Subject to change.
Tuesday, Feb. 11
Day 1 Focus: Strategy and Growth
7:30–8:45 a.m.
Networking Breakfast
8:45–9 a.m.
Welcome to ExecuVision—Day 1
Richard Wahlquist, CEO, American Staffing Association
Get ready for today’s masterclass, led by world-renowned executive trainer and business consultant Jim Collins, by completing a brief yet powerful executive baseline exercise.
This exercise is designed to help you create a strategic blueprint for success by assessing your current leadership abilities, decision-making skills, and overall performance. Establishing a clear baseline will empower you to navigate challenges, capitalize on opportunities, and pursue sustained excellence.
9 a.m.–12 noon
ExecuVision Masterclass With Jim Collins: Getting From Good to Great to Growth
Introduction sponsored by T2 Insurance Solutions LLC
Only 200 of the staffing industry’s top executives will have the opportunity to attend ExecuVision 2025 and experience this transformative masterclass with the legendary Jim Collins. Named one of the Greatest Living Business Minds by Forbes, Collins will present new research and analysis—and explain how these latest findings enhance his widely known and revered Good to Great best-selling business book and related works.
Collins will also touch on his latest research which examines self-accountability among corporate leaders, and how that self-accountability can take leadership and vision to the next level and fuel success. Immediately following his presentation, Collins will participate in a lively Q&A session with ExecuVision attendees, diving deeply into current business challenges and conducting conversation-provoking table exercises.
During the final hour of this exclusive masterclass, Collins will facilitate collaborative roundtable discussions among ExecuVision attendees, challenging them to tap into their business experience and think creatively and collaboratively about the day’s research findings and conversations. This masterclass will have a profound impact on all who take part because they will walk away with research-backed and visionary strategies from one of the greatest business minds of all time.
12 noon–1 p.m.
Networking Lunch and Q&A With Jim Collins
1–1:15 p.m.
Wisdom of the Crow: How Top Staffing Firms Can Double Industry Growth
Eric Gregg, Founder and Customer Experience Strategist, ClearlyRated
While more than 100 species of bird have gone extinct, the American crow is not only surviving but thriving. How? Through evolution, intelligence, instinct, and flexibility. These lessons (and more) can be applied to the fastest-growing staffing firms in the industry to understand how they continue to outpace the industry.
Leveraging the most comprehensive data set of top-performing companies, and interviews with more than 20 leaders of high-growth staffing firms, ClearlyRated founder and industry leader Eric Gregg, will help the audience develop a keen understanding of the elements that lead to consistent, achievable growth—even during times of economic uncertainty.
The session will focus on building a growth-minded, purpose-driven culture; key service-related elements; go-to-market strategies that endure; and how to beat the odds and your competitors for longlasting, sustainable growth.
Participants will explore and glean actionable takeaways based on these four pillars for success as well as be provided insight into how EI impacts a staffing firm’s client and candidate experience, team performance, and leadership effectiveness. By the end, they will be able to identify strategies to gain a real competitive advantage by applying the concepts.
1:15–1:30 p.m.
Riches in the Niches: Unlocking Growth Through Targeted Business Development
Dougie Loan, Chief Revenue Officer, SourceWhale
As budgets tighten and expectations rise, maximizing revenue per head has never been more critical. With client retention at just 61% and fewer than 20% of consultants confident in their business development process, staffing agencies are under pressure to do more with less. In this session, Dougie Loan will share insights from more than 100 million data points, exploring what executive leaders need to know to drive business development success.From efficiency gains driven by artificial intelligence to smart tech consolidation, you’ll walk away with a blueprint to empower your team and boost your bottom line.
This session will unpack the tools, strategies, and metrics high-growth recruitment teams are using to increase billings by up to 10% per consultant. Learn how specialization, clear ideal customer profiles, and the “multitouch, multichannel, quality, and quantity” (MMQQ) framework can align teams, improve outcomes, and help your agency win and retain more business in 2025.
1:30–1:45 p.m.
Practical Advice for Streamlining Your Operations With AI and Automation
Kelli Ryan, Chief Customer Officer, Cartwheel
What does streamlined mid- and back-office operations look like in 2025? How can staffing most effectively utilize cutting-edge technology without fear or burden? In this session, Kelli Ryan explores the practical ways staffing can immediately benefit from artificial intelligence and automation, and the pitfalls to avoid.
1:45–2:30 p.m.
