Executives from Iowa’s biggest companies are planning to gather in Lake Okoboji this week to swap ideas for public policy initiatives and other issues with officials from the state’s biggest pro-business lobbing group, the Iowa Association of Business and Industry.

More than 200 people are expected to attend this year’s conference. Topics to be discussed include insurance concerns, legal issues and ways to improve corporate efficiency using techniques such as Six Sigma, Kaizen and Lean Sigma.

This is year also marks the 100th birthday for the ABI, which began life in 1903 as a group of Iowa-based manufacturers that put together a presentation on the benefits of doing business in Iowa for that year’s St. Louis World’s Fair.

Since then, the ABI has lead efforts to ease regulation and make Iowa a more business-friendly state. Property and casualty insurer EMC Group Inc. can trace its roots to the organization. So, too, can laws that let Iowans deduct their federal taxes from their taxable income on state income taxes. The ABI lobbied for passage of the state’s right to work law in 1947 and for 1980’s Clean Air Act, according to President Jim Aipperspach.

The group currently supports efforts to reduce income taxes and create the Iowa Values Fund. The ABI has about 1,500 member companies.

“We’re trying to strategically focus to be of value to the state and to be of value to our members as we move into our second century,” Aipperspach said.

This year’s keynote address, “The Rise, Fall and Rise of Harley-Davidson,” will be given by Ken Schmidt, the former director of communications for the motorcycle manufacturer. The speech is particularly fitting because Harley-Davidson also is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Four of the 15 companies that first created ABI will be featured in a group presentation. Those four are Iowa City-based Economy Advertising, Burlington-based Tuthill Turbomachinery, and The Des Moines Register and Deere & Co.