Lisa Sun, founder and CEO of GRAVITAS, seamlessly blends stories from her data-driven insights from 11 years at McKinsey & Company and from her experience as an entrepreneur launching an innovative retail brand to offer talks that encourage audiences to choose self-confidence, work to harness their “superpower,” and use gravitas to advance personally and professionally. Sun explores why it’s vital to push past your potential, how to transform an idea into a movement, and why you’ve got to bet on yourself every single day. Sun has always had a passion for style, for inclusivity, and for helping people look and feel their best and was named one of Washingtonian Magazine's Best Dressed Women.

An award-winning innovator and disruptor, Reggie Fils-Aimé is a proven expert on transforming companies, re-vitalizing brands, and reshaping industries to solve daunting challenges and achieve ‘the impossible.’ Most recently, he was the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America – the first American and African-American to hold this position. Revered by business leaders and gaming fans alike, Fils-Aimé helped bring Nintendo’s greatest successes – including the Nintendo DS, the Wii, the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and the Nintendo Switch – to the global marketplace. Using his personal story as an example, he shares with audiences his principles for effective and innovative leadership, including defining a vision, courage in decision-making, and “irrefutable integrity.”

Amy Webb may not be a superhero – but she does have a powerful ability to anticipate trends and emerging technology that will disrupt tomorrow. And she can envision and help prepare for the impact they’ll have on business and society. Now she’s teaching others, including corporate leaders, innovators and governments, to do the same. Founder of the Future Today Institute, Webb is a renowned futurist and strategist. For her, it’s not simply an interest; it’s a profession and a passion. Nor is “forecasting the future” about creating fantastical scenarios. Webb doesn’t simply make speculations or predictions; her work is evidence based, drawn from mapping and modeling quantitative and qualitative data collected in the present to understand what’s coming (5-20 years from now). Named to the 2017 Thinkers50 Radar list of management thinkers most likely to shape the future – and winner of its 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award – Webb is already making an impact on today’s Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, government agencies, large nonprofits, universities and startups worldwide. Focusing on the intersection of technology, business and society, she takes a purposefully broad lens to her work. When thinking about the future, most only look at their industry and direct competitors. Webb is adamant about looking at multiple, adjacent landscapes. “You have to be able to see the top of the forest in order to see where all the trees are and how they connect,” she says.

Paul Zikopoulos is changing the way audiences are looking at their businesses in terms of sales, obstacles, and potential for growth - and the key ingredient is data! He’s been named an expert on big data by publications such as Big Data Republic, Technopedia, and Analytics Week. He is also included on multiple "experts to follow" lists around the world - including SAP’s “50 Big Data Twitter Influencers”. Paul has been consulted on this topic by “60 Minutes” and advises various universities as they develop their curriculums to match market needs. Paul has won multiple awards for his speaking in part because he has a unique ability to take the often complex world of analytics, big data, AI, data science, machine learning, etc. and reach audiences of all ages and skills levels with the right message. Paul is a Fortune 35 (IBM) Vice President focused on Analytics, an award winning writer (who has published more than 19 books and over 350 articles on various topics) and sits on the advisory board of Women 2.0 - a for profit company committed to close the gender gaps in founding, investing, and workplace leadership.

Jim VandeHei is a media entrepreneur and expert on American politics. He is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Axios, a new media company delivering news and insights on politics, business, media and tech. The company, whose name means “worthy” in Greek, specializes in high-quality news and analysis easily shared among the country's most influential readers and across social platforms.

Mike Allen is one of Washington’s most influential and well-connected journalists. He is the co-founder and executive editor of Axios, a disruptive media company delivering news and insights on politics, business, media, and tech. The company, whose name means “worthy” in Greek, specializes in high-quality news and analysis easily shared among the country’s influential readers and across social platforms. Axios has been recognized for its forward-thinking approach to the way people consume news in the 21st century. The approach is chronicled in Allen’s book Smart Brevity: Saying More with Less, which he co-authored alongside Axios co-founder, Jim VandeHei. In addition to starting Axios, Allen was a co-founder at POLITICO, the digital media company that upended and revolutionized political and policy journalism in Washington, New York, and Europe. He not only reported on but also drove the day’s conversations in and around the Beltway. His sharp journalistic experience and coveted insider status make him an ideal choice to discuss the latest political happenings. In presentations, he offers his nonpartisan, energetic and up-to-the-minute insider perspective on the political issues of the day, the current administration, Congress, and building a business in an unsteady economy.

