New Employee Resource Network Summit February 8-9, 2012

Employee resource groups (ERGs), sometimes called affinity groups, are evolving as a powerful way to build business. Many people think of ERGs as groups that help organizations fulfill their diversity and inclusion goals; however, in a global economy, where the company that can reach out to the most people wins, ERGs provide substantial competitive advantage. That's why managing ERGs like an important human capital asset is critical for success.

The ERN Summit, which is taking place on February 8-9, 2012, is designed to help innovative organizations move their ERGs forward faster. The Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California is teaming up with Mattel, Inc., Corning and eePulse to create a learning experience that will help develop the leaders of the ERGs not just as better ERG leaders for as superior business leaders. We are bringing together the leaders of each ERG in a number of organizations to "roll up their sleeves" and take a data-driven approach to learning.

Data-driven learning: Each participant company will participate in a survey of all of their ERG members. The data will be used at the conference to provide real-time and fresh insights about the members. Leaders of each ERG will then use this data, compare what their results are with other ERG leaders and walk away with concrete actions they can take within their own organizations.

This learning summit has been in the works for over 6 years. Inspired by a team led by Karen deCuir-DiNicola, currently working at General Motors, we worked through the initial ideas of the learning experience. Today, many years later, it is a reality.

We welcome any organizations interested in evolving their ERGs to join us in this unique learning opportunity. In today's hyper competitive business environment, the organization with the best human capital will win; your people are the only competitive advantage that cannot be easily copied by your competition. This ERN Summit will help participants help their organizations.