2023 LEAD Conference Highlights
Representatives from Volaris businesses around the world gathered in Bangkok, Thailand in June for the 2023 LEAD Conference.
LEAD, which stands for “Leadership, Education and Development” was conceptualized to support growth for company leaders, front line managers and high-performing individual contributors. Attendees share best practices on leadership development, business challenges and growth. Every event is a mix of thought-provoking presentations, workshops, round tables and networking events by attendee function or role.
This year, representatives from various portfolios were present, such as Automotive, Food Tech, Education and Marketing Management.
“The learnings and sharing of best practices are invaluable, and I will even have the chance to continue these with ongoing group meetings born from the LEAD conference. But for me, the best part is making connections with like-minded people at Volaris. That’s what makes these events memorable.”
Miro Vujicic
General Manager, Furlong Solutions
Reconnecting
The LEAD Conference kicked off with an amazing welcome reception located at the top of the Bangkok Marriott Marquis. Attendees were spoiled with a stunning view of Bangkok while reconnecting with their colleagues from around the world.
A running theme of the conference was the importance of building a strong professional network, one which can provide guidance or differing perspectives to help achieve business goals or objectives. Several events offered throughout the conference provided ample opportunities for attendees to mingle with others outside of their own company.
At the close of the reception, some attendees immediately jumped into the “education” phase of the summit. Those newer to Volaris or first-time attendees of the LEAD Conference were given the opportunity to learn more about the financial side of operating a software business. The two-hour power course, called Finance Bootcamp, delved into key financial concepts: how to measure performance of a business and understand how to impact results by various day to day activities.
This course, while optional, was a great kick-starter to the 3-day conference.
Day One: Leadership & Talent Management
Why is talent management important? It uncovers talent gaps, identifies high potential employees and plans for the future of your business.
Daniela Magnoli, Portfolio Head of HR
Day one of the conference focused on the importance of talent management. Daniela Magnoli, Portfolio Head of HR, emphasized the pivotal role that up-and-coming talent has to future-proofing the success of business. She emphasized that current leadership must invest in developing its people and laying the foundation for the next generation of leaders.
To start, guests engaged in discussions about talent reviews. A talent review is a process which leaders assess their team members based on both their performance and their potential. Groups were presented the question “What should happen after a talent review?” as often, talent management is one to lose out when other business priorities bubble up. Groups shared ideas as to how leaders and managers could balance business performance with managing the growth of their talent.
Continuing the conversation, a panel of five took to the stage to discuss how they developed within their company and Volaris. They shared where their careers started and how they grew into their current roles, many of them General Managers or Group Leaders (those who oversee several companies). A common thread through all of their histories is that along with their own passion, a manager or leader helped them navigate their career path.
Guests then participated in a very competitive and fun workshop, “Building the Bench”. A sports analogy, the bench represents players who are not currently on the field but who are called upon when needed. The stronger your bench, the more likely you are to sustain performance over time. In business terms, a strong bench is able to fulfill leadership roles, whether they become vacated or growth requires new roles. The three key points of building your bench are to develop, retain and recruit.
Participants worked with other members of their company to recruit new hires at a mock Job Fair scheduled for Day Two. Companies needed to effectively communicate what they do, why they do it, and what would entice new talent to their business.
Almost immediately, the room was buzzing with ideas and competition hung thick in the air. What would the next day’s Job Fair look like?
Day Two: Workshop & Team Building
Winners of this exercise presented the best overall case to prospective candidates to join, engage, and promote.
The workshop proved to be a display of attendees love for their company, their creativity and desire to win! Groups set up their booth and materials and began to pitch their business to other attendees, who acted as potential job seekers. Representatives used a variety of methods to showcase their company, including signs, brochures, videos and testimonials from employees.
At the end of the fair, all conference attendees were asked to vote as to which company they believed best demonstrated reasons a candidate should join their team. After the votes were tallied, the Australian-based education software company of TASS emerged as victorious!
But the team building didn’t end there for the day. Guests were teamed up to race across Bangkok and take in the sights to earn the most points. Teams took off on foot to then ride tuk tuks, boats or taxis to visit landmarks all across the city.
Team 4 squeaked by with the win, having visited four temples and taking on each challenge (including caring for a balloon!).
I was honored to have the opportunity to attend the LEAD Conference 2023. It was well organized, educational, and events like the scavenger hunt made it fun. Definitely a memorable week.
Corina Ludwig, General Manager, FunctionFox and member of Team 4
Day Three: AI and Round Tables
Opening the final day was an insightful and extremely informative session on AI. John Crook, Group Leader, walked the audience through the history of AI and its exponential growth within the past couple of years. He showed how even photos can be edited seamlessly with AI and a few phrases to create altered, but seemingly realistic, images.
Representatives from three companies (Edge Learning Solutions, Pegasys Software and Softlink IC) demonstrated how they currently utilize AI within their solutions. Examples included using AI to generate school notice email messages, read invoices and copy the data to relevant fields within a system and an AI-driven book recommendation engine for libraries.
John ended the discussion by sharing some considerations before adopting AI into your product roadmap. Primarily, that to adopt it for the sake of “having AI” is meaningless unless there is a serious pain point being addressed. It may not be a massively complicated feature, but something that will increase productivity and remove repetitiveness for end users. And while it may be tempting to jump right in, it’s best to start with a risk assessment, including legal and compliance review.
As the conference began to wind down, attendees met in smaller groups to discuss best practices by functional role. Customer Care, Professional Services, R&D, Finance and Sales & Marketing met to discuss hot topics pertaining to their role. These discussions are extremely beneficial to participants as they find new solutions or practices to apply when they return home.
Finally, to close out the conference, attendees participated in a mock investment case study and discussion. As many had attended the Financial Bootcamp earlier in the week, it was now time to apply that newfound knowledge and discuss whether this sample company was a worthy investment. Groups discussed whether they would or wouldn’t invest and presented their case to the room. In the end, it was revealed that this company was indeed from a real Volaris acquisition! The audience then heard from the company’s portfolio leader, who shared why he chose to acquire the company and how they are now continuing to exceed projections.
Final Thoughts
The conference was a wonderful way to remain connected with colleagues from around the world and building new connections. As promised, the conference delivered on building, educating and developing leadership.
The location and date for the next LEAD Conference has yet to be announced.