Two-time New York Times bestselling author and sought-after leadership expert Ashley Merryman finds the science essential to understanding what makes people tick — what motivates us, what inspires us. Then she explains how to use these insights to help people discover new ways to succeed. Merryman has taught Olympians and professional athletes how to perform under pressure, advised Fortune 100 executives on building winning cultures, and coached military leaders on institutional change. In her speeches, she offers evidence-based techniques and real-world strategies that leaders can apply at every level of their organization. Her talks are filled with fascinating anecdotes and cutting-edge research. Her presentations are always thought-provoking and inspiring, as she makes complex concepts accessible to a wide audience.

Colin Bryar is a business advisor and technology leader whose career has focused on optimizing business strategy and operations. He is a former top-level executive at Amazon, where he spent more than 12 years – much of it in the early aughts during the company’s period of unmatched innovation – leading the operations for IMDb.com, as well as working directly with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to help with overall business strategy, technology, and operations. Bryar is the co-author of Working Backwards, along with former Amazon executive Bill Carr, which provides an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices. Taking audiences inside the room, Bryar demonstrates how the principles and practices key to “Being Amazonian” can be scaled and applied to any organization. Bill Carr is a strategic business leader who has spent his career at the forefront of tech innovation. He is a former top-level executive at Amazon, where he worked for more than 15 years – much of it in the early aughts during the company’s period of unmatched innovation – launching and managing Amazon’s global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. Under his leadership, Amazon's digital media business grew into a global operation exceeding $1 billion in revenue as the company pushed to compete with Apple, Netflix, and Hulu. Carr is the co-author of Working Backwards, along with former Amazon executive Colin Bryar, which provides an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices. Taking audiences inside the room, Carr demonstrates how the principles and practices key to “Being Amazonian” can be scaled and applied to any organization.

Jessica O. Matthews is the Founder & CEO of Uncharted, an award-winning energy and data technology company that develops infrastructure solutions for communities, facilities, and Internet of Things. The company was founded by Jessica when she was only 22 years old. Jessica’s research and career centers around the intersection of disruptive technology, renewable energy, human behavior, and the psychology of self-actualization. A dual citizen of Nigeria & the U.S., Jessica has a degree in Psychology and Economics from Harvard University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is listed on over 10 patents and patents pending—including her first invention of the SOCCKET, an energy generating soccer ball, at the age of 19.

With a profound passion for technology and its potential to transform business and society, Noelle Russell has dedicated her career to helping organizations uncover the possibilities artificial intelligence presents to their businesses, and guiding them through the intricacies of AI adoption. In her daily work Russell advises companies across industries on how to integrate emerging technologies — including AI, Web3, and the Cloud — into their operations and workplace strategies. She is an award-winning technologist with an entrepreneurial spirit who has led innovative tech teams at Accenture, NPR, Microsoft, IBM, AWS, and Amazon Alexa, and is among the world’s leading voices on data and AI literacy.

With more than a decade working at the heart of the technology industry, Dex Hunter-Torricke has managed communications for some of the most-influential and admired Silicon Valley leaders and corporations of our day. In his daily work, Dex plays a critical role in writing the next chapter on science, tech, the economy, and society across the globe, and spearheads efforts to bring the stories of how the world is being moved forward to light. From 2012-2016, he led the executive communications team at Facebook and served as personal speechwriter for Mark Zuckerberg. He then went on to join SpaceX as senior director of communications. He later served as the VP Global Communications & Public Engagement for the Oversight Board for Meta, the independent body that makes decisions on Facebook and Instagram’s most challenging content issues. Dex takes audiences into Facebook’s boardroom, Musk’s open-concept cubicle, the famed Googleplex, and finally to the UN itself to share lessons on what it takes in today’s environment to build highly effective internal teams, how to use storytelling in modern communications, and what to make of the steady transition from local to global that’s unfolded over the past decade.

Working at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, behavior, technology, and science, Nichol Bradford’s mission is to empower human transformation and wellbeing by creating or curating new visions, opportunities, and tech-enabled tools for all. She catalyzes new ways to use technology to expand beyond our perceived limits and reach our fullest potential through her global non-profit Transformative Tech.org, working with talented researchers, founders, and investors across the globe who build wellbeing tech for human health and happiness. Bradford speaks extensively on human transformation, transformative tech, and the future of health, work, and human excellence. Using real-life examples and use cases from the latest trends in wellness technologies, she demonstrates to groups how these emerging advances can be applied to heal, upskill, and enhance human capability and benefit all of mankind.