Global business legend and pop culture icon Sir Richard Branson, founder of The Virgin Group, will deliver the opening keynote at the BlackLine Annual User Conference 2014 slated for Sunday to Wednesday, Nov. 16 to 19, in Chicago. In his presentation, entitled “Screw Business as Usual,” Sir Branson is expected to draw on his business acumen spanning travel to telecommunications, health to financial services, and music to leisure, including building the world’s first commercial “spaceline,”as well as on his personal adventures and interests including competitive sailing and kitesurfing.
The following day Geoffrey Moore, renowned author of the iconic book “Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers,” will share his insights on marketing technology products based on his experiences during the early start-up period in Silicon Valley. A third keynote will be given by John E. Van Decker, vice president of research at leading information technology research and advisory company Gartner, and a world recognized expert on financial software systems and applications. Mr.Van Decker will share his insights on the latest market trends and discuss how he sees leading-edge companies increasing efficiencies and mitigating compliance risk through process automation.
Accounting/finance managers and compliance executives around the world use the BlackLine Finance Controls and Automation Platformand its suite of applications to automate traditionally manual, labor-intensive and spreadsheet-driven accounting and finance processes. BlackLine’s 2014 User Conference will attract senior accounting and finance professionals from leading brand name companies across the globe for the 4-day event. Additional BlackLine User Conference speakers will include senior finance executives from many BlackLine client companies and partner firms.