NORCROSS, Ga. – Top-notch speakers will be an integral element in "Getting It Done Right! Industrial Asset Management Approaches to Proficiency and Profitability" - the theme for the Industrial Asset Management Council's (IAMC at www.iamc.org) Spring 2003 Professional Forum.
        Set for April 6-9 at Palm Harbor, Fla.'s Westin Innisbrook Resort, IAMC's Spring Forum is rapidly mounting a lineup of speakers bringing meaningful messages tailored for some of industrial asset management's top players.

Ricchiuti: Financial-markets expertise.

        One of those speakers, for example, is Peter Ricchiuti, who has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and is a frequent contributor on CNN, CNBC and National Public Radio's "Marketplace." Ricchiuti will headline the Palm Harbor Forum's closing session with his address, "What Is Wall Street Saying about the Industrial and Manufacturing Industries?"
        Ricchiuti brings a wealth of knowledge to that topic. Beginning his career in the Boston office of the investment banking firm of Kidder Peabody & Co., Ricchiuti then served for five years as Louisiana's assistant state treasurer and chief investment officer, managing the state's US$3-billion investment portfolio.
        Now assistant dean of Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business, Ricchiuti has employed insights and humor so successfully in the classroom that he has twice been honored as Tulane's top-ranked professor.
        His financial-markets expertise also cuts a broader swath. In 1993 Ricchiuti founded the Burkenroad Reports investment research reports. In that capacity, he leads a team of more than 140 Tulane business students in gauging undervalued stocks.
        Ricchiuti's Palm Harbor message will be customized to focus on the manufacturing and industrial sectors' financial outlook. He will advise his IAMC audience on how to position their companies' assets for future growth.

Another speaker on tap in Palm Harbor is Roger von Oech, an internationally recognized leader in stimulating creative thinking.
        President of Creative Think, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based consulting firm, von Oech has conducted his seminars on creative thinking for high-profile organizations that include Apple, CBS, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, MTV, NASA, Procter & Gamble and the United States Olympic Swimming Team.
        He has authored a number of business books, including the best-sellers A Whack on the Side of the Head, and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants.
        His message at IAMC will adapt one of those best-sellers' thesis to his Palm Harbor audience. Von Oech's topic at the Florida Professional Forum will be, "Do Asset Management Professionals Need a Whack on the Side of the Head?"

Humor will also be a major element in the presentation by Larry Winget, another confirmed speaker for IAMC's Spring Professional Forum.
        Billed as "the Pit Bull of Personal Development" and "the World's Only 'Irritational' Speaker," Winget utilizes an engaging style that has won him induction into the International Speaker Hall of Fame.
        President of the Tulsa, Okla.-based Larry Winget Group, Winget has authored more than a dozen business and motivational books.
        Watch for further details on the Palm Harbor conference at www.iamc.org.