Leading Through Excellence: COE Summit 2019

April 9-11 | Fawcett Center, Columbus, OH

The pace of change is moving faster than ever, and organizations are becoming defined by their ability to adapt and anticipate disruption. Growing as an innovative, adaptive organization means supporting a culture of continuous learning - and each year, The Ohio State University Center for Operational Excellence offers an opportunity to get your cross-functional teams offsite and in front of the latest best practices in leadership and problem solving. Join us, and 500 process excellence leaders from across North America, for Leading Through Excellence 2019.

Summit week is here! Join the conversation

COE’s sixth-annual summit takes place these week in Columbus, featuring nearly 50 workshops, tours, breakout sessions and keynote presentations. Share your insights – or follow along – through our Twitter feed @FisherCOE using #COEsummit19

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Designer Brands CEO Roger Rawlins announced as keynote speaker

The rapid change and intensifying competition roiling the retail industry today is separating the companies that can adapt and innovate from those who can't - or can't fast enough. COE is thrilled to announce that the chief executive of one of the nation's most innovative retailers will be joining the Leading Through Excellence summit to kick off its third and final day. Designer Brands CEO Roger Rawlins (pictured, right) will open up the conference on Thursday, April 11, sharing insights on how the shoe retailer has effectively "disrupted" itself to continue growing and innovating in today's environment. He'll also take questions from the audience.

Rawlins is just one of four featured keynotes at April's summit. Head to our keynote page to read more about her and others ...

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Full breakout session descriptions now available

Want to take a closer look at the 20+ breakout sessions we're featuring across April 10 and April 11 at this year's summit? Nearly all session descriptions are now available online, with the remaining few to be added this month. Breakout speakers this year include top executives at American Electric Power, Lincoln Electric, and Williams-Sonoma (pictured: COO Dean Miller), along with the CEO of artificial intelligence startup Olive. Change agents from the City of Detroit and Wexner Medical Center are lined up, along with several top Ohio State researchers, including Ohio State. Click the link below to view all available session descriptions.

Breakout sessions

Traveling from out of town and seeking overnight lodging? Let us help.

COE has summit lodging partnerships with three hotels near the event venue, all of which offer free shuttle service to and from the site. Each of these hotels is offering rooms as low as $119/night, plus tax, and rates can be claimed by entering discount codes available on our travel and lodging site. These blocks will be available into March in most cases.

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