Featured Event

Clint Pulver brings a powerful message on mentorship-driven leadership and how one caring leader can shape careers and culture. His keynote blends unforgettable storytelling, humor, and actionable strategies for retaining today’s workforce.

• Adapt to a rapidly changing workforce
• Communicate across generations
• Build cultures that celebrate diversity and growth
• Apply the four keys of modern mentorship
• Lead with purpose, accountability, and clarity
• Implement strategies for lasting cultural change

About Clint Pulver

Technology futurist Crystal Washington helps leaders decode the “breadcrumbs of the future” to stay ahead of change. Learn how to spot innovation cues, make smarter decisions, and build a career that thrives amid disruption.                                        

• Recognize the opportunities hidden in rapid change

• Identify innovation resources you already possess

• Build a practical framework to stay relevant and reduce stress

About Crystal Washington

Futurist, author, and Hall of Fame Speaker Crystal Washington equips organizations with the knowledge they need to become “future-proof.”
As a technology strategist and certified futurist, Crystal makes complex artificial intelligence and app technology easy to understand and accessible for everyday people.
Crystal’s clients include Fortune 100 companies, including Google, American Express, and Pfizer. As a sought-after keynote speaker, she has entertained and educated audiences around the globe.
As one of Forbes’ 50 Leading Female Futurists, she appears weekly on season two of the Emmy-nominated show Life 2.0. She’s also appeared in numerous publications, including Entrepreneur and Bloomberg Businessweek, and major television networks regularly call on her as a tech expert.
Crystal is the author of One Tech Action and The Social Media Why.

Drawing on insights from the recently released book titled: Survival to Success: Leading Small, High-Growth Enterprises, authors Peter Brooks and Gerry Starsia will lead a discussion exploring the unique leadership challenges faced by founders and small business leaders as they shift from “survival mode” to sustainable growth. A transition that demands not only strategic adaptation but also a profound evolution in mindset and leadership style.

Key themes from the book will be used to compare and contrast the leadership dynamics of small, fast-growth firms with those of larger, more established organizations. We’ll examine how the entrepreneurial skills essential for launching a company—such as resourcefulness, multitasking, and crisis response—differ markedly from the capabilities required to scale it, including:

• Building and communicating a compelling external narrative
• Developing internal leadership capacity and staff
• Delegating effectively and designing scalable systems

In this highly interactive session, the presenters will take a few minutes to overview the themes mentioned above, including how leading small, high-growth firms differs from larger, more established ones, and then provide the context for a case study and report out exercise.

About Peter Brooks

Peter is a lifelong entrepreneur with four decades of founding, acquiring, and restructuring companies across industries ranging from medical research and home services to asset management and sports equipment. He has recently taught at the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development and at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Earlier in his career, he was a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company.

He holds an MBA and MA from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard College. Peter lives in Boston with his wife, Nancy, and their labrador, Webster, and they have two daughters, Sarah and Molly.

About Gerry Starsia

Gerry is a former Founder/CEO and Professor, now serving as an advisor and author of Plan to Pivot and Survival to Success. His background spans two decades in the corporate sector followed by a transition into higher education leadership, giving him deep strategic and operational expertise.

He is recognized for excellence in teaching, writing, and advising—praised by UVA’s Seven Society as “a model of balance between teaching, research and administrative leadership,” and by executives for keeping teams focused and adaptable.

Today, Gerry advises two executive teams, serves as an investor–advisor in a high-growth firm, and speaks widely on leadership and strategy in both corporate and higher education settings.

As a leader, time is your ultimate resource. Unfortunately, many leaders get stuck in a cycle of busy work and interruptions. They lack the capacity and strategies to complete their most important work each day, yet they find all their time going to non-essential tasks. Sound familiar? Together, we can get your time back.

Are you looking for a different kind of leadership program? One that gives you the tools to work smarter? One that empowers you to drive productivity across your organization through actionable time management strategies? One that combines soft skills with software solutions to help you build a culture where productivity fuels happiness?

