Danièle Sauvageau has the passion, instinct and leadership that was instrumental in the historic win by the Canadian Women’s Hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. As the general manager and coach, Sauvageau transformed a fear of losing into an absolute desire for victory, a radical turnaround that enabled her players to achieve their Olympic dream. Danièle Sauvageau has taken part in six Olympic Games, as women’s hockey coach, general manager and coaching consultant. She played a key role in her team’s wins in seven consecutive world championships, and in the silver medal they won at the Nagano Olympics. With her dedication, involvement in developing her sport and her winning record, she has become the undisputed guru of women’s hockey in Canada. She also holds a master’s certificate in coaching from the National Coaching Certification Program and a management certificate from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales.

Danièle Sauvageau has a degree in social work and has served with the RCMP and Montreal’s police department for over 24 years, including the narcotics division. Sauvageau has done undercover narcotics work, busted a car full of drug dealers, and ordered the forced entry and rescue of a double agent whose life was in jeopardy. Sauvageau currently works as advisor to the strategic development department.

Sauvageau’s expertise is not limited to just one sport. She has contributed to the success of a number of national programs, including the national synchronized swimming team and the women’s water polo team. She is involved as a coaching and performance consultant with the Canadian Olympic Committee in preparation for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. As such, she is closely associated with the success of Canadian short-track speed skaters and figure skater Joanie Rochette.

Drawing on her expertise in human resources management, coaching, leadership, situation assessment, communication and the formation of winning teams, Danièle Sauvageau speaks on various topics related to performance. In 2003, Sauvageau began to offer her services as an executive coaching consultant. She has supported and assisted numerous public and private-sector clients in building a new vision and managing change in order to gain a competitive edge. Danièle Sauvageau is a well-known figure in the media and is often asked to comment on developments in hockey and elite sports in general.

Over the course of her career, she has been featured on CBC, Radio-Canada, TSN and NBC, as well as many articles in Canadian and American publications. She is also the co-author of The Golden Tears, the Journey to the Olympics. Danièle Sauvageau was the spokesperson for the Coaching Association of Canada and a member of the Coaches of Canada, as well as serving on the board of directors for Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics bid.

If anyone understands that life is what you make it, it’s Darci Lang. She quite literally went out and built the life she wanted. She has worked for great leaders and not so great leaders, built three award-winning businesses and let them go when the time was right. All she has accomplished has been done on her own terms and by focusing on the 90% – the positive in her world versus the other 10%.

Darci Lang has discovered a solution to help you live your life, do your job, and connect with the people who matter most, to the fullest. Darci has a bold, joyful presence – illuminating the good in audiences lives with her dynamic message. For 24 years, Lang has been sharing tough love with empathy, creating perspective shifts and having an impact on hundreds of businesses in diverse industries. Darci Lang helps to transform cultures, employee engagement and in turn – morale and profitability. From farmers, ironworkers and linesmen to medical professionals, educators and administration people, her connection to her audience is astounding.

Darren Lang has lived his talk. Having gone through a major rut in his own life, everything he talks about are the tried and true tools he used to pick himself up and get back to feeling great. Throughout his career, Lang has shared his stress busting techniques to help thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations by sharing fun and powerful stories and ideas on how to take control of stress and stay more connected and balanced.

Darren Lang has a degree in Business Administration as well as an MBA. He is a professional member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) for over 10 years and is also past president of the Saskatchewan chapter of CAPS. In addition, Darren has been a member of the Saskatchewan Association of Human Resources Professionals (SAHRP) for over eight years. For the past 21 years, he has worked with several different companies designing and conducting training sessions and in the last eight years, Darren Lang and his wife, Darci, have operated their own corporate speaking and training company, XL Enterprises.

Tired of working with a stressed team? Is your group suffering from burnout, apathy, absenteeism and health trouble? Stress can have a huge impact on your team, resulting in poor decision making, lackluster performance, stress leave and staff turnover. Darren Lang shares his own journey with stress and the tools that brought him back to feeling his best.

Denise Wozniak is a motivational and inspirational speaker who has been through incredibly tough times. Within a month, she was laid off her job with 30 other employees, found out that her six month old daughter had AIDS and that she, herself had also been infected with HIV. She became her daughter’s caregiver and her daughter died at home when she was just 9 months old in a time of immense stigma.

Denise Wozniak is passionate about inspiring and motivating others to be proactive and grow from trauma and stress. She will tell you the story of an incredibly difficult period in her life when she was told that her daughter and her were going to die, when everything seemed hopeless. She will tell you how she got through it and became better from it. Denise will teach you methods she used to break free from negative thinking and show you how to regain the vitality you used to have to move forward.

