Speaker Rem Jackson, President and CEO, Top Practices

Rem Jackson has been professionally speaking for over a decade. He has keynoted over 45 state and national conferences and appeared on television in Singapore, New Zealand, and on the San Francisco Bay Area program “Silicon Spin,” discussing technology and its appropriate uses in instruction and professional development. His ability to guide participants through challenging content in an interesting and informative style has contributed to his national reputation as an entertaining, informative, and dynamic speaker.

He currently accepts a limited number of engagements per year. For information regarding scheduling and fees please contact: info@TopPractices.com

Speech Topics Business

Marketing Gold
Why does it seem that some businesses grow and grow in a seemingly effortless way and others struggle to find new clients, customers, or patients? A close look inside these businesses produces some surprising answers. It is not about what town or city the business is located in or the population demographics, as you might think. Some businesses thrive in seemingly impossible places, and others in very desirable locations never live up to their potential. The answer is usually found in how the business markets or “sells” itself to the community. In this session, learn how successful businesses use simple, inexpensive marketing strategies to attract as many of the kinds of clients, customers, or patients as they wish.

Building Professional Relationships
Overview: Most professionals struggle with how to build their businesses. The secret to success is in building an ever-expanding list of profitable relationships. But building professional relationships with clients or patients, other businesspeople, and businesses is a mission-critical skill that simply isn’t taught in schools. Most professionals are frustrated or even mystified by it and don’t know where to begin. “Building Professional Relationships” guides participants through an exploration of seven powerful strategies for building and maintaining an ever-expanding group of long-lasting and profitable professional relationships.

How to Achieve Explosive Personal and Professional Growth
Overview: “How to Achieve Explosive Personal and Professional Growth” is a high-energy, quick-paced session that explores the roadblocks and challenges all professionals face as they work to build successful practices. Attendees are first guided to closely examine the internal barriers they face that block their success, and they are offered strategies and ideas to effectively move forward. After dealing with internal issues, this session focuses on the actions they need to take to achieve their practice and revenue goals. Finally, the session challenges attendees to actually put their plans into action and build the lives they want.

The Art and Science of Leadership
Overview: What makes a good leader? Are some people just born to lead? Do the times we live in create our leaders, or can we make an intentional choice and become leaders at work, at home, and in our community? An organization is only as good as its leader, and the secrets to effective, powerful, transformative leadership aren’t taught in school. In this session, participants learn how to uncover the leader in themselves even if they’ve never seen themselves as a “leader” before.

Designing an Experience Your Clients Will Talk About
Overview: How many professionals spend a fortune to get clients to call them, only to disappoint them with a lackluster or even poor experience? Businesses can no longer differentiate themselves from their competition by merely providing good products (or professional expertise) coupled with great customer service. The companies that will succeed in the future will create superior customer “experiences” for their valued “guests” (customers, clients, or patients). Explore how professionals and businesses are finding inexpensive and powerful ways to stand out from their competitors and lead their markets.

Why Good Salespeople Fail
Overview: An engaging discussion of the challenges salespeople, business owners, and any professional selling ideas face as they prospect for new business and attempt to build lasting, profitable customer relationships. Ideas and strategies are presented to help selling professionals deal effectively with the frustrations they face as they move their businesses forward.

Out-of-the-Box Time Management
Everyone struggles with managing their time…everyone. And everyone knows that time is valuable – “time is money” – but very few people understand the “real” value of time. If they did, they wouldn’t waste a single second. In this session, participants will discover a new way to value their time and learn the secret to getting more done than all of their competitors combined and, at the same time, enjoy their lives more.

Speech Topics K-12 Educational Technology:

The New New Thing
The last ten years have been a time of tremendous change and innovation for us all. But what about our immediate future? Are you as excited as you were five years ago about the incredible promise technology offers educators, or do you fear that the challenges we face will continue to slow down our progress? Join Rem Jackson for a fast-paced and entertaining look at how you can beat the odds and create an explosion of high-tech creativity at your school.

The Best of Technology
Join Rem Jackson as he shares his favorite resources, websites, and tools. It’s impossible to keep up with everything but Rem tries and his friends keep him up to date. You’re sure to see some things you already use and you’re guaranteed to be astounded at least once. Bring your best resources and you might get a chance to share yours with the group.

Developing A Sustained Vision for Technology: Shifting Perceptions to Action (With Dr. John Gould)

Educators continue to struggle with infusing technology into daily classroom instruction. We all know creative educators who have been able to use technology and the resources on the Internet in imaginative ways to engage students and impact student achievement. But the fact is that, for most teachers, truly infusing technology into daily instruction is still a difficult goal - even for motivated, talented teachers who really want to use technology to teach core subjects. The reasons for this difficulty are many, but include:

Lack of access to technology resources for teachers and for students
Lack of appropriate curriculum that seamlessly integrates technology and the Internet
Antiquated models that do not and cannot support a technology rich school and classroom

The old models are no longer working and the new models haven't yet emerged. Educators and students are living in a transitional period and it may take another decade to sort these issues out.

Join Rem Jackson and Dr. John Gould as they look at the question - "What are educators to do now to survive and thrive during this transitional period. The essential question of this session is “How do you increase collective thinking, develop new patterns of relationships, and create powerful instructional practices through technology driven schools when they are feeling tremendous pressures to adjust to an era of standards/ accountability and accelerating complexity?”

John Gould’s Bio

Dr. Gould has more than 30 years of in-depth experience in the educational field, in which he has specialized on issues surrounding systemic change, curriculum development and the effective implementation of new technologies in the classroom. His studies and work in these areas are a natural outgrowth of his advanced degrees in education, including both an M.S. from Duquesne University and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He has recently retired from the Superintendencey and is teaching on-line educational and technology courses for Master and Doctorial classes at Drexel University.

His research is informed by a first-hand familiarity with organizational issues, having worked for over 20 years as a superintendent and assistant superintendent with several Pennsylvania school districts. His other experiences range from a public school Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Intermediate Unit experience, and a project manager for the PA Governor’s Office of Information and Technology.

Dr. Gould has penned many articles on school change and presented workshops at the local, state, and national levels. He also has served as the project manager in charge of crafting a "shared vision and action plan" for Governor Tom Ridge's Pennsylvania Education Network (PEN). Dr. Gould coordinated the efforts of the PA Link-to-Learn management team to incorporate community and business ideas into an action plan for effective use of technology for both teachers and students as a “tool” for learning. Presently, he consults for the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Classrooms For the Future.

He has served as the president of the Pennsylvania Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development and served as a member of the National Board of Directors of ASCD. He also is a member of the Legislative Committee of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrtors.

Dr. Gould is grounded in “systems thinking” and has a strong commitment to the concepts of a “learning organization.” The essential question he asks all to consider, against the backdrop of NCLB, is, given the changes in technology, medicine, social interactions, the environment, and international events, how do we cope in designing learning environs to meet these changes for the next generation of both students and teachers?