Evan Marcus

Evan Marcus, is sought out by clients from around the globe who are seeking new approaches to fundamental business challenges. He has spent the last 25 years working hand in hand with leaders, helping them to clarify strategy, build powerful teams and overcome the barriers to their success.

Evan draws upon his rich educational background and broad work experience to help his clients determine and address critical issues impacting themselves and their organizations.

An experienced business owner himself, Evan advises individuals and organizations who are interested in taking their company to the next level or who are struggling to achieve work-life balance. Evan is an adjunct professor at the Rutgers School of Business in their MBA program.

KeyNote Address

The Wisdom of We™
Evan Marcus, Dillon Marcus Executive Retreats
Today, many of us are under great stress -- working in a fragile economic environment with much uncertainty. In his address, "The Wisdom of We," keynote speaker and convention facilitator Evan Marcus shows that now more than ever, we must declare our inter-dependence. Working in a state of "WE," we are more effective, innovative, resilient and capable of handling stress. 'WE' not only allows us to survive, but gives us a much greater chance of thriving.

Evan's message is supported by 25 years experience, research and a tapestry of stories, real world examples and multimedia. His keynote is highly interactive, inspiring and fun. It will provide each of us with practical, hands-on solutions that we can immediately put into action.

In this critically important and powerful keynote, each of us will learn how to harness the collective intelligence of our organizations and redefine our notion of team. Evan will give us simple tools to create a 'ginormous' impact. Now is the time to create a fundamental change in our industry, in each of our companies and in ourselves.

Hot Topic

Covering your Assets: How Exposed Are You?
Sub-topics for Discussion:
• Written disclaimers, waivers, guarantees, liabilities: Are you using them effectively?
• When to say "NO" to the job
• Sources for conducting risk-assessment at the beginning of a job
• Lead-safe practices and how people are dealing with the new law • Lending Sources
• Dealing with Foreclosures
• Mold: You don't know what you don't know
• Human Resource Issues: Protecting your assets AND human rights
• Being ready for unique opportunities such as cleanup from oil spills
• Changes with insurance programs – Preferred Vendors – what's the next arena and will it become more important to getting leads?
• The changing landscape: How to get work if you're not part of a franchise or Preferred Vendor program.

Break-Out Session

THE LEED-ing EDGE….is Green
Moderated by Convention Planning Task Force Member Allan Burt
If you are not on the edge, then you're taking up too much space! This broad-based panel is a cross-section of industry experts speaking on "Green", LEED and other related sustainability topics which will impact RIA members in efforts to serve and comply with their clients and customers green initiatives. You will obtain compelling business explanations and the associated rationale for embracing environmentally safe practices, Green and LEED practices. This will allow you to progress with the pace of the industry, further differentiating yourself as preferred providers to discriminating customers.

Moderated by Convention Planning Task Force Member Allan Burt, these experts will share their knowledge and experience on:
• Sustainability - GREEN buildings and new technology
• Insurance carriers perception and acknowledgement of GREEN
• LEED Certification for the building and the individual, and is certification necessary?
• Who is building LEED and why?
• Reasonable management of resources and its impact on the built environment.
• Government initiatives and what drives your customers to embrace these programs.

Attending this session will create awareness about the need to embrace this marketplace change and new philosophical approach to the built-environment.

Break-Out Session

Phoenix Awards: The Winners Circle
We hear about RIA's Phoenix Award Winners, but rarely do we get "the rest of the story." Go behind the scenes on several unique, award-winning projects that illustrate how the knowledge and experience of restoration professionals turned disaster into triumph. For 15 years, RIA's Phoenix Award Program has showcased the best in restoration and reconstruction projects, and this panel of winners, will identify the challenges involved in their projects, how they were addressed, the various processes used, and how they parlayed their winning entries into effective marketing campaigns for their companies. You'll hear from the small to mid-sized independent restorers, as well as large company winners. Come and be inspired!

Hot Topic

Opportunity Knocking in a Deficit-Laden Economy
Sub-topics for Discussion:
• Sourcing new revenue streams
• Marketing to local, state and fed govt., insurance companies
• What works, what doesn't and how to distinguish yourself in the marketplace
• How to RAISE awareness nationally and internationally of restoration professionals
• Email marketing using social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter)
• What do others see going on with insurance companies?
• Vendor Programs
• Lead tracking and generation: which ones work and how many do you invest in?
• How to stay focused on the important things?
• Organization within the company, desk, vehicles; how to get organization through the company?
• How to be organized without becoming an organization.

