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2014 Conference was a wonderful success! Watch for updates on 2015, and a look back at this years conference.
Coming soon!
Keynote Speaker: Saya Hillman
Chicago native and super-dynamo Saya Hillman is heading to APNA to teach agency owners and employees to say YES! Saya figured out how to turn her knack for creating community and challenging both herself and those around her in to her “job.” Through her company Mac & Cheese Productions, Saya helps both herself and others live a Life of Yes! Living a Life of Yes (aka LOY) means saying ‘YES, why not?, let’s do it,’ instead of saying ‘NO.’ When living a LOY, you are optimistic and connected … a virtual magnet for goodness and connectedness. In keeping with our theme of Mindfulness, Saya’s LOY lessons will also teach us to be selfish in the best possible way; as people who take care of themselves are better at taking care of others, which we all need to do a heck of a lot of in our jobs.
Saya was one of Brazen Careerist’s Top Twenty Young Professionals to Watch, and has been featured in Forbes Magazine as well as the New York Times. Saya has also spoken at the Tedx conference. Saya’s nuptials (to a man she met at a Mac & Cheese event, no less) was featured in both the Chicago Tribune and the Huffington Post, pubs that clamored to cover the big day since Saya and her groom brilliantly managed to pull off an almost 100% bartered wedding!
Don’t miss Saya’s keynote speech, Friday, November 7th, at 9:00 A.M., or her follow-up Part II Power of Yes seminar at 9:00 A.M. on the 8th. Saya will also lead a communication skills workshop from 9:30 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. Saturday.
If you like the idea of belonging, of channeling your inner ‘kid’ness,’ being more playful and feeling more fulfilled in all that you do, you will love Saya! And if you’re willing to embrace your short-comings (that is if you have any … ) and put them to work for you, even better. Let’s all learn to recognize our personal superpowers and put them to work for our colleagues, our clients and ourselves! We hope you will say YES to APNA and register for the exciting fall conference today!
Stuart Dupuy recently left his position as a successful executive at Dell, where he had a 17 year career. He is now a full time entrepreneur, devoting his time to the businesses he co-founded, Mom’s Best Friend, Recover Homes, Assisted Living in Austin, and Balance Dance Studios. Prior to joining Dell in 1997, Stuart was an attorney practicing commercial litigation with Fulbright & Jaworski. He has a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Texas School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Duke University, with a semester at the London School of Economics.
Kathy Dupuy is a successful entrepreneur in Austin, Texas. She founded Mom’s Best Friend in 1994, and led the company’s growth into a full service household staffing agency, with 3 offices in Texas, and a franchise 
office in Dallas/Fort Worth and Vail, Colorado. Kathy is an active board member for APNA, and on the Advisory Board for the Preferred Provider Program at Bright Horizons. In 2009, Kathy and her husband, Stuart, opened The Collinfield House, a residential care home for seniors. In 2012, Kathy partnered with a professional dancer/instructor to launch Balance Dance Studios, a family-friendly, amenity-rich dance studio. Kathy received her Bachelor’s degree in political science from Vanderbilt University.
James Ellis
Digital Strategist
For more than 15 years, James Ellis has been helping businesses big and small get the most out the digital ecosystem. His client list includes Target, BP, WellPoint, Abbott Labs, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Baxter, Charter Communications and Cardinal Health, Enterprise Holdings, Wisconsin Alumni Association, and various Wisconsin state organizations.
Interesting fact: James started and ran @BuckyBadger for the Wisconsin Alumni Association, being the Twitter face of UW-Madison to thousands of people around the world, tweeting pictures of the lake and campus as well as football scores to Badgers in Afghanistan and South Korea.
He’s written or co-written books about social media, analytics, and content management systems. He’s taught journalists and sales professionals how to use Twitter to find and develop leads. He blogs fairly regularly, currently focused on the digital talent acquisition space.
He earned his political science degree from University of Texas at Austin in 1994, but it came with minors is studio art and speech communication. From there, he hid from the world in NCSU, getting half a masters degree while spending too much time at the student newspaper and in the computer lab learning about this thing called the “internet.”
From there, it was just a hop, skip and a jump from software company to dot-bomb to state agencies in Madison, WI. But that was just youthful indiscretion. He was young and needed the money.
Looking back, it seems likes a tangled road from Austin to Raleigh to Madison to Chicago, but between here and there, he’s learned a lot about a lot of things, which he’s turned into a passion for teaching people how to get more out of digital. From social media to SEO, from marketing to management, James helps people connect the digital dots.
James will be speaking on Friday, November 7 at our annual conference. You don’t want to miss it! Register today!
Leveraging Online Recruiting Platforms to Boost Your Business
Want to broaden your reach of candidates using online platforms? Erin Krex will lead this informative discussion on the various sites available including Indeed, Barefoot, Craigslist, LinkedIn and more. Learn the pros and cons on these sites, best practices when using online platforms, recruiting the best candidates, and possible pitfalls.
