Nearly 300 executives from around the country came together for the two-day 2019 Corcentric Symposium in February at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes in Florida.

With the theme to “See Beyond,” presentations addressed topics about transformation, including “The Back-Office Evolution,” “The Hard Work of Big Change: Rules for Transforming Your Organization and Yourself,” “The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals,” “The Hero Effect: Being Your Best When It Matters the Most” and “Four Procurement and Finance Trends to Watch.”

Doug Clark, Corcentric founder, chairman, and CEO, and Matt Clark, president and COO, opened the Symposium with a joint presentation about Corcentric’s recent growth as a demonstration of the theme of the Symposium. Corcentric recently increased its global footprint by entering a definitive purchase agreement with Determine and by acquiring Netsend, a London-based e-invoicing company.

A variety of speakers from the business, political, medical, motivational, and sports worlds shared their advice and lessons learned.

Legendary football coach Jimmy Johnson connected with attendees by sharing his stories and experience about the art of winning. His advice to the audience for building a strong team was to hire for performance, character, intelligence, a willingness to work and passion.

From the political arena, Eric Cantor, former United States Representative from Virginia, who also served as House Majority Leader from 2010 to 2014, and Stephen Moore, senior fellow of the Heritage Foundation, shared insights on shifts in politics and the global economy. Cantor provided an inside view of the new political environments and implications for public policy issues impacting businesses.

Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity, presented his view on artificial intelligence and why it is important for the 21st century. He explained that AI is not some futuristic dream, with $15 billion having been invested in it in the U.S. alone.

Bill Taylor, writer, speaker, entrepreneur and co-founder of Fast Company, spoke about “The Hard Work of Big Change” and told the audience, “The only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special.”

Michael Treacy, president and founder of Treacy & Co., spoke about the back-office evolution, saying he challenged businesses to look at policies that drive transaction complexity and determine if they add value.

Kevin Brown, author of The Hero Effect, shared his ideas, strategies, and principles designed to inspire audience members to be their best selves.

Chris McChesney, global practice leader of execution at FranklinCovey, advised not to let the day-to-day get in the way of strategy with “The 4 Disciplines of Execution.”

Corcentric has planned its next symposium for March 4-6, 2020, once again held at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes.

Corcentric provides procurement and finance solutions that transform how companies purchase, pay and get paid. It was named a 2018 ’50 Providers to Watch’ by Spend Matters and a leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Accounts Payable Automations 2019.