NORCROSS, Ga. – A man who lives five years in the future:
        That's the tag line often associated with high-profile consultant and author Jim Carroll. And that forward-looking turf is just where Carroll will tread as the closing General Session speaker at the Industrial Asset Management Council's (IAMC at www.iamc.org) Spring Professional Forum in Tucson, Ariz.
        Carroll's Wednesday morning presentation on "Bridging the Path to the Future" will cap the association's March 14-17 conference at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort (www.loewshotels.com/hotels/tucson), IAMC officials in suburban Atlanta confirmed.

Carroll will be part of IAMC's program at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort (pictured), honored since 1986 with Meetings and Conventions magazine's Gold Key Award for "finest meetings service and quality."

        What IAMC attendees will be hearing from Carroll are insights like those that he has shared with a long list of high-profile corporate clients. Carroll's clientele includes American Express, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG, Monsanto, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and VISA.
        His influence in such circles led to Carroll's being named one of "50 International Names to Know" by The Online Journalism Review (www.ojr.org), a respected international publication that examines journalism's Internet-age future.

Importantly, Carroll, who has made more than 1,000 keynote speeches in the past 15 years, works closely with organizational leaders to custom-tailor remarks for each particular audience.
        Carroll says that his IAMC keynote will address issues including continuing changes in organizational structures and the unceasing outsourcing of many corporate functions, as well as technology's impact on real estate careers and industry skill requirements.
        Carroll's IAMC presentation will particularly focus on practical lessons vis-à-vis how corporate real estate can most effectively contend with today's dizzying rate of change.
        "Years ago, the 'Pogo' comic strip featured a panel in which he observed, 'We are faced with insurmountable opportunities,' " Carroll has written. "Rather than seeing change as a threat, turn every change situation into an opportunity."
        Carroll, the author of 34 books and thousands of magazine articles, is also fond of citing Ogden Nash's wry observation: "Progress is great, but it has gone on far too long." Writes Carroll, "If that is the way you react to new technologies and new ways of working, then your are almost making it certain that you'll battle progress - and as soon as you do, you'll be setting yourself back."
        Not dealing with change, however, isn't a viable option, Carroll insists. What was once called "future shock" has simply become an ongoing present-day reality.

Loews Ventana Canyon (pictured) is consistently ranked at one of the top 20 resorts.

        Carroll cites a recent study by the University of California at Berkley, for example, that concluded that the information that's now produced every six months equals all of the information created in the first 300,000 years of human existence. The half-life of an engineering graduate's knowledge, Carroll points out, is now estimated at five years.

Carroll will join another high-profile keynoter in Tucson in Robert Kaplan. Kaplan will bring to IAMC attendees his "Balanced Scorecard" approach, which has become the preferred management tool for describing and implementing strategy, as well as for aligning business units and resources to strategy.
        Kaplan's address, "Applying the Balanced Scorecard to Corporate Asset Management Groups," will particularly focus on how a shared service group can develop its own strategy to enhance the strategies of the larger business that it supports. (For more details, see " 'Business Scorecard' Guru Kaplan Signs On for IAMC's Arizona Spring Forum," from our Nov. 17 issue.)
        With its theme of "Kick it Up a Notch: Blending Best-of-Class Business Practices to Maximize Corporate Growth," IAMC's Tucson Forum continues the association's strong and unique niche: its core focus on executive-level managers in the industrial and manufacturing sectors who're responsible for corporate real estate and asset management.
        Other workshops on tap in Tucson include:
        • "Adding Shareholder Value through Design Build Construction"
        • "Creating Value through Lease Management"
        • "Strategic Planning through Capital Appropriations Systems"
        • "Meeting the Bottom Line: Are you A Player?"
        The Tucson Forum will also continue the peer-to-peer sessions that have proved so popular at previous conferences. Corporate and associate members will gather separately - and then together - to openly and candidly discuss their expectations of one another.
        During free time, attendees can also enjoy a wide range of leisure activities at Loews Ventana Canyon, consistently ranked as a top 20 resort. Options include two Tom Fazio-designed golf courses, tennis courts, jeep tours, hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking.
        For program and registration details, go to www.iamc.org, or contact Membership Development Manager Cathy Pierce by phone, at 770-325-3430 (USA), or by e-mail at cathy.pierce@conway.com.