The Sweeney Agency

About Steve Prentice - Speaker on Technology in the Workplace and Productivity:

Steve Prentice has dedicated his career and energies to pinpointing the perfect juncture between humans and technology in the workplace. He is a well-spoken expert who discusses techniques and concepts in a practical, engaging manner, from which motivation, progress, and profitability can develop. Steve has been a keynote speaker at conventions, annual general meetings and retreats, as well as on-site presentations and lunch 'n' learns. His passionate style combines practical knowledge and well researched case studies with an upbeat delivery, storytelling ability and humour, which leaves his audiences happy, enthused, and able to immediately apply what they have learned. He is president of Bristall Morgan Inc., a consulting firm with offices in Toronto and New York City. The focus of Bristall Morgan Inc. is to develop and affirm continuous improvement practices with regard to people and their workplace technologies. Steve is also in high demand as a speaker and expert on topics relating to humans in the digital age, productivity and time management and health and wellness in the workplace. Steve speaks to companies and organizations across Canada and the U.S.

Steve is the author of three books: Cool Time: A Hands-on Plan for Managing Work and Balancing Time published by John Wiley and Sons in 2005, and Cool Down: Getting Further by Going Slower, published by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. His third book, Is This The Day I Get Fired? is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2010.

He is also a regular guest on radio and TV across North America, where he is called upon to discuss issues of workplace productivity and stress.

Steve founded his company in 1994. It has four associates and a full-time researcher. Academically, Steve graduated from Concordia University in Montreal in 1989 with a B.A. in Communications Studies and was Valedictorian of the 1989 graduating year. Steve attended Law School in Toronto between 1989 and 1991 and was the official Rhodes Scholarship Candidate for York University for 1990. He returned to York University 10 years later and obtained a B.A degree in Psychology.

What Steve Prentice Talks About

Social Networking: The New Productivity Tool?:
Networking technologies such as FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter are changing the way people communicate in the time-starved, distraction heavy workplaces of today. But do they work? Could a proprietary social networking site enhance the productivity of your employees? The answer is yes. CEO's and decision-makers must see past the current social element of these sites, that of merely finding high-school friends on line, and they must observe instead how informal, dynamic and instant connections actually reinforce productivity, retention and innovation. In this presentation, Steve delivers the latest information and case studies on this development - one that will prove crucial to your company's future.

Is This the Day I Get Fired?
Based on his upcoming book of the same name, this presentation discusses the attributes and skills that every working person needs if they wish to keep working. Steve combines 15 years of consulting to and speaking to professionals in transition with his fervent belief in individual hunting skills, to ensure that networking, salesmanship and innovation never dull their edge. As a corporate keynote, this speech will deliver ideas and skills that will help individual employees recognize efficiencies and keen strategies for increasing personal productivity, as well as synergies within teams and with customers.

Time Management for the Digital Age
Case Studies and best practices from the global digital marketplace. Time, business and productivity face different challenges today than even five years ago. Wireless technology, globalized business and high-speed expectations have changed the playing field completely. Not just in small things such as e-mail and meetings, but larger concepts such as sales skills, long-range planning and crisis management. Some companies and individuals thrive in this new environment, others are slipping and failing. This presentation offers examples of the best and worst of work and productivity from around the world. By observing both, audience members will be better able to go back to their teams and draw up realistic operating plans for the future.

FlexTime and the Four Generations
FlexTime, and related concepts such as compressed workweeks offer great promise in the wireless world, but suffer greatly in their implementation. Management and employees alike see both benefits and pitfalls to being physically away from the office, and this is eroding productivity at a time when North American business needs it the most. Steve Prentice has made a study on the trends, best practices, successes failures of implementing flexible hours in the workplace. It is an issue he says that crosses more than one dimension – not only is it a workflow issue, it has direct impact on the multi-generational workplace, and everyone, regardless of age, rank or seniority needs to understand that “flex” is not a perk – it’s a strategy for survival.

Wellness, Stress and Focus Techniques for Proactive Workplace
This session delivers a wide range of practical techniques for enhancing productivity in the workplace. Drawing upon case studies of hundreds of companies in North America and beyond, Steve delivers usable facts about food choices, the timing and organization of corporate activities, the relationship between creativity, logic and stress in the brain, exercise, daycare, commuting, micromeetings and many other proactive techniques for maintaining productivity in the workplace. This is not a speech about yoga on the desktop. Instead it delivers a wide range of proven techniques used by companies and departments around the world who wanted to see productivity and profitability increase by focusing on the human factor.

The Wireless Brain and Body
The Wireless Brain and Body is an exposé on the overuse and underuse of technology in the corporate environment. It explores topics such as BlackBerry addiction and Presenteeism, productivity, communication, stress, short- and long-term illness, creativity, collaboration, and much more. The goal of the presentation is not to cast a negative light on technology, but instead, through case studies, and comparative studies of productivity in the decades prior to the digital age, how to best harness the power of technology while at the same time harnessing the top intellectual and physical potential of the human being.

Cool Down: Getting Further by Going Slower
Before you check your wireless email for the fourth time this hour, ask yourself, is this helping you get further ahead? In this presentation, based on his book of the same name, Steve challenges our modern addiction to high-speed activity, especially email and event-to-event thinking. He suggests that people are getting locked inside a loop of surface-level urgencies, and are losing the ability to connect creatively with mentors, clients, even their managers. Working days are getting longer, and the separation between work and life is eroding. This, he calls, death-in-harness. In an effort to find a better way, Steve takes a look at the Slow movement that is catching on in Japan and Europe, and asks whether it could possibly take root here, and indeed whether it even should. He takes the concept of Slow apart and rebuilds it, using terms, case studies and common sense segments that demonstrate clearly that to get further ahead faster, people do actually need to cool down.

Putting More Life Into Your Meetings
Ever had a meeting start late, end late, and mess up your day? Do people at your meetings check their BlackBerry email above the table or below the table? Can you really say that the value of your meeting exceeds the hourly value of the people you've invited? Coffee in styrofoam cups. Learn how to make meetings vibrant, productive, and worth everyone's time. To maintain attention and encourage participation requires a greater understanding of the motives of human beings. Steve will talk about real techniques for turning a meeting into a dynamic, productive, time efficient, structured and interactive event that moves your business forward.