---What is it that pushes us to perform at our best? Which people on our teams thrive in high-stress/high-stakes environments and which are always cool, and calm under pressure? Why does this matter and how can you use it to drive peak performance? After 3 years of interviewing more than 200 people including professional athletes, military officers, poker players, and psychologists, Rafi Kohan offer insights into the psychology of gamesmanship and how mental stress can be used to drive performance and behavior. This work, which culminated into the lively and hilarious read Trash Talk, The Only Book About Destroying Your Rivals That Isn’t Total Garbage, offers anecdotes from some of the world’s top competitors and the mind games that push them to outperform their opponents.

One of the brightest minds in economics, Matthew Slaughter addresses the near-term challenges facing the economy with an eye on the future. He is a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Economic Advisors and was a member on the White House Council of Economic Advisors. Approachable and enthusiastic, he makes practical sense of economic data and shares insights on opportunities, emerging markets, trade, investments, and policy – offering organizations the numbers they need to put the economic situation in the right perspective.

A senior leadership/board advisor, educator, executive coach, and bestselling author, David Nour is internationally recognized as the leading expert on applications of strategic relationships in profitable growth, sustained innovation, and lasting change. The author of eleven books, including bestsellers Relationship Economics® (Wiley), and Co-Create (St. Martin’s Press), as well as the forthcoming Curve Benders (Wiley, 2021), Nour serves as a trusted advisor to global clients and coaches corporate leaders. He is an adjunct professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and was named to the Global Gurus Top 30 Leadership Professionals and the Thinkers 50 Radar Class of 2021 lists. A Forbes Leadership contributor on the Future of Work, and an Inc. contributor on Relationship Economics, Nour’s unique insights have been featured in a variety of prominent publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, Huffington Post Business, Entrepreneur, and Knowledge@Wharton. He’s also the host of the popular Curve Benders podcast. Born in Iran, Nour immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager with $100, limited family ties and no fluency in English. He graduated from Georgia State University with a bachelor’s degree in business management and went on to earn an Executive MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He resides in Atlanta, GA, with his family.

Dr. Lior Zoref is a researcher, advisor, TED speaker, and author of the best-selling book, Mindsharing – the art of crowd sourcing everything about the power of collective intelligence. His book was translated to many languages and was listed by Inc. magazine as one of the best books for entrepreneurs along with books by Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Tony Hsieh. Dr. Zoref has been invited to speak at some of the world’s most innovative organizations, including Google, MIT Media Lab, Columbia University, The White House, Nike, Microsoft, and LinkedIn.

Professor Jeffrey Rosensweig is the Director of the John Robson Program for Business, Public Policy, and Government at Goizueta Business School of Emory University. Previously, he served for six years as Associate Dean for Corporate Relations. An international business and finance professor, he focuses on global investing and business in the global economy. He also specializes in financial, macroeconomic, and business forecasting. A frequent keynote speaker on topics related to global economic and financial trends and forecasts, he is selected annually as the global investing keynoter at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s Annual Institute. Jeff is known for a unique ability to combine highly-relevant, original, and useful business content with an engaging and dynamic speaking style.

Shaun Rein is the author of the best-selling book The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends That Will Disrupt the World and the managing director of the China Market Research Group. He is one of the preeminent thought leaders on strategy consulting in China. Millions read his regular column in Bloomberg Businessweek. In an engaging and informative presentation, he details the cultural and economic trends that affect doing business in China, the U.S.-China relationship, and the opportunities arising in one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

One of the world's most gifted strategic thinkers, Vijay Govindarajan outlines 10 rules for strategic innovators and teaches corporations how to build breakthrough businesses. Cited as "among the world's hottest business gurus" by BusinessWeek, Govindarajan is is the author of Reverse Innovation and Beyond the Idea: How to Execute Innovation in Any Organization. He is sought-after for his international perspective on how to build and lead a global corporation.

Currently, David has taken over as Beijing Bureau Chief for The Economist. David was the Washington bureau chief and "Lexington" columnist of The Economist from 2012 to 2018. Before that he was UK political editor and "Bagehot" columnist of The Economist and before that he was EU correspondent and "Charlemagne" columnist of The Economist. No other journalist at the magazine has written all three of those columns. The postings have given David a front-row seat as economic woes and populist political forces have upended the global world order that some had thought was settled. Over the years David has interviewed heads of state, heads of government, cabinet secretaries, and countless elected politicians and newsmakers, and reported from more than 50 countries.

Mike Walsh is the best-selling author of Futuretainment and is CEO of innovation research lab, Tomorrow, a leading authority on the digital future. Mike's expertise is explaining new patterns of consumer behaviour and disruptive technologies in emerging markets. Rather than focusing on the distant future, Mike takes an anthropological approach—scanning the near horizon for disruptive technologies and consumer innovations on the verge of hitting critical mass, and then translating these into usable business strategies. Constantly travelling the world for the best ideas, Mike spends more than 300 days a year on the road interviewing innovators, entrepreneurs, and corporate revolutionaries to provide his clients and audiences with a fresh and compelling vision of tomorrow’s opportunities. Mike's latest book, The Algorithmic Leader: How to be smart when machines are smarter than you, offers a hopeful and practical guide for reinventing leadership and organizations. Mike's other books include Futuretainment, published by Phaidon (winner of the design award by the Art Director’s Club in New York) and The Dictionary Of Dangerous Ideas.

David Lim led the first Singapore Mount Everest Expedition. He delivers unforgettable talks on leadership and bouncing back from setbacks, having battled a nerve disorder that left him partially disabled. Lim helps people believe they can be more than ordinary. He is on the adjunct faculty for INSEAD’s business school and the author of three books: Mountain to Climb, Against Giants: The Life and Climbs of a Disabled Mountaineer, and How Leaders Lead: 71 Lessons in Leading Yourself and Others.

John Foley creates an experience that transcends the traditional keynote. He has been recognized as one of the top ten most in demand speakers because of his high energy content and delivery. Using footage from inside the cockpit of the Blue Angels F-18 and behind the scenes documentary video, John creates an audio visual experience along with his deep knowledge of leadership and high performance.

Rick Smith is a serial entrepreneur, leadership strategist, best-selling author, inspirational TED speaker, and one of world’s foremost authorities on innovation, leadership, and corporate transformation through disruptive technologies such as industrial 3D printing (additive manufacturing). His latest venture, Fast Radius, is an on-demand production platform which leverages 3D printing for global distributed manufacturing. In person, print, and practice, Rick inspires individuals and organizations around the world with leading edge insights on a number of topics surrounding disruptive technology, such as the predictable patterns of technology disruption, and the behaviors that enable leaders to successfully navigate complexity and change.