EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, HEALTH CARE ARE TOPICS AT BUSINESS CONFERENCE

Employee motivation will be the topic of Barry Hana, vice president of Maritz Performance Improvement Co., during a business conference to be held April 6 at the Show Me Center on the Southeast Missouri State University campus.

Hana, director of the Maritz All-Employee Systems Division, a nationwide network of Maritz experts who assist business executives with employee involvement, quality improvement and customer satisfaction initiatives, will be keynote speaker at the noon luncheon of the one-day conference.

The event is sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce University Relations Committee and Southeast Missouri State University's Donald L. Harrison College of Business.

"Impact on Business: Managing The Transition Into the 21st Century," is the theme of the 1994 conference. The program for the conference is designed to provide insights into changes which can be expected approaching the 21st Century.

"The conference will bring together some of the major players who will be determining the quality of our business environment and will provide insight into those factors that will affect the productivity during this period of transition in the new century," said John Mehner, president of the Chamber of Commerce.

"Hana will discuss new approaches for improving employee motivation," said Gerald McDougall, of Harrison College of Business.

Maritz, which provides a vast array of business services (travel, business meetings, marketing research, data base marketing, employee performances), is a privately-held, $1.4 billion corporation, based in Fenton. The firm employs more than 6,000 people worldwide and is observing its 100th anniversary this year.

Hana is a native of St. Louis and holds degrees in economics and journalism and a master's degree in business communication from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He served as an army officer with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam.

Hana has worked with key Maritz accounts, such as Anheuser Busch, Boatmen's Bank, Procter & Gamble, Federal Express, Ford, and Hallmark during his 22 years with the firm.

Also on the conference program will be a health care reforms panel, and a representative of Boyd Gaming Corp., headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., who will discuss that company's marketing and development plans after being selected to develop a riverboat gaming facility in Cape Girardeau.

Karen Hendrickson, assistant administrator/chief nursing officer at Southeast Missouri Hospital, will be moderator for the health care panel at 9:45 a.m. The panel includes:

Patrick Bira, administrator of Perry County Memorial Hospital; John Fidler, president of St. Francis Medical Center; James W. Wente, administrator of Southeast Missouri Hospital; Ruth Meyer Hollenback, regional vice president of Blue Cross/Blue Shield; Tom Schulte, district office director for Senators Kit Bond and Jack Danforth; and Dian Sprenger, senior vice president Missouri Hospital Association.

Bert Kellerman, Harrison College of Business, will be moderator for the Boyd Gaming Corporation's "River Beat" program at 8 a.m.

Cost of the seminar, including the noon luncheon, is $40 per person. Cost for students is $10 for the luncheon (conference sessions are free for students).

Registration at the conference will be held from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Additional information is available by contacting the Chamber of Commerce at 335-3312.