Spark 1.0 Schedule

Spark 1.0 will be held vir­tu­al­ly in 2023, start­ing March 22^nd and end­ing April 20^th. Ses­sions will be con­duct­ed every Wednes­day or Thurs­day dur­ing this five-week peri­od and last four hours per week.

Below is the sched­ule for the 2022 Spark 1.0 Vir­tu­al pro­gram for reference.

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Ses­sion 1: Wednes­day, May 18 / Thurs­day, May 19, 2022 9:00 am – 1:00 pm CST

Focus: Indus­try, Elec­tron­ic Components
Objec­tive: Par­tic­i­pants increase their under­stand­ing and clar­i­ty of the elec­tron­ic com­po­nent indus­try’s his­to­ry, sales chan­nels, cur­rent trends, emerg­ing mar­kets, and challenges.

9:00 – 10:00 am 

Wel­come & Introductions

Jen­nifer Smith (JMS Synergy) 

• Wel­come to Spark 1.0
• Spark Pro­gram Vision
• What to Expect as a Vir­tu­al Spark Attendee Cohort Introductions

10:00 – 11:00 am 

Pre­sen­ta­tion: The Elec­tron­ic Com­po­nent Industry

Dave Nor­ris (Nor­ris & Associates)

Pre­sen­ters will share knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence on the roles and core com­pe­ten­cies of each of the indus­try’s three chan­nels (Man­u­fac­tur­ers, Dis­trib­u­tors, and Man­u­fac­tur­ers Rep­re­sen­ta­tives) and how they work togeth­er to sup­port the customer

11:00 – 11:15 am 

Break

11:15 – 12:15 pm 

Pre­sen­ta­tion: Emerg­ing Markets

Dale Ford (ECIA)

Review of new and up-and-com­ing mar­kets enter­ing the elec­tron­ic com­po­nents industry

12:15 – 1:00 pm 

Group Dis­cus­sion: Debrief

Jen­nifer Smith (JMS Synergy)

Inter­ac­tive group dis­cus­sion to iden­ti­fy key take-aways and relevance

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Ses­sion 2: Wednes­day, May 25 / Thurs­day, May 26, 2022 9:00 am – 1:00 pm CST

Focus: Net­work­ing, Lever­ag­ing Per­son­al Brand Awareness
Objec­tive: Per­son­al brand aware­ness is height­ened as par­tic­i­pants real­ize the pow­er of per­cep­tion and the val­ue brand recog­ni­tion car­ries in man­ag­ing social media plat­forms and increas­ing net­work­ing opportunities

9:00 – 11:00 am 

Work­shop: Build Your Brand

Jen­nifer Smith (JMS Synergy)

• What is brand recognition?
• Net­work­ing and Per­son­al Brand
• The ben­e­fits and risks asso­ci­at­ed with brand perception

11:00 – 11:15 am 

Break

11:15 – 12:15 pm 

Pre­sen­ta­tion: Social Media Brand

Heather Fulara (Newark)

• How per­son­al brand recog­ni­tion will impact your social media presence
• How to lever­age the strengths of your brand on social media platforms

12:15 – 1:00 pm

Work­shop: Perceptions

Jen­nifer Smith (JMS Synergy)

• Review indi­vid­ual per­cep­tion results and dis­cuss self-assess­ments to be com­plet­ed for Ses­sion four activity
• Strengths Find­er

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Ses­sion 3: Wednes­day, June 1 / Thurs­day, June 2, 2022 9:00 am – 1:00 pm CST

Focus: Per­son­al Devel­op­ment, Leadership
Objec­tive: Par­tic­i­pants rec­og­nize lead­er­ship char­ac­ter­is­tics, styles, and behav­iors impact­ing orga­ni­za­tion strat­e­gy and cul­ture. Par­tic­i­pants real­ize the ben­e­fits of com­mu­ni­cat­ing value

9:00 – 10:00 am

Pre­sen­ta­tion: Advanc­ing Cul­tur­al Innovation

Jack­ie Mat­tox (Women in Electronics)

