General Session

Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour went from beat cop to America’s first African-American female U.S. Marine Corps combat pilot in three years, flying over the deserts of Iraq supporting men and women on the groundand serving two tours overseas. Returning home, she realized that many people want to create similar breakthroughs in their own lives, they just don’t know how. As a battle-tested speaker, Armour ignites audiences with a dynamic spark from the moment she leaps into the audience. The author of Zero to Breakthrough: The 7-Step, Battle-Tested Method for Accomplishing Goals that Matters shows you how to create a personal “flight plan” utilizing candid strategies to win on the battlefield of business and life. Armour’s fresh style has been featured on Oprah Winfrey, CNN, Tavis Smiley, NPR, and other media outlets. She has inspired hundreds of organizations and individuals with her understanding of the passion and leadership required to excel.

Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour went from beat cop to America’s first African-American female U.S. Marine Corps combat pilot in three years, flying over the deserts of Iraq supporting men and women on the groundand serving two tours overseas. Returning home, she realized that many people want to create similar breakthroughs in their own lives, they just don’t know how. As a battle-tested speaker, Armour ignites audiences with a dynamic spark from the moment she leaps into the audience. The author of Zero to Breakthrough: The 7-Step, Battle-Tested Method for Accomplishing Goals that Matters shows you how to create a personal “flight plan” utilizing candid strategies to win on the battlefield of business and life. Armour’s fresh style has been featured on Oprah Winfrey, CNN, Tavis Smiley, NPR, and other media outlets. She has inspired hundreds of organizations and individuals with her understanding of the passion and leadership required to excel.

Ben Casnocha is an award-winning entrepreneur and author from Silicon Valley. He is co-author, with LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman, of the #1 New York Times best-selling book The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career. They are also authors of The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age, a highly anticipated book based on his article in Harvard Business Review entitled Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee Compact. Casnocha has himself written for Newsweek, the American Enterprise Institute, NPR’s “Marketplace” and the US State Department.

In addition to his writing, Casnocha is a technology entrepreneur. He founded Comcate, Inc., a leading e-government software company, at age 14. He wrote a book about his experience titled My Start-Up Life. PoliticsOnline named him one of the “25 most influential people in the world of Internet and politics.” He also incubates and advises Internet entrepreneurs at Wasabi Ventures. BusinessWeek named him among “one of America’s top young entrepreneurs,” and dozens of outlets have covered his work, including CNN, The Economist and CNBC.

Ben Casnocha is an accomplished world traveler and speaker. He has spoken to tens of thousands of people around the world. He’s traversed alleyways in Morocco, deserts in northern Chile and busy streets in China. He has experience leading inspiring global conversations about entrepreneurship, careers and the future of work.
 

Innovation Expert, Founder and CEO of futurethink and Author, Kill the Company.

As a globally recognized futurist and expert on innovation, Lisa Bodell ignites new thinking at every event with high energy, humor, and audience engagement. Bodell is an award-winning author and CEO of futurethink, an innovation-training firm that helps businesses embrace change and become world-class innovators. As a globally recognized futurist and expert on the topic of driving change, her mission is to provoke fresh thinking around what’s possible, and help people better solve problems with intentionally simple, easy-to-use tools. She has helped thousands of senior leaders ignite innovation at the New York Stock Exchange, Pfizer, Google, Lockheed Martin and many others.

Bodell is an inspired speaker who has brought her message to over 30 countries and nearly 100,000 people each year, and she was recently awarded the “Top 5 Speaker Award” by Speaking.com. She is also the author of the best-selling book Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution, which won the 2014 Axiom “Best Business Book Award” and was voted “Best Business Book” by USA Book News and Booz & Co. A respected thought-leader on innovation, Bodell has appeared on NPR, FOX News, and in publications such as Fast Company, The New York Times, and WIRED. She is a monthly columnist for strategy + business, and frequent contributor to Forbes and Harvard Business Review.

Bodell serves as a member of the Global Agenda Council for the World Economic Forum; an adviser on the boards of the Association of Professional Futurists; and Novartis’ Diversity and Inclusion Board in Basel, Switzerland. Among her many academic activities, Bodell has taught innovation and creativity at both American and Fordham Universities.