Linda Edgecombe (CSP) is one of the Top 60 Motivational Speakers in the World. As a result, Linda is a Speaker Hall of Fame of Canada inductee. She is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) and the author of six books. Edgecombe offers insightful, amusing, and practical advice on building a creative, energetic, and engaged team in these challenging times. Linda Edgecombe is an internationally renowned, award-winning, and dynamic speaker. As a result, she creates a massive positive impact wherever she presents. Her presentations are fast-paced and content-rich.
The Wall Street Journal featured Linda Edgecombe as an expert in shifting peoples’ perspectives on their work and home life to stop living in the “when this then that” paradigm. She is a bestselling author, and is one of Canada’s most popular presenters. She has spoke all over the world to audiences from almost every industry. Linda Edgecombe has a passion for empowering women and raising money to rescue girls in Nepal from child contract labor.
Linda’s message is as welcome as a good belly laugh and as profound as an honest look in the mirror. For the past 24 years, she has developed and delivered dynamic presentations on the subjects of Work/Life Balance, Leadership and Accountability across North America and Overseas. Most of her clients choose learning points from a few of her addresses to customize them for their staff/ members. Edgecombe brings over 20 years of recreation, employee wellness, lifestyle, and corporate consulting experience to her programs and her clients. She was a consultant for the Participaction campaign promoting healthy living to North Americans, and is the bestselling author of Breaking Busy: Finding Peace in the Chaos; Boost: Powerful Tools to Re-Energize and Re-Engage You and Your Team in Crazy Times; Shift…Or Get Off the Pot; and On The Edge: Living and Leading With Purpose and Balance.
Linda Edgecombe’s mission is to motivate and prepare individuals to take on anything that comes their way. She promises to create powerful shifts, increase accountability and momentum for her participants. All while lifting their spirits through humour and relative content. Linda believes that “a laugh is worth more than a thousand words and it has the power to change the way people feel, think and take action!”.
You will find Lindsay Angelo at the intersection of strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship where she partners with brands to craft their strategies and tell their stories while hitting stages across North America to deliver keynotes on the future of consumerism and innovation. Prior to advising, Angelo spent six years at lululemon athletica crafting their global growth strategy, exploring new marketplace opportunities, seeding new concepts and growing the company into the number one yoga apparel player in the world. Lindsay was recently named one of 2019 top innovators to watch by Inside Outside Innovation.
Lindsay Angelo discovered her passion for business and entrepreneurship starting up her own apparel venture at a young age. This pursuit later took her to the angel investment arena incubating early-stage brands and then on to working in Strategy across the health and wellness, activewear, sports, technology, fin-tech & energy spaces. Her experience includes working with both global and local brands such as lululemon, BC Hydro, the Olympic Games, WeWork, TalentLab, RAAS Market, and Elliot. Angelo sits on the Advisory board for World Business Research and contributes to a variety of media houses and publications including Retail Executive, providing global insights on the future of consumerism and innovation.
Prior to this, a lifelong love for sport transported Lindsay Angelo bi-coastal to play NCAA Division 1 volleyball for George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. A dual citizen of the US and Canada, Lindsay continues to live and breathe all that she pursues in her entrepreneurial, strategic advising and recreational pursuits. Her experiences culminate in what she refers to as her sweet spot – where strategy, innovation and insights intersect, where the rational meets the emotive, where facts meet insights and where logic meets creativity.
Lindsay delivers powerful keynote addresses and workshops on an array of cutting-edge topics spanning the future of consumerism, innovation and business strategy. Relevant to business audiences of all kinds, she brings to life her research and insights in an imaginative, enlightening and personal manner. Through topics ranging from the future of retail to the emotional economy, Lindsay provokes a unique understanding of key shifts happening in the consumer landscape and the world, the human element driving them and strategic opportunities. Lindsay has an ability to provoke deep understanding through intersecting logic with intuition and data with the social sciences. Connecting with audiences across the globe, she is a crowd favourite.
Joanna Barclay is CEO and founder of the Culture Leadership Group, a global speaker, author, corporate leadership consultant, and media columnist to the Business Times. She has 35 years of business transformation experience. The first 15 years working in the IT industry with leadership teams helping them implement new technologies. The past 20 years as a certified professional facilitator and corporate culture change consultant working with leadership teams to build high performing, values-driven organizations.
Her passion is personal and organizational transformation, developing conscious leadership, and empowering organizations to reach their full potential. Joanna’s expertise is working with leadership teams around the world, enabling them to assess their workplace culture, giving people a voice in the process of change, integrating cross-functional business functions for effective collaboration, to meet the business needs of the future.
Joanna has facilitated numerous organizational transformations with a wide variety of clients including large Canadian federal government departments, private corporations and non-profit associations in North America and Asia.
