Meet Our Speakers
Discounted Bookings:
The best time to book for next year? Right now. At Speakers & Sessions, our planner attendees can experience speakers live AND take advantage of limited-time discounts with Elan Speaker Agency and GL Berg: 10%, 15%, and 25% off this year's featured talent. Inspiration for today, smart savings for tomorrow.
Tom Pesce, Own Your Magic: Unlock Your Gifts, Transform Your Culture
In today's fast-paced business world, the drive to meet objectives can sometimes overshadow the unique strengths that leaders and teams bring to the workplace. In Tom Pesce's keynote, Own Your Magic, he encourages leaders and teams to celebrate their individuality and focus on creating meaningful, lasting change within their organizations.
Unleash the power of your uniqueness through this fast-paced and energizing presentation, Tom empowers professionals to leverage their unique skills to drive innovation, build dynamic workplace cultures, and achieve results that exceed standard expectations.
With actionable insights and an empowering message, Tom equips leaders and teams to:
- Build a high-performance culture of trust and collaboration.
- Leverage strengths to create lasting impact on the organization.
- Discover the "3 keys" to creating impactful experiences.
- Lead authentically to transform and inspire others.
- Implement strategies that drive engagement and results.
In "Own Your Magic," Tom's insights inspire teams to embrace their individuality, mentor one another, and transform their approach to work-creating a powerful impact on organizational success.
About Tom:
Tom is a dynamic corporate speaker who specializes in building elite cultures within organizations. With master's degrees in Elementary Education and School District Leadership & Administration, and over two decades of experience as a public school educator, Tom brings a unique perspective to empowering leaders and teams. His ability to identify and nurture individual strengths inspires organizations to rise above the competition, no matter the economic climate.
Tom's captivating stage presence, honed through performances for global giants like Google, NASA, and Formula 1, sets him apart as a speaker. He combines this magnetic energy with proven strategies to help organizations dominate their fields. His presentations equip leaders with the must-have tools to recognize their own potential, cultivate connections, and foster confidence-critical elements in driving team success and unity.
By working with Tom, you're not just investing in a speaker but in a transformative experience that propels your organization forward, shaping a culture of excellence and lasting achievement.
Joey Aviles, The ALIVE Organization: Building a Thriving Workplace in the Age of AI
Times have changed. This much we all know. With the world in a continuous state of crisis, where there is no such thing as "normal," the very nature of work, and life have been forever redefined. From social isolation to constant disruption, it is harder to foster connection, joy, and belonging within our teams.
Now is the time to re-equip our teams to achieve new heights. This keynote unveils the A.L.I.V.E framework: five pillars to achieving human connection, power up, and thriving through the power of belonging.
Joey takes an inspirational, yet deep approach to answering the following questions: How to use the power of productive conflict to increase human connection and performance? How sharing stories of recovery, success, and failures can help to strengthen a culture of belonging? What's the superpower of top performers? What steps are necessary to embrace vulnerability in the workplace?
About Joey:
If you only read this page for 30 seconds here is what you need to know about me, I love helping leaders, and organizations to spark ALIVE cultures, communities and teams.
Throughout my journey, I've delivered powerful keynotes and transformative corporate training to industry giants like VISA, ULTA Beauty, LinkedIn, Zoom, Wawa, NASA, Pfizer, the FBI, Peace Corps, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and over a hundred other visionary organizations.
Off the stage, I've led groundbreaking initiatives as the first Chief of D&I for the world's largest Coast Guard and spearheaded innovative HR strategies as Director of Recruitment and Retention. My experience as Deputy Director of highly respected leadership programs in the defense sector has enabled me to support and equip thousands of professionals with the tools they need to thrive and lead effectively.
My Purpose? To champion Collaboration, Culture, Connection, Leadership Development, and the creation of resilient, high-performing teams.
My motto? We are ALIVE-let's make it count.
Lena Scullard, Fostering a Culture of Feedback: You Can't Lead If You Can't Receive
We often train leaders to give feedback. It's one of the foundational skills. But rarely do we teach them how to receive it. And that's where trust stalls. In this powerful mini-session, Lena Scullard opens the door to a deeper conversation on leadership development by revealing how ego, reactivity, and emotional blind spots sabotage culture, trust, and performance. Drawing from emotional intelligence and her Level Up Leadership framework, Lena demonstrates how real leadership starts with self-awareness, mindset, and the willingness to model what we expect from others. You'll walk away with a fresh lens on the feedback gap, and why closing it is the key to elevating people, performance, and potential.
About Lena:
Lena Scullard is a top-rated keynote speaker, facilitator, and consultant who specializes in emotional intelligence and helping professionals confidently take ownership of their mindset and choices to create meaningful results.
