a National Statistics System and provides for its components and objectives, which are to establish the Namibia Statistics Agency and the Board of the Namibia Statistics Agency, as well as to provide for their powers and functions.
2020 – Online Conference – Comunicare
Communicare, a non profit company, is the oldest provider of social housing in South Africa. It began more than 90 years ago (1929), as the Citizens Housing League Utility Company, formed in response to poor housing conditions in Cape Town. Providing rental housing to a wide range of tenants, including a large portfolio of social rentals (properties rented at discounted rates), Communicare, today, is not just another landlord.
Socially Conscious and High-Impact Mission — Communicare is committed to an ambitious mission at the societal level, aimed at having a meaningful impact, not simply financially or with traditional real-estate success measures in the marketplace, but rather to make a difference in the lives of real people. Specifically, Communicare is dedicated to, “Providing opportunities for more people to live with dignity and an improving quality of life, so that caring communities can flourish.”
The Communicare Difference – Communicare’s unique social enterprise business model (below) enables it to provide social rentals while also growing sustainably. To finance the development of new social rentals, Communicare combines the state’s capital grants and subsidies with surpluses from its own commercially-established and viable residential property activities. This makes the social rentals financially feasible and sustainable.
2019 – Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia – Wines of Macedonia (WoM)
WoM is an NGO that has proven itself as a valuable industry representative and marketing resource, not just for member wineries, but also for the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM) wine industry overall, and, by extension, to benefit the country’s economy.
Feedback: “Thank you for this exquisite opportunity! We had received excellent proposals yesterday, and hope that we can implement some of them very soon! Could you please send us their presentations and contacts? At least of the team leaders please so we can send them thank you notes.”
2018 – Gothenburg, Sweden – City of Gothenburg
The City of Gothenburg is a vibrant, growing, international, multicultural port city – in 2018, the largest port in the Nordic countries, trading with the world. Gothenburg is Sweden’s second largest city, strategically located between Oslo and Copenhagen. It is the heart and growth engine of the Gothenburg region and Region Västra Götaland, home to a variety of strong industries. As a department of City government, the Culture Administration has an important role to play in supporting the City’s important sustainability goal. In fact, as stated in the City of Gothenburg (strategic) Cultural Program, the City’s leadership believes that, “A society that is not sustainable from a social, ecological, cultural and economic perspective, is not wholly sustainable.”
Feedback: “We had such a wonderful experience at the conference – we got a lot of boost and pride, great ideas and some eye openers. Thank you for that great opportunity. Our Board spent two days together, working through various ideas from the team proposals. We have a plan now“
2017 – Bologna, Italy – City and Municipality of Arezzo
The Municipal Government of Arezzo provides basic civil functions: registry of births and deaths, registry of deeds, and contracting for local roads and public works, for the local community. Other services include: cultural events, tourism promotion, environment protection and urban planning. The municipal government also maintains a municipal police force, which is responsible for public order and urban security. Traffic control is their primary day-to-day function, in addition to controlling commercial establishments through a licensing process and requirements.
Feedback, 1-yr. Later – The Client joined us virtually to describe the process they used to review all proposals in detail, to permit them to organize and prioritize valuable ideas from all proposals that have supported achievement of positive results.
2016 – Bonn, Germany – Never Again Ruanda
Never Again Rwanda (NAR) is a peace building and social justice organization that arose in response to the 1994 genocide perpetrated against Tutsis. Guided by a vision of a nation where citizens are agents of positive change and work together towards sustainable peace and development, NAR aims to empower Rwandans with opportunities to become active citizens through peace building and development. NAR places a particular emphasis on the youth as the future of a peaceful society. NAR is one of the leading national peace-building organizations with nearly 13 years of experience building a cornerstone for peace.
2015 – Istanbul, Turkey – IETT – Istanbul Electric Tram and Tünel Company
2014 – Warsaw, Poland – Al Majmoua – The Lebanese Association For Development
2013 – Tbilisi, Georgia – EQE – National Center for Educational Quality Enhacement
NCEQE (National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement) in Georgia has a constructive, quality-focused and continuous improvement-oriented mission and goals articulated when the former National Center for Educational Accreditation became the NCEQE on September 1, 2010 and further enhanced in June of 2013. The Center is in place to serve and support the success of the Georgian Education System
Feedback: Thank you and the whole team that was working with us! Special thanks for involving NCEQE, which has moved this interesting project forward! This endeavor was quite timely for the Center, as it will help us in our plans to move the organization forward and develop its capacity.