News > February 7, 2008

By Lauren Wright | Contributing writer

New York Times best-selling author Dan Heath will deliver the keynote speech at Wake Forest’s 18th annual Marketing Summit at 11 a.m. Feb. 8 in Brendle Recital Hall. Heath, a current consultant to the policy programs for The Aspen Institute and a columnist for Fast Company magazine, will elaborate concepts from his book, Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.

The book, a 2007 Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestseller is coauthored by his brother, Chip Heath, and reveals the secret traits that link all “sticky ideas” from advertisement to proverbs, enumerating steps to success in endeavors where creativity counts.

Many clients have sought Heath’s expert advice, including Microsoft, Nestle, Macy’s, Nissan, Wal-Mart and the American Heart Association.

Heath received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, where he co-founded a company called Thinkwell. The company produces interactive multimedia college textbooks that facilitate new approaches to learning.

During this time Heath was the editor in chief of Thinkwell, and also served on the company’s board of directors. Heath then pursued a research fellowship and MBA from Harvard Business School, developing case studies for the Entrepreneurial Management unit.

The HBS cases are presently in use at numerous business schools across the country.

More recently, Heath worked for Duke Corporate Education where he designed and instructed training programs for Fortune 500 executives.

The university’s student-led summit will run from Feb. 7-9, and will include a 36-hour case competition between students from some of America’s top MBA programs, interactive professional development activities and networking events involving some of the world’s best companies.

Past participating sponsors include Wachovia, Sarah Lee, Yahoo! and Coca-Cola.

There is also an impressive list of contending business schools.

Graduate students from Brigham Young, Duke, Northwestern, Pennsylvania State, Virginia, the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and our university will compete in teams of 4-7 for a first place cash prize of $5,000.

The teams will be asked to devise a marketing strategy to solve a realistic problem posed by this year’s surprise corporate sponsor.

The undergraduate challenge will include students from the university, the University of Maryland, Vanderbilt and the University of Florida.

An expert in the business of “making ideas stick,” Heath has insisted that anyone who wants to make their ideas count should definitely consider reading his book.

He believes that there are comprehensive ways for everyone to make a difference in their daily lives and professional careers.

Heath thinks that people can make a difference regardless of their career choice.

Whether they are involved in education, politics, creative writing, management or even parenting, anything is possible.