Keynote speaker: Mitch Albom 
Mitch Albom is an internationally renowned, best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician. His books have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide, have been published in 45 languages. He moved to Detroit in 1985, where he became a nationally-acclaimed sports journalist at the Detroit Free Press. In 1995, he re-encountered Morrie Schwartz, a former college professor who was dying of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His visits with Schwartz would lead to the book Tuesdays with Morrie. It spent four years on the New York Times Bestseller list and is now the most successful memoir ever published. His first novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, is the most successful US hardcover first adult novel ever. For One More Day debuted at No.1 on the New York Times Bestseller List and spent nine months on the list. Have a Little Faith was selected by Oprah.com as the best nonfiction book of 2009. Oprah Winfrey produced the film version of Tuesdays With Morrie in 1999, starring Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria. The film garnered four Emmy awards. Albom has founded seven charities, many in the metropolitan Detroit area.
