Who should attend: Technical people who need to develop internal support and funding for projects.

What you will learn: What the funding process is and how to get your project funded.

When you want to translate technical desires to funded projects, you have to sell your ideas. Learn some of the techniques of professional sales reps and apply them in your tech ni cal work to get your ideas heard and approved.

Topics include:

- Understanding the selling process
- Who decides what?
- Organizational differences: consensus, departmentalized, and hierarchy
- Evangelism in the technical arena
- All about persuasion: Teaching, explaining, lobbying, and arm-twisting
- Structuring your proposal
- Trial runs and hot-air balloons
- The proper place for skunkworks
- Getting your proposal heard, spreading the buzz
- What if they say yes?

Maurita Plouff is a technologist, manager, and teacher, and has been translating between technical and non-technical audiences since her first post in 1972 as a physics laboratory research assistant. She started her consulting business, Expert Innovations, to solve business problems through creative application of technology and common-sense management. An accomplished speaker, she is known for her ability to avoid inducing the "glassy-eyed stare".

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