Denise Wozniak understands that people need to laugh and feel good when they work with challenges. She uses plenty of humour throughout her presentations. Humans are capable of considerable RESILIENCE.  You are stronger than you think and you have the capability to build A NEW WAY OF THINKING. Despite all of this, Denise Wozniak feels she has become more resilient and has even experienced growth which she now inspires others with through stories and laughter. Denise went on to speak at many venues in an effort to raise awareness of children with AIDS and was given the Queen’s Jubilee Gold and Diamond medals for her work.

Denise looks at issues such as burn out, stress and worry and gives practical solutions for her audience to use in their every day lives. Denise interacts with audiences to demonstrate life can be fun, full of laughter and they too can look at the world with a new attitude. Popular with media and has appeared on CBC, CTV and in Canada’s national paper, the Globe and Mail, as well as the Vancouver Sun. Denise Wozniak is also a Certified World Class Speaking Coach.

 

Carole Anne Devaney is as authentic as they come. She brings class, candor and a touch of self-depricating humour to your ceremonies. As a proven and seasoned Master of Ceremonies, she will make your event come alive with her warmth and her energy.

Carole Anne Devaney is a veteran television journalist who co-anchors the News Hour at 6.00 p.m. with Gord Steinke on Global Edmonton. She has held the position since November 2011; before that, she was a reporter for CBC Edmonton and CTV Ottawa. Carole Anne Devaney is a proud French-Canadian who was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. She landed her first on-air position as a student reporter with CTV Ottawa. Her experience then took her to Parliament Hill, where she reported for a French political show, on CPAC.

In 2008, Carole Anne decided to move west, after accepting a position with CBC Edmonton. She is the distinguished winner of a Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Award for producing an undercover investigative series on out-of-town vehicle inspections. Carole Anne Devaney speaks three languages: English, French and Spanish. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the Carleton University School of Journalism, with a Minor in Spanish.

Carole Anne has successfully presided over dozens of events and fundraisers in Alberta. The most prestigious being in front of 18,000 Oprah Winfrey fans. She was the opening act for the talk-show star during her 2013 Edmonton appearance, and had the opportunity to introduce her on stage. Carole Anne also spearheaded a Global Edmonton initiative that raised more than $100,000 for breast cancer research.

As a career woman with two little girls, Carole Anne Devaney isn’t afraid to show the good, the bad and the ugly of motherhood. She has a large following on social media, where she often makes light of the realities of parenting. Carole Ann Devaney has a reputation for engaging her audiences, rolling with last-minute changes, keeping the program on time, and, of course, keeping it real!

Carolyn Stern is a successful entrepreneur who specializes in helping professionals get unstuck. As a life-long learner and academic, Carolyn is a university professor, corporate trainer, certified Emotional Intelligence Expert, author and professional speaker.

Due to her undeniable passion for all things EQ, in 2017, she launched a new division of her business called EI Experience, which creates comprehensive learning and development experiences for corporations. EI Experience offers a combination of EQ Assessments, Private and Group Coaching Sessions, Leadership Development Workshops, Online Programs, Off-Site Retreats, and Inspirational Keynote Presentations that come in recommended packages or can be customized to the needs of your organization. Since launching, Carolyn has single-handedly trained and coached over 6,300 leaders across Canada and the United States.

In her spare time for the last 20 years, Carolyn is an accomplished professor at Capilano University. She has taught Public Speaking, Organizational Behaviour, Marketing, Event Marketing, Professional Sales, and Advertising in the Faculty of Business. More recently, she teaches our future leaders about Leadership, Business Management, and Leadership in Teams, and in 2021 will be launching a new undergraduate course called Leading with Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace.  In addition to her passion for sharing knowledge, she is committed to her corporate vision – “Learn More. Be Better. Teach Others”.

Carolyn holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Marketing, a Bachelor of Education, Business Education and a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Primary Education from the University of British Columbia. She has also earned a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in International Business from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and completed a Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University. Lastly, she is a Certified Facilitator in the area of Emotional Intelligence with MHS Inc.

Finally, Carolyn is a professional member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, the National Speakers Association, and the Global Speakers Federation, making her a popular guest speaker at national and international conferences and seminars.

Carrie Anton is a gold medal Paralympian from the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Summer Games in the sport of Goalball. She is also an Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame inductee.

She continually promotes equity as a coach, a volunteer, and an athlete in a variety of sports. Recreationally, she is involved in goalball, blind ice hockey, tennis, soccer, tandem cycling, skiing and much more. She enjoys her role in the community on various boards such as the Edmonton Sport Council and the Alberta Sports & Recreation Association for the Blind.
Professionally, Carrie has over 25 years experience as an assistive technology and accessibility specialist. Her passion lies in ensuring accessibility and she works on projects that advance and enhance quality experiences for people with disabilities in employment, education, sport and life.