With over 20 years of experience in hospitality and leadership, and more than a decade in corporate training, Lena has dedicated her career to empowering individuals and teams to unlock resilience, purpose, and impact. Known for her unique ability to connect with audiences, Lena blends engaging stories, relatable insights, and interactive elements that encourage participants to embrace personal accountability and act with intention, especially under the pressure of stress and emotional moments.
Through her "own your power to choose" philosophy, she challenges people to shift their mindset and take control of their actions to foster stronger relationships, inspire growth, and drive positive change.
Lena's expertise in emotional intelligence and engagement comes from:
- More than 20 years in hospitality and leadership
- Over a decade in corporate training as a performance consultant, facilitator, and instructional designer
- Facilitation Certifications in several Franklin Covey offerings, including the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Project
- Management, and the 4 Essential Roles of Leadership.
- Facilitation of world-class programs from the Pacific Institute, Achieve Form, and DiSC
- Degrees in Theater and English Literature
- More than 30 years of managing chronic illness
Jay Kiew, The Future of Event Experiences in the Age of AI
In this age of artificial intelligence, how will event experiences evolve? As the world adopts AI, organizations will struggle to find their competitive edge. After all, using the same groundbreaking platforms will result in the same groundbreaking results - ultimately leading to a lack of differentiation between competitors.
Individuals and industries must learn to differentiate themselves in the age of AI - or be disrupted. Amidst the noise, three foundationally distinct skills - Wonder, Vision-Casting and Connection - are emerging.
In this experiential keynote on the future of event experiences, innovation strategist Jay Kiew will share how trailblazing organizations are adapting to integrate innovation. He will also unpack Change Fluency, a leading change navigation playbook that will equip audiences with the strategies needed to skillfully navigate the evolution of work.
About Jay:
Jay Kiew (JQ) is the Change Fluency™expert. As a change navigation strategist and keynote speaker with over 15 years of innovation experience, he has created more than $2B of impact for 400+ executives by designing, developing, and delivering organizational transformation, but his story extends far beyond the professional arena.
Kiew is a half-blind cancer survivor, whose life is a testament to resilience in the face of adversity. His remarkable blend of professional expertise and personal resilience equips leaders to navigate uncertainty with confidence and connection.
Kiew spent his corporate career working at Deloitte, TELUS, and ADP, where he led mission-critical strategic transformations. This included a $150-million primary care health policy reform, $13-million tech transformations, doubling app users from 1 to 2 million, and scaling 15 product lines to $35 million in 12 months.
Recognized as a global Thinkers360 thought leader in Agentic AI, Innovation, Change Management and Healthcare, Kiew is regularly featured in Forbes, USA Today, the Financial Times, Globe and Mail, Financial Post, Digital Journal, Ivey Business Journal, Change Leadership, and more. At the age of 19, Kiew became the world's youngest Distinguished Toastmaster (before quickly getting old). In 2025, Jay became a Canadian delegate for the G20 YEA Summit, representing his country on national entrepreneurship policy related to Innovation, Digitization and the Future of Work. In 2024, the Project Management Institute inducted Jay as a Future50 honoree for his work on enabling organizations with AI Adoption.
Jay holds an MBA from the Ivey Business School and lives in Vancouver with his wife, two daughters and a stubborn Shiba Inu named Brooklyn.
C Willi Myles, Humor with a Message
Get ready to laugh, reflect, and leave inspired. In "Humor with a Message," nationally renowned comedian and keynote speaker C Willi Myles delivers a one-of-a-kind experience that blends clean comedy with meaningful takeaways. Drawing from his Southern roots, Midwestern charm, and life experiences across cultures and communities, C Willi uses storytelling and humor to bridge differences, reduce stress, and spark connection.
More than just a comedy show, this keynote is a powerful reminder of the importance of perspective, resilience, and finding joy in everyday moments. Whether he's reflecting on family dynamics, workplace quirks, or life's unpredictable turns, C Willi brings humor with purpose-leaving audiences entertained, energized, and uplifted.
Perfect for opening or closing a conference, team retreats, or leadership events, this session is tailored to your group and guaranteed to leave a lasting impression.
About C Willi:
C. Willi Myles has applied his athletic coaching and teamwork experience to the hospitality industry where he has received many customer service honors including receiving Disney's highest customer service and leadership honor - "Train the Trainer" the Disney Way!
His training and leadership skills have been used by many of the national hotel chains including the Sheraton and Radisson companies. Myles is a certified Radisson, "Train the Trainer, 100% Guest Satisfaction, Making It Right, and Yes I Can" trainer. He has completed similar programs in various healthcare organizations including Methodist and Fairview Health Systems.
C. Willi Myles understands that in this day and age presenting is changing. Not every audience wants to sit through a message or presentation after a long day of networking. This presentation is the best of both worlds with a mixture of humor and an entertainment comedy show tied together with a message of key points that you would like your audience to leave with.