A school teacher turned actor, musician, two-time national poetry slam champion, entrepreneur, and award-winning poetic voice, any given day may now find Sekou keynoting at a leadership conference, helping a Fortune 500 company with brand messaging, or even performing pieces for Barack Obama in Oprah’s backyard. Sekou is the creator of Poetic Voice, a new, cutting-edge speaking category that seamlessly fuses inspirational speaking with spoken word poetry to make messages more moving and memorable. For over 15 years, Sekou Andrews has been helping the world’s largest organizations deliver relevant information with riveting inspiration through an innovative, unconventional category of speaking called “Poetic Voice.”

From the Baltimore Opera to QVC shopping channel, Executive Producer and TV Host Mike Rowe has had hundreds of jobs and relished his role as a chronic freelancer. He’s best known as the “dirtiest man on TV,” a title he earned on the hit TV series Dirty Jobs, where he traversed all 50 states; completed 300 different jobs; and transformed cable television into a landscape of swamps, sewers, and coal mines. He has narrated hundreds of documentaries about space, nature, dinosaurs, and how stuff works. Mike also runs the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity that works hard to debunk myths about the skilled trades and help close the skills gap.

Val is a classical violinist turned rebel rocker who became a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army before going on to tour the world with iconic rock stars such as Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. She delights in giving keynote speeches where the message is enhanced by music—inspiring thousands with her powerful call to courage and the vulnerabilities she shares.

As an internationally recognized graffiti artist, author and entrepreneur, Erik redefines the term “keynote speaker.” Pulling from his history as both a businessman and an artist, he has grown to become one of the most sought-after corporate speakers available today. Erik’s on-stage painting seamlessly becomes a visual metaphor to the core of his message, encouraging organizations toward profitability through innovations and superior levels of performance. His list of clients includes AT&T, Disney, London School of Business, Microsoft, FedEx, Exxon Mobil, Ernst & Young, and XPrize; Erik has even been featured as a TED presenter. The responses received have been nothing short of incredible, with standing ovations to prove it.

Tripp Crosby is a comedic host, inspirational speaker, and filmmaker who is at this very moment writing about himself in the third person. It’s very, very possible that you’ve seen his most popular comedy sketch called “A Conference Call in Real Life”. This video is one of, if not the most popular workplace related comedy sketches of all time and possibly the only YouTube video to ever go viral twice: Once when Tripp first created it in 2013 and again in 2020 when the painful experience of participating in conference calls became an even more relatable topic.

Regarded as the “CEO-Maker,” “DEI Professor,” and the “Cubicle to Corner Office Empress,” Dethra Giles is a workplace and career optimizer who advises organizations and individuals on how to chart their unique paths to success. She is a four-time TEDx speaker who has been named a “Top 100 HR Influencer” by Engagedly, and was selected by HR Gazette’s “HRchat” podcast as one of the “Top 22 Most Influential Figures in HR.” With clients including Kaiser Permanente, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), The Army Corp of Engineers, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the Salvation Army, Giles shares a unique blend of advanced education and industry experience that has been described as “university-tested and industry-approved,” and can be implemented by organizations of any size, and across industries.

Adán Bean is an accomplished spoken word poet, emcee, writer, storyteller, and voice-over talent hailing from a small town in Ohio but has called Atlanta home for over a decade. As a graduate of Morehouse College, Adán has anchored his creative base firmly in the Atlanta arts, culture, and music scene. After bringing his talents to the Kennedy Center in 2020, Adán was awarded the Serenbe Frances Focus Fellowship from the South Fulton Institute. Adán Bean filmed a Tiny Desk concert performance and directed the short documentary film “Curb Appeal,” which tackles the issues of housing insecurity and home inequity. As a 2019 TEDx speaker and 2017 National Poetry Slam song winner, he’s represented Atlanta on numerous slam teams for the PSI National Poetry Slam Competition. In June 2021, he debuted Double Consciousness, an original stage show alongside comedian-collaborator David Perdue, at the historic Morton Theater (Athens, GA). His work has been featured on or with companies/brands such as Change.org, TEDx, Habitat for Humanity, CarMax, Coca-Cola, Cricket Wireless, Delta Airlines, SONY Music Group, Def Jam, Cash Money Records, and more. Adán Bean is working on his sophomore EP, due out early next year, as well as touring colleges on the east coast this Fall.

Debbie Sterling is the Founder and CEO of GoldieBlox, an award winning company on a mission to ‐"disrupt the pink aisle" with toys, games, and media for girls. Debbie is an engineer, entrepreneur, and one of the leaders in the movement toward getting girls interested in science, technology, engineering, and math. She was named TIME Magazine’s "Person of the Moment,” Business Insider’s "30 Women Who Are Changing the World,” and was recently added to Fortune Magazine’s prestigious “40 Under 40” list. In early 2015, Debbie was inducted as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship and honored by the National Women’s History Museum with a “Living Legacy” Award for her work to empower girls around the world.

With an unparalleled career that has consistently transcended the boundaries of music, culture and thought leadership, Freddie Ravel toured with Brazilian master Sergio Mendes, directed the legendary band that bridged black and white America - Earth, Wind and Fire, performed on the silver screen with the Queen of Pop - Madonna, rocked stadiums with Afro-Latin-Blues-Rock icon Carlos Santana, performed the Grammys with Prince, cut tracks with Kanye and led the teams behind J. Lo, Jimmy Kimmel and Lady GaGa to become the “Expert’s Expert” on multi-generational integration. As an author, Freddie’s published works with Deepak Chopra on how music and thought cannot exist without silence illuminated that the “pause between the notes” is essential for effective communication. Highlighting the power of listening - whether to clients, colleagues or the signals that nature sends us - would lead to an invitation from the family of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to be a featured author alongside Maya Angelou, Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and Robert Kennedy Jr. in the book, Open My Eyes, Open My Soul. Freddie would later be dubbed the “Keynote Maestro” by the City of Los Angeles for his groundbreaking Life In Tune™ system to “renew the national and international economy.” In constant demand to bring audiences in tune around the world, his clients include IBM, Toyota, NASA, Apple, Blue Cross Health, Google and Prudential Financial Services who call his “ideal balance of Entertainment and Content” essential for businesses and entrepreneurs to transform from dissonance to harmony.

Molly Fletcher is a trailblazer in every sense of the word. She is a rare talent of business wisdom, relationship brilliance and unwavering optimism. As a CEO, she shares her unconventional and unique techniques that made her one of the first female sports agents in the high stakes, big ego world of professional sports and now a successful entrepreneur. As president of client representation for sports and entertainment agency CSE, Molly spent two decades as one of the world’s only female sports agents.

A first-generation American immigrant, turned American soldier, combat veteran, and now a professional touring stand-up comedian, Thom Tran turned a literal lifetime of war and tragedy into a successful comedy career. On 3 April 2003, his 4th day in Iraq, during a gunfight Thom was struck in the back of the head by a sniper’s bullet. On April 3, 2003, his 4th day in Iraq, during a gunfight Thom was struck in the back of the head by a sniper’s bullet. Since starting his comedy career, Thom created the GIs of Comedy tour, a group of combat veterans turned stand-up comedians.

Frank Miles delivers a riotously funny and totally unique show that's also a motivational workshop filled with powerful tools for handling fear. After his own near death experience in a hang gliding accident, Frank realized that true courage is not facing death in daredevil pursuits. True courage is facing life.