2025 Fall Workshop Keynote Speakers

Nir Bashan | Rebecca Heiss, PhD

Thursday, October 30, 2025 | 8:40 AM – 9:40 AM CT

The Creator Mindset - How To Be More Creative at Work

Session Description

According to a recent study by the World Economic Forum, the #1 in-demand skill at work today is creativity and innovation. Yet there are so few places where people can learn actual creativity and innovation they can use at work immediately.

In a groundbreaking new keynote, Nir helps attendees who think they are not creative or innovative to learn how to be innovative. It turns out that creativity is a skill that anyone can learn. You just need to learn how to become more creative.

This is not about art or painting or sculpture or dance. This is a repeatable workplace creativity and innovation that anyone can learn.
Attendees will learn skills such as:

Little Victories
A.I. and how to use it
Choosing Positivity
Real Listening

And see how viewing the world as it can be, not as it is, will yield the innovative power of The Creator Mindset.

Learning Objectives

Staff and leadership learn 10 fresh new ways creativity can boost performance and profit
Attendees leave with actionable plans for effective growth —practical, pragmatic, and immediately applicable knowledge
Attendees receive useful tips on how creativity helps deal with change
Attendees learn how to implement innovation at work

About the Speaker

Nir Bashan, CEO of The Creator Mindset® LLC and Keynote Speaker on Creativity, Innovation & Problem Solving

Nir is a top business speaker leading innovation for high performing leaders and individuals around the globe. As founder and CEO of The Creator Mindset® LLC, he helps organizations and leaders foster a culture of innovation with his groundbreaking creativity and problem solving keynote speeches that supercharge business models to improve profitability, increase sales, and boost customer service. He speaks at conferences and events on the creative potential in every single human being on earth. He is represented by 6 speaking bureaus and is consistently ranked as a top innovation keynote speaker. As an invited guest, he regularly speaks to some of the most beloved brands on earth such as Rolex and Porsche and many, many more.

Friday, October 31, 2025 | 8:40 AM – 9:40 AM CT

Unmasking Stress: Higher Education's Hidden Innovation Driver

Session Description

The higher education landscape has never been more challenging. From declining enrollments and funding cuts to complex compliance requirements and economic uncertainty, campus business officers face relentless pressure to do more with less while maintaining institutional excellence. But what if the very stress that keeps you up at night is actually the key to unmasking breakthrough innovations?

It's time to remove the mask from stress itself. The pressure you feel isn't a barrier to innovation—with the right mindset, it can be the catalyst! Afterall, Olympic athletes don't break world records during practice. They break them when the stress and preassure is at its peak.

Through compelling storytelling, cutting-edge science, and immediately actionable insights, Dr. Rebecca shows how to unmask your stress response and reveal its hidden power to unlock peak performance during your most challenging moments.

About the Speaker

Rebecca Heiss, PhD, Stress Physiologist, Peak Performance Specialist, and Author

Dr. Heiss is a stress expert dedicated to transforming our fears into fuel we can use through her T-minus 3 Technique. Her research has been designated "transformative" by the National Science Foundation.

As an author of the acclaimed book Instinct, founder and CEO of the leadership 360-review mobile application, icueity, and highly sought-after professional speaker, Rebecca has found her calling in helping others recognize the power of using stress as a spring board to reach our highest performance, purpose, and passion.

A former educator, Dr. Heiss spent much of her earlier career in the classroom at both the high school and college levels and was recruited to be a founding member of an innovative charter school with a focus on entrepreneurial thinking and impact-based learning. Today she shares her T-minus 3 Technique to transform fear to fuel from stages around the world as a full-time speaker and facilitator of her Fearless Masterclass. She continues her research on how we can turn trauma into Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) rather than PTSD.

Rebecca’s “fear(less)” message inspires hope and actionable insights to train our brains to work for us, rather than against us in times of change and uncertainty. With surprising humor and palpable energy, no matter if Dr. Heiss is delivering virtually or on stage, she wins over her audiences with interactive, inspiring, and timely takeaways.

When she’s not on a stage, she is happiest when hiking or surfing with her two spoiled rotten dogs Guinness and Murphy.