In this session, you’ll learn how to create a culture that eliminates unnecessary interruptions. You’ll discover how to get your team focused on their most important priorities and stop the highly reactionary behavior that has become the norm in business today. 

Learn:

• Time Management techniques that will help you and your team:
  • Increase productivity & tackle your most important work every day
  • Reduce stress levels and increase overall happiness
• How leveraging Microsoft 365 (a tool you likely already pay for!) can help you and your team stay organized and streamline collaboration
• How to define an effective business communication strategy to drive company-wide efficiencies

About Jan Lehman

Jan Lehman is is a globally recognized productivity expert, international speaker, and best-selling author that has been featured in Forbes, Business Journal, and Entrepreneur. She is dedicated to creating real relationships and curating a meaningful and relevant presentation for each of her clients. Combining a thoughtful blend of proven productivity practices and real-life examples, Jan offers a welcoming, engaging, inspirational, and high-energy space for personal growth.

This workshop explores how generative AI, social media algorithms, and modern political dynamics are reshaping the way organizations make decisions, communicate, and lead. It provides a clear overview of why long-standing assumptions are shifting and what leaders need to understand to adapt.

Participants will examine how economic conditions and evolving social perceptions are influencing the experiences of citizens, customers, and employees. The program also outlines the psychological and technological methods that various organizations use to shape perspectives, influence opinions, and guide choices.

From there, the workshop focuses on how leaders can recognize, respond to, and strategically leverage—or guard against—these forces to strengthen decision-making, improve their reach, and keep teams aligned during periods of rapid change.

Presented with a non-partisan, neutral lens, the session blends strategic insight with practical tools. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of the forces driving today’s disruptions and actionable guidance for leading effectively in a transforming environment.

Key Takeaways:

1. An understanding the current interplay of AI, media, and populism in influencing decision-making, economic opportunity, and team cohesion.

2. Tools to harness emerging technologies and influence techniques to shape perspectives and defend objectivity.

3. Tactics to hold together teams of people experiencing very different social “realities”.

About Scott Wayne

Scott supports clients in developing strategies, negotiating partnerships, and navigating disputes.

In government diplomatic service and subsequently, in the private sector, he has worked on some of the most nuanced issues at the intersection of government, business, and non-profit missions.

He teaches executive leadership programs and speaks at conferences on combining negotiation theory, behavioural economics, and stagecraft to understand human behaviours, negotiate through conflict, and influence outcomes.

As AI tools rapidly proliferate, they are reshaping the competitive landscape across every area of business. To stay ahead, CEOs and organizational leaders must quickly build practical AI literacy—understanding not just what the tools can do, but how to apply them effectively while avoiding common missteps.

Designed for non-technical leaders who already have a basic familiarity with generative AI, this workshop offers a pragmatic, grounded look at AI’s real capabilities and limitations. Participants will gain a clear framework for how AI works, where it delivers value, and how to integrate it thoughtfully into their organizations.

What the Workshop Covers

1. Why AI Matters – Data-driven insights and real-world examples highlighting AI’s business impact.

2. Demystifying AI – Simple explanations using stories, visuals, and metaphors to clarify generative AI.

3. Practical Applications – Concrete use cases across productivity, marketing, customer service, HR, and finance.

4. Overcoming Resistance – Identify common adoption challenges and strategies to address them.

5. Cautions and Boundaries – Key risks, including data privacy and misuse, and how to manage them.

6. Call to Action – Guided exercise to define next steps, pilot projects, or learning initiatives.

7. Q&A and Closing – Open discussion to reinforce learning and clarify actionable takeaways.

About Aram DiGennaro

Aram DiGennaro is an entrepreneur, strategist, and fractional executive who combines hands-on experience with an academic’s curiosity to tackle the challenges of leadership. He spent 11 years in East Africa founding and running 6 companies across diverse industries. Today, he consults with values-driven professionals to align their businesses with time tested best practices, emerging new tools and opportunities, and their own highest aspirations. Aram also hosts the Coherent Business Podcast and is a frequent speaker on business in conversation with philosophy, technology, and culture.