MILWAUKEE, WI — Risk and change, customer experience and quality as a competitive advantage are among the focus areas of the 2017 ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement.

Attendees of the ASQ conference — May 1–3, Charlotte, N.C. — will learn ways to immediately identify and assess risk, focus on the customer, and use quality to drive profitability. Furthermore, attendees will learn to decrease waste, improve productivity, and increase operational efficiency in their organizations. Each educational session will present real-life applications, solutions, and results based on quality principles, while the workshops will allow attendees to dive deeper into quality theories with hands-on learning activities.

The content is designed to engage audiences from manufacturing, health care, government, financial services and more.

The theme of the event, “Grow Your Influence: In the Profession, Through the Organizations and Around the World,” was chosen to center on the work of current and future business leaders and the growth they seek to better influence the work they do, organizations they work for, and lives they lead.

Other focus areas of the annual event include quality fundamentals and operational excellence, emphasizing leadership, innovations, culture of quality, producing results and more.

At the conference, ASQ will present the 2016-2017 International Team Excellence Awards, the only international team recognition process of its kind in the world. Finalists will present their successes at Global Impact Sessions, which offer attendees the opportunity to learn first-hand from organizations that have used quality processes to save millions of dollars while delivering value to customers and stakeholders.

Prior to the conference, ASQ will offer onsite certification exams and training opportunities on topics including cost of quality, corrective and preventive actions, lean enterprise, and others.

For more information about the World Conference on Quality and Improvement, or to register for the event, visit asq.org/wcqi.