All Topics in Chicago

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  Insecure, unsafe & slow: 10 ways to improve your WordPress website

  Lisa Ghisolf, President & Founder, Gizmo Creative Factory, Inc.

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Business

  There are thousands of plugins and tips out there – many free, but how do you narrow them down? I’ve been designing and developing WordPress sites since 2008, and I also work with corporations, nonprofits and bloggers. No matter how popular they are, I still spend a lot of time fixing hacked sites and maintaining and improving them. I’ll share the same tips I use with them to improve your site. We’ll talk social, security, speed, design and more. You’ll leave with an action plan and stronger understanding of your WordPress site.
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  Innovating Earned PR in an Evolving Media Environment

  Jennifer Fortney, President, Cascade Communications

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Business

  While the media world continues to shift and change, companies of all sizes are still hungry for the valuable earned media mentions and features that bring an unparalleled credibility. So, what are they to do? Jennifer shares that today, PR is much more than just earned media. It's more than the newspaper story on a plaque on the wall. MORE >

  It's search, reviews, how you use a story to gain even more traction and create content campaigns around it and best utilize the psychology of marketing and story telling to boost sales and donations.

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  Injuries on the Job: Navigating a Complicated Illinois Workers’ Compensation System

  Paul Byck, Lawyer / Partner, Kreiter, Byck and Associates, LLC

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Miscellaneous

  Many who suffer work related injuries have no idea what their rights are. Even worse, because of their vulnerability, they rely on the assistance of insurance adjusters - the very people whose job it is to deny or limit their benefits. There are many risks with this approach that could be detrimental to the injured party's claim. MORE >

  The lecture will focus on how to navigate a complicated workers' compensation system in Illinois, and the risks associated with trusting insurance companies to do the right thing. It will include common requests by insurance adjusters that seem harmless, but can have real consequences. The lecture will also emphasize the importance of managing a claim proactively.

  This lecture should interest any person, group or profession that is at high risk of suffering work injuries.

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  Increasing Your Happiness!

  Bette Lawrence-Water, Founder and Principal Consultant, Spectrum Strategic Solutions

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Self-Improvement

  Increasing one's happiness can be done through the power of positive thinking. That is one skill that this presenttion will touch on to teach participants how to be happier. Happiness can spread throughout an organization, and have a positive effect on everyone.
  During this interactive and energetic discussion participants will engage in unique and helpful ways to increase their happiness. This 45-60 minute presentation will have a robust effect on their professional and personal lives, improve their communication skills, increase productivity, and lesson absenteeism. MORE >

  Presentation Objectives:
  •Discuss how planning ahead cultivates workplace happiness
  •Create a nightly routine and daily plan
  •Relate more effectively to others in the workplace
  •Understand how the workspace environment impacts happiness
  •Think more positively
  •Take actions that will create greater workplace happiness

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  Increasing Political Polarization and what we can do about it

  Ed Spire, Co-lead, Restore our Democracy Project, NWSOFA-Indivisible

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Educational

  Every decade, increasing gerrymandering has created more and more "safe seats", which have resulted in more and more extreme legislators on both sides of the aisle - creating a legislature where compromise is impossible, and very little legislative progress ensures. This presentation shows why this happens, and what we can do about it, using the recent example of the Alaska special election, utilizing a nonpartisan primary and a ranked choice voting general election, as an example of how to promote more moderate legislators and a more productive legislature. MORE >

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  Increase Your Cash Flow Fast

  Jean Kuhn, Business Strategist/Consultant, Bounce Solutions Jean Kuhn

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Business

  Business owners, retail or service-based, all say the exact same thing. ‘We need more customers so we can earn more money.’ It’s tough out there for business owners in 2021. Jean Kuhn “has the backs” of business owners and delivers the hard facts, the truth and some laughs, on what it takes to become the leader in their industry and a “celebrity” in their business. MORE >

  Jean shares her story of buying 2 bankrupt businesses and turning them around in 12 short months and adding $100,000 to their bottom lines. And she did it with NO customer list and NO marketing budget.

  Jean is the perfect speaker if attendees: Want more customers, Want to make more money, Want to more free time, Want to reduce employee turnover

  Takeaways: You don't need a list or a big budget, Low cost/no cost marketing strategies, Tools to turn employees into lead

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  In the Belly of the Blues

  Terry Abrahamson, Author, In the Belly of the Blues

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Entertainment

  Terry’s talk is great for baby boomers, black studies groups and music lovers. He takes the audience back to the crossroads of musical history with tales and photos from his book, “In the Belly of the Blues,” of his days with musicians like the Rolling Stones, BB King and Howlin’ Wolf using rare music, video and hilarious first-person anecdotes. MORE >

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  Immigration and our economy

  Ed Spire, Co-lead, Restore our Democracy Project, NWSOFA-Indivisible

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Educational

  There's a lot of discussion about immigration - legal and otherwise - since our two major parties have very different plans in this area. This presentation focuses on the economic impact of foreign-born workers - whether they are a net positive or a net negative for our economy, how they interact with programs like Social Security, etc. MORE >

  The discussion makes the point that immigrant workers are a critical component of our strong ecomony, and we should welcome them for that reason.

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  Humanity’s Journey Home

  Roger Breisch, Speaker / Provocateur, Dancing With Chaos

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Miscellaneous

  In his book "Humanity's Journey Home," Roger talks about the future of the species Homo sapiens and our relationship to the biosphere. It is a provocative view and well received by those who are willing to take off rose-colored glasses and examine the perils we face and the paradigms that got us here. The perspective is hopeful in the long term, but realistic in the short term. MORE >

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  How to Turn Social Media into Face to Face Meetings

  Franklin D. Rivera II, Founder/CEO, The V2M2 Group, Inc.

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Business

  Franklin Rivera built his entire business off of Twitter. In 2011 no one online knew who he was. In 2015 he was ranked in the top 10% of Twitter accounts worldwide for most senior level management connections and followed by most of the Forbes top 10 digital marketers worldwide. Today his connections on social media number over 10,000 quality followers! MORE >

  His company, V2M2, has consistently utilized social media for lead generation for both V2M2 and its clients with great success. Franklin will help you understand how to make the right social connections and get the face to face meeting.

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