CEO, Marriott International
Marriott International is home to one of the largest and most admired workforces in the world. In this opening keynote, CEO Anthony Capuano will share how Marriott sustains a purpose-driven culture—one that unites 400,000+ associates across continents, functions, and generations.
As workforce expectations shift and technology transforms how we work, Capuano will explore what it takes to lead with consistency, clarity, and care at scale. Whether you’re managing a dispersed team, navigating generational divides, or sustaining culture through change, this is a rare opportunity to learn from a CEO doing it on a global stage.
Author, The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret Power of Groups
We’ve all heard the buzzwords and sat through the offsites—but what actually builds a great team? In this myth-busting session, Dr. Colin Fisher, author of The Collective Edge, reveals what the data actually shows about long-term team performance—and it’s not about forced fun or artificial bonding.
Drawing from research on high-stakes teams—from corporate boardrooms to emergency response units—Fisher shows how structure, clarity, and thoughtful team “launches” can predict success far better than personality tests or pizza parties. You’ll learn what most CEOs get wrong when forming or evolving teams—and how to harness the hidden dynamics that unlock collective intelligence, trust, and sustained collaboration.
Whether you’re assembling a new executive team, integrating an acquisition, or just trying to get more out of the group you’ve got, this session will help you build teams that perform—without the gimmicks.
Founder, CultureWise
Culture is often what makes a company successful in the first place—but it’s also what gets stretched and strained as you scale. How do you preserve the passion, values, and customer focus that fueled your early success while expanding your workforce, opening new locations, or integrating acquisitions?
In this session, David Friedman will share how CEOs intentionally scale culture alongside business growth—codifying what matters and embedding it into everything from hiring to frontline decisions. Whether you’re doubling in size or entering a new market, this conversation will help you protect your company’s soul while evolving for what’s next.
Author, The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance and The Invisible Leader
Every CEO faces a moment when the old strategies stop working. The market shifts. The culture slips. The team loses clarity. Whether driven by market shifts, scaling pains, new technologies or evolving customer expectations, these moments call for more than tweaks—they demand transformation.
This session will explores how to lead through those moments—not with top-down mandates, but through vision, trust, and transformation. You’ll leave with practical tools to help your organization let go of old ways of thinking, re-align around new priorities and reignite momentum.
Join fellow attendees for two sets of 25-minute table-top discussions on relevant topics like having difficult conversations, managing different personality types, building cross-functional teams following an acquisition, and more. Please see the back of your name badge for your table assignments.
Topics Areas: Difficult Conversations | Cross-Functional Teams | Acquisition Integration | Managing Different Personalities
CEO, IgniteTech
From co-pilots to co-workers, AI is moving from tool to teammate—and that shift is reshaping what teams look like, how they operate, and what leadership requires.
As capabilities accelerate, CEOs are being forced to reimagine everything from org charts to onboarding, talent pipelines to trust. What work will humans own? Where will AI plug in? And what does collaboration look like when some of your “team members” don’t sleep, ask for raises, or make emotional decisions?
In this session, we’ll explore how leading companies are preparing their teams for an augmented future where trust, collaboration, and accountability must be redefined. The goal isn’t just automation. It’s amplification—and leaders who design for that will build teams that thrive.
Facilitated by: Kari Zeller, CEO and Principal, TGN Consulting
“Why won’t my people do what I need them to do?” It’s not that employees refuse change—it’s that standard approaches rarely generate the unity and momentum required. As CEO, you can’t personally oversee every move—your company’s success relies on layers of managers who must rally their teams in sync. In this candid discussion, we’ll examine what genuine mobilization looks like: aligning leadership, culture, and structures so your teams truly move together. Come ready to swap insights, tackle hidden friction, and reimagine how large-scale transformations actually take hold.
Facilitated by: Steve Casey, VP, Global Finance and Accounting Division, Personiv
The talent shortage is no longer just an HR issue—it’s a business-wide challenge affecting growth, efficiency, and innovation. Personiv’s latest CFO Pulse Survey reveals how leaders across industries are rethinking talent strategies to stay ahead. This discussion will focus on sustainable workforce solutions, strategic workforce planning, and new approaches to talent including AI, automation, outsourcing, and upskilling as potential solutions.
Performance Execution Expert; Contributor to The 4 Disciplines of Execution
Even the best strategies stall without alignment and follow-through—and in most organizations, the biggest barrier to execution isn’t effort, it’s alignment.
In this energizing session, performance expert Scott Thele will share the practical habits and systems that help teams cut through noise of the day-to-day whirlwind, stay focused and deliver on what matters. Drawing from The 4 Disciplines of Execution, you’ll learn how to create visible momentum, team-level clarity and a performance culture that sticks.
The Turnover Expert; Author, The Power of Stay Interviews
Hybrid work is here to stay—but sustaining alignment, trust and visibility across distance is a new leadership test.
In this panel, CEOs and culture leaders will share how they’re adapting rituals, communication habits, and leadership norms to keep teams connected—whether on the floor, at HQ or remote. Whether you’re managing frontline staff, knowledge workers, or both, this session will help you evolve culture beyond the physical office.
Whether you’re fully hybrid, partially remote, or wrestling with return-to-office strategies, this conversation will help you shape a culture that transcends physical presence—and drives performance across any environment.
Host of Corporate Competitor Podcast; 12-time New York Times Bestselling Author; Former Associate Editor, Sports Illustrated
Flight Leader and Commanding Officer, U.S. Navy Blue Angels
No organization thrives without a strong leadership bench. But too often, leadership development is reactive, inconsistent, or siloed at the HR level. This session will explore what it really takes to grow future-ready leaders from within—leaders who not only deliver results but uphold the values, mission, and culture of your organization.
We’ll sit down with a seasoned military leader who has trained and shaped thousands of the nation’s most promising young officers to offer powerful lessons on how to identify leadership potential early, instill a sense of purpose and accountability, and prepare individuals to lead under pressure.
Whether you’re building successors for the C-suite, elevating mid-level talent, or creating a leadership pipeline across geographies, you’ll walk away with a renewed lens—and a renewed sense of responsibility—for developing the people who will one day take the reins.
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
