Someone asked me yesterday how they could justify the cost of the Summit to their boss. “After all”, they said, “We’re in a giant downturn and everybody is trying to cut, cut, cut. How can I justify the cost to come to the Summit?”

There are three reasons that it is important to attend the Summit even in the current recession (which is ending sooner than you think).

Reason 1: It’s a Great Investment Especially in Bad Times

When money is tight, every dollar counts.

We can’t waste money on a “boondoggle” conference.

Now the good news. The Summit isn’t a boondoggle (although you will have fun while you learn).

Many companies have designated their application of TapRooT® as business critical. And thus keeping their staff up to date on the latest root cause analysis best practices is also business critical. So they allow attending the Summit even in tough times.

Plus, the Summit comes with a 10 times ROI guarantee (see the Summit homepage – http://www.taproot.com/summit for details).

So the Summit isn’t a waste of money. Instead, it is a guaranteed investment in the future of your company.

Reason 2: You Can’t Afford Two Years Without Improvement

Many companies put their improvement plans on hold this year because of budget constraints.

If all companies did this, then maybe a single year’s slip wouldn’t seem that bad. But here’s the bad news: They DIDN’T.

Some companies have invested in improvement this year and they are pulling ahead.

If you don’t have an aggressive improvement plan for next year – you’ll be left in the dust.

The Summit is an outstanding place to network, learn the most recent best practices, and talk to experts to develop your improvement plan for 2010.

Your goal will be to catch up with your 2009 goals and leapfrog ahead in 2010.

The improvements you achieve will more than pay for all your conference costs and more.

So you can’t afford to wait to attend the 2010 Summit because by then, you will be too far behind to hope to catch up.

Reason 3: Attending the Summit Can Help You Make Short Term Improvements That Contribute Immediately to the Company’s Bottom Line

The Summit isn’t just about long-term improvements. There are lots of quick fixes and great ways to save effort and money immediately.

Applying the best practices that you learn in a single investigation could produce dramatic savings that immediately add to your company’s bottom line.

One of the attendees at a past Summit told me that a single idea that he got on the first day was going to save his company over a million dollars on a project that they were working on.

Now I can’t guarantee a million dollar idea on the first day for everyone. But we do hand out sheets of paper with $10,000 bills printed on them for people to take notes. The idea is that every time you hear something that can save your company money, you write it down. At the end of the Summit you decide which of these ideas can save your company the most money and you develop a plan to implement the ideas when you return to work.

I’ve seen people with dozens of $10,000 Idea sheets. Their problem was trying to decide between all the great ideas they had. After all, there is only so much one person can accomplish (which is why you should bring a team to the Summit – but that’s a different article).

Therefore, if you really want to save money and help your company make it through this recession – the Summit should be an essential part of your plan.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

See your boss, get permission to attend, and get registered!

Visit the registration page:

https://taproot.com/summit.php?t=register