Gene Marks

Gene’s signature keynotes (given in either 45, 60, or 90 minutes).

Tactics and Strategies The Smartest Leaders Are Making To Navigate And Grow in 2024 and 2025

Inflation, labor and supply chain issues continue to create challenges for businesses. AI is taking over the world and succession planning is now a bigger challenge.

• What’s next for your business?
• What are other business leaders doing to navigate their companies towards growth and profitability in 2024 and beyond?
• What changes are they making in their operations and cash management? How are they attracting and retaining talent?
• What technologies are they investing in?
• How are they addressing both federal and local regulations that are impacting their businesses?

During this fast paced, entertaining and extremely valuable discussion, Gene will go over real life, feet-on-the-ground strategies and tactics that smart leaders are using to navigate their way through an uncertain economy, a changing and more divisive political environment, technological and workplace decisions so that they can position their companies for future growth.
 

• A bipartisan overview of how the 2024 elections will impact your business and your industry; 
• An update on major legislation, rules and regulations that will impact your operations and workplace and tactics for being in compliance; 
• A review of little known metrics and the major economic trends that are impacting your business and industry and how to best maneuver in the coming months; 
• Cash flow and operational management strategies and tactics used by the best business leaders to navigate sticky inflation and higher costs; 
• Thoughts on AI and other hot technologies that will require your investigation and investment in the coming months; 
• Tax moves to take now to lower this significant cost; 
• The hottest employee benefits that smart companies are using to attract and retain the best talent. 
• Thoughts on succession and estate planning;
• …And more. 

Retaining and Attracting The Best Talent In a Tight Labor Market

For the first time in recent memory, there are now more than four generations of employees
sharing the workplace, all with different needs, priorities and goals.

• How are the best companies creating the best workplaces to attract and retain the best talent?
• What benefits are they adding?
• How are they addressing regulations?
• What technology tools are helping their people be the most productive?
• Where are they finding workers and how are they best managing them?

Join Gene Marks, workplace and business columnist for The Guardian and other media outlets, for
this entertaining and fast moving session. From hundreds of interviews with some of the smartest
leaders in the country, Gene will share some of the most important workplace practices that they’re
implementing:
 

• The best places to recruit and find new employees;
• The best technologies for managing the recruitment and selection process;
• More technologies, platforms and services to help manage and incentivize employees;
• The hottest benefits and perks employers are offering to attract the best talent;
• The latest federal and local regulations for ensuring your workplace is compliant;
• Best practices for having a safe, friendly, diverse and inclusive workplace;
• …and much more!

Game-Changing Technologies That Will Impact Your Industry

You’ve read about ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Nvidia, Einstein and other AI tools that will be changing the way we work, both in the short and longer term. As a business leader you want to leverage this technology to increase both productivity and profits. So what should you know now? Where should you be investing?

During this fast-moving, informative and entertaining presentation, Gene Marks, a Forbes Technology columnist and CEO of The Marks Group, a technology consulting firm, will share his thoughts on the biggest technology and AI trends that will affect your industry in the near and long term and help you make the right investment decisions.

Gene will cover the following topics:

• An overview of artificial intelligence, what it means and how it works;
• A discussion of how ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic and other generative AI products can be used right now to generate sales, improve customer service and increase productivity in your workplace;
• A deep dive into both current and future specific use cases of AI technology that businesses should know about;
• A few essential (and cool) AI apps that will increase productivity for your team;
• The latest updates from Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and other technology providers that are used by sales teams and professionals;
• Advice for tightening up your company’s data to fully leverage automation tools and an update on the latest security tools and processes for protecting your data;
• Advice for preparing your team for future AI developments;
• An update on risks, policies and considerations for deploying AI tools in your business

Managing cash flow continues to be one of the biggest issues small business owners face. Almost two thirds of small business owners are regularly stressed or have anxiety about cash flow concerns. In this challenging and uncertain
economy, never has intelligent cash flow management been more important.

Join CPA, Author, and Columnist Gene Marks who will discuss some of the latest trends, technologies, best practices and strategies that smart business managers are implementing to manage their cash flow and build reserves to see them through to future growth.

• Technologies and strategies to help you intelligently revisit and segment pricing, product lines and margins.
• The latest tactics for managing receivable payables and the most relevant financial metrics needed to navigate your business through a downturn. Also some thoughts on reducing your taxes before year end.
• The newest and innovative cloud based technologies that are helping companies of all sizes increase productivity and profits.
• Financing options and opportunities available from governments, nonprofits, private organizations and other lenders.

How Smart Leaders Are Passing Assets to Buyers, Investors, and Future Generations.

The average age of the U.S. small business owner is about 53 years old, which means that many will be looking to transition from business owner to retirement in the years to come.

• But what’s the best strategy for you?
• What are the considerations for passing your business down to family members?
• What options do you have for selling your company?
• How should you best prepare your company — and your finances — to best take advantage of today’s tax
  and business laws?

Join “The Succession Advisor” Columnist for Accounting Today and Certified Public Accountant Gene Marks for a fast paced, entertaining and informative discussion where you will better understand your best succession actions you should be taking that benefit yourself, your family and others connected to your business.

During this presentation, Gene will cover the following topics:

• How the 2017 tax reform will impact your business structuring and life insurance planning.
• The latest estate planning developments from the recent year that affect business owners like yourself.
• The key issues in transitioning a business to family members or key employees while providing for financial security.
• The most important retirement and estate tax considerations you should be taking into account to ensure that your income will be maximized for the years to come.

Currently a $1.5 trillion market, the cyber crime economy continues to grow. Is your business prepared with the security it needs to protect against a cyber attack?

In 2024, the workforce is more virtual than ever, making cybersecurity a priority for every business in the years to come.

Join nationally recognized technology columnist for Forbes, best-selling author, and technology consultant Gene Marks for a fast paced, entertaining and data filled presentation where he will share with you advice, lessons and actions to position your company for security in the years to come.

During this lively presentation Gene will cover the following topics:

• A look at how cybersecurity has changed during the pandemic and why cyber attacks are increasingly on the rise.
• The biggest and latest threats in 2024 that business owners are facing in this new hybrid, virtual world such as ransomware, phishing/SMiShing, Internet of Things, and reputation implications.
• How business owners can protect themselves, their business, and employees through training, security software, password management, multifactor authentication, backups, VPN, managed services providers, and operating system upgrades.
• The importance of employee training: The biggest cause of data breaches and malware attacks is employee error. And the biggest reason why so many employees are making errors is because they’re not satisfactorily trained.
• The new and latest software technologies that your business can begin implementing and investing in today to ensure security for your entire business for the future.
• Workspace collaboration tools to migrate and manage all your business