Building Level-Five Leaders
Facilitated by Jason Leverant, CSP, President and COO, AtWork Group
Level-five leadership requires a paradoxical mix of humility and dedication to the organization’s goals. To become a level-five leader, one must do the unthinkable: admit what you don’t know and where you could have done better.
In this interactive session, participants will take this concept and apply it to an examination of their own internal leadership team.
- Do they have the right mix of humility and professional will?
- What is their unique encoding that drives their success?
- Do they have an opportunity to leverage?
These questions and more will be discussed as participants learn to identify what level-five leadership looks like in the staffing industry and how to cultivate it in the next generation of industry leaders.
2:30–2:45 p.m.
Break
2:45–3 p.m.
Sales Mistakes We Keep Making (And How to Fix Them)
Kelly Boykin, Founder, Growth Curve
In the everchanging world of staffing, organic growth isn’t solely about having a high-performing sales team—it’s about building a balanced sales organization that aligns strategy, talent, and metrics. This session will challenge traditional thinking about sales team leadership and provide actionable insights into what it takes to succeed in today’s market.
Kelly Boykin will uncover fresh perspectives on understanding your customers and crafting sales strategies that foster meaningful engagement and drive sustainable business growth. Discover how to hire and develop sales talent at the right level and cost, avoiding common pitfalls that waste resources and hinder growth. Participants will also explore modern metrics that go beyond activity for activity’s sake, focusing instead on the outcomes that drive retention, expansion, and profitability.
Leave with a practical framework for building a scalable, sustainable sales organization that not only meets growth goals but also evolves with your business.
3–3:15 p.m.
The Human Factor in Mergers and Acquisitions: Keys to Sustainable Success
Suky Sodhi, President, Elite Global Recruiters
Companies prioritize clients and financials during due diligence, often overlooking human capital. Yet, business success hinges on people, especially in the acquisitions of small, entrepreneurial companies by larger corporations. Failing to retain the acquired company’s talent and culture can disrupt and devalue the merger.
In this session, Suky Sodhi will focus on three critical strategies for integrating human capital into the due diligence plan:
- Cultural alignment—assessing and aligning cultures to prevent clashes and promote cohesion
- Talent retention—strategies for identifying and retaining key talent, ensuring continuity and commitment
- Leadership integration—methods to integrate leadership seamlessly, maintaining direction and unity
By prioritizing these strategies, businesses can transform potential challenges into growth opportunities. Understanding and preparing for the human side isn’t just beneficial, it’s essential for sustainable success in mergers and acquisitions.
3:15–3:30 p.m.
The Hidden Catalyst for Accelerating Staffing Firm Growth
Jay Mattern, CEO, TerraFirma Marketing
Since Daniel Goleman published his seminal work, Emotional Intelligence, back in 1995, organizations have chased the elusive EI, struggling to quantify its impact on growth. That’s because firms don’t build many of the “softer” strategies for growth, like EI, into their processes and standard approaches. This became very apparent when the pandemic hit and suddenly these skills became crucial in an online world.
During this talk, Jay Mattern will outline specific strategies that staffing firms are currently using or can adopt to build a more emotionally intelligent staffing firm and industry.
3:30–4:30 p.m.
Confronting the Brutal Facts
Dustin Norwood, VP and Chief Learning Officer, American Staffing Association
Part of becoming great is embracing the Stockdale Paradox: not denying the brutal facts—however bad they may be—yet holding the feeling that despite all odds you will prevail. We will prevail.
During this audience-led activity, Dustin Norwood will provide attendees with a prompt on one of the largest brutal facts facing the industry. The fact will be a complex one that impacts different industries and differently-sized firms differently. They will be given 10 minutes to discuss how the issue is impacting them and their firms. Following that, the group be given 20 minutes to figure out how as an industry we can overcome the brutal fact and prevail. Groups will brief out to the audience and solutions will be voted on. The results will be revealed at the end of the day.
4:30–4:45 p.m.
Staffing M&A: Top 10 KPIs to Maximize Marketability and Valuation
Matt Rupprecht, Director, PMCF Investment Banking
The staffing, recruiting, and workforce solutions industry is notably rich with metrics and data for evaluation. This session will identify and explain which key performance indicators (KPIs) may have the largest effect on marketability and valuation in a dynamic mergers and acquisitions environment.
Identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing the proper metrics amid an anticipated industry resurgence in 2025 will make a sell-side prospect more marketable and position the company to achieve a premium valuation. This session will cover the 10 most important KPIs in a staffing transaction and how each influences buyer perception and value.
4:45–5:25 p.m.
Panel Discussion on Growth
Presenters will join an industry moderator to discuss growth investment strategies and address questions from the audience.
