Doug Rauch, a legendary former president of Trader Joe’s, was instrumental in leading the company’s transformation from a 7/11 knockoff to what Fortune magazine called the “hottest retailer in the U.S.” In eye-opening presentations, he shares insights on building a great business based on culture, innovation, leadership, and teamwork. He shows leaders how to push for new and better ways to perform, and audiences walk away with knowledge of how to create a self-sustaining culture of innovation, build a brand in a competitive marketplace, and lead with a purpose.

Bran Ferren is a designer and technologist working in entertainment, product development, engineering, architecture, and the sciences. He is former president of research and development, and creative technology for Walt Disney. Once known for entertaining millions by creating special effects for Hollywood, theme parks and Broadway, Applied Minds co-founder Bran Ferren now solves impossible tech challenges with previously unimaginable inventions. He has been named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company.

Renowned psychology expert and Stanford University professor Michele Gelfand is one of the leading researchers and writers on culture and the impact of culture on behavior. Gelfand uses field, experimental, computational and neuroscience methods to understand the evolution of culture and its multilevel consequences for human groups. Her work has been cited over 50,000 times and has been featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, National Public Radio, Voice of America, Fox News, NBC News, ABC News, and The Economist, among other outlets. Most recently, she is the author of "Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire the World."

Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of Customer Experience" by Meta.She's the author of two books on customer experience. Most recently, her bestselling book, The Customer Of The Future (HarperCollins), was identified by Business Insider as one of the "top 20 books executives are reading to deal with COVID-19." She was called a "top 40 global female keynote speaker" by Real Leaders Magazine. In addition to being a sought-after speaker and bestselling author, Morgan is the host of "The Modern Customer Podcast,"

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.”

Alex Hunter is a branding expert, angel investor and company incubator, as well as the former head of online marketing for virgin group. He is also the creator and host of Attaché, a new style of online travel show, aimed at showing business travellers all they need to know in a very short film before visiting a city on company business. Alex is a highly regarded public speaker, appearing all over the world at major industry events such as ad:tech, Future of Web Apps (London, Las Vegas, Dublin, and Miami) and Thinking Digital. Other clients include Cisco, Deloitte, Procter & Gamble, O2, CapitalOne and the BBC.

How do you turn a t-shirt brand that’s sold from the trunk of a rusty car into a global, multi-million dollar business? Johnny Earle transformed Johnny Cupcakes into one of the world’s fastest growing independent businesses. Businessweek named him America’s No. 1 young entrepreneur, and he has been profiled by the New York Times, NPR, MTV, Forbes, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, and INC. By focusing on the customer experience (he wants buying a t-shirt to feel like your birthday), he created such a unique brand that consumers would (and do) line up around the block for his shirts.

Dr. John Grotzinger is the chief scientist and head of strategic planning for the Mars Science Laboratory Rover mission, which riveted the country with its dare-devil landing in August 2012. A geologist, he hopes to gain more understanding of Earth’s evolution through the study of Mars. Grotzinger was also a part of the team that made the discovery of evidence for liquid water on ancient Mars. He discusses strategic planning, motivating teams, and the need to take on a “grand challenge” while sharing amazingly unique and cutting-edge stories, video, and photos about space.

Curt spent more than 13 years as a Navy SEAL and was deployed 13 times, spending more than four years overseas. While at SEAL Team ONE, he deployed to the PACIFIC and CENTCOM areas of operation and was personally selected to command the personal security detail for the President of Iraq. Curt is the co-founder of global consulting firm Ridgeline Partners, a top five graduate of the United States Naval Academy and has received the Bronze Star with Valor, Bronze Star medal, and three Distinguished Meritorious Service Medals while serving in the U.S. Navy.

Robert Richman is a culture strategist and was the co-creator of Zappos Insights, an innovative program focused on educating companies on the secrets behind Zappos’ amazing employee culture. Robert built Zappos Insights from a small website to a thriving multi-million dollar business teaching over 25,000 students per year. Through his work, Robert has been helpful for improving the employee culture at hundreds of companies. As one of the world’s authorities on employee culture and customer experience, Robert is a sought-after keynote speaker at conferences around the world and has been hired to teach culture in person at companies like Google, Toyota, and Eli Lilly.

Stewart Liff, a successful executive coach and teacher, sought-after advisor and consultant, renowned keynote speaker, acclaimed author of seven books, is an internationally-recognized expert on (visual) performance management, human resources management (HRM), and team development. He is also the president and CEO of Stewart Liff & Associates, Inc., a consulting company specializing in management training, consulting, and motivational speaking. With 32 years of HR experience working in high-level positions for the Federal government, he served as a senior executive for 12 years and managed a national HRM program representing 13,000 employees and successfully represented the government in approximately 30 hearings before third parties. His tenure was highlighted by numerous awards, including three Hammer Awards from Vice President Gore for outstanding achievement in reinventing government and OPM's prestigious PILLAR Award, among others. Drawing on the wisdom gained from his 40+ years of experience working as an HRM expert and consultant, he shares practical tools and simple visual solutions to help managers transform culture, improve the effectiveness of employees, and establish accountability within their organizations.

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.