MoreSteam Blog
On the Road: Two Coasts, Two Conferences
The "Old-School" PEX Week vs. The "New-School" Lean Summit
February 01, 2012 - 
Denver, CO – We've barely dipped our collective toes into the shared pool of 2012, but the process improvement conference season has already left the starting block with a pair of significant events: the Process Excellence Week (IQPC/PEX Network) and the Central Coast Lean Summit (Cal Poly).
MoreSteam was a proud exhibitor and sponsor at both events. In retrospect, what was most remarkable about these two process improvement events was how nearly opposite they were in every way.
In Florida, the established PEX Week was a sizable hotel-based conference with a broad, traditional program pitched to an international, executive-level audience. In California, the new Lean Summit was held in a more intimate academic setting, with a focused, practical program for regional professionals.
The Process Excellence Week (IQPC/PEX Network)
Billed as the largest global conference for process improvement professionals, PEX Week was held in Orlando, FL in mid-January. The event has morphed over its thirteen years from a more specific Lean Six Sigma (LSS) focus to a general process improvement program, with an emphasis on both LSS and Business Process Management (BPM).
The PEX Week program featured plenary sessions, panels, workshops and specialized tracks, and this year's Solutions Hall hosted over 30 software and service vendors (including MoreSteam). The second day launched with a pulse-pounding animated video that summed up "What is process Excellence?" for the audience. They've posted it on their Web site, and it makes an excellent introduction for those new to the subject.
An unscientific sampling of some of the 430+ delegates made clear that the highlights of the event were the keynotes by Flip Flippen (Flippen Group) and Jim Steele (meta Lucid Ltd.). Both speakers offered thoughtful and engaging takes on how you can address your personal limits and behaviors to achieve more for yourselves and your organization. These speakers - from outside the industry - brought fresh, well-received perspectives on change management and personal growth.
In addition to the usual corporate program overviews and networking breaks, much of the program was dedicated to discussing what researchers, practitioners and bloggers saw as the process improvement trends in 2012. Less well received this year was the comparatively large number of vendor presentations that ran the gamut from very useful to product pitch. While well run, the PEX Week felt too familiar and less energetic than in its earlier years. We look forward to seeing how a new location and program chair will impact the 2013 event.
The Central Coast Lean Summit
During the same week, but on the opposite coast, a very different process improvement event took place. The California Polytechnic University at San Luis Opisbo hosted the first Central Coast Lean Summit. Dr. Olsen, a Cal Poly faculty member who leads the Industrial Technology program in Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business, served as the Summit’s host and moderator.
The impressive line-up of keynote speakers, including Shingo Prize winner Dr. Art Smalley, and workshop leaders drew approximately 100 attendees from dozens of Central Coast organizations, as well as organizations located in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area. MoreSteam co-sponsored the summit, which helped to educate many organizations who are investigating whether to adopt Lean as a means of process improvement.
This one-day program, with its emphasis on Lean basics, success stories and practical advice, generated palpable excitement from the gathered crowd. The closing session, an open forum on how to maintain momentum for the Central Coast community of practice, generated over two dozen specific suggestions for on-going programming and resources. Anyone interested in joining and contributing to this new community should contact Eric Olsen at eolsen@calpoly.edu.
Where to next?
Our conference team will be out and on the road in February at:
- The Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Great Lakes Regional Conference on Feb. 17-19, 2012 hosted by The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH (http://greatlakesregionalconference2012.com/),
- The Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference, sponsored by the Society for Health Systems (SHS) in Las Vegas on Feb. 18-21 (Bill Hathaway will present on “Process Thinking – Getting it Right the First Time”) ( http://www.iienet2.org/SHS/Conference/), and
- The ASQ Lean and Six Sigma Conference in Phoenix (http://asq.org/conferences/six-sigma/) on February 26-27, 2012.