Featured Speakers
Jennifer Moss
Sunday, September 29 | 4:45-6:15 p.m.
We’ve come through a crisis, and for better or worse it changed us. We gained plenty of skills — how to pivot on the fly, work from anywhere, adopt new tech, build resiliency. We might be feeling hopeful, but we have a long way to go — Gallup says that less than 1 in 4 people are thriving at work. If the dust is settling and our well-being is (re)booting in our personal lives, why does work sometimes feel so “meh?” We might feel less confident, less effective, less connected (blame that on chronic stress!) but we’re also hungry for purpose and meaning. We want our spark back! To kick off the conference, award-winning author and journalist Jennifer Moss will help us discover novel ways to bring a sense of purpose back to our work and our life.
About Jennifer Moss:
Jennifer Moss is an award-winning writer, international speaker, and workplace culture strategist with clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Her most recent book, The Burnout Epidemic, was named one of the 10 Best New Management Books for 2022 by Thinkers50 and shortlisted for the 2021 Outstanding Works of Literature Award. She is a nationally syndicated radio columnist and freelance journalist and currently writes for Harvard Business Review. Her work has also appeared in CNN, TIME, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Sponsored by 
Disney Institute
Monday, September 30 | 10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
On Monday, hear from Disney Institute about their tried and true strategies and insights for creating a thriving culture and fostering strong employee engagement, and how you can apply these strategies to your work.
Sponsored by 
Heather McGowan
Tuesday, October 1 | 2:30-3:45 p.m.
The most in-demand skill, both today and in the future, won’t be the one you have now — it’s the one you can develop tomorrow. Driven by our innate curiosity, humans possess an unparalleled ability to learn and adapt, from thriving in previously uninhabitable climates to creating tools that initially seem to surpass our capabilities. Take the ATM, introduced about 50 years ago. When ATMs became widespread, it was assumed that the role of the bank teller would become obsolete. Yet, the position of bank teller has not only persisted but has grown slightly faster than the overall labor force. Although the number of tellers required per branch has declined, the increased demand for branches has driven up the need for bank tellers. Curiosity is also the foundation of empathy and connection — the key forces needed to mend our polarized society and unlock our unparalleled capacity to connect and collaborate with technology and with each other.
What does all this mean? It means that the future of work is human. Once we move beyond the outdated pursuit of single-disciplinary skill sets — rooted in fear of being replaced by technology and suspicion of one another — we can focus on developing our uniquely human skills. These include our abilities to learn and adapt, connect, collaborate and explore emerging technologies, all with the goal of continuing to improve the human condition.
About Heather McGowan:
Future-of-work strategist Heather E. McGowan helps leaders prepare their people and organizations for the augmented era. As a keynote speaker, she brings clarity to complex topics through her research-rich graphic frameworks and powerful metaphors. McGowan has been named the #1 global voice for education (LinkedIn), and as one of the Top 50 Female Futurists (Forbes). She is the coauthor of both The Adaptation Advantage and The Empathy Advantage.
Sponsored by 