Once named the No. 2 sports city in North America by ESPN The Magazine, Indianapolis is world-renowned for hosting sports events, including the NCAA Final Four, the Indianapolis 500, the NBA Finals, the NFL Scouting Combine and the United States Grand Prix race. Indianapolis also will host SFA’s 2005 Management Workshop, Oct. 23-25, 2005. The theme of the workshop is, “Full Court Press to Success: Winning in Indy.”

America’s 12th-largest city, the metropolitan area of Indianapolis encompasses 1.5 million people and offers a stunning skyline, world-class attractions and a vibrant downtown. It became the capital of Indiana in 1825, four years after the state’s general assembly approved the site and name for the city.

Steve Wiley, a highly rated speaker at previous SFA meetings, will present a completely new approach to leadership training: using the U.S. Civil War to illustrate leadership challenges on a scale never experienced before in America. Wiley; Lawrence Taylor, retired ambassador and former director of the U.S. Foreign Service Institute for the U.S. State Department; William Rosenbach, professor of leadership at Gettysburg College; and Tom Dombrowsky, former director of military history at the U.S. Army War College, will use lessons from Gettysburg to offer an amazing program that combines high-level motivation, individual coaching and cutting-edge leadership development techniques.

Jeff Tobe — the guru of creatively thriving from change — will present two sessions during the workshop. Tobe believes in the power of creativity to manage change that is inevitable and in the benefits of looking at what one does from an entirely new perspective. He will help participants to not only cope with transition, but also creatively embrace and thrive from it. Tobe is the author of Coloring Outside the Lines, and he is the co-author of Success is a Decision of the Mind and The Communication Coach.

Keeping abreast of new trends is critical to achieving success in the snack food business. Participants at management workshop will hear about the latest trends within the snack food industry from Mary Willis, senior manager, ACNielsen. She will provide insights on the snack category that will include sales data, an overview of new products, and a look at growing sub categories, such as organic and natural.

On the final day of the workshop, the luncheon speaker will be Richard Rudolph, president and CEO of Rudolph Foods Company, Inc. Rudolph will serve as SFA Chairman of the Board during the 2006-07 year.

SFA’s Management Workshop again will offer concurrent educational sessions for sales and marketing, and manufacturing professionals in the snack food industry. Manufacturing and technical professionals will learn about lean management and food safety. Meanwhile, sales and marketing professionals will be provided with a retailer’s perspective on the snack food industry.

A highlight of this year’s workshop will be a tour of the state-of-the-art Pretzels, Incorporated plant in Bluffton, Indiana, for workshop attendees whose companies offer reciprocal tours.

SFA’s 2005 Management Workshop will kick off Sunday, Oct. 23, with a reception and dinner at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Hall of Champions, where the best of college sports has been captured under one roof.

The NCAA Hall of Champions was unveiled in March of 2000, when the association moved its headquarters to Indianapolis. The Hall is located in White River State Park on the western edge of downtown Indianapolis. Also located in White River State Park are the Zoo, the wraparound IMAX Theater and the Eiteljorg Museum. The Eiteljorg features one of the nation’s premier collections of Native American art and artifacts.

From the White River State Park you can access the Canal Walk, a garden-like oasis with fountains, antique-style street lamps, walkways and jogging paths. Originally in 1839, the Central Canal on the White River was built to provide a transportation link for factories, paper mills and sawmills. The walk was developed through a $15 million renovation.

Banners recognizing the current winners of NCAA national championships hang overhead in the four-story-tall Great Hall, where the workshop’s reception and dinner will take place. The Hall of Champions uses a variety of interactive displays, theater presentations and other exhibits to show how athletes and coaches excel at their respective sports.