The Friday night keynote presentation is by Dr. Ivan Misner. Dr. Misner is the Founder & Chairman of BNI, the world's largest business networking organization. BNI was founded in 1985. The organization has over 4,600 chapters throughout every populated continent of the world.  Last year alone, BNI generated over 4.9 million referrals resulting in over $1.9 billion dollars worth of business for its members.

Dr. Misner’s Ph.D. is from the University of Southern California. He has written nine books, including his latest New York Times best seller,Truth or Delusion? Busting Networking's Biggest Myths.  He is a monthly columnist for Entrepreneur.com and is the Senior Partner for the Referral Institute - a referral training company with trainers around the world.  He has taught business and social capital courses at several universities and is on the Board of Directors for the Colorado School of Professional Psychology.

Called the "Father of Modern Networking" by Ecademy.com and the “Networking Guru” by Entrepreneur magazine, Dr. Misner is considered one of the world's leading experts on business networking and has been a keynote speaker for major corporations and associations throughout the world. He has been featured in the L.A. Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times, as well as numerous TV and radio shows including CNN, CNBC, and the BBC in London.

Dr. Misner is on the Board of Directors for the Haynes Children Center. He is the Founder of the BNI‑Misner Foundation and was recently named "Humanitarian of the Year" by a Southern California newspaper. He is married and lives with his wife Elisabeth and their three children in Claremont, CA.  In his spare time!!!… he is also an amateur magician and a black belt in karate.

Frank deRaffele Jr. will be kicking off the event on Saturday morning. Frank is Founder/President of the ProActive Leadership Center, which has Associates in the United States, the United Kingdom. His company has worked with thousands of business owners and sales professionals showing them how to get greater results with less effort and greater consistency.

Frank is the co-author of, Successful Business Networking, (Chandler House Press 1998)and a contributing author to the Wall Street Journal & New York Times Best Seller, The Masters of Networking (Bard Press 2000). In February of 2006 he was contracted for two additional books:  Business, Networking and Sex….Not what you think! and Black Belt Business.

He’s written his own Business Development Column for the Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals, was the Executive Producer and Co-Host of the Business Talk Network radio program and is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, trainer and CEO performance coach. Frank is known as a Master Speaker. He has been speaking professionally for over 15 years and his client list looks like the Fortune 1000. He is known as a dynamic, funny and content driven speaker. People who attend Frank’s sessions feel that the information they gain is communicated in a very down to earth, understandable fashion that allows them to immediately put in place what they learned that day.

Frank has received international recognition in Canada and the United Kingdom. He has been featured in The Globe & Mail of Canada, Success, Employment Review, Professional Selling, Sport Illustrated and Playboy magazines, CNN and CFNN television and on many national radio and television programs. He has worked with a wide variety Fortune 1000 Companies, non-profit organizations and small business executives. He has been a member of the American Society for Training & Development and the National Speakers Association. He was a board member of the New York Tri-State National Speakers Association, and a Board Member, Chairman and President with many non-profit organizations.

Presently Mr. Stay also serves as the Chief Relationship Officer for RRA (Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler), a customer-centric law firm based in Fort Lauderdale. In this unique role, Jeff is responsible for all aspects of business development, the identification and coordination of the firm’s strategic partnerships, practice group driven marketing alliances, organizational involvement and direct client acquisition.

Jeff is a sought-after presenter in South Florida and beyond, speaking on the topics of sales, sales management, risk management, word-of-mouth marketing, business development, strategic relationship building and organizational leadership. His credentials include the International Society for Performance Improvement, Florida Power & Light University, National Association for Women Business Owners, American Society for Training and Development, Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce, South Florida Business Journal, Nova Southeastern School of Entrepreneurship, the Strategic Forum and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.

Prior to his current consulting focus, Jeff spent more than 15 years in insurance sales, where he achieved several honors. Among those are Poe & Brown’s Gunslinger Award and Deluxe Corporation’s President Sales Club. During his last assignment, Jeff was the Area Vice President for Arthur J. Gallagher of Minnesota. Jeff serves our community through various Board of Director affiliations, including: Mount Sinai Young Presidents, Family Resource Center, Teach for America and the BNI Founder’s Circle. Jeff also serves on the Florida Bar Grievance Committee and is an Alumni of Leadership Miami.

Iain has been involved in sales since 1980 and has run and sold a number businesses in that time. In 2003, Iain bought the BNI franchise for Scotland South and East, and has used his passion and focus to consistently grow the region and the members’ businesses.

Iain is in demand around the world as a professional speaker. His no-nonsense and direct approach has been widely praised for its effectiveness and inspiration, a fact that has been proved by the large volume of letters he receives from attendees at his events.

Iain has been recognized for his outstanding contributions to BNI many times over the years. He currently serves on the European Director Training Board, European Training Materials Board and the Strategic Alliance Development for BNI. In 2005 he was awarded the Giver’s Gain award at the BNI International Conference, and his chapter won an award for largest average chapter growth at the 2008 European Conference.

Iain has recently founded bigmantalking.com, which will be launching in May 2008. This new venture will bring his unique approach to businesses across the globe through regular speaking tours, books, videos and online seminars.

Flynn Noguera and Sara Minnis (at left with Dr. Misner) are lifetime entrepreneurs themselves. They formed del Feugo six years ago to bring to entrepreneurs the skill sets that they taught to Corporate Sales Teams all over the world, including Gartner, Verizon, Lancome, Loreal, Boots the Chemist, HP, Sun and Cisco and others.