Break-Out Session

I'm Am NOT My Father's Business
Moderated by Jaclyn Carpenter and her panel of experts
Many RIA member companies are becoming second and even third generation-owned businesses. And while working with family has its merits, there are pitfalls.

Whether your family is entering into a new phase of management (Dad is getting ready to retire and turn the business over to you) OR you're in the business and Dad just can't seem to release the reigns -- this 90-minute session, moderated by Jaclyn Carpenter, a second generation business owner, is for you. Jacque and her panel of experts will discuss:
• Dealing with Dad: How to handle your father in a professional manner when he DOESN"T want to turn over the reigns to you, and get him to understand you're really an adult!
• Sibling Rivalry: You're the Boss. Your Sister is the Office Manager. Your Brother is the CEO. And you're ready to quit – the Pros and Cons of working with Family – are there ANY?
• Money Matters - Financial Considerations: What to pay for a business and how to structure a buyout with your Father.
• No. Really. I really AM the BOSS: Solidifying your role as either the incoming or new owner – getting employees to come to you instead of your Dad.
• Daddy's Girl: Issues affecting women in what traditionally has been a "man's world" and recognizing the nuances thereof.
• Is This a Family Dinner or a Business Meeting? Discover how to balance your personal life with family business issues and maintain emotional wellbeing.

For those who've been around awhile, this session will paint a vision for the future of a transcending association into the new restoration future as the Baby Boomers turn over the reigns to the next generation of leaders.

Break-Out Session

Trim the Fat: Organizing for Tomorrow's Business
Lead by Convention Planning Task Force Member Art Johnson, LEAN experts Greg Neil and Mark Labourdette
This session will focus on operating LEAN and clarify what LEAN means as a business philosophy and practice. It's all about "trimming the fat" operationally, and critically looking at the overall realignment of your business to reduce expenses and become more financially efficient.

The interactive 90-minute session will cover:
• Dispatching arrangements
• Computer software • Personnel training
• To sub vs. in-house
• Costs that most frequently run over budget
• Measuring the productivity of your capital and your people

Positioning your company in today's economy where the speed of business may outpace you ability to adapt is critical. Learn how to anticipate market needs, accelerate response time, organize for tomorrow and elevate operational excellence using LEAN!

Ted Garrison

Ted Garrison, CSP, has 25 years management experience constructing 10 million square feet of commercial buildings. Since 1998 Ted has served the construction industry as a consultant, author, and speaker on construction management topics.

He holds his Civil Engineering degree and BA from Rutgers University and has practical experience working in framing, trimming, and survey crews. Most of his experience has been working with general contractors and developers in project man­agement or senior executive positions in the development and construction of hotels, office buildings and parks, storage facilities, and public buildings.

His last major construction project was as the Director of Construction on the Pennsylvania Convention Cen­ter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's largest non-highway public works project in history. He is author of Strategic Planning for Contractors & co-author of five books on marketing, customer service, and leadership as well as numerous construction industry magazine articles.

KeyNote Address

An Industry in Turmoil: Trends to a Restoration Turnaround
Ted Garrison, Garrison & Associates
The restoration industry faces a series of interrelated challenges that if ignored or not addressed properly, will bring down the industry. However crisis creates opportunity. Companies that recognize and take advantage of those opportunities have a bright future. Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad wrote in their best-selling book, Competing for the Future, "If a top management team cannot clearly articulate the five or six fundamental industry trends that most threaten its firm's continued success, it is not in control of the firm's destiny."

This keynote will unravel the trends impacting our industry and offer restoration industry executives and frontline managers strategies to survive and thrive in today's hypercompetitive business environment.

Key takeaway points include the following:
• Improve your ability to compete in the hypercompetitive marketplace • Build an organization that attracts top people and clients
• Boost profitability by removing the obstacles to that goal
• Position your company as a problem-solver, not a peddler, so you never have to compete on price again

If you are struggling to maintain profitability, scrambling just to get work, and having difficulty finding and keeping enough qualified craftspeople and managers, this keynote will reshape the direction of your future!