5:25–5:30 p.m.
Day 1 Closing Remarks and Next Steps
Joanie Bily, Division President, Employbridge
At the end of Day 1, executives will review the outcomes of the day’s sessions, including key insights and solutions developed by attendees. This recap will provide a comprehensive summary of the discussions, debates, and strategies that emerged.
Looking ahead to Day 2, participants will preview the next set of sessions and activities, outlining the focus areas and objectives that will drive continued exploration of growth strategies, leadership insights, and industry innovations. This preview will set the stage for a productive and forward-thinking second day.
5:30–8 p.m.
Networking Reception and Dinner
Wednesday, Feb. 12
Day 2 Focus: Culture, Technology, and Leadership
7:30–8:40 a.m.
Networking Breakfast
8:40–8:45 a.m.
Welcome to ExecuVision—Day 2
Stephen Dwyer, President, American Staffing Association
8:50–9:10 a.m.
Economics Overview: Staying Ahead of Growth Opportunities
Kory Kantenga, Head of Economics, Americas, LinkedIn
What should businesses expect from the U.S. economy in 2025? And how can business leaders get ahead of trends to create opportunities?
In this session, Kory Kantenga will equip business leaders and staffing executives with the economic knowledge they need to position their companies competitively to weather whatever 2025 brings and come out on top.
9:10–9:30 a.m.
Industry Overview: A Growth-Focused Look Ahead
Jeff Silber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst, BMO Capital Markets
With U.S. elections over, what’s going to happen next? What’s going on? What can businesses expect in 2025? Which sectors will show the most growth in 2025, and which will contract? What trends are driving growth in 2025? And, most important, what moves should firms be making to position themselves for a successful year? These questions and more will be addressed by leading industry analyst Jeff Silber as he provides what has become the industry update every ExecuVision participant values most.
9:30–10 a.m.
Economic and Industry Outlook Q&A
Facilitated by Noah Yosif, Chief Economist, American Staffing Association
Get expert insights, dive deeper into the data, and get answers to your most pressing questions on what to expect and what to be on the lookout for in 2025.
10–10:15 a.m.
Break
10:15–11 a.m.
The Hedgehog’s Journey
Billy Milam, CEO, Employbridge
Participants will have 20 minutes to write a story based on the following prompt: “Once upon a time in the year 2025, there lived a CEO of staffing firm who was named…”
The story will tell the tale of how the CEO uncovered their organization’s hedgehog and what happened as a result. How did performance improve? Were there skeptics? How did the CEO rally the troops to get behind the vision and be disciplined and driven enough to succeed? What technologies or other characters were there to assist?
During this fun and engaging activity, executives will write the future stories of their organizations. They will explore the details necessary to make the fiction a reality when they return to their organizations. They will also have an opportunity to share and get feedback from other the other protagonists in their groups.
11–11:15 a.m.
Navigating Market and Talent Trends in the New Year: Strategic Planning for 2025
Jennie Dede, Head of Sales, Search and Staffing North America, LinkedIn Talent Solutions
Join LinkedIn leader Jennie Dede as she unveils key workforce and candidate trends using LinkedIn’s latest data insights. Discover how to leverage real-time marketplace analysis to refine your sales and recruitment strategies and position your organization for success in the coming year. This session is tailored for staffing leaders aiming to drive sustainable growth, enhance client relationships, and maintain a competitive edge in a fast-changing industry.
11:15–11:30 a.m.
Succession Planning 101
Tom Kosnik, Founding Partner, Visus Group
Many staffing firms are tasked with passing the business from one generation to the next generation. Non-family-owned staffing firms, at some point, are tasked with setting up the management for a successful succession. Either way, succession planning is critical for a smooth transition aimed at delivering the best possible outcomes for all parties involved.
Tom Kosnik, will explore the various components of a succession plan and go step by step through a methodology that can be immediately applied to your organization. This is a must-attend session for executives who want to craft a strategic leadership pipeline that results in growing—and promoting—highly skilled leaders.
11:30–12:30 p.m.
Networking Lunch
12:30–1:30 p.m.
The Industry Flywheel
Facilitated by Janette Marx, CEO, Airswift
Using Jim Collins’ flywheel theory and methodology, participants will attempt to do the unthinkable: design a flywheel for the staffing industry. How will staffing firms thrive together and continue to grow the industry? What are the areas that—if they got more focus—would provide the necessary momentum to transform the industry?
