Schedule & Sessions

Speakers: Renée Riley-Adams and Jessica Wakefield

Room: Cosmos Ballroom (lower level)

How are you a leader in your own life? Are you running ragged, at the mercy of time and someone else's agenda?

This session meets you where you are, seeing what you want to improve, as well as celebrating what is already working well. Embrace your values and your ability to communicate as the keys to your motivation and action.

Rediscover what it means to be capable, confident, and compassionate both at work and at home. Walk out knowing your Next Best Step, along with a new appreciation for yourself and your relationships.

Lead with confidence and ease as you reclaim your ability to see, accept, value, and embody your own magnificence. It all begins with YOU!

Handout: Leading with Confidence and Ease pdf

Speakers: Beth Budwig, Mamta Suri and Harika Adivikolanu

Room: Stardust Lounge (main level)

Are you stressed out or negative at work? Do you react to situations at work impulsively? Being positive and well-balanced is a learnable skill. In this workshop, you will practice mindfulness and apply techniques from Cognitive and Dialectical Behavior Therapy to the workplace. You can use these tools daily to help manage your stress, stay calm, and improve your mood. These techniques are applicable for professionals at all stages in their careers who wish to manage stress and difficult situations objectively and positively.

Resources: Tools for Managing Your Moods

Speaker: Carolyn Stern

Room: Orion Ballroom (main level)

In school, we were put into teams, but we were never taught how to work within those teams. Our instructors gave us stress, but they never taught us how to handle and manage our stress. You see, most of these life skills are not taught in school or the workplace. In today’s day and age, soft skills are just as, if not more, important than hard skills. Being aware of your emotions and those of others and learning to lead with emotional intelligence are skills that can be taught, and this keynote will start you off with the basics.

Learning Objectives

• Discover the 15 emotional intelligence competencies and explore the five composite scales of self-perception, self-awareness, interpersonal relationships, decision making, and stress management.
• Identify how you can apply emotional intelligence in your life to increase personal and professional effectiveness.
• Build your confidence and ability as a leader to connect authentically, communicate effectively, and thrive collectively with your supervisors, peers, and direct reports.

Handout: Leading with Emotional Intelligence pdf

Speaker: Solé Thernell
Facilitators: Kate McGrath, Mali Wileman, Deonna Tuulik, David Spetner

Room: Galaxy Ballroom (lower level)

It is Not Always What You Do, But When and How You Do It.

When do you know it’s time to take action and do something? When someone is saying something that is insensitive or judgmental. When no one is saying much no matter what you do to prompt them. When long periods of silence show no indication that it will stop. Worst of all, when someone starts freaking out right before your eyes, making the rest of the group very nervous. At this juncture of leadership, it’s not important that you know what to do as long as you know you must do something. Understanding the connection between our individual mindset and beliefs accelerates a stronger sustainable outcome.

During this 90-minute experiential workshop you will attend to your personal development in a live group experience. We will examine your personal vulnerabilities and turn them into your greatest strengths and assets.

Speakers: Dr. Hala Schepmann and Dr. Emily Reeder

Room: Cosmos Ballroom (lower level)

We all face challenges in our work environments – how we choose to respond to them is what sets us apart and often directly influences our career satisfaction and trajectory. Sometimes, we fail to recognize workplace cultures that create a less than optimal work environment. Or, having identified a problem, we remain passive despite the availability of practical methods to improve our situation.  

During this session, we will work together to identify workplace challenges and share approaches in establishing supportive and equitable practices and policies. Additionally, we will delineate methods to promote a shift in cultural paradigms conducive to ongoing success.

Speaker: Catie Hogan

Room: Galaxy Ballroom (lower level)

How can we eliminate the gender pay gap? How do we lift women out of poverty? How do we create a future of female leaders and innovators on an equal playing field with their male counterparts? Catie Hogan believes the answer lies in combining feminist values with financial literacy advocacy. In this presentation, we’ll examine how financial literacy among girls and women will create a society which more accurately reflects our values. We’ll explore the crucial links between financial literacy and feminist principles to learn what we need to teach the next generation now. Finally, we’ll discuss how to lead by example through your own financial education and everyday feminism.

