September 12-13, 2026: Detroit - Vibe Credit Union Showplace (Novi)

Widely accepted as one of the top franchise consultants in the United States, Britton helps you figure out how to do what most people only dream about. ​Britt has spent more than 25 years as a franchisee, entrepreneur, franchise executive, and franchise consultant working for and owning franchises such as Kiddie Academy® Childcare Learning Centers, Molly Maid®, Sylvan Learning(SM) Centers, and SYNERGY® HomeCare.

​Britt has captured her franchise expertise as author of a top-selling book on entrepreneurship titled, The Franchisee Workbook. Britton will teach you the tools and techniques to help you find your ideal match far beyond your expectations.

Franchising has been Robert Mitchell's world for nearly a quarter century. Across that time, he has worked with brands and prospective franchise owners spanning business-to-business (B2B) services, consumer-facing retail, food and beverage, professional services, and concepts operating both nationally and internationally. Few categories of the franchise landscape are unfamiliar territory.

Dave Woggon has been in the franchise industry since 1986 in both funding and franchise exploration roles. As the VP of Development for Tenet Financial Group, he oversees the consulting team and identifies strategic growth opportunities for the company.

Chris Conner has spent the last twenty years working in the franchise development field working primarily with startup and emerging franchise systems. Mr. Conner's work covers a variety of franchise categories including strategic planning, franchise operations, franchise training system development, franchise marketing and franchise sales. In 2009, Mr. Conner founded Franchise Marketing Systems based out of Atlanta, Georgia which today has grown to a team of 34 team members located in markets across the United States and Canada. Franchise Marketing Systems has developed over 700 franchise brands and supported clients in selling over 8,000 franchise units in North and South America, Asia, the Middle East, Canada and Southeast Asia. Franchise Marketing Systems has worked with a variety of well known brands and significant franchise systems including Baxter Healthcare, Anytime Fitness, Costco, Ford Motor Company, Delta Airlines, UPS Stores, European Wax Center, Junk King and others.

Mr. Conner’s vision was to develop a model that allowed for efficient, effective and performance based franchise development work to be completed for new and emerging franchisors. The combination of providing consulting and franchise development support along with the franchise sales and marketing model for new brands created more opportunities to more brands to scale and grow through franchising. Chris Conner holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Miami of Ohio and an MBA in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago. He is married to an amazing wife, Dr. Alaina Conner and has two great kids, Ashton and Jameson.

Frank Closurdo is an insightful, entrepreneurial, idea-driven business leader with more than 25 years of experience in building brands across a diversity of sectors — consumer packaged goods, business to business, franchise consulting and management consulting for life sciences.

He possesses a broad range of commercial and marketing experience in both Fortune 100 and entrepreneurial start-up organizations. His deep marketing expertise spans a company and product lifecycle – driving insights into early company/product development, managing product portfolio, designing brand strategies for company/product pre-launch/launch, and maximizing business growth for existing brands. Throughout his career, Frank has worked on an array of brands ranging from small niche brands to some of the world’s most recognizable brands – Tylenol, Motrin, Johnson & Johnson. Throughout his career he has held positions of increasing responsibility with such companies as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Pillsbury.
Frank received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration – with a specialization in marketing – from Wayne State University. He has guest lectured at Villanova University, teaching marketing strategy. Frank brings a strategic perspective to SMB and clients who need a fresh idea for their brand.

Effie comes from a family of entrepreneurs. She has had a successful career opening and starting businesses with a focus on sales and management. Effie’s role and focus as a coach is to help people explore opportunities they would not find on their own.