She recently moved back to Ottawa, Canada from Singapore where she lived for 5 years, speaking at conferences on Conscious Leadership through Values, and working with leadership teams who were going through cultural transformation.
Joanna is a certified International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Professional Facilitator & Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) Technology of Participation Facilitator, a certified Cultural Transformation Tools (CTT) Consultant from the Barrett Values Centre, a graduate of the National Training Laboratory (NTL) Organizational Development program, and graduate of the University of Ottawa in Management of Information Sciences.
Jody Urquhart is holds national and international recognition as motivational speaker for a variety of audiences. She specializes in humour and purpose to enhance wellness and perspective. She always delivers the right message to revitalize audiences. Her infectious energy and enthusiasm come through each presentations. Because of her positive outlook and understanding of different industries, Jody is one of Canada’s most called upon conference speakers.
Urquhart is passionate about spreading the message of the importance of fun at work. As a result of her dynamic speaker ability, she performs as a motivational keynote speaker at over fifty organizations and associations yearly. She is an eminent motivational congress speaker. Jody’s trademark is to deliver very funny motivational speeches; humor being a key part of her audience connection. Jody is a former stand up comedian and often incorporates comedy in her presentations. Because of her humourous approach, audiences find it easy to retain her solutions and can implement her information.
Jody Urquhart is author of the bestselling book All Work & No SAY and syndicated the column, The Joy of Work. Her mission is to help motivate company employees to derive more meaning and satisfaction from their work. Jody is a guest speaker for the GE Healthcare Tip-TV Program, broadcast in over 2600 healthcare facilities. As a result, Jody Urquhart’s insights and expertise earned her the 2008 Bronze Award in the 29th Annual Telly Awards for Excellence in programming this presentation.
Her work as a convention keynote speaker includes health care associations, financial institutions, corporations, parks and recreation bodies, government agencies, trade organizations, professional societies and many other groups. Jody Urquhart holds diplomas in Professional Speaking from Mount Royal University and in Management and Marketing from Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Polytechnic. In addition, she also studied management for three years at the University of Calgary. Her success as a speaker is a direct result of her degrees and her extensive knowledge within different industries.
Jody Urquhart always customizes her presentations to each audience with the help of her meeting planner. Due to her extensive research before each presentation, she has a customization questionnaire that helps her to make the program more relevant to your audience. Above all, Jody Urquhart’s presentations energize audiences, get them laughing, get them thinking and inspire them to achieve more.
Dr. Joe Pavelka has 30 years of experience as a practitioner, researcher, educator, speaker, and author. He is an expert on the subjects of recreation management, sustainable tourism and ecotourism. Joe brings a world of experience to every speaking engagement to create an exciting and unique presentation.
Dr. Joe Pavelka has been providing workshops and keynote presentations for organizations throughout Canada. Pavelka has a great reputation for providing insightful, dynamic and entertaining keynotes and workshops. Joe Pavelka has been conducting keynote presentations since 2000 for both large and small gatherings. Dr. Pavelka is renowned and acclaimed for his speaking energy, enthusiasm, humour and insight. As a result, Joe brings his entire eclectic background into every presentation and one can be sure that no two presentations will be alike as he researches and tailors each presentation for every group.
Joe Pavelka’s background includes professional and academic work in the arts, outdoor adventure, business and international travel. Pavelka is a vivid interpreter of the world around us. Joe Pavelka is very easy to understand and his presentations are intriguing for audience members. Dr. Pavelka is an authentic and authoritative presenter on multiple topics. He can educate and inspire while using humour and relevant overheads to help illustrate his points.
Joe Pavelka has multiple dimensions as a result of his passions, education and profession. He is a founding member of the Ecotourism and Outdoor Leadership program at Mount Royal University. He is the founder of Splat Designs Ltd., a sportswear company. Furthermore, Joe is the founder and President of Planvision Consulting Ltd. Joe Pavelka has produced several award-winning films including Canoes for Peru which has played in eighteen film festivals on four continents and won six awards. Another film, Life Along the Trail, is scheduled for release in 2017.
Joe Pavelka is the author of two books: Ned: The Story of Bear Six Nine Three (children’s book), and It’s Not About Time: Rediscovering Leisure in a Changing World.
It’s Not About Time addresses leisure, freedom and choice in everyday life. The struggle for leisure, in our fast and harried world, is one of the most important issues we face today. In It’s Not About Time, Joe begins with the idea of leisure being much broader than simple free time; it’s about freedom and creativity. It moves the reader to an understanding of the factors that influence leisure and closes with dynamic ideas on how to find leisure in a very calm and centered way. It also introduces and explains the idea of ‘seamless living.’ Seamless living is a popular mean to understand how we can adapt to the pressures of daily living and live life to the fullest. It’s Not About Time is currently in its second printing.