In this exercise, groups will explore those questions and more to develop a flywheel that maps the future of the industry. Walk away with a good grasp on what trends are pushing development forward and what opportunities there are to take advantage of. Attendees will leave with inside knowledge the inevitable direction the industry is going and how their firms will need to adjust to stay aligned with the flywheel.
1:30–1:45 p.m.
AI-Powered Virtual Recruiters: Transformation Delivered
Ashwarya Poddar, Founder and CEO, ConverzAI
Delve into an engaging discussion on how artificial intelligence is transforming recruitment strategies. This session is designed for staffing leaders aiming to stay ahead in a competitive hiring landscape. Learn about AI-driven tools, predictive analytics, and automation techniques that optimize recruitment processes and elevate candidate experiences.
Ashwarya Poddar will help you discover actionable insights and real-world examples from industry pioneers to enhance your recruiting outcomes. If you’re ready to unlock the future of AI-powered staffing, this is a must-attend session.
1:45–2 p.m.
Data-Driven Talent Sourcing: Maximizing Profitability in a Tight Labor Market
David Folwell, Founder and President, Staffing Referrals
Participants will learn how to calculate and apply the candidate lifetime value metric to quantify the long-term profitability of hires. This data-driven approach will enable CEOs to make more informed decisions in talent acquisition and retention, directly impacting the bottom line.
David Folwell will give participants a step-by-step guide to improving profitability by improving their quality of hire through the optimization of their referral program.
2–2:15 p.m.
Efficiency Unleashed: The Impact of Back-Office Operations on Organizational Success
Colin LaBeau, President, FoxHire
In this session, Colin LaBeau will discuss how to communicate to upper-level leaders that back-office operations are strategic rather than tactical. Participants will be able to see how back-office functions impact major key performance indicators (KPIs) they are already tracking. By going through trends in the market and data on payroll accuracy, employee onboarding experience, and technology processes, he will paint the picture of “what good looks like,” reviewing current market conditions and then forecasting what back-office operations look like in the future to help point leaders in the right direction.
2:15–2:30 p.m.
Break
2:30–2:45 p.m.
Your Tech Stack and Its Impact on Your Multiplier
Lauren B. Jones, CEO, Leap Advisory Partners
Join Lauren Jones as she provides an overview on how your technology investments can positively or negatively impact your exit multiplier and discusses opportunities for immediate improvement through road mapping and beyond. Topics include
- How to build out a roadmap
- Evaluating technology to optimize impact on the bottom line
- The impact of the roadmap on investment opportunities
- How your tech stack impacts your valuation
2:45–3 p.m.
Orchestrating AI: Ensuring Your Tools Work in Harmony—The First Step Toward Success
Jason Heilman, SVP, Product Automation and AI, Bullhorn
Artificial intelligence is impacting every industry, and staffing is no exception. The most successful firms are leveraging the latest technology to increase efficiency and deliver higher-quality service to their customers. While the new capabilities offered by generative AI and large language models are exciting, there is more value to staffing firms that use AI to unlock new insights from their data and their entire tech stack.
Jason Heilman will deep into how staffing firms can use data to leverage AI to automate all aspects of the recruitment process, increase quality and consistency, and achieve greater scale.
In this session, participants will get solid takeaways for how to automate all aspects of the recruitment process and leverage automation to decrease time to fill by dramatically reducing the time required to complete key tasks, how to improve quality and consistency by finding the right candidates faster and interacting with candidates and clients at a more human level, and how to achieve greater scale by unlocking the power of AI through automation to enable everyone to focus on the highest-value tasks. Discover how AI and data can turn your staffing firm into a data-driven powerhouse. Walk away with concrete strategies to implement this data-fueled framework and unlock AI’s full potential.
3-3:45 p.m.
Panel Discussion on Culture and Tech Strategies
Facilitated by Joanie Bily, Division President, Employbridge
Presenters will join an industry moderator to discuss culture and technology strategies and address questions from the audience.
3:45-4:30 p.m.
Peer Executive Coaching
Facilitated by Dustin Norwood, VP and Chief Learning Officer, American Staffing Association
This highly interactive session will not only provide participants with one-on-one peer coaching opportunity, it also will provide them with skills to coach others. Using the triad coaching model, executives will have the ability to play the role of coach, coachee, and observer.
As a coachee, you will have an opportunity to receive coaching on a professional goal. As an observer, you will have the chance to practice active listening skills and get unique insights into the coaching process. Finally, as the coach, you will develop deep analytical and listening skills that you can take back to your leadership teams.
4:30–4:45 p.m.
Closing Remarks and Next Steps
Janette Marx, CEO, Airswift
