Platinum Sponsor
Show Up and Show Out: Communicate with Clarity, Confidence, and Career-Defining Presence
For 50 years, the Association for Talent Development Hawkeye Chapter has championed growth, learning, and leadership. But in today’s fast-moving workplace, expertise alone isn’t enough. Visibility, voice, and delivery determine whose ideas get heard, funded, and followed. In this high-energy opening keynote, the award-winning international professional speaker and The Presentation Fixer, Bridgett McGowen, challenges talent development professionals to raise the standard of how they show up in classrooms, boardrooms, and high-stakes conversations and how they show out when it matters most.
Blending practical communication strategy with real-world delivery techniques, Bridgett equips attendees with tools they can immediately apply to trainings, stakeholder briefings, leadership sessions, and conference stages. Participants will learn how to turn everyday communication moments into influence opportunities, strengthen executive presence, and deliver messages that move people to action.
This milestone conference deserves more than attendance. It deserves bold presence. And it deserves talent development leaders who are ready not just to be in the room but to own it. Leaders who are energized to represent the next era of talent development and ready to show up and show out!
Audience Takeaways:
- A practical framework for showing up with authority and authenticity in any professional setting
- Delivery techniques that increase audience engagement and message retention
- Strategies to translate expertise into influence through stronger communication
- Tools to project confidence even under pressure
- A renewed commitment to visible, vocal, high-impact leadership
Schedule:
8:30-9 - Registration
9-9:30 - Housekeeping/Announcements and Sponsors
9:30-11:00 – Keynote
11:00 to 11:15 - Break
11:15-12:15 - Session 1
12:15-1:15 - Lunch
1:15-2:15 - Session 2
2:15- 2:30 - Break
2:30-3:30 - Session 3
3:30-4:30 – Closing action plan, networking, drawings, etc
Track 1: Show Up
Confidence • Executive Presence • Authenticity
Leadership presence is more than confidence—it is how people experience you before you even begin speaking. This track focuses on helping professionals strengthen executive presence, communicate with authenticity, and project confidence in high-pressure situations. Sessions in this track explore mindset, visibility, emotional intelligence, credibility, and the small communication habits that build trust and influence. Participants will learn practical techniques to show up with clarity, professionalism, and purpose in meetings, presentations, conversations, and leadership moments.
Ideal for: leaders, emerging leaders, trainers, HR professionals, and anyone ready to increase their professional presence and confidence.
Track 2: Speak Up
Presentation • Facilitation • Storytelling • Engagement
Great communicators do more than share information—they create connection, energy, and action. This track is designed for professionals who want to strengthen their speaking, training, facilitation, and audience engagement skills. Sessions focus on presentation delivery, storytelling, audience interaction, message clarity, and communication techniques that improve retention and participation. Participants will discover how to move beyond simply delivering content to creating memorable experiences that inspire learning and engagement.
Ideal for: trainers, facilitators, presenters, educators, leaders, and professionals who communicate to groups or teams.
Track 3: Move People
Influence • Persuasion • Leadership Communication • Change
Communication has the power to shape culture, influence decisions, and move people toward action. This track explores the strategic side of communication—helping leaders communicate vision, strategy, navigate change, build buy-in, and influence others with intention and credibility. Sessions will focus on persuasive communication, stakeholder conversations, difficult discussions, change messaging, and leading through communication. Participants will leave with tools to communicate in ways that inspire trust, alignment, and forward movement.
Ideal for: organizational leaders, managers, project leaders, change champions, HR professionals, and talent development professionals.