Joe is currently working on his next book Whatever happened to Leisure? This book takes an insightful and practical look at how we live our lives today in light of lightning paced technology and economics.
Joe invests considerable time in the outdoors. As a result of his passion, Joe has lead canoe sea kayak or hiking trips in many great places around the world. Some locations include: All of Canada including the Northwest Territories and Belize, Chile, Spain, Peru, Bolivia and Mexico. Joe recently made some headlines by bringing a group of group of Mount Royal University students to canoe the Alto Madre de Dios River in the Peruvian Amazon.
Joe has taught at the post-secondary level since 1996. First as a part-time instructor at the University of Calgary in the Faculty of Communication and Culture and later, and through to the present, at the Haskayne Business School of the University of Calgary teaching a variety of tourism management courses. Joe is Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Education and Recreation Studies and Program Coordinator for the Bachelors of Ecotourism and Outdoor Leadership at Mount Royal University. Joe Pavelka has a PH. D in Geography from the University of Calgary, a Masters of Arts in Recreation Administration, University of Alberta, a Bachelor of Arts in Geography, Lakehead University and an Honour’s Bachelor of Outdoor Recreation, Lakehead University.
The University of Kansas
The University of Kansas
Bachelor of General Studies, Psychology
Bachelor of General Studies, Psychology
2002 – 2007
2002 – 2007
Jon Cornish works for in private wealth management for TD’s Private Investment Counsel and has been with TD for 5 years. Cornish is currently a level 3 candidate in the Chartered Financial Analyst Program. Jon is best known for his nine years playing for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). In 2014 Jon took home the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian award for the third time.
He was selected a CFL all-star three times. He is a two-time Grey Cup Champion (2008, 2014). Cornish, after being awarded Most Outstanding Player, was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s top athlete for 2013.
Jon Cornish is a Human Rights Advocate, speaking out for LGBT and minority rights. Jon is a regular volunteer with Alberta Children’s Hospital and works with their Foundation to raise funds and awareness. Jon also helps raise money and works with Woods Homes in Calgary for at risk children.
In 2004, aspiring professional skier and coach, Josh Dueck was in a life-changing ski accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Life as he knew it no longer existed. From his hospital bed with the long months of recovery ahead, it was the initial encouragement from his Doctor that helped Josh re-dedicate his life to freedom; and the support of his now wife whom completely
dedicated herself to his recovery.
Rather than wallow in misery he chose to embrace the challenges he faced with an open mind. With the support of the ski community and vision to return to the mountains, his life became a series of (i’m)possible opportunities and experiences.
By 2009, Josh was the Para-Alpine World Champion; he won a silver medal in Vancouver 2010 and an X Games gold medal in 2011.
Then, came the backflip.
After a year of planning and progression, Josh, his close friends and a film crew, led by legendary industry director Mike Douglas, ventured into the Whistler backcountry to build a jump that would help land the first backflip on a sit-ski. On a perfect bluebird day in February 2012, Josh hit the jump, soared upside down and landed in the soft-snow below. It also landed Josh on the Ellen Degeneres Show.
In Sochi 2014, Josh’s story continued to inspire. On the 10th anniversary of his accident, he won a Paralympic silver medal for Canada. Days later, he won gold in the Super Combined to become Paralympic Champion and Canada’s Flag Bearer.
Like the backflip, his story has come full circle.
Today you will find Josh, together with his wife and daughter, living in a rather unconventional way. They have departed from the comforts of home, and set out into a world of adventure, exploration and self-discovery.
For the next three years they will travel the continent in their 25’ Airstream trailer. Why live in a trailer and travel the world, you ask? For them, the answer is simple:
“To be inspired by the diversity of culture, people and environments throughout our spectacular planet. To celebrate community and inspire others through their life and actions, while having as much FUN as possible.”
They feel incredibly fortunate to be leaping – as a family — into the unknown. There will be many challenges along the way, but it is the challenges, and reflecting upon them, that help us to discover our true potential.
As a long-time stand up comedian, Judy Croon is used to being in the spotlight. Judy Croon is the creator and host of “Laughlines” and “Stand Up for The Girls” which have raised over $650,000 for breast cancer research. Croon is a also a Second City stand-up coach, radio host and co-author of the book ‘From the Stage to the Page: Life Lessons from Four Funny Ladies!’
She is passionate to help individuals and organizations use humour to their advantage.Croon’s presentations focus on dealing with difficult people and relieving stress through humour. “Laughter is a powerful tool for managing conflict and reducing tension when emotions are running high,” Croon says. Her presentations show the scientific proof on how when we laugh our bodies release endorphins and dopamine, our brain’s feel-good chemicals. The result? We can better cope with stress, have stronger mental health, boost our immune systems. and lighten our moods. The Toronto-based comedian, motivational speaker and humour coach says being able to laugh at yourself is instrumental to surviving difficult times.
