The California Council for Excellence will host its 12th annual Conference & Awards Gala April 6–7 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. The event will feature dozens of workshops and seminars, along with a host of celebrity look-alikes including Theodore Roosevelt, Joan Rivers, Groucho Marx, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. The keynote addresses will be delivered by Masaaki Imai, president of the Kaizen Institute and renowned kaizen expert; and Richard Chang, RCA Inc. president.

The conference will feature an on-site tour of The Boeing Co.’s Airlift & Tanker Program, where attendees will hear about how the company used the Baldrige criteria to improve its practices. Imai will also attend this on-site tour and use the visit for a workshop on gemba kaizen he’s scheduled to present. In addition, the event will feature an on-site tour of Ritz-Carlton Laguna Beach, a Baldrige Award winner; and a presentation from Sunny Fresh Foods, a 2005 Baldrige Award winner, to discuss its process improvements and success.

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