The 2026 Lineup

Confirmed Speakers

Buy a Ticket Support Become a Volunteer Become a Partner

MMT, MT-BC · Founder & CEO — Healing Harmonies · Board-Certified Music Therapist

Erica Flores

"Purpose Over Performance: The True Role of a Music Therapist"

Erica Flores, MMT, MT-BC, is a board-certified music therapist, healthcare advocate, and thought-leader with over 20 years of clinical experience. In 2011, she established Healing Harmonies, where she serves as Founder & CEO, leading a multidisciplinary team of board-certified music therapists and licensed art therapists based out of their flagship clinic in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Her practice delivers lifespan care—from 18 months through end-of-life—across Milwaukee, Waukesha, and surrounding counties. Healing Harmonies supports individuals with neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions (including autism, Parkinson's, and stroke), mental health and substance use challenges, memory care needs, and hospice care. Erica's "North Star" is to transform lives by bringing exceptional music and art therapy to the community while raising public awareness to increase service accessibility. A past President of the Wisconsin Chapter for Music Therapy and current Task Force Co-Chair advocating for state licensure, she is equally passionate about training the next generation of clinicians and building a resilient, burnout-resistant practice culture. In her TEDx talk, she reveals how music functions as a clinical prescription and illuminates when creative arts therapies are needed most. Outside of her clinical leadership and legislative advocacy, Erica lives in a music-filled home with her husband and their 16-year-old son. In her spare time, you'll find her playing music with her family, catching live concerts, playing card games, and cheering on the Packers and Brewers.

Founder — 7 Stage Advisors · Business Growth Authority

Carl Gould

"The Power of Obnoxious"

Carl Gould is a worldwide leading authority on business and entrepreneurship, a keynote speaker, and best-selling author. He built three multi-million dollar businesses by age 40, and his company, 7 Stage Advisors, has mentored the launch of more than five thousand businesses — including work with Allstate, American Idol, USA Olympic Track, IBM, McGraw-Hill, and the US Army. He created the farthest-reaching business mentoring organization in the world, with methodologies practiced in 35 countries, and has trained, certified, or accredited over 7,000 business coaches and mentors since 2002. Carl co-authored Blueprint for Success with Stephen R. Covey and Ken Blanchard, and his best-selling books The 7 Stages of Small Business Success and Biz Dev Done Right lay out his formula for HyperGrowth. A four-time Entrepreneur of the Year and a fixture across 100+ news and media appearances, he brings original, battle-tested content and high-energy delivery to every stage.

Website

Founder & CEO — JH Leadership & Strategy · Executive Coach · Best-Selling Author

John Holcombe

"Humanizing the Leadership Experience Creates Value Faster"

John Holcombe is an innovation and commercialization expert, executive coach, and the Founder and CEO of JH Leadership & Strategy, Inc. With more than 30 years of experience across biotech, pharmaceuticals, advanced materials, and high-growth technology sectors, he helps leaders turn complex ideas into measurable business value. As a speaker, John is known for delivering clear, practical frameworks that move organizations from insight to impact. Drawing on his Innovation-to-Market Canvas™ and real-world experience, he shows leaders how to identify meaningful customer needs, uncover market opportunities, and translate ideas into scalable, profitable outcomes — reducing risk, improving decision-making, and aligning cross-functional teams to accelerate commercialization. His best-selling book, Creating Value Faster, captures the core frameworks behind his work with leaders, offering a structured approach to turning customer insight into real business value. Audiences leave with a more disciplined approach to innovation and a clearer path to turning ideas into sustainable growth.

Website

Board Certified Chiropractic Internist & Nutritionist · Author, Positively Altered

Dr. Cindy M. Howard

"Your Gut is Your Garden—Not Your Battlefield"

Dr. Cindy Howard is a dynamic leader in the wellness and happiness space, dedicated to redefining how we approach health, happiness, and resilience in both personal and professional settings. She is the author of the award-winning book Positively Altered: Finding Happiness at the Bottom of a Chemo Bag, where she shares her transformative journey of overcoming life's greatest challenges with grace, humor, and an unwavering commitment to personal growth. A Board Certified Chiropractic Internist and Nutritionist in private practice, she owns Innovative Health & Wellness Center and serves on boards including Inguardia Health and Fullscript. A long-standing American Chiropractic Association delegate for Illinois, she was named Illinois ACA Chiropractor of the Year in 2020 and received the Flynn-Lynch award in 2015 for outstanding service. As founder of the Positively Altered Project, she unites thought leaders, practitioners, and change-makers to reimagine wellness at work and in life, delivering science-backed strategies that blend mental, physical, and emotional health. Known for her warmth, authenticity, and quirky sense of humor, Dr. Cindy's vision is to help the world become "positively altered" — one connection, conversation, and community at a time.