Handout: A Better Future Through Financial Literacy and Feminism Word document

Speaker: Donnie Maclurcan

Room: Stardust Lounge (main level)

Imagine there was a simple, actionable way you could flatten power dynamics within your teams. Imagine your organization proactively celebrated and honored introversion. Imagine there was a way you could make your workplace decisions even more participatory and efficient. And imagine all of this was possible, without saying a word!

Join this participatory session to explore how silence and silent leadership can be a powerful antidote to being silenced!

Speaker: Angela Durant

Room: Orion Ballroom (main level)

Build a stellar personal brand and differentiate yourself in the marketplace!

• Position yourself as the leading authority in your industry and get paid for the value you bring.
• Find clarity, purpose and confidence in what you are created to do in the world
• Gain instant credibility and recognition to enable access to more opportunities
• Start attracting instead of chasing the right opportunities
• Learn the secret iconic brands like Apple, Coke, Nike and Starbucks use to dominate their industries.
• Plus a bonus...discover the #1 most powerful tool in branding that will give you an unfair advantage over your competitors.

If you’re a leader who wants to increase your influence, impact, and income, then this session is one you won’t want to miss!

Speaker: Valeria Carillo

Room: Galaxy Ballroom (lower level)

Your story is a differentiator for your destination! Ever felt like your story has been misplaced? Like your story is just another chapter in your life? Stop! Your story does matter and, believe it or not, it will impact and change somebody else's life. Join me to discover the inner you and help map out what made YOU—from rocky paths to sunlight breaks you encounter through your journey. This fun and active workshop will help you write those awesome speaker bios and give you many stories to share with colleagues. Come prepared to get creative, learn, and make meaningful connections with like-minded individuals.

Speakers: Sam Osheroff and Kris Danford

Room: Orion Ballroom (main level)

In this age of technology, effective communication skills can get lost in a sea of texts, tweets and impersonal interactions. This workshop addresses the so-called “soft skills” that truly set a leader apart: authenticity, active listening, dynamic speaking, flexibility, and a host of additional competencies used to build gravitas, trust and rapport between speaker and listener. Through a series of presentations and fun, practical exercises, we will work on issues of clarity, voice and breath awareness, body language, presence, dynamism, conflict resolution and the mind-body connection.

It is our goal that workshop participants will leave with the following skills:

1. Increased awareness of both positive and negative physical and vocal habits that affect communication effectiveness
2. An understanding of best vocal practices in the areas of pitch, variety, tone and clarity
3. An enhanced ability to actively listen with genuine empathy and interest
4. A new approach to handling conflict with increased flexibility and strategic use of communication skills

Speakers: Patty Casebolt and Keith Casebolt

Room: Cosmos Ballroom (lower level)

Do you want to deliver feedback in an open, honest and accountable way? Do you struggle with being too nice, too harsh, or just shutting down altogether? How much energy do you put into trying to manage your conversations?

Effective leadership requires the ability to communicate and develop trust, and trust is built through openness and accountability. How important is trust in your relationships? Are you willing to give and receive feedback in a non-defensive manner?

This course will show you how to develop more effective leaders (yourself included) through an application of accountable feedback processes. Examples and hands-on practice for giving and receiving accountable feedback will be shared for creating an environment that minimizes blame and maximizes problem solving. Lastly, an opportunity to look at defensiveness: how it gets in the way and how to interrupt the cycle.

Handouts:

Expectations of Managers at MEC
Facilitating Stop/Start/Continue
How to Work with Defensive People
Human Element Article Leadership Development
Human Element Watch Your Language
Just Trust Me
New Role Feedback Process
Recommended Books
Stop Start Continue
The Language of Accountability
Working Procedure New Role Feedback Process

Speaker: Dr. Jacinta M. Jiménez, PsyD, BCC

Room: Stardust Lounge (main level)

Join Stanford University trained psychologist and motivation expert Dr. Jacinta M. Jiménez for an in-depth interview about the science of sustainable success. This breakout will also include an open-ended Q&A discussion in which audience members will have the opportunity to ask about her experience in coaching women leaders, and putting the science of leadership into action through design thinking and positive psychology principles.

Handout: Lasting Leadership Monitoring Worksheet pdf