Fall kick-off events are a great opportunity to bring teams together, recalibrate, and build momentum that carries into the new year — and the right speaker can make all the difference.
This guide features some of our top speaker recommendations across the topics that matter most right now — from AI and leadership to culture, change, and communication. Whether you’re looking to inspire, challenge, or equip your team, these are the topics and expert insights that will help you end the year strong.
Browse by topic, find the right fit, and contact us today to book your Fall kick-off event!
Headliners
Kick off your fall with speakers who have operated at the absolute peak of their fields — and know how to translate those hard-won lessons into inspiration your team can act on.
Col. Chris Hadfield
Expect the Unexpected: How to Manage Through Complexity and Change
The only Canadian to command the International Space Station, Colonel Chris Hadfield brings 21 years of astronaut experience to the stage.
He transforms extraordinary lessons from space into powerful strategies for leadership, resilience, and navigating change. His keynotes challenge audiences to embrace complexity with curiosity, build high-performing teams, and lead with confidence — no matter the stakes.
Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser
Cultivating a Growth Mindset: How to Stay Motivated
One of the greatest hockey players of all time, Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser is a four-time Olympic gold medalist, a practicing emergency physician, and the Assistant General Manager of Player Development for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
She challenges audiences to reject complacency and keep evolving, proving that true greatness lies not in reaching the top, but in what you do once you get there.
Shawn Kanungo
Innovations in a World of AI
Shawn Kanungo is one of the world’s most sought-after voices on AI and innovation — a globally recognized strategist and bestselling author who spent 12 years at Deloitte helping leaders navigate disruptive change.
His visually dynamic keynotes empower audiences to stop playing it safe, exploring why conventional approaches to AI adoption are a recipe for mediocrity and what it takes to boldly reimagine its possibilities instead.
Fire Up Your Team
Energy is contagious. These speakers bring it in abundance — along with the stories, strategies, and mindset shifts that leave teams ready to perform at their very best.
Juan Bendaña
Make Confidence Your Competitive Advantage: High-Performance Mindset for Next Level Growth
Called a “walking shot of espresso”, Juan Bendaña has cracked the confidence code. The bestselling author of Confident by Choice, he has spent 10 years building custom leadership programs for world-class brands and coaching Olympic athletes, Grammy-winning artists, and Fortune 100 leaders.
He shows audiences how to turn self-doubt into unshakable confidence and uncertainty into competitive advantage — so they can raise the bar and achieve more than they thought possible.
Sarah Wells
The Pursuit of Excellence: How to Cultivate Unstoppable Excellence in Yourself and Your Organization
Sarah Wells hurdled her way to the Olympics after nine months on the sidelines — and she’s been proving that excellence has no limits ever since.
An Olympic hurdler for Team Canada, a Pan Am Games medalist, and an Amazing Race competitor, her high-energy keynotes prove that excellence isn’t reserved for a select few but a mindset anyone can adopt. She shows that by going all in on our unique strengths, we can unlock unlimited success.
Blake Fly
Future-Proof Your People: Relationships Over Robots, Appreciation Over Automation
Blake Fly has built his career on one core belief — the most powerful business strategy is human connection.
A nine-time TEDx speaker trusted by Lululemon, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Disney, he blends live music, personalized storytelling, and real-world insight to show leaders how to spark the kind of appreciation and connection that makes teams feel seen, valued, and engaged — building stronger cultures and better performance at every level.
Transformational Leadership: Build Resilient Teams
The best teams don’t happen by accident. They’re built by leaders who know how to motivate, challenge, and bring out the best in the people around them. Discover the strategies and frameworks that make it possible.
Liane Davey
Invisible Overload: How Thoughtload is Undermining Performance and What Leaders Can Do About It
It’s not the workload that’s wearing your team down — it’s the thoughtload. Known as the “teamwork doctor,” Liane Davey introduces a radical reframe of what’s really driving burnout and disengagement.
She identifies the three invisible forces undermining performance — attention overload, emotional reactivity, and energy depletion — and gives leaders practical tools to reclaim focus, regulate emotional triggers, and tap into renewable energy so teams can go further by carrying less.
Hamza Khan
Hope IS a Strategy: Leading with Impact in a Changing Landscape
Amid uncertainty, hope has emerged as the most critical leadership trait.
A two-time bestselling author and the co-founder of SkillsCamp, an award-winning learning and leadership development company, Hamza Khan shows leaders how to move from fear-driven decision-making to hope-driven, people-first leadership that drives engagement, builds resilience, and empowers teams to navigate even the most challenging conditions with confidence.
Bruce Kirkby
The Moment of Growth: An Invisible Hinge where Change Stalls and How to Break Through
People rarely fail at growth — they fail at the invisible hinge point just before it. An internationally renowned adventurer, Bruce Kirkby is one of the leading voices on personal and organizational growth.
His travels have taken him from the world’s highest mountains to the wildest rivers and driest deserts. He draws on these extraordinary experiences to give leaders a tactical roadmap for building gritty teams, reducing burnout, and driving the kind of growth that turns uncertainty into momentum.
Unlock the Human Advantage in an AI World
The real competitive advantage in the age of AI isn’t technological — it’s human. Discover what it means to lead, connect, and create in a world where the rules of work are being rewritten in real time.
Dr. Bailey Parnell
Super Human Leadership: How the Next Great Leaders Will Use AI to Become More Human
Dr. Bailey Parnell is a pioneer at the intersection of technology, AI, leadership, and well-being. The founder of SkillsCamp, a soft skills and leadership development company, she has partnered with such renowned organizations as the UN, Deloitte, and the NFL.
