This practical, ‘choose your own adventure’ program is perfect for:

Anyone who manages a team that yearns for a simple, practical way to increase 

employee engagement, wellbeing, and profitability.

The audience will leave with:

• A practical model, based on over 5,000 exit interviews and updated to include the latest international research to increase employee motivation and wellbeing. 
• An understanding of how you, the leader, directly impact your team’s performance and engagement and what you can do about it
• A proven framework to help inspire, measure and manage high performance (especially with a remote or hybrid workforce)  

We take the guesswork out of employee motivation and engagement.

Description:

The research is clear. Your ability to keep your best people from walking out the door is a direct result of their manager's ability to connect with them and to understand what they need to be fully motivated and engaged. 

Connection begins with conversation, but most managers don't talk to their people enough or about the right things because they are confused and frustrated about what their people really want. 

Luckily, reverse engineering over 5,000 exit interviews gives us significant clues as to what workers really want and what employers need to deliver to keep their teams together during this time of immense change.

This is a choose your own adventure keynote where every presentation turns into a unique conversation with the audience.

If your success depends on your ability to inspire and retain a great team this session is not to be missed.

“Thank you Kim Seeling Smith! It was such an inspiring and insightful session! Wella Red customers have now a great toolbox that they can implement in their salons!"

- Guillaume Cantelou, Managing Director ANZ at Wella Company

AI is no longer a boardroom conversation. It is a daily one, in every role and every team. But most of your people do not need a strategic briefing. They need a practical way in — the confidence to use AI as a co-pilot, the skill to spot where it actually helps, and the human judgment to know what to keep for themselves.

This keynote closes the gap between fear and fluency. It demystifies AI, gives every professional a working relationship with it, and shows how the human advantage — judgment, creativity, empathy, ethics — grows more valuable as machines do more of the routine work.

Anchored by live, bespoke AI demonstrations built for the audience, it turns AI from abstract technology into an everyday capability people can carry back to Monday morning.

In This Keynote, You'll Discover:

• The fundamentals, clearly explained: what AI is, what it is not, the difference between generative and agentic AI and why it matters.
• Practical tools that fit real work — AI in your calendar, your emails, your reports and your decisions.
• The human advantage: the skills that grow more valuable as AI does more of the routine — judgment, creativity, empathy and ethics.

Why Attend?

• Confidence: a clear-eyed working relationship with AI, from someone who came from talent and knows how people learn.
• Capability: live, bespoke on-stage demonstrations built for the audience, so people leave with things they can do on Monday morning.
• Advantage: a grounded view of where the human edge lives, so audiences leave feeling more valuable, not less.

Available as a 60-minute keynote, a 90-minute interactive experience, or a customized half-day workshop.

45% of global CEOs believe their business will not be viable in ten years if it stays on its current path (PwC 27th Annual Global CEO Survey). The technology is rarely the reason. AI bets fail at the human level. Talent walks. Leaders lose their nerve, their market position, or both.

Three disruptions are colliding at once, and each is survivable on its own. Together, they are quietly killing businesses that do not face them honestly. AI is changing what work gets done, and by who. The Polycrisis — multiple crises converging — is forcing every business to become more agile, innovative and creative. And the Rise of the Empowered Workforce is a perfect storm: a critical skills shortage colliding with people who have clearly defined priorities and are willing to vote with their feet.

This is the keynote that makes senior leadership sit up. It names the strategic risks hiding in plain sight, shows where AI investment is most likely to fail, and gives the C-suite and senior leaders the framework and the courage to lead through radical change without losing their best people.

In This Keynote, You'll Discover:

• Business — how to de-risk the AI bet: most AI strategies fail not because the technology does not work, but because the people do not adopt it, do not trust it, or do not stay through the disruption.
• Leadership — how to trade certainty for clarity: the ability to name what is changing, set priorities, and build trust when the ground keeps moving.
• Workforce — how to treat your people as your moat: the organizations that win are the ones that give people something worth staying for.

Why Attend?

• Diagnosis: a clear-eyed look at the three disruptions reshaping your business, and the questions that need answers before the next strategic plan.
• Direction: the C-suite decisions that separate the leaders who carry their people through disruption from the ones who lose them.
• De-risking: where AI investment is most likely to fail, and how to protect the bet you have already made.

Available as a 60-minute keynote, a 90-minute interactive experience, or a customized half-day workshop.

Somewhere between the AI headlines and the daily work, most people are quietly asking the same question: am I still going to be relevant and valuable?

The answer is not obvious. AI is reshaping roles faster than most workplaces can keep up, and traditional career advice is aging in real time. But the skills that keep people valuable, and the mindset that makes them adaptable, can be built deliberately. Research from the 2026 AFR Best Places to Work awards found that one of the top motivators for Australian employees today is the opportunity to develop the skills they need to stay relevant in a rapidly changing world of work.

This keynote delivers exactly that. A clear-eyed look at what is changing, the human skills that grow more valuable, and a practical plan each person can take charge of for themselves.

In This Keynote, You'll Discover:

• How to see what is changing before it hits you — which parts of your work AI takes first, and what stays uniquely human.
• The skills that compound in an AI-saturated workplace — judgment, curiosity, learning agility, and the ability to work with AI as a partner.
• How to take charge of your own relevance — a practical 90-day plan to move from reactive fear to proactive reinvention.

Why Attend?

• Clarity: a clear-eyed view of how AI is reshaping work, from someone who has spent two decades studying workforce change.
• Capability: the skills, mindsets and habits that grow more valuable in an AI-saturated workplace.
• Control: a practical 90-day plan each person can take home and act on immediately.

Available as a 60-minute keynote, a 90-minute interactive experience, or a customized half-day workshop.

Three disruptions are reshaping work at once: AI, the Polycrisis, and the Rise of the Empowered Workforce. The organizations that win will not be the ones with the best technology. They will be the ones whose leaders can carry their people through it.

Most AI strategies fail not because the technology does not work, but because the humans do not adopt it. People do not trust the tools, do not use them, or quietly walk out the door somewhere between the strategy deck and the daily work. That is where AI strategy succeeds or fails, and it is the part almost every leader has been told is somebody else's job.

This keynote gives leaders the framework, the language and the practical levers to close the gap. Anchored by live, bespoke AI demonstrations built for the audience, it shifts the room from talking about AI to leading through it.

In This Keynote, You'll Discover:

• The human dynamics behind AI adoption — how to name the fear, address the trust gap, and rebuild the psychological contract for a world where humans and AI work together.
• The shift from command to clarity — how to communicate what is changing, set priorities that hold up under uncertainty, and build the trust that carries teams through the wobbles.
• AI as a catalyst for reinvention, not just productivity — how leaders who use AI to rethink what work gets done, and by who, pull ahead of those using it to do the same things slightly faster.

Why Attend?

• Framework: the Three Disruptions Reshaping the Future of Work, and how each one is quietly reshaping your team.
• Fluency: the language leaders need to talk about AI with their teams without triggering fear, defensiveness or disengagement.
• Live demonstration: a bespoke on-stage AI demonstration built for the audience, so leaders see AI in action rather than just hear about it.

Available as a 60-minute keynote, a 90-minute interactive experience, or a customized half-day workshop.