SCIA and the Institute for Competitive Intelligence (ICI) presented:

It's about your personal education options this time as a Competitive Intelligence professional. And as this topic is so incredibly important to our members and the CI community in Switzerland we run a fairly large program this time.

Join us in Zurich for half a day of high caliber CI guru's who will leave no question unanswered. In fact, we will even ask for your detailed questions up-front (watch out for a survey to be released here shortly) and have them answered by a top notch panel of world class CI masters (see program below).

As we get closer to the event we will add on details on the program and the speakers, release a members survey and ask your opinion. Please stay tuned for this exciting, largest SCIA gathering of all time:

Zurich Main Railway Station, Au Premier Restaurant, September 29, 2009 4pm-10:00pm.

Monika Giese (Switzerland) will talk about a case of an internal annual CI education program at a large global corporation and focus on the implementation of the Prescott/Comai CI model there.

"Continuous internal CI Education – examples for tools/techniques/approaches from education programs of large global corporations". The presentation will provide insights into:

• Building and maintaining a CI Communitiy of Practice
• Annual Training Event and workshop examples
• Continuous Virtual Learning and Sharing
• Presentation

Stefan Schuppisser (Switzerland) is Head of the Center for Strategic Management at Zurich University of Applied Sciences - School of Management and Law and is just about to ramp up academic efforts here in Switzerland to support CI professionals and companies much more intensely as in the past.

• You will get familiar with the cornerstones of the first Competitive Intelligence course in Switzerland with a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) degree.
• The course will not only help you excel in your CI job and make you fit for your further career.
• It is also an investment in another way: As it fulfills the requirements of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) it also facilitates the recognition of your studies on a national and international basis, e.g. if you are planning to enhance your studies to earn a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) degree at a later time.
• Presentation

Rainer Michaeli (Germany) will introduce ICI's options to support your educational needs as a CI practitioner.

• SCIP’s “CI Body of Knowledge” project  and its impact on CI education
• Trends and characteristics of the job market for CI professionals
• ICI's CI education offering: workshops , certificate programs and conferences (ICI is the exclusive sponsor of SCIA's Education Day 2009)
• Presentation

So will Toni Nagle (United Kingdom) of ACI, SCIA members and interested visitors will learn about their opportunities to become better educated CI pro's from various angles.

• Obtain an overview of the Academy of Competitive Intelligence (ACI) education programmes  & and introduction to  a world class faculty
• How to gain  the internationally recognised Competitive Intelligence Professional ,  CIP®  certificate
• Learn about the new ACI distance learning programme
• Presentation

SCIP will support SCIA with material and a featured reading/commentary via phone by Bonnie Hohof (US) of SCIP. Detailed benefits include:

• Participants will receive a comprehensive overview handout of CI education options
• Participants will learn about the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) as a top notch CI education provider with its conferences, workshops, sessions, chapters support and
• Body of Knowledge value proposition
• Presentation

And finally Alessandro Comai (Spain) and John Prescott (US) will also dial in to introduce their World Class CI Model, share their experience in CI education and provide insights into career path supporting CI training options. Detailed benefits include:

• Participants will learn the dimensions of our world-class CI function model
• Participants will have access to our world-class diagnostic tool and be able to benchmark their function
• Participants will  learn a process for redesigning their CI function based on the world-class model
• Participants will learn the core CI research and teaching topics in academics
• Participants will learn the different teaching approaches to CI used in academics
• Participants will  be able to discuss how we can leverage CI knowledge and practice across academics, business and government
• Presentation

All speakers in the room and on the phone will finally join forces in a major panel discussion fed by SCIA members questions (via survey as mentioned above) and live questions in the room and from the sessions.

Please find the presentations of the event next to the speaker/session intro above (membership required).

Event photos can be found in the album here.

"ICI was founded to provide solid and adaptable international training programs to CI professionals seeking certification in CI. Our general principle is to provide an uncompromising quality of education through intensive, practical learning. You can choose to study our complete certificate programs or attend specific workshops. We also offer individual in-house training to companies."

Other SCIA 2009 Dates, all Zurich:

November 24, 2009 18:30h

December 8, 2009 18:30 General Assembly