Not able to make it to Brussels for the 2012 FFI Conference?

Join colleagues from around the world online via the Live Video Broadcast from the conference!

For the first time this year, we will broadcast the keynote and selected sessions in real-time. Online participants will be able to watch the events live, give feedback and discuss with others via the Twitter and Facebook Streams. You will also be able to tweet your questions for the keynotes using the hashtag #FFIBrussels.

All sessions will be recorded and available to watch anytime following the live broadcast. Visit and bookmark www.ffi.org/livefrombrussels to watch sessions.  

Live Sessions

Wednesday, October 17, 2012 

18:00 CET (12:00 PM EDT)
Opening Keynote: Rene Boender, author, brand-booster, brain/innovation agent

Rene Boender is the author of bestsellers Great to Cool and Generation Z. Having worked with internationally known companies like Sara-Lee, Apple, Disney, Coca-Cola and Phillips, Boender is known as an "innovative futurist.” With great storytelling capabilities and energy, he will open the conference with ideas on trending, communication, and what’s coming with Generation Z.

Watch it live here

Thursday, October 18, 2012

9:00 CET (3:00 EDT)
Innovation Across the Ages

What, precisely, are the traits of innovative family enterprises? In this session, family members from Royal Dutch Distillers, Welch Allyn, the Root Glass Co. and Babcock Lumber Co., discuss innovation through the generations of their respective family enterprises. A variety of anecdotal experiences of innovation, and their implications for sustainability, are also addressed.

Kirby Rosplock, Babcock Lumber Co.
Preston Root, Root Glass Company
Eric Allyn, Welch Allyn Inc.
Marc de Kuyper, Royal Dutch Distillers, Inc.

Watch it live here

11:00 CET (5:00 EDT)
Fight, Flight or Future — what does online education mean to you and your clients?

Are you fighting it? Are you soaring with it? Are you part of the future? Where are your clients in navigating the world of online education? And…exactly what does "online” mean today in the era of apps, social media and global education? This session will give you data on who’s offering, who’s taking and who’s teaching courses/programs in the online world of family enterprise education. A global phenomenon that can’t be ignored.

Jane Hilburt-Davis, FFI GEN
Pascale Michaud, Business Families Foundation
Adam Owenz, Florida International University
Judy Green, FFI, moderator

Watch it live here

14:00 CET (8:00 EDT)
Keynote: Julie Macintosh

Julie Macintosh led the Financial Times’s coverage of the takeover of Anheuser-Busch as its U.S. Mergers and Acquisitions Correspondent. She also covered the near-collapse of the global banking system while on the mergers beat and, before that, wrote for the newspaper’s influential "Lex” column.

In 2003, Julie was named one of NewsBios’s "Top 30 Business Journalists Under 30.” She regularly appears on CNBC and MSNBC. Her most recent book Dethroning the King: The Hostile Takeover of Anheuser Busch chronicles the financial excess, tortured relationships, and old-fashioned back room politics that led to the collapse of a legendary American company.

Members of this panel draw on their personal experiences as owner-operators to share examples of how their entrepreneurial spirit was inspired and nurtured by the generations that preceded them. Presenters also reflect on ways that they have sought to foster entrepreneurism among the individuals of the subsequent generations.

Dirk Jungé, Pitcairn
Ann Dugan, University of Pittsburgh
François de Visscher, de Visscher & Co.

Watch it live here

Friday, October 19, 2012

10:30 CET (4:30 EDT)
Developing Leaders in Generational Family Firms: Successful life coaching and mentoring practices

What is the role of external advisors in coaching next generation family members to assume leadership positions? Through the outcomes of an in-depth research, and one live case, this interactive panel offers conceptual insights and practical guidance on coaching and mentoring practices to develop next-generation leaders in family firms.

Alessandro Barberis Canonico, Vitale Barberis Canonico SpA
Guido Corbetta, Bocconi University
Carlo Salvato, Bocconi University

14:00 CET (8:00 EDT)
What is it that "informs" Your Work with Family Businesses?

The values and fundamental beliefs of family business consultants provide the foundation and ground for all of their work with family business clients. This presentation seeks to make explicit and clarify how consultants’ beliefs play a role in their interactions with clients. Specifically, the presentation considers how those beliefs set the quality and tone for the engagement and become a determining factor in creating successful outcomes.

David Bork, Aspen Family Business Group, LLC  
Dennis Passis, Gate Enterprises Inc.

15:45 CET (9:45 AM EDT)
Closing Keynote: Eric Whitacre, composer, conductor, and lecturer

Whitacre is that rare thing, a modern composer who is both popular and original. - The Daily Telegraph, London

Eric Whitacre is one of the most popular and performed composers of our time and a distinguished conductor and public speaker. He has written for the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Chanticleer, Julian Lloyd Webber and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Berlin Rundfunkchor and The King’s Singers, among others.

Eric’s ground-breaking Virtual Choir, Lux Aurumque, has received more than three million views on YouTube, featuring 185 singers from 12 different countries. His Virtual Choir 2.0, Sleep, was released in April 2011 and involved over 2,000 voices from 58 countries.

An exceptional orator, he was honored to address the U.N. Leaders program and give a TED Talk in March 2011. He has spoken to audiences at Duke & Harvard, Seoul Digital Forum and JCDA Conference in Tokyo. Following his visiting fellowship at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University (UK), Eric was appointed composer-in-residence in September 2011.