Tom Shay 

Profits Plus

Tom Shay's experiences as a fourth-generation merchant provide him with the knowledge and background to present tried-and-proven ideas to assist owners, managers, and staff with the day-to-day operations of their businesses. During the 25-plus years when Tom was a part of the family business, the stores were ongoing laboratories for the management and promotional techniques that are the backbone of the seminars Tom now produces.

He presents proven and time-tried ideas on the topics of promoting, customer loyalty, business-management design, employee skills development, and financial control.

A native of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Tom’s first job was working in his grandfather's general store. Tom moved to Florida to join his parents in the family operation they had purchased in 1971. Over the next 26 years, the Shay family owned and operated three businesses. In 1997, Tom sold the business to devote full time to the development of seminars and writing magazine columns and books.

In addition to providing proven business-building ideas through his writings in over 60 trade publications, Tom has authored EZ Cashflow that teaches how to accurately forecast your next 12 financial sheets, and a series of management tip books beginning with 100 Profits Plus Ideas for Power Promoting and 100 Profits Plus Ideas for Power Managing. 

As a speaker, Tom has earned the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) distinction, an honor that has been earned by fewer than 8 percent of speakers worldwide.

Tom and his wife Marilyn reside in St. Petersburg, Florida, with their twin sons Darren and Blake.

Lynn Switanowski-Barrett

Creative Business Consulting Group

Lynn Switanowski-Barrett is the President of Creative Business Consulting Group, an International Retail consulting firm based in Boston, MA.  With more than 25 years retail industry experience, Lynn and the CBCG team partner with retailers and manufacturers to create and implement profit-improving sales, inventory management and marketing strategies.  CBCG helps retailers to understand today’s wired consumers and how businesses of any size can harness the power of social media to drive profits. Lynn speaks at retail trade shows around the world and teaches retail marketing and branding at several colleges in the Boston area. She began her career at as a buyer at Federated Department stores.

Alexandre Coulombe

BionX International

Rob Jones

Editor of Canadian Cyclist & BTAC's Director of Data Capture

Rob Jones is the Director of Data Capture for the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada, collecting statistics on the Canadian SBR market at both the wholesale and retail level.  Rob has over 30 years of experience in both the business and sport of cycling, as well as having spent more than ten years as a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics.

Lora Woolner

EInternational Mountain bicycling Association (Canada)

Luc Dupont

Professor of Communication at the University of Ottawa

Luc Dupont is Professor of Communication at the University of Ottawa, director of Cossette Research Centre ( http://www.cossette.com/www/news_cruc20080507.php ) and Associate Researcher at CEFRIO. He is also the author of four books on advertising : 1001 Advertising Tips, Images that Sell, Comment faire de la pub efficace sur Internet and Quel média choisir pour votre publicité. These books were published in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, French and Korean. In addition, Mr. Dupont regularly collaborates with the electronic and print media on issues relating to advertising, marketing and image.

Sharon Leichum

Author

Sharon Leicham is the author of Merchandising Your Way to Success and How to Sell to Women. She consults nationally with manufacturers and retailers to help them improve their merchandising and display with the result being increased profitability. She has worked at Royal Robbins as a visual merchandiser  and National Sales Manager and at Specialized Bicycled Components where she headed global and trade marketing, establishing Specialized concept shops and point of purchase materials. At Sierra Designs she headed the apparel division and worked with retailers to ensure sell through of Sierra Designs products. She has served as Merchandising Editor for Outdoor Retailer magazine and SNEWS, and writes and speaks about visual merchandising for a number of trade magazines and shows.