Conference Keynotes

 

Garrison helps people make the jump from being great at what they do to developing the qualities it takes to be consistently chosen for the job. He gets them to understand why their products, services, or leadership styles—or those of their competitors—are selected. As he says, “If the world agreed on what’s best, everybody would choose the best and nothing else would be considered. Decision making doesn’t work that way.” His presentations help people become more influential regardless of circumstances.

Garrison has presented to some of the world's most effective leaders and business developers, from multibillion-dollar manufacturers and national associations to top New York Stock Exchange wire houses. He has a background in manufacturing, telecomm, and financial services and toured as a professional stand-up comedian. In his teens, Garrison worked with Magnavox and baseball legend Hank Aaron to promote the world's first video gaming system, and by age 27 he became the youngest department head in a Fortune 500 company's history. He researched and designed processes for 38 locations nationwide and developed and marketed products still being sold in 30 countries. He is the author of the Amazon.com bestseller The REAL Truth About Success, has contributed weekly to The Washington Post, and has coauthored with Stephen Covey.

   John Silvia is a managing director and the chief economist for Wells Fargo. Based in Charlotte, N.C., he has held his position since he joined Wachovia, a Wells Fargo predecessor, in 2002 as the company’s chief economist.  Prior to his current position, John worked on Capitol Hill as senior economist for the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and chief economist for the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Before that, he was chief economist of Kemper Funds and managing director of Scudder Kemper Investments, Inc.

John currently serves as the president of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) and was awarded a NABE Fellow Certificate of Recognition in 2011 for outstanding contributions to the Business Economics Profession and Leadership Among Business Economists to the Nation. For the second time in three years, he was awarded the best overall forecast by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, as well as the best unemployment rate forecast for 2011. John is on the Bloomberg Best Forecast list for his forecasts of GDP, the ISM manufacturing index, housing starts and the unemployment rate.

John holds B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Northeastern University in Boston and has a master’s degree in economics from Brown University. John’s first book, Dynamic Economic Decision Making, was published by Wiley in August, 2011. His second book, Economic & Business Forecasting, was published in 2014, also by Wiley.

John serves as a member of the Blue Chip Panel of Economic Forecasters and also serves on an informal advisory group for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He served as chair for the Economic Advisory Committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Economic Advisory Roundtable. John also serves on the finance committee for the Mint Museum in Charlotte, and is a regular lecturer to the Cornell Food Executive Program.