On the stage, she draws from her performance experience, wit, and insight to entertain, inform and inspire in her dynamic keynotes and half day workshops. Judy Croon uses the powerful tool of comedy to get her message across but she also helps others get their message across by improving their pitch and presentation skills. Croon can be heard everyday at 5pm on LTD Radio – The Power of Positive. Judy Croon has been the opening act for many celebrities including; Joan Rivers, John Stewart,Lewis Black and Robert Klein. Her specials have appeared on NBC, CBS, CTV and The Comedy Network.
When she’s off stage, she devotes most of her time to shining the light on people and causes that often get overlooked. Croon gives hours of charity work to many organizations which ranges from weekly deliveries of basic supplies to families living in need, to hosting comedy benefit gala shows that raise money for aid organizations around the city. Judy Croon is passionate to help others with their health, relationships and their lives. Her presentations are high energy, full of humour, and offer audiences practical insights that they can use right after the presentation.
Kathy Macdonald began her career as a police officer in 1988 working the streets as a beat cop in Calgary, Alberta. With the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, Kathy recognized early on that crime and policing would be changed forever, and she set out to learn everything she could about cyber security. She Calgary Police Service cyber awareness coordinator and media spokesperson for over 12 years. Kathy has conducted hundreds of interviews, offered safety advice and commentary on technology and cybercrime.
Kathy Macdonald’s a passion for cybercrime prevention inspires audiences to become better informed about the Internet and better armed against the pitfalls. She shares her wisdom from her police officer experience. Her engaging presentations show why you need to be diligent and skeptical online.
As a professional speaker, author, consultant and university instructor, Kathy Macdonald brings a depth of investigative experience and a great passion for cyber security awareness to audiences. Kathy has seen firsthand the devastating and long-term damage cybercrime produces during her experience as a former police officer. Kathy’s knowledge of cybercrime prevention has led to a national award as well as global speaking engagements with law enforcement, the corporate sector, security groups, government and academia. The information she shares in her speeches and upcoming book serves to advance national cybercrime strategies or what she refers to as ‘predatory Cybercrime’.
As a keynote speaker Kathy Macdonald shares her deep industry knowledge and experience to dramatically increase cyber awareness and cyber security with corporations and associations. In 2009, Kathy was honoured when the Governor General of Canada Invested her with the Order of Merit of the Police Forces (M.O.M.), an award recognizing service and commitment to the community. Kathy strongly supports Stop. Think. Connect., a global messaging convention that unifies the response to cybercrime to millions of people worldwide.
Kathy Macdonald’s academic credentials are impressive. She holds a Masters of Security Risk Management with Merit (MSc.) from the University of Leicester, is a Certified Protection Professional (C.P.P.) from ASIS International, achieved a Security Management Certificate and General Management Certificate from the University of Calgary, and holds a Senior Police Management Certificate (SPAC). Kathy has successfully completed a many courses and specialized training on topics including media relations, business leadership, open source intelligence gathering and fraud investigations.
Kathy Macdonald’s Awards:
- The Governor General Award, Member of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces (M.O.M.)
- Long Service Award – Calgary Police Service
- Alberta Centennial Medal – Government of Alberta
- Police and Private Security Liaison Award – ASIS International
- Leadership Award for the World Police/Fire Games – Calgary Chief of Police.
Katie Mares knows first hand the challenges organizations and their encounter as they strive to design a customer service program that is sustainable and has an impact in the marketplace. She also knows that developing a program is just one small step to success, it is the tools and implementation plan that makes a program take flight.
Using her experiences as a Chief Inspiration Officer, building company infrastructure and designing customer experience programs, Katie Mares is now a leading voice inspiring positive, actionable change in the organizations she partners with. Mares has earned her Master’s in Adult Training and Development and is a Certified Training & Development Professional.
As a Certified Speaking Professional, Mares has inspired audiences around the world to think differently about customer service and leadership. She imparts skills to change behaviour, which has a positive effect on the experience offered to customers and team members.
Katie Mares has a unique approach; she focuses on developing the C.O.R.E. confidence and skills of team members when creating tailored standards for each organization and its customer. Katie has worked with globally recognized brands such as Honda, Celebrity Cruises, and Canada Post. Her delivery is concise, emotional, and impactful! Audiences who experience Katie, walk away inspired to make positive, actionable changes and are ready to use their new skills to change the experience your brand provides their customers and team members.
Katie Mares lives in Toronto with her family. When she is not travelling around the world consulting and speaking, Katie can be found on a yoga mat (in a shoe store!) or snuggled on the couch with her three little ones eating homemade popcorn and watching a movie!