Past Forums
2019 Forum OVERVIEW
The twelfth Annual Bigelow Forum was held on Thursday, September 12 and Friday, September 13 at the Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle, NH. Rob MacLeod hosted an EOM panel of four Entrepreneur Owner-Mangers answering questions about what their journeys were like unlocking Enterprise Value in the private transaction market and how it affected them personally and professionally. David Laibson was our keynote speaker and he talked about the most common cognitive biases that can negatively affect good decision making when building and capturing Enterprise Value.
2018 Forum OVERVIEW
The Eleventh Annual Bigelow Forum was held on Thursday, September 13 and Friday, September 14 at the Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle, NH. Steven Pinker opened our 2018 Forum with a keynote speech centered around his recent book, New York Times Bestseller, Enlightenment Now. Pinker’s book includes hard data that concludes that the world is better off than ever before despite the media’s constant exposure to negative events and inaccurate statistics.
2017 Forum OVERVIEW
The Tenth Annual Bigelow Forum was held on Thursday, September 21 and Friday, September 22 at the Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle, NH. This year’s theme, A Pivot to the Future, allowed us to embark on a thought-provoking journey to explore our exponentially-changing technological world and the impact it has on us, our businesses, our families, our institutions, and our communities.
2016 Forum OVERVIEW
The 2016 Bigelow Forum was held at the Wentworth by the Sea on Thursday, September 15th and Friday, September 16th. The theme of this year’s Forum focused on how we as Expert Advisors can be more effective in building and capturing Enterprise Value with Entrepreneur Owner-Managers (EOMs) who are naturally gritty. What is GRIT? Our keynote speaker, Dr. Angela Duckworth, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania defines GRIT as “the passion and perseverance for long-term goals.” Two main themes explored were integration of relationships and integration of knowledge, GRIT and Deliberate Practice.
2015 Forum OVERVIEW
The 2015 Bigelow Forum, held September 17th and 18th, focused on long arc “Powershifts” taking place affecting Entrepreneur Owner-Managers (EOMs). In today’s private transaction market, who has the power – the investor or the business owning EOM? Is the Powershift for real? What do EOMs believe? What do expert advisors believe? If the power has shifted to the EOM, are they (and are we as their expert advisors) behaving like it? These are a few questions we addressed in this year’s Forum.
2014 Forum OVERVIEW
Our 2014 Bigelow Forum was held Thursday and Friday, September 18th and 19th. The theme of the 2014 Forum was to answer the question what is “The Job to Be Done?”
2013 Forum OVERVIEW
Bigelow’s sixth annual Forum was held on September 19th and 20th at Wentworth by the Sea Hotel in New Castle, NH. This year’s focus was on the “T” in the Life Arc of an Entrepreneur Owner-Manager – the wealth creation transaction.
2012 Forum OVERVIEW
The year 2012 marked the fifth year of The Annual Bigelow Forum, a gathering of entrepreneur owner-managers and their expert advisors. Robert E. MacLeod, a Bigelow Managing Director, gave an overview on the “State of the Forum” and provided a high-level explanation of the way Forum thought leadership, original research, relationship building experiences, and provocative outside experts from the previous four years have built a latticework of exclusive Forum content.
2011 Forum OVERVIEW
The 2010 Forum offered a collegial environment to pose difficult questions Entrepreneur Owner-Managers and their advisors are confronted with. The Forum kicked off with a group orienteering activity, aptly titled, “How Can We Guide Our Clients If Even We Are Lost?” Rob MacLeod, Managing Director at Bigelow LLC, explained that orienteering was chosen as a fun team building/get acquainted activity and an apt metaphor for professional advisors. Rob MacLeod introduced Ms. Deborah Humiston, International Orienteering Champion, who launched 10 teams of Forum participants on a treasure hunt through the beautiful Wentworth grounds.
2010 Forum OVERVIEW
The 2010 Forum offered a collegial environment to pose difficult questions Entrepreneur Owner-Managers and their advisors are confronted with. The Forum kicked off with a group orienteering activity, aptly titled, “How Can We Guide Our Clients If Even We Are Lost?” Rob MacLeod, Managing Director at Bigelow LLC, explained that orienteering was chosen as a fun team building/get acquainted activity and an apt metaphor for professional advisors. Rob MacLeod introduced Ms. Deborah Humiston, International Orienteering Champion, who launched 10 teams of Forum participants on a treasure hunt through the beautiful Wentworth grounds.
2009 Forum OVERVIEW
The second Bigelow Forum was held September 2009. Peter Worrell, Managing Director at Bigelow LLC, opened the 2009 Bigelow Forum by asking participants to make an “intellectually muscular deposit into our collective bank of intellectual capital.”
2008 Forum OVERVIEW
The first Bigelow Forum was held in June 2008 at Wentworth by the Sea Hotel and Spa in New Castle, New Hampshire. The Forum brought together an exclusive group of wealth managers, attorneys, accountants, and other who serve in an advisory capacity to the owner-managers of privately held companies – for the purpose of exploring some of our common experiences and issues.