Message from the conference Chair... Joe Rizzo

Now more than ever we need more excellence throughout our organizations to be more competitive, cost effective, prosperous and in today's economic times - more resilient. When you aspire to a commitment to excellence you experience a high value return on your investment. And that's why many companies are sending five or more people to the AME International Lean Conference in Kentucky in October of 2009. They get results by learning from some of the best organizations from around the world on how to apply Lean into their enterprise. Like Northrop Grumman who is sending a group of 30 people, even during challenging economic times. Why? Because last year at our international conference in Toronto over 90% of our members said they came away with at least one key thing they could immediately apply to improve their bottom line. We rate over a 93% quality satisfaction rating year after year from both new and seasoned members.

AME is a not-for-profit association that promotes practitioner-to-practitioner learning experiences to help sustain a strong high performance presence within our respective industries. Because we are a volunteer based organization made up of individuals in business, industry and academia who relentlessly provide support, energy and resources dedicated to helping each other prosper in today's challenging global marketplace. Rest assured that we are here only for one reason - to help each other excel at being - excellent.

I encourage you to join us this October 19th to the 23rd! Experience first hand, why thousands of people from hundreds of leading edge companies are members of AME and why they will be coming to our Journey to Greatness conference in October.

Joe Rizzo
Chairman of the AME Kentucky 2009
International Lean Conference