Their commitment to all individuals that they work with is to make available to anyone what previously only corporate sales people had access to. Most recently, their partnership with Dr. Misner combined their talents in training with his experience as a founder to create the world's first word of mouth curriculum, BNI Networking Secrets.

Sue Henry is a professional speaker, writer and business trainer. She has provided workshops for hundreds of business people from over 37 states and 18 countries around the globe. Considered an expert in networking, Sue helps others learn how to effectively ask for the referrals they want and need to grow their business profitably with the contacts they already have. Her workshops and teleseminars share practical, easy-to-implement strategies. Sue combines real life stories and a little humor to help her audience visualize success.

Sue writes articles on business topics, copywriting marketing pieces for companies, manuals for seminars and workshops, and in-depth profiles of business leaders in regional magazines. She has had articles published in various online ezines: thenetworkingclub.com, networkingnow.com, successnet.com, as well as in Good Housekeeping and Family Circle. Sue is a contributing author in the book “Masters of Sales” by Ivan Misner, Ph.D. & Don Morgan, M.A., which was listed on the bestseller lists of NY Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

Mike Macedonio is the President and Partner of the Referral Institute. The Referral Institute helps people create Referrals For Life™.

Mike and his business partner Dr. Ivan Misner co-authored “Truth or Delusion, Busting Networking’s Biggest Myths” which has hit several best sellers lists including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon. One of his proudest moments was the day after the book was released it hit #1 on Amazon’s Best Seller List…Donald Trump’s “Why You Want To Be Rich” was #2.

Mike was also part owner of several BNI regions. During his 9 years with BNI, Mike was involved in building the region to over 75 chapters with over 1500 members. Mike also received numerous national awards from BNI including the National Director of the Year Award.

Mike’s position within the Referral Institute began as a trainer in 2001. In 2003, Mike was hand selected to be the President of the Referral Institute. Since that time Mike has lead the Referral Institute from a handful of trainers to a franchised organization operating throughout North America, Australia and Europe. For the third year in a row Entrepreneur Magazine has recognized the Referral Institute as one of the Top 500 rated franchises in the United States.

Mike has an incredible passion for mountain climbing, cycling and endurance sports.

Nancy Giacomuzzi has been a BNI member for 15 years, and Executive Director of BNI Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin for 12 years. She first joined BNI in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she was a real estate agent and President of her chapter.

In 1996, Nancy started BNI in Minnesota to grow her Minnesota real estate business. She is married to Al Giacomuzzi. They have homes in Edina and Duluth, Minnesota, and travel internationally to stay in touch with family.

Today, Nancy is a real estate agent with Keller Williams and is still a member of Minnesota’s first BNI Chapter, South Metro. She is a contributing author to the New York Times bestseller, Masters of Networking. Last year she was the keynote speaker at Minnesota’s International Networking Week event. She is a member of BNI’s Experimental Programs Committee, Platinum Club, and Founders’ Circle. Under her direction, the BNI Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin region has received international recognition for starting the world’s largest chapter, the number of chapters with over 50 members, and receives regular awards for the number of members per chapter. Nancy is known for her gentle coaching and truly wanting the best for everyone.

Twelve years ago Tom got into BNI and somewhere along the line BNI got into him. After working for 8 years in various Fortune 500 firms and receiving a BSBA and MBA in business Tom started his first company and found BNI a great forum to promote it in. From that point, he started and sold 4 different companies using BNI to promote them all, but in January of 2003 he relocated from Boston, MA to become the Executive Director for BNI in West Central Florida as well as the Director of Training for the Referral Institute in Tampa. In addition, Tom is a contributing author to 2 best selling books by Dr Misner and has produced a powerful educational CD about Networking called, "Who Can Pass You Business All Day Every Day".

Steve Wiegert is currently Executive Director of BNI Kansas City, and BNI Wichita. Wiegert's Kansas City region was recently recognized by BNI for achieving over 60 % growth in 2007, making it one of BNI's fastest growing regions. Wiegert recognized by businesses in these areas as key to their business growth.

LuAnn Buechler is an Assistant Director for Southern Minnesota BNI and operates her own business as a Professional Meeting Consultant providing business education, consulting and meeting planning services. LuAnn has a 25 year history in the Hospitality Industry working for companies such as Hyatt Hotels, Marriott and the Mayo Clinic. LuAnn, is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Wisconsin Stout.

LuAnn got her business started by joining BNI and knew immediately that word-of-mouth marketing was the way to grow her business. Other than a website, it is the only way she chooses to market her business and her key to success is…Relationships, Relationships, Relationships!

LuAnn presents on her personal experiences, and training through BNI that has helped her to become a successful entrepreneur in her own right.

Beth M. Anderson is an entrepreneur, a founding partner in OrgTrack.com, founder of TheNetworkingClub.com, and an internationally recognized expert in word-of-mouth referral networking. Dubbed the "The Networking Queen," she is an active participant in several on-line networking communities, and credits her  success to the lessons learned by her participation in the world’s largest organization of weekly face-to-face networking meetings, BNI.

A website designer and developer by trade, she has her fingers in a number of different things at all times. Always passionate about the latest adventure, she loves learning new things, meeting new people, and tackling new challenges.