Keynoter tells
DuPage business conference change is accelerating
Entrepreneur Howard Tullman was the keynote
presenter at DuPage County Regional Business Outlook. (Chuck Fieldman / Pioneer
Press)
The
message from Howard Tullman was clear Wednesday when he spoke to about 700
members of the DuPage business community.
"Everything changes so quickly today;
it's hard to keep up," said Tullman, an entrepreneur who has been involved
in many business ventures and is chief executive officer of 1871, a company
started in 2012 to support Chicago's digital startup community.
"The future is here now, it doesn't wait.
The world today is all about speed. People want everything right now. You've
got to be there when the buyer is ready to buy. Yesterday's miracles are
today's 'so whats.'"
Tullman was the keynote speaker at the eighth annual
DuPage County Regional Business Outlook at Drury Lane Conference Center in
Oakbrook Terrace
He said changes in technology aren't
incremental and will impact all kinds of businesses.
"Every time there's a change, it
accelerates the rate of the next change," he said. "Technology is not
just about doing things better, it's about how you do other things."
Tullman said loyalty nothing more than the
absence of something better. Attention is the new currency.
"People are spending more time online,
but in shorter sessions," he said. "They're telling us to make it
easy for me, or I'll go someplace else."
While Tullman's message is applicable to many
around the world, it was an appropriate topic for the DuPage audience, said
John Carpenter, president and CEO of Choose DuPage Economic Development
Alliance, which sponsored the event, along with Ice Miller and Mesirow
Financial.
"We want the information here to be
valuable," Carpenter said. "Relevance is the main goal, and the
message here today was don't be complacent."
About 700 people from the DuPage County
business community attended the DuPage County Regional Business Outlook. (Chuck
Fieldman / Pioneer Press)
The DuPage County Regional Business Outlook
event brings together local business owners, executives, government and
education leaders to share insights on the regional and national economic
landscape, as well as to discuss best practices and growing potential in
today's economy.
DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin shared
optimism about the economic outlook in the county.
He said unemployment and industrial vacancy
rates in DuPage are the lowest in the region at 4.19 and 5.4 percent,
respectively. Sales tax for the first quarter of 2017 increased by 5.5 percent,
Cronin said.
Other topics in the program: a U.S. market
outlook from Leo Harmon, managing director, equity management, and Peter Hegel,
managing director, fixed income management, both from Mesirow Financial; a
business leaders roundtable moderated by Lisa Leiter, former anchor and
reporter, Crain's Chicago Business, and including Vince Tomkinson, Midwest
managing partner, Grant Thornton; John Carlisle, interim director, chain
reaction innovations, Argonne National Laboratory; and Roman
Kuropas, chief executive officer, president and founder, Innova EV.
