Representatives for over 60 different organizations  gathered from all over the country in sunny Huntington Beach at the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort for ConnecTax, Ceridian Tax Service’s annual knowledge exchange and tax education conference. The conference offers the latest legislation and compliance topics, in-depth product sessions, user groups, networking with peers, and motivational professional development sessions.   That’s where we come in…\n\nWe were invited to be  one of  four keynote presentations for ConnecTax 2010:\n

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  • The Wild Idea Club: Creativity & the Workplace!\nPresented by Linda Krall and Janine McDonald
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  • Health Care Reform: Compliance Tsunami For Employers?\nPresented by Jim O’Connell
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  • Overcoming Obstacles\nPresented by Paul Everett
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  • Saving Millions in Year-over-Year HR Costs\nPresented by Cary Griffith and Jennifer Bichsel
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\n\nGiving a lunch keynote can be tough, participants have full stomachs and want nothing more than to sneak out to the hotel pool and take a nap.    But we had something special in store from them.  In the course of a short hour, they drew portraits of their table partners,  played with a beach ball, planned a magic weekend and generated over 500 ideas in 10 minutes.     There was laughter and movement and lots of creativity flowing in the room.\n\nWe met conference participants from Google, Costco, Chrysler and Peet’s Coffee and they were eager to learn how to create an environment where innovation can flourish and employees are actively engaged  in generating creative solutions to company challenges.    We encouraged them  be playful, be curious, be open, seek new perspectives and a change in scenery.   The most creative ideas happen when you least expect it.\n\nNike CEO, Mark Parker summed it up beautifully, ” Curiosity is life.  Assumption is death. Look around.  Be a sponge!”\n\nCeridian is a business services company that is committed to helping customers maximize the power of people, lower their costs and focus on what they do best http://www.ceridian.com/.    Holding true to their core value of being customer driven, they offered this incredible opportunity to educate their clients and give them a chance to network and share best practices.\n\nOur fellow event sponsors included D2Xchange, The Hackett Group and Commdata.\n\n\n