2026 Annual Conference - Breakout Sessions


Morning Sessions

A la Carte Career Development: Curate Your Growth Story

If you're an L&D professional who spends your days designing growth for others, this session is for you. In this interactive workshop, you'll run a personal diagnostic to pinpoint what you actually need, then draft a plan to put it to work. You'll swap ideas with peers along the way, then leave able to:

  • Identify your top growth focus areas

  • Draft a personal development plan

  • Apply a ready-to-use framework to coach managers

  • Engage a community of peers to support your growth

Topics: Career Development

Michelle Lahmon
Blue Diamond Growers | LinkedIn

Michelle Lahmon is the Senior Talent and Organizational Development Manager at Blue Diamond Growers, where she empowers leaders and teams to reach their full potential. She is known for designing practical leadership programs and equipping professionals with intentional tools to drive their own career growth. Michelle brings rich experience across corporate, consulting, and public sectors, has a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis, and holds Project Management Professional and Prosci Change Management certifications. In her spare time, Michelle tests out the leadership skills she teaches, putting emotional intelligence, active listening, and radical patience to the ultimate test with her teenager.


Change the Words, Change the Outcome: Communicate Change With Trust

If you're an L&D professional who supports people through change, this session is for you. You'll explore how intentional language can build trust, ease uncertainty, and encourage action, and how the wrong words create confusion and resistance. You'll examine the role of trust in change management, then leave able to:

  • Apply intentional language to build trust

  • Use strategic communication to manage change

  • Draft change messages with greater clarity and confidence

Topics: Change Management, Communication


Erin Lebacqz
Co-Founder | Website | LinkedIn

Erin Lebacqz is an international educator and author who helps professionals communicate with intention and strategy. With over 25 years of teaching and training experience, Erin is also the co-founder of High-Value Writing and a teacher trainer. She holds a master’s degree in professional writing and numerous teaching credentials and certificates. Outside of work, Erin is an open water swimmer who believes we can reach long term goals one stroke at a time.


Trust the Output: Four Principles for a Responsible AI Workflow in L&D

If you're an L&D professional using generative AI to create content, this session is for you. Through a practical L&D example and guided discussion, you'll explore four principles for responsible AI workflows: human-owned, source-grounded, verifiable, and traceable. You'll apply them to your own workflow and leave able to:

  • Evaluate an AI-assisted L&D workflow using the four principles

  • Identify gaps in source quality, oversight, verification, and documentation

  • Propose practical changes that support responsible AI implementation

Topics: AI, Instructional Design, Content Development

Kevin Pledger
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory | Website | LinkedIn

Kevin Pledger is a technical training specialist and instructional designer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His experience spans classroom teaching, multimedia development, and educational game design. A former high school computer science teacher, Kevin specializes in AI policy, governance, and implementation, focusing on responsible AI use in everyday work. His experience developing AI-assisted learning materials informed four principles for artifact creation: human-owned, source-grounded, verifiable, and traceable. His writing examines how organizational expectations translate into practical workflows and how people can evaluate the resulting work. 

Afternoon Sessions

Your Human Advantage

If you’ve been wondering what’s next in your career or how you’ll personally adapt to the future of work, this session is for you. In this interactive workshop you’ll apply the concepts from the keynote, More Human Than Ever to your career journey to unlock your unique human advantage.

Uncover your unique mix of experiences, strengths, and perspectives, and then explore how AI can amplify it by:

  • Identifying your unique combination

  • Separating your identity from your occupation

  • Mapping your human strengths against AI leverage

  • Translating your advantage into work, leadership, creativity, and opportunity

Topics: Career Development, AI


Tony Hsieh
Speaker | Website | LinkedIn

Tony Hsieh is a TEDx speaker, entrepreneur, and stand-up comedian. As the founder of Shriller Creative, his team has produced content reaching over 2 billion views and worked with clients generating over $600 million in collective revenue.

Blending entrepreneurship, storytelling, and humor, Tony explores how we can leverage AI to work smarter, amplify our unique strengths, and become more human than ever.

Culture Has No Org Chart: Build a Network That Turns Values Into Action

If you lead, shape, or champion culture in your organization, this session is for you. Org charts show who reports to whom, but not how culture travels. Drawing on his experience as PMI's Global Head of Culture & Diversity, Ricardo Triana guides you through the Culture Activation Network, a practical model that makes culture a distributed performance system rather than an HR initiative. You'll leave able to:

  • Map the formal and informal networks that carry culture

  • Translate purpose and values into observable behaviors

  • Identify the champions and trusted peers who carry culture locally

Topics: Organizational Culture, Leadership, Employee Engagement


Ricardo Triana
Practical Thinking Group | Website | LinkedIn

Ricardo Triana, PMP, is an international speaker, executive advisor, and educator with over 30 years of experience across more than 30 countries. Formerly PMI’s Global Head of Culture & Diversity, Managing Director for Latin America, and Global Board Chair, he now advises organizations on project management, strategic execution, leadership, and culture. A PMI Fellow and PMOGA Fellow, Ricardo brings 18 years of experience facilitating Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) workshops, helping teams strengthen relationships, navigate conflict, and collaborate. Drawing on his executive leadership and teaching experience, he connects people, culture, and strategy to turn organizational values into meaningful results.


Lead Without Losing Yourself: Sustain High Performance, Skip the Burnout

If you're a leader who's expected to deliver high performance without running yourself into the ground, this session is for you. In this Electric Leadership™ session, you'll explore practical tools to protect your energy, prevent burnout, and sustain the performance your organization depends on. You'll leave able to:

  • Apply practical tools to protect your energy

  • Recognize and prevent burnout

  • Sustain performance without sacrificing yourself

Topics: Leadership, Well-Being, Burnout Prevention


Rosanne Callens
Speaker, Executive Coach | Website | LinkedIn

Rosanne Callens is a keynote speaker, leadership strategist, and executive coach who helps organizations turn pressure into power and build leaders their people actually want to follow. For more than 20 years, Rosanne has led teams, advised executives, and coached leaders through growth, visibility, complexity, and change. Her work is built on a simple belief: the best leaders don’t manage the room, they move it. Rosanne also hosts the Electric Leadership podcast, where real leaders share the big ideas behind how we work now. 


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