The Opening General Session begins with ASTA officer elections for the year ahead - make sure to be on time!

Keynote Presentation: We work in complex organizations inside of a complex, many-layered industry. In order to maximize the system, we must sub-optimize the sub-systems. What does this mean and how do we do that? Although the answer is simple, the implementation is not easy. The seed industry and your organization are endowed with a noble mission, one that we can use to create an inspirational calling that goes well beyond a transactional relationship—and promotes  taking pride in our work by supporting something larger than ourselves. Focusing on a mission creates less of a need to focus on financial incentives that can destroy the cooperation required to lift your organization, the seed industry, and our food systems.

Fred Kofman is an executive coach and advisor on leadership and culture. PhD. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. He is founder and president of the Conscious Business Center. Fred founded his global consulting company, Axialent, which delivered leadership programs to more than 15,000 executives around the world. In 2018, Fred accepted a position as Vice President at Google in charge of advising the CEO’s office on leadership and culture. And during the same year he partnered with Tecnológico de Monterrey to create the Center of Conscious Leadership. Previously, he was Vice President of executive development at LinkedIn. Fred is the author of the trilogy Metamanagement (2001), Conscious Business (2006) and The Meaning Revolution (2018).