SVPMA Workshop - So You Think You Want To Be A Consultant? with Niti Agrawal, Stage 4 Solutions, Inc September 13, 2008

Organization: SVPMA - Silicon Valley Product Management Association
Topic: So You Think You Want To Be A Consultant?
Speaker/Moderator: Niti Agrawal, Stage 4 Solutions, Inc
Date: Saturday, September 13th, 2008
Time: 8:30am - 12noon
Location: Network Meeting Center at the TechMart - 5201 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara
Cost: If registering by Wed., September 10th, $25 for SVPMA Members, $40 for Non-SVPMA Members. Add $10 more if registering after Wed., September 10th.
More info: http://www.svpma.org/workshops.html

Agenda timeframe:
8:30am - Networking/Continental Breakfast served
9:00am - Workshop
12noon - Wrap-up/Networking

Presentation:

Many Product Marketing and Management professionals have at one time considered leaving their full time position for work as a consultant. The potential benefits are attractive: High pay; be your own boss; work part-time; work with many companies on different projects. But, what about the risks and how do you get started?

This half-day seminar provides an introduction to various approaches and opportunities for getting a start in consulting and will help participants develop a plan to become a successful Product Marketing and Management consultant.

Niti Agrawal, of management consultancy Stage 4 Solutions, Inc. will lead this half day workshop including a panel of local consultants containing Brain Lawley, of the 280 Group, Deborah Siegle of Marketing Solutions, and Kathleen Gilligan of Array Partners. These experts will share their experience and practical knowedge- helping participants decide if consulting is right for them and offering how-to to get started.

Agenda topics:
• Consulting Pros/Cons
• Types and Approaches to Consulting
• Consultant Panel
• Getting Started
--> Covering the basics
--> What are you selling?
--> Getting clients
--> Tax/legal implications
• Developing Your Plan

Moderator:

Niti Agrawal, is President and founder of Stage 4 Solutions, Inc. Stage 4 Solutions is a product marketing firm with four consecutive years of double-digit growth. The firm specializes in maximizing marketing investments for Fortune 500 high-techs and emerging high-tech leaders by providing strategic business and product plans, focused sales tools, competitive analyses, new product launches, and interim marketing staffing solutions. Stage 4 Solutions is staffed by senior-level consultants in the Silicon Valley and India.

Since founding the company in 2001, Niti and the team of senior marketing professionals have achieved 100% referenceability with market leading clients such as HP, Symantec, SAP, HP, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo!, Symantec, Nokia, Wind River, and a host of start-up companies.

Prior to founding Stage 4 Solutions, Niti was the Director of Product Marketing for Agile Software, a leading provider of Product Lifecycle Management solutions. Previously Niti led the team at HP responsible for a $400M PC server product line.

Niti holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Accounting and Finance with highest honors from The Wharton School of Business.

Panelists:

Brian Lawley, CEO, 280 Group
Brian is the CEO and founder of the 280 Group, which provides consulting, contractors, training and templates. During the last twenty years of his career he has focused on Product Management and Product Marketing and has shipped more than fifty successful products. He is the former President of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association, won the 2008 AIPMM award for Excellence in Thought Leadership for Product Management and is the author of the best-selling book, Expert Product Management. Mr. Lawley has been featured on CNBC's World Business Review and the Silicon Valley Business Report and writes articles for a variety of publications including the Product Management 2.0 newsletter and Blog.

Deb Siegle, Principal, Strategic Marketing Solutions
Deb Siegle assists clients in the areas of strategic research, market and product development, technology industry analysis, and customer loyalty and experience. She quickly identifies and solves core issues, and develops actionable strategies and tactics that make a difference to her clients.

Deb has an impressive high technology, healthcare, and services background with over 25 years of marketing, customer service and sales experience in public and privately held companies. Deb is a popular speaker and has been featured in podcasts for executives on "Building Customer Loyalty”, "The Power of Retention Marketing” and “The Market & Customer Voice: How Research Can Reveal New Insights into Your Customers, Your Product, & Your Brand”.

Deb is currently President of Women in Telecommunications (WiT) a San Francisco based non-profit providing networking and education opportunities. She also is a member of Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAIC). In addition, she also held leadership positions in city, state and national industry associations.

Deb has a MBA from the University of California - Berkeley and a BBA from the University of Michigan.

Kathleen Gilligan, Array Partners
For over 25 years, Kathleen's leadership approach has built successful organizations in enterprise and channel sales, marketing, communications, training, and executive management. Kathleen focuses on helping companies accelerate revenue through improvement in sales processes, and by shaping the sales force to meet customer needs. Among Kathleen's consulting clients are PGP Corporation, BD BioSciences, CollabNet, Ramco Systems, and Design Power. Kathleen spent ten years at Symantec Corporation as the company grew from $64M to $750M. She held a variety of management roles at Symantec, encompassing sales, training, and finally, the leadership of a shared services organization that provided training, communications, and marketing services to a worldwide customer base.

Kathleen served as vice president of sales for AMR Research, a research firm advising Fortune 500 clients on supply chain and manufacturing strategies, and prior to that as Vice President of Sales for OnDemand, later acquired by Chordiant.

Kathleen has worked as an executive coach and mentor through the Growth and Leadership Center and Small Business Incubator, and as an advisor to pre-revenue technology startups on revenue generation and sales force development. She served as a member of the board of directors for Kurant Corporation from 1999-2001.

SVPMA Workshop Series:

The Silicon Valley Product Management Association (SVPMA) was founded to address the needs of Product Managers, Product Marketing Managers and other professionals working within the Product Management field.

The goal of the SVPMA Workshop Series is to provide our members hands-on, interactive product management training delivered by leading consulting and professional services companies, lecturers and trainers.

Official Website: http://www.svpma.org