Dr. Kimberley Amirault-Ryan
Leadership Keynote Speaker
Sponsored by
Excellence: Winners' Traits
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 | 10:00am - 11:00am | Winnipeg Ballroom
Whether you’re in the sport arena or in the boardroom, our keynote speaker, the high-performance expert Dr. Kimberley Amirault-Ryan will share universal traits that are possessed by those that experience the most success in their field and how you can replicate it within your own careers, teams and organizations. Interspersed with real life examples from her Olympic, NHL and NBA championship experiences, Amirault-Ryan will ensure you leave this session armed with the recipe for success.
EXCELLENCE: WINNERS’ TRAITS
- SET LIMITLESS GOALS – Preparedness & achieving limitless goals
- BUILD HABITS THAT PERFORM THROUGH ADVERSITY - Staying focused through unexpected issues/setbacks
- CREATE A HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAM ENVIRONMENT - Challenging ourselves to continually increase performance/raise the bar
Dr. Kimberley Amirault-Ryan lives by her philosophy of embracing challenges and pushing boundaries to achieve our highest potential. She’s worked in professional sport since 2001, becoming the first and only woman to be the Performance Consultant with the New York Rangers, New York Knicks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Edmonton Oilers.
Amirault-Ryan has worked at five Olympic Games with the Canadian Gold Medal-winning teams of Women's Hockey, Cross Country Skiing, and Speedskating. She was also the Lead of Sport Psychology for Canada’s entire Olympic team for the 2010, 2012 and 2014 Olympics.
For her ground-breaking work Amirault-Ryan has been recognized by the likes of the Globe and Mail's “Top Power 50” list and WXN Canada's “Top 100 Most Powerful Women”.
Companies worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies Walmart, VISA, Johnson & Johnson, General Mills and Royal Dutch Shell, have hired Amirault-Ryan to help motivate them to lead under pressure and achieve sustained high performance.
Amanda Lindhout
Wellness Keynote Speaker
Sponsored by
Redefining Resilience: How To Unlock Your Inner Strength To Be Your Best
Thursday, April 9, 2026 | 10:00am - 11:00am | Winnipeg Ballroom
This keynote offers a unique opportunity to learn from someone whose firsthand experiences have made her a true expert on overcoming adversity. After enduring 460 days as a hostage and navigating a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder for nearly a decade, Amanda Lindhout is now one of the world’s leading voices on resilience.
With the world around us changing faster than ever before, we’re required to show up in ways that demand a level of resilience that enables us to do more with less time, multitask while still performing at our best, and learning new skills by using technology that didn’t even exist even a year ago.
In this actionable, inspiring, and unforgettable presentation, Amanda pairs her staggering experience with powerful insights about fortitude that bridge science and practical strategies. Her 4 Pillars of Resilience framework teach us how to cultivate a resilient mindset to effectively transform challenges into something better: a powerful force that can refine our character while reminding us of our purpose. It’s a process that we can all embody to face the changing world around us, and to be at our best and stay there.
Amanda Lindhout isn’t just another resilience speaker. She survived 460 days as a hostage in Somalia and turned that experience into tools for leaders and teams navigating a fast-changing world. Her New York Times bestselling memoir A House in the Sky, became a publishing phenomenon. It has remained a Top 10 title for more than a decade.
Amanda’s keynotes are known for emotional depth and transformative impact. She leaves audiences ready to approach their challenges with renewed perspective. Amanda moves far beyond the headline of her captivity. She shares insights people can apply immediately in their own lives and organizations to overcome change, uncertainty, and adversity. Amanda has delivered more than 500 keynotes in 28 countries. She customizes each presentation to reflect the unique needs, culture, and goals of the audience.
Her expertise draws on lived experience and on years of collaboration with professionals who study the science of resilience. These partnerships have shaped her understanding of how hardship can evolve into growth.
Amanda’s story and writing have appeared in major media outlets worldwide, including a New York Times Magazine cover story. Dateline NBC devoted two full episodes to her remarkable journey. Hollywood is now adapting her story into a four-part limited series.
Jay Kiew
Keynote Speaker
Sponsored by
Change Fluency: Leveraging the Language of Change to Drive Growth
Thursday, April 9, 2026 | 1:15pm - 2:15pm | Winnipeg Ballroom
As today’s change landscape accelerates, we are required to drive transformation while managing resistance, navigating change fatigue and ensuring cohesive team cultures. Our role, as leaders, is more complex and uncertain than ever before, as we constantly ask ourselves “How do we bring our teams along the journey?” and “What is holding us back from innovation and growth?”
The difference between organizations that thrive and those that struggle isn't about managing change – it lies in developing fluency with it.
Just as learning a new language transforms how we think and communicate, developing Change Fluency transforms how we navigate disruption and drive growth. In this experiential 60-min keynote, innovation strategist Jay Kiew will unpack Change Fluency™, a leading change navigation playbook that equips audiences with strategies to speak the language of change with ease.
Audiences will come away with…
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Understand the four Change Mindsets that shape our relationship with disruption
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Learn the three core skills required to build a Change Fluent mindset
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Develop the tactics necessary to integrate innovation at work come Monday
Perfect for…
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Leaders who want to transform their organization's relationship with change from exhausting to energizing
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Organizations seeking to differentiate themselves by mastering change as a core competency
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Executives looking to drive transformation that delivers measurable growth
Jay Kiew is the world’s leading expert on change fluency and a renowned keynote speaker with more than 13 years of strategy and human capital experience. He has created more than $2B of impact for 400+ executives by designing, developing, and delivering organizational
transformation, but his story extends far beyond the professional arena. Kiew is a half-blind cancer survivor, whose life is a testament to resilience in the face of adversity. His remarkable blend of professional expertise and personal resilience equips leaders to hack through the thick of change and disruption.
Kiew spent his corporate career working at Deloitte, TELUS, and ADP, where he led mission-critical strategic transformations. This included a $150-million primary care health policy reform, $13-million tech transformations, doubling app users from 1 to 2 million, and scaling 15 product lines to $35 million in 12 months.
At the age of 19, Kiew became the world's youngest Distinguished Toastmaster. He has since been featured in the Financial Times, Globe and Mail, Financial Post, Ivey Business Journal, Change Leadership, and more. He also sits on the Project Management Institute’s Board of
Directors for the Canadian West Coast Chapter.
Kiew holds an MBA from the Ivey Business School and is a Prosci-certified PMP and Insights psychometric practitioner. In 2025, he released his first book Change Fluency: 9 Principles to Navigate Uncertainty and Drive Innovation, a playbook that equips managers, executives, and
leaders with tools and strategies to make disruption work for them.