News Release

The International Stage-Gate^® Best Practices Summit
Call for Presenters and Story Boards.

Dear Product Innovation Professional,

Management Roundtable (MRT) and Stage-Gate International (SGI) are currently seeking presenters and storyboards for The International Stage-Gate^® Best Practices Summit. This 2-day conference will take place February 20-21, 2007 at the Hilton Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida and will focus solely on the innovative practices of organizations (of all sizes and industries) that use the Stage-Gate^® system to drive successful new products to market. Attendance is strictly limited to 100 practitioners of product innovation.

Keynote speaker and event host, Dr. Robert G. Cooper, upon returning from his world tour, will address the critical and timely topic of the new breed innovator - disruptive innovators abroad no longer competing on price but on product superiority and speed - and how you can use your Stage-Gate^® system as a competitive advantage to stay ahead and win. Dr. Cooper is host to the first event of its kind – a truly innovative exchange and collaboration of leading edge ideas, solutions, experiences and free-flowing discussions with industry’s best and brightest.

We invite you to submit a proposal for a speaking opportunity and/or to share your storyboard to Michelle Jones, Vice President, Product Management at Stage-Gate International, by Monday, August 21st, 2006 at michelle.jones@stage-gate.com or call +1-905-304-8797, ext. 223. All presentation topics and storyboards are subject to an Editorial Review Board chaired by Dr. Robert G. Cooper.

PRESENTATION TOPICS: We are currently recruiting presenters interested in sharing their Stage-Gate^® success stories and lessons learned (what has worked and what hasn’t worked in your organization) focused on a number of critical, highly relevant topics. Sessions will be 45 minutes including Q&A. If your presentation is accepted, you may be asked to participate in an Executive Panel discussion.

• The impact of killing projects – successfully shaping culture and climate with ‘correct’ kill decisions.
• The early stages - the critical, pre-development activities (market research, voice of customer, product definition, the business case).
• Scalability and flexibility - how to right-size your Stage-Gate^® system: 5 stage process, 3 stage process, 1 stage process, TD process.
• Accelerating decisions - the role of Stage-Gate^® in achieving faster time-to-market.
• The role of the product innovation executive in making Stage-Gate^® stick.
• Successfully implementing the Stage-Gate^® system across multiple organizations and countries.
• Continuous evolution of your Stage-Gate^® system – continuously raising the bar.
• How to integrate the Stage-Gate^® system with the other critical components of your product innovation program.
• Wanted: Great Gatekeepers – how to engage your executives to share in the drive for innovation superiority.
• Wanted: Effective Gatekeepers – organizations that evaluate the effectiveness of their Gatekeepers.
• Beyond the superficial implementation of Stage-Gate^® - breadth and depth required to achieve maximum impact.
• Stage-Gate^® Dashboards – the metrics that matter.
• Achieving accountability – how to drive successful change in behavior.
• Successful incentive programs used with Stage-Gate^® Systems.
  

STORYBOARD TOPICS: We are currently recruiting product innovation professionals interested in sharing product-specific success stories (commercial product launch and/or correctly killed project) and/or innovative improvements incorporated into their Stage-Gate^® system. Storyboards will be posted for electronic access and will not exceed 3 pages in length. Storyboard template will be provided.

Product-Specific Stories (for companies of all sizes and industries):

• Successful new product and/or service launch using a Stage-Gate^® system
• Successful new technology launch using a Stage-Gate^®system
• Successful new process launch using a Stage-Gate^®system.

Innovative improvements incorporated into your Stage-Gate^® System:

• Successfully gaining buy-in (the business case you used) to adopt the Stage-Gate^® System in your organization.
• Successfully leveraging Stage-Gate^® in other critical investment areas (e.g. mergers and acquisitions, IT).
• Successfully integrating Stage-Gate^® with other complementary systems (e.g. six sigma).
• Creative change management programs used to successfully launch your Stage-Gate^® system.
• Creative communications (internal marketing, posters, gimmicks, etc.) used to successfully launch your Stage-Gate^® system.
• Successful approaches to automating the Stage-Gate^® system (automate before, during or after implementing Stage-Gate^®).
• Illustrations of Stage-Gate^® systems (workflow diagram) and unique customizations of the process (e.g. customized to handle Bid/No Bid projects, co-development, etc.).

For consideration:

Please e-mail michelle.jones@stage-gate.com with the following information by Monday, August 21, 2006. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

• Name, job title, and company name – PLEASE make sure that ALL proposed speakers are already pre-confirmed and qualified to participate. DO NOT submit proposals with suggested speakers that may not be willing or available to present at the conference.
• Contact information including address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail.
• Please indicate which of the topics and which performance metrics you plan to address.
• Title and objective of presentation and/or storyboard (no more than 5 bullet points).
• Summary of the talk (not longer than 1 paragraph in length).
• What the audience will gain from your presentation and/or storyboard (please list 3-5 key "take aways").
• Brief description of your organizations’ experience and performance results achieved with your Stage-Gate^® system (1 paragraph).
• Previous conference presentations and whether you delivered this topic at a previous conference.
• Brief biographical sketch.

Thank you for your interest and your submissions. Those individuals chosen to participate will be notified by Friday September 1, 2006 or sooner. Once notified, you will have to QUICKLY turn around a brief abstract for the conference brochure by Friday, September 15, 2006.

Event details available on September 15, 2006 through

	MRT (www.ManagementRoundtable.com) and
	SGI (www.Stage-Gate.com).

Registration is limited and is open as of September 15, 2006.

For more information visit www.stage-gate.com or contact at +1-905-304-8797.