Website

Keynote Speaker · Leadership Coach · Corporate Culture Consultant

Megan Kuiper

"Leading Through Human Connection: The Fastest Path to Belonging, Engagement, and Performance"

Megan Kuiper is a keynote speaker, leadership coach, and corporate culture consultant who helps professionals and organizations build energized leaders and thriving teams. With more than 21 years of corporate leadership experience, including serving as a Director at Target Corporation, she brings both real-world credibility and a deeply human approach to leadership development. After experiencing burnout at the height of her corporate career, Megan redefined her path and now helps high-achieving professionals amplify both their lives and their leadership — reconnecting to fulfillment, purpose, and intention while strengthening how they show up at work. A core part of her work is helping leaders elevate and protect their energy, one of the most overlooked drivers of performance and culture, and empowering them to stop being "the glue" for everything so their teams take ownership, communicate effectively, and grow together. Through keynotes, consulting, and coaching, she helps leaders build intentional development routines, improve communication, and create cultures where feedback is frequent, human, and effective. Her signature keynote blends storytelling, strategy, and her Human-Centered Leadership framework to help leaders drive meaningful, sustainable results. Megan is a wife to her husband, Nate, of 21 years and a proud boy mom to three — roles that continually ground her perspective on energy, presence, and what sustainable leadership really requires.

Founder — Small Business Owners Community · Host, Businessing with Pat Miller

Pat Miller

"AI Is a Lie Detector"

Pat Miller is the founder of the Small Business Owners Community. He spent 22 years behind a microphone in professional broadcasting before turning that voice toward small business owners. Today, he hosts Businessing with Pat Miller, his daily live show where he walks owners through the news, the noise, and what actually matters to their bottom line. He speaks and trains on AI showing small business owners how to use Claude as a team member instead of a chatbot, so they can hand off busy work and get their time back. And, he hosts live events and meet ups for entrepreneurs to live out his mission: "It's Your Dream, Don't Grow It Alone®."

CEO — Wangard Partners · Former Deputy Secretary, Wisconsin DNR

Matt Moroney

"Four Choices that Impact Your Impact"

Matt Moroney is the CEO of Wangard Partners, bringing a wealth of experience and leadership from both the public and private sectors. His real estate career began in the homebuilding industry, where he served as Director of Government Relations and then Executive Director of the Metropolitan Builders Association, leading a group of independent homebuilders to work collaboratively toward industry-wide goals. He was later asked by Gov. Scott Walker to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, then as Deputy Chief of Staff, and ultimately as Strategic Economic Initiatives Director for the State of Wisconsin. Matt's contributions to Wisconsin's business landscape have earned him wide recognition, including the Mike Mooney Award from the Wisconsin Chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, a place among the Milwaukee Business Journal's Top 55 Business Executives, and a ranking in BizTimes' top 275 Executives in Wisconsin. Beyond economic development, he is deeply involved in the community, serving on the boards of Citizens Bank, Milwaukee BID District 21 (Downtown), CREDA, and the Waukesha Business Alliance, where he currently chairs the Board of Directors, and he lends his expertise to the CREDA Public Policy Committee. His talk argues that impact isn't usually determined by talent or luck — it's determined by the choices we make every day in how we treat people, how we work, how we use our gifts, and how we respond when life changes our plans.

Website

Educator · Certified Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher · Award-Winning Author

Jamie Lynn Tatera

"What Kids Learn When We Mess Up"

Jamie Lynn Tatera is an educator, certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher, and creator of a parent-child self-compassion program studied by researchers at UW-Madison, UNC Chapel Hill, and UC Irvine. She is also the author of the award-winning two-volume Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids. Both grew out of her own experience discovering that self-compassion could heal her family, and her wish for others to have the same. A mom of two, Jamie Lynn has taught in Milwaukee Public Schools classrooms for fourteen years. She has also taught in the School of Education at UW-Milwaukee, and writes for Greater Good Magazine, published by UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. Her program has been endorsed by the founders of the Mindful Self-Compassion program, Kristin Neff at UT Austin and Christopher Germer at Harvard Medical School. She is on a mission to help children and caregivers stop trying to get it all right, and start lovingly holding the mess.

Music Educator · NOAA Teacher at Sea · Fulbright & National Geographic Fellow

Lisa Werner

"The Sound of Action: How Music Can Change the World"

Lisa Werner is a music educator whose commitment goes beyond the conventional, constantly seeking inventive ways to intertwine music with STEM education, such as orchestrating students' experiments on sound and music during a Space for Teachers zero gravity flight while playing her trombone, making connections between music, bathymetry, and autonomous underwater vehicles on a NOAA Teacher at Sea mission to the Pacific Ocean, traveling on a National Geographic/Lindblad Expedition Grosvenor Fellowship to connect climate change data to music in Antarctica, or using STEAM education to transcend borders in a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship in Senegal. Lisa's goal is to encourage students to dream big and leverage the skills acquired in music class to achieve their ambitions. When not inspiring students to love music, she plays in jazz bands, musical pit ensembles, and travels around the world with her husband and two daughters.

Also confirmed for 2026.

Talk titles, bios, and photos coming soon.

Chance McClain
Chris Monzon
David Byczek
Susan Marshall