Lead­er­ship work­shop to advance cul­tur­al inno­va­tion in the industry

10:00 ‑11:00 am

Pre­sen­ta­tion: Smart Busi­ness Analy­sis to under­stand one’s true val­ue; com­mu­ni­cat­ing to dri­ve profitability

Gra­ham Kil­shaw (Lec­trix)

• Bring prof­itabil­i­ty to companies
• The impor­tance of strat­e­gy for change, busi­ness analysis
• How to com­mu­ni­cate your value

11:00 – 11:15 am

Break

11:15 am – 12:30 pm

Net­work­ing: Meet A Leader

TBD

Small group of 2 – 3 par­tic­i­pants will have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to vir­tu­al­ly meet indus­try lead­ers to learn about their careers, chal­lenges faced, and insight in the indus­try’s future

12:30 – 1:00 pm

Dis­cus­sion

Jen­nifer Smith (JMS Synergy)

Debrief the morn­ing lead­er­ship pre­sen­ta­tions and share insights from the Meet a Leader experience

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Ses­sion 4: Wednes­day, June 8 / Thurs­day, June 9, 2022 9:00 am – 1:00 pm CST

Focus: Per­son­al Devel­op­ment, Devel­op Your Brand
Objec­tive: Par­tic­i­pants gain insight to their innate strengths and their abil­i­ty to rec­og­nize and man­age behav­iors. Par­tic­i­pants devel­op skills to suc­cess­ful­ly negotiate.

9:00 – 11:00 am

Work­shop: Build Your Brand

Jen­nifer Smith (JMS Synergy)

Review Strengths Find­er assess­ment results, explore cor­re­la­tions between tal­ents and per­cep­tions, intro­duce emo­tion­al intel­li­gence and the impact it has on one’s brand, and iden­ti­fy indi­vid­ual devel­op­ment growth opportunities

11:00 – 11:15 am

Break

11:15 am – 12:45 pm

Spark Alum­ni Panel

TBD

Alum grad­u­ates of Spark 2.0 pro­vide their views and expe­ri­ences as par­tic­i­pants in the pro­gram. Through pan­elist sto­ries, you will hear how indi­vid­u­als increased their scope of indus­try knowl­edge and under­stand­ing, rec­og­nized oppor­tu­ni­ties to fur­ther devel­op skills, and expand­ed their net­works across the indus­try. Par­tic­i­pants will engage in an inter­ac­tive team-build­ing activity.

12:45 – 1:00 pm

Dis­cus­sion

Debrief pan­el discussion

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Ses­sion 5: Wednes­day, June 15 / Thurs­day, June 16, 2022 9:00 am – 1:00 pm CST

Focus: Indus­try, Future Trends
Objec­tive: Par­tic­i­pants take part in dis­sect­ing future pre­dic­tions for indus­try growth, expan­sion, and chal­lenges. Par­tic­i­pants begin to map their career goals and plan their learn­ing path

9:00 – 10:00 am

Pre­sen­ta­tion: Indus­try Asso­ci­a­tion Involvement

David Lof­tus (ECIA)

The role of indus­try asso­ci­a­tions. The ben­e­fits the asso­ci­a­tions offer. How to get involved. Learn­ing and net­work­ing resources avail­able to members

10:00 – 11:00 am

Pre­sen­ta­tion: Elec­tron­ic Indus­try Future

Michael Knight (TTI)

The future fore­casts, pre­dic­tions and poten­tial chal­lenges of the elec­tron­ic com­po­nents industry

11:00 – 11:45 am

Pre­sen­ta­tion: Dig­i­tal Marketing

TBD

Dis­cuss all aspects of dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing; the rapid trans­for­ma­tion over the last few years and intense Focus with the onset of COVID. With Focus on lever­ag­ing mul­ti­ple chan­nels with the same mes­sage themes yet using dif­fer­ent con­tent, pulling all levers to reach cus­tomers at dif­fer­ent points in their edu­ca­tion and buy­ing journey

12:00 – 1:00 pm

Reflec­tions from participants

Jen­nifer Smith (JMS Syn­er­gy), Heather Fulara (Newark)

Each par­tic­i­pant will share their reflec­tions from the pro­gram. All par­tic­i­pants man­age­ment will be invited.