Charmaine Hammond is a highly sought-after business keynote and workshop speaker, entrepreneur, author and educator who teaches and advocates the importance of developing trust, healthy relationships and collaboration in the workplace. She has helped clients in many industries build resilient and engaged workplaces, develop high trust/high accountability relationships, and solve workplace issues that get in the way of success and profitability. She is respected as a “no fluff” and “rich content” speaker who delivers tangible tools to step into action immediately.

Before committing herself to the speaking industry, she used to be a correctional officer. It was in her experience in dealing with difficult inmates, colleagues and challenging situations that Charmaine Hammond became passionate on developing strategies to help herself and others grow. She later worked in the mental health field as a counsellor, program manager and crisis responder. She went back to school to obtain a Master’s in Conflict Analysis & Management  and a B.A. in Social Development. She went on to obtain her Chartered Mediator and Conflict Management certificate from the Alberta Arbitration & Mediation Society.

Hammond is now one of Canada’s leading authorities on Conflict Management, Resilience and Workplace Wellness/Mental Health and Effective Communication. She understands the challenges that individuals and organizations face in today’s fast paced and fast changing working environments. Her humourous and inspirational presentations are packed with powerful and strategical insights on how to improve team synergy, leadership development and create a positive workplace culture.

Her presentations deliver a heartfelt approach with rich content, high energy humour, and expert storytelling that the audiences remember and talk about for years’ after the presentation. Her sessions inspire individuals to step into action and implement her strategies immediately following her presentation. She has a highly interactive speaking style which focuses on releasing the audiences from former misconceptions and assist them to identify problematic behaviours and habits within themselves and their team, so that they can grow and fulfill their full potential.

A fifth-generation entrepreneur, Cherry Rose lives and breathes what it means to create companies that matter. With 12 years of expertise in psychology, she has guided thousands through the trenches of mental health. A mentor for the Inc. Founders Project, she coaches CEOs on emotional resilience and moonshot leadership.

As the CEO of #realtalk, the mental health movement for the tech industry, she speaks on stages around the world. With 70+ champions across North America, CEOs pledge their most vulnerable stories.

A mental health authority, she has been featured in Forbes, Inc., and more. She teaches at the Schulich School of Business.

Olympic Silver Medalist, Cheryl Bernard is a dynamic and powerful keynote speaker. She draws from her business, non profit and sporting success to inspire audiences to achieve their maximum potential. She is an expert speaker and is in high demand as a presenter across Canada. Born in Grande Prairie, Bernard moved to Calgary as a young child and was raised at the curling rink, calling the former Northwest Curling Club in Crescent Heights her “babysitter.”

In her 20’s, she was founder, owner and president of a successful Calgary-based insurance agency for over a decade before focusing her attention on building an elite curling team. Cheryl learned early on that by creating a dynamic workplace culture that empowers the team helps flourish business results. She and her staff propelled the agency to 6 Million in sales in 11 years. At that time, Cheryl Bernard decided it was time to re-focus on curling, writing and fundraising. So she sold her agency to Western Union Insurance due to her wanting to focus on her passions and dreams. 

Cheryl Bernard is has a long list of curling accomplishments and awards. She was 43 when she won the silver medal as skip at the 2010 Vancouver Games. She is a four-time Alberta women’s champion, Canadian Runner-up, TSN Skins finalist and has maintained a top 5 status on the World Curling Tour for many years. Cheryl Bernard is now the president and chief executive officer of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame where she looks forward to bringing the work ethic and leadership skills she learned in sport to her new position at Winsport’s Canada Olympic Park.

Cheryl’s life changed when her father was given 6 months to live after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Bernard was lucky to be able to devote most of her time to caring for her father and trying to find a cure. Sadly he passed away 2 years later. However, her father’s illness was the catalyst for her to create the annual “Curl for a Cure” in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Curl for a Cure helped raise over 1.3 million dollars in support of the CBCF.

Bernard has been an ambassador for the Alberta Children’s Hospital, the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital, Children’s Miracle Network, Dairy Queen, Miracle Treat Day, Goodwill Industries of Alberta, and World Vision Canada. She has also been the official spokesperson for the 2010 “Terry Fox Run”.

Cheryl Bernard also co-authored Between the Sheets -Creating Curling Champions, which describes the mental side of the game of curling. Bernard just recently published the second edition of the book entitled The Silver Lining. Cheryl delivers practical solutions and insights from her careers throughout her presentation. As an Olympic Silver Medalist, she will tell her story of determination and dealing with high pressure situations.

Bernard’s experience in business and sport has also seen her work as a corporate keynote speaker, sports ambassador and as a TSN broadcast analyst. As a result of her career accomplishments, charity work and her experiences, Cheryl brings a unique perspective to every event so that she can inspire and change individuals and organizations through her presentations.