Her groundbreaking research on Super Human Leadership shows audiences how to harness AI ethically and lead with humanity in a digital world by scaling empathy, connection, and impact.
Mitch Joel
Present Future: How Smart Leaders Use AI to Accelerate Strategy, Creativity, and Momentum
The leaders who win in the age of AI won’t be defined by the tools they adopt, but by the judgment, creativity, and humanity they bring to them.
One of North America’s leading business visionaries, Mitch Joel has spent 30 years on the frontlines of technology and culture. His keynotes equip leaders with a practical framework for using AI to accelerate strategy, creativity, and momentum without losing the human qualities that matter most.
David Usher
Artificial Intelligence and the Power of Creative Thinking
From musician to AI CEO, David Usher‘s path from lead singer of multi-platinum, four-time Juno Award-winning band Moist to founder of Reimagine AI, an artificial intelligence venture studio, is the ultimate case study in creative reinvention.
His dynamic keynotes blend live music, technology, and humour to show audiences that creativity is the ultimate human advantage in the age of AI — and leave them with a practical roadmap to harness it.
Cultivate Change-Ready Organizations
The best organizations don’t just survive disruption. They’re built for it. Learn how to develop the mindset, culture, and strategies that turn adaptability into competitive advantage.
Rola Dagher
Leading Through Change: Building Adaptable, Future-Ready Organizations in the Age of AI
Rola Dagher rose from a childhood in war-torn Lebanon to become Global Channel Chief at Dell Technologies and President and CEO of Cisco Canada.
Her extraordinary journey has given her an unmatched perspective on adaptability. She shows leaders how to develop the mindset, emotional intelligence, and practical strategies to build organizations that thrive on change rather than merely survive it.
Jennifer Barroll
Grow With It: Building Resilient, Engaged Teams Through Seasons of Growth and Change
With decades of corporate leadership experience and a background in leadership psychology, Jennifer Barroll has carved a unique niche through her transformational approach to leadership and culture.
Seeing change as the greatest opportunity for growth, she teaches leaders how to navigate uncertainty with confidence, sharing tools to communicate with clarity, foster psychological safety, and build teams that don’t just weather change — they grow through it.
Jay Kiew
Change Fluency: Leveraging the Language of Change to Drive Growth
As today’s change landscape accelerates, the difference between organizations that thrive and those that struggle isn’t about managing change — it lies in developing fluency with it.
In his experiential keynote, innovation strategist Jay Kiew unpacks Change Fluency™, a leading change navigation playbook that equips leaders with the mindset, skills, and tactics to transform their relationship with disruption from exhausting to energizing.
Architect High-Performance Cultures
High-performance cultures are built intentionally — through the signals leaders send, the expectations they set, and the accountability they model. Strengthen your team with the tools, strategies, and frameworks to drive lasting results.
Dr. Ivan Joseph
Finding Your North Star: Patterns, Purpose, and Performance
An award-winning coach, prominent educator, and cultural transformation expert, Dr. Ivan Joseph has spent his career studying what separates teams that perform from teams that soar.
His keynotes challenge leaders to disrupt the patterns holding their teams back, raise expectations incrementally, and build cultures of belonging and pride where high performance isn’t the exception — it’s the norm.
Dr. Lisa Bélanger
Signal Leadership: How What Leaders Say and Do Shape the Workplace
Leadership is never neutral. Every word, decision, and silence sends a signal about what matters, what is safe, and what it takes to succeed.
Dr. Lisa Bélanger draws on neuroscience and behavioural medicine to help leaders understand how those signals shape performance and culture, and how to redesign them deliberately to build truly high-performing organizations, where both people and results flourish.
Dr. John Izzo
100% Responsibility / Zero Excuses: Creating a Culture of Accountability
Accountability is the foundation of high performance — yet it is one of the most misunderstood and avoided aspects of leadership.
For over 30 years, Dr. John Izzo has helped organizations build cultures where people take ownership and step up at every level. His signature 100-0 concept has inspired leaders worldwide to transform how their teams think about responsibility and results.
Communicate with Impact: Stand Out and Build Trust
In a world competing for attention, how you communicate matters as much as what you say. These speakers give teams the tools to cut through the noise, build trust, and make every message count.
Ron Tite
THINK. DO. SAY: How to Seize Attention and Build Trust in a Busy, Busy World
Capturing attention has never been harder. Keeping it is even tougher. An award-winning creative director, entrepreneur, and bestselling author, Ron Tite has spent his career helping brands like Google, Microsoft, and Walmart cut through the noise.
His Think Do Say framework gives leaders a practical toolkit for aligning purpose, action, and communication so they can seize attention, build trust, and stand out in an increasingly busy world.
Riaz Meghji
Human Connection: Your Competitive Advantage in Customer Care
Great products launch companies. Human connection sustains them. Riaz Meghji is an accomplished broadcaster who has spent 17 years mastering the art of authentic conversation.
Now a bestselling author and human connection expert, he shows customer-facing teams how to listen without distraction, de-escalate conflict, and lead with assertive empathy to build lasting loyalty and out-care the competition.
Yan Markson
The Power of Perception: Influence and Persuasion
Influence, persuasion, and effective communication are critical skills that determine whether your ideas thrive or die.
A world-class mentalist and perception strategist, Yan Markson blends live mentalism with the psychology of decision-making to show audiences how cognitive bias, misconceptions, and a lack of empathy can dilute their message — and how to reframe it to increase perceived value, build trust, and amplify their influence in every interaction.
Fall Kick-Off season fills up fast! Whether you know exactly who you’d like to book or you’re still exploring options, our team is here to help you find the right speaker for your audience, theme, and budget. Contact us today — and let’s end the year strong together.
