On Wednesday, Oct. 8, Alan G. Robinson, bestselling author of Ideas Are Free will hold a half-day workshop, “Maximizing Improvement, Lean, and Innovation in Your Organization,” at Benco Dental headquarters in Pittston from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Registration will begin at 8 a.m.

The workshop will focus on businesses becoming lean, or excellent in any aspect of performance, via the ability to tap into and maximize frontline employee ideas, creativity and innovation. Workshop attendees will learn how to maximize their company’s current idea system or create one that works and how to increase impact, corporate creativity and innovation within their organization. They also will discover the six elements of corporate creativity and how to implement them; acquire new ways to implement lean into their organization; and review real world corporate examples and their results using Robinson’s combined system.

The Family Business Alliance at Wilkes University will host Alan G. Robinson, bestselling author of Ideas Are Free, at the Benco Dental event, and another at the Penn State Worthington Scranton Campus on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

Both events are free and open to the public. Advance registration is required. To RSVP, please contact Lorna Galliford at lorna.galliford@wilkes.edu or call (570) 408-4590 for more information.

Benco Dental is the largest privately-owned dental distribution company in the United States, offering a full array of supplies, equipment and services to dentists across the nation. Founded in 1930 by Benjamin Cohen, the company has remained family-owned and focused on its unique mission to ‘deliver success, smile after smile.’

On Oct. 7 at the Penn State Worthington Scranton Campus in Dunmore, Robinson will present “The Idea-Driven Organization: Unlocking the Power in Bottom-Up Ideas” based on his book of the same title. A light reception and registration will take place from 5:30 to 6 p.m. in the Business Building, Hawk Lecture Hall. The lecture presentation will follow.

Lecture attendees will learn how to maximize frontline employee talent to help grow and improve their company, discover proven concepts to unlock up to 80 percent of their organization’s potential for innovation and discuss real examples of organizations that implement these systems and their results.

Robinson specializes in managing creativity, ideas and innovation and is the co-author of seven books which have been translated into more than 25 languages. His bestselling book Ideas Are Free was named Reader’s Choice by Fast Company magazine and one of the 30 best business books of 2004 by Soundview Executive Books. It was also featured on ABC World News and CNN Headline News.

Robinson has advised more than 250 organizations in 20 countries on how to improve their performance. He has served on the Board of Examiners of the United States’ Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and on the Board of Examiners for the Shingo Prizes for Excellence in Manufacturing. He currently teaches at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. He received a doctorate in applied mathematics from the Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

The Wilkes University Family Business Alliance was developed by regional business owners and is a member-driven organization that aims to enable local family businesses to maintain and grow a profitable business and successfully transfer management and ownership to the next generation. The alliance provides its members with executive educational programs, enhanced networking opportunities with fellow family business owners, a forum to discuss common issues and concerns, and exposure to nationally recognized experts to ensure that the businesses’ needs are constantly identified and addressed.