Hot Topic

Management in Today's Challenging Economy
Sub-topics for Discussion:
• Lean management: What are you doing to make your business more efficient – if you have to cut back, where?
• Personnel & hiring: Is one person at a higher salary worth more than 3 people at a lower salary?
• Efficiencies in utilizing electronics (IPAD, GPS, bar-coding, Blackberries) to control costs: What are they doing to us as managers and people? What are the "Fast technologies?" If you can only spend $10,000, where do you spend it?
• How much impact Steven Covey's & Habits is having on the next generation?
• What is the difference between the Visionary and the Executioner?
• Generational Differences: 4 generations of people in the workforce-how's it working for you?
• Hiring outside consultants: pros and cons, when and when not to
• Job Costing: Are you making Money or NOT?

 

Break-Out Session

The "Restoration Survivor" Competition
Edward H. Cross, The Restoration Lawyer
There are few more entertaining AND enlightening speakers than The Restoration Lawyer, Edward H. Cross who will take attendees on an adventure in "legalize" as it relates to the industry. In this current legal and economic environment, restoration is risky business. So we ask the question: Can you compete and survive? This lively, interactive event team will compete for the coveted title of "Sole Restoration Survivor." You'll be scored and critiqued on your ability to navigate treacherous legal waters, adapt to emerging case law, manage risk, draft contracts, prevention loss, and much more. The stakes are high! Attend this session to find out if you are likely to be voted off Restoration Island...before it's too late. Don't let yourself become stranded in the legal wilderness. Learn the steps you can take today to work toward legal immunity.

 

Break-Out Session

Job Costing Analysis
Moderated by Keynote Presenter Ted Garrison and our panel of experts
This session is for Project managers, estimators, controllers, accountants, IT professionals – anyone who analyzes the "numbers" in order to determine company profitability.

Using RIA's Cost Accounting Guidelines as a baseline, this interactive discussion, moderated by Keynote Presenter Ted Garrison, our panel of experts, will tackle the tough issues, such as:
• Company versus project overhead – where do you carry the burden and does it impact your competitive advantage?
• What is the "true" relationship between an estimate and job costing information?
• What really is ROI and how important is this consideration on equipment purchases?
• How frequently do you use your job cost information to modify production for efficiency, stave off a job going south, or be more competitive

 

Hot Topic

Spending More Time Planning Your Vacation Than Your Customer Service?
Sub-topics for Discussion:
• Defining world class customer service in your business
• Defining our industry's customer: Insurance company, customer, adjustor?
• Setting and exceeding Customer Expectations
• Defining the blind spots in your company that are affecting your bottom-line
• Company Culture: every company has a culture. What's your's?
• Going back to the Golden Rule.

 

Break-Out Session

The Contents Restoration Revolution
Moderated by Contents Queen and Convention Planning Task Force Member, Barb Jackson, her panel of experts
They will talk about the industry's emerging hottest topic: Contents Restoration within the overall damage repair profession.

You'll hear about:
• Efficiencies – whether large or small operator – how can you enter this at a level playing field and get consistent results
• The Consumer: their impression of Contents Restorers and how to position your company in a positive light
• Contents Trends: Automated contents cleaning methods, soft goods processing and contents inventory methods
• The Insurance Industry: how to effectively deal with insurance adjusters, consumers, claims and whatever else comes your way.
• Cash Outs: Restore or Replace – when and why?

If you have a contents division or are exploring the possibilities of venturing into contents, this session will be enlightening.

Break-Out Session

Numbers Don't Lie:
Xactware's 2010 Annual Property Report 2010
Presented by Greg Pyne, Staff Consultant for Xactware
Xactware's Property Report is an invaluable resource for any professional working in the property insurance industry, offering an overview of major trends in construction pricing and property claims throughout the year. The 2010 Property Report uses information gathered from research conducted by Xactware's Pricing Data Services department and XactAnalysis, Xactware's industry-leading claims assignment and analytical network. Presented by Greg Pyne, Staff Consultant for Xactware, he'll provide exclusive information on claims trends, review key indicators, and discuss the impact of pricing changes on building repair costs for 479 regions covering most of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Check out this session and get valuable information, in real time!