Bay Area Summit

Conversational Intelligence - Connect, Navigate and Collaborate in a Changing World

Amy Eliza Wong, Founder, Always on Purpose

In today’s fast-changing world, the quality of our work and life often reflects the quality of our conversations. Great results don’t require everyone to like each other—but they do require trust. And trust isn’t built by accident. It’s created—or eroded—in the moment, through the dynamics of our interactions.

Conversational Intelligence® is the skill of connecting, navigating, and growing with others through high-trust communication. This session will explore how to cultivate trust as a daily practice, empowering you and your team to facilitate the free flow of ideas, foster healthy debate, and achieve better-than-expected outcomes.

Whether you’re facing disengagement, low morale, information silos, or declining retention, the root cause may be a low-trust environment. You’ll learn practical strategies to:

• Encourage honest, risk-taking dialogue.
• Ensure people feel heard and valued.
• Unlock creativity and innovation.
• Build a collaborative culture where people show up fully.

Trust is the oil that keeps the machine running—without it, creativity stalls, innovation suffers, and performance declines. This program will give you the tools to turn conversations into catalysts for connection, alignment, and transformation.

Experience Is Everything: Designing Learning That Connects, Engages, and Lasts

Jenny Sauer-Klein, Founder + CEO, The Primary Shift and The Culture Conference

Tired of lecture-style sessions that leave participants disengaged and uninspired? You’re not alone—and there’s a better way. This session will introduce you to the power of Experience Design: a transformative approach that turns information into interactive, meaningful, and memorable learning.

Through real-life examples and hands-on insights, you’ll explore how to craft learning experiences that are engaging, actionable, and aligned with your audience’s needs. Learn how to scale intimacy in large events, activate your participants as co-creators of insight, and create environments where genuine connection and transformation can happen.

If you’re ready to ditch passive presentations and design events that resonate long after they end, this session is your starting point. Because when learning is an experience, it sticks—and it sparks real change.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize the limitations of traditional lecture-based learning and articulate the benefits of experience-driven education.
• Apply key principles of Experience Design to create learning environments that foster connection, insight, and transformation.
• Design and scale experiential techniques for audiences of any size, including large groups, while maintaining a sense of intimacy and relevance.
  
  

Ready Player You: Leadership Lessons from the World of Games

Karl Baur, CMP, CAE, Senior Executive Director, Association Resource Center
Melanee Cottrill MBA, CAE, Executive Director, Head Start California

Have you ever thought of playing Monopoly as a way to level up your leadership skills?  Jon us as we go through the varied world of games and explore how concepts they embody can help you become a better leader and a better teammate.  No experience required - though you probably have more than you think!  Games provide an environment in which to experiment and grow your skills, as well as showing you how you (and others) handle conundrums, confrontations, and contests.  Gaming of all kinds is no longer a niche activity and is something everyone does (just look at your phone apps!).  After all, kids learn from playing games - and adults can too!  Why should kids have all the fun...?

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how games mirror leadership in associations
• Identify and analyze skills that can be acquired through games
• Apply concepts from gaming to your leadership approach

Amy Eliza Wong, Founder, Always on Purpose    

Conversational Intelligence - Connect, Navigate and Collaborate in a Changing World
Amy Wong is a TEDx speaker, award-winning author, and leadership expert who helps organizations harness the power of human connection to unlock breakthrough performance and create winning teams. Drawing from her unique background in mathematics and transpersonal psychology and two decades in Silicon Valley, she has developed methodologies that create thriving cultures at organizations like LinkedIn, Salesforce, and Meta. Amy currently teaches communication and leadership courses at Stanford University Continuing Education and is the author of “Living on Purpose.” Amy shows how trust, alignment, and exceptional communication create the conditions for individual fulfillment and organizational success.

Karl Baur, CAE, CMP, Senior Executive Director, Association Resource Center (ARC)

Ready Player You: Gaming Leadership Lessons

Karl is a Senior Executive Director at the Association Resource Center (ARC). 
 He currently serves as the Executive Director for the California City Clerks Association and the California Association of Code Enforcement Officers.  Prior to joining ARC, he spent 10 years serving members in a medical association and has more than 25 years' experience in event planning.  A graduate of Purdue University (Bachelor’s Degree) and UC Davis (Master’s Degree), he earned his CMP in 1998 and his CAE in 2022.  He has been a “gamer” since the age of 9, when he was presented with his first copy of “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”.  In his spare time, he participates in Tae Kwon Do, reads extensively, creates worlds to explore, and continues to engage in collaborative storytelling (aka gaming) with his daughter and his friends.

Jenny Sauer-Klein, Founder + CEO, The Primary Shift and The Culture Conference

Experience Is Everything: Designing Learning That Connects, Engages, and Lasts

Jenny Sauer-Klein is a serial entrepreneur who is passionate about designing transformational experiences that prioritize connection over content. She is the founder and CEO of The Primary Shift, a workplace experience design studio that helps companies engage their employees and bring their culture to life through dynamic learning experiences. She has consulted with and ran programs for leading organizations like Airbnb, Google, Dropbox, the Haas School of Business and Stanford. She created Play On Purpose (a video tutorial library of her best 80+ virtual and in-person team building games) to support leaders to confidently engage and connect groups and teams. She is also the founder and CEO of The Culture Conference, an invite-only event for organizational leaders who are committed to building a positive culture from the inside out. 

Melanee Cottrill, MBA, CAE, Executive Director, Head Start California

Ready Player You: Gaming Leadership Lessons

Melanee is the Executive Director of California Head Start. She previously served as Executive Director of the California Association of School Psychologists, Associate Director of the California Farmland Trust, where she focused on marketing, events, and development. She also spent nearly a decade forming and funding associations and scaling business operations as the Operations Manager at Civitas Advisors. She earned her Master's of Business Administration at California State University, Stanislaus and recently received her Certified Association Executive from the American Society of Association Executives. She is also a frequent speaker, addicted reader, beer connoisseur, and dog-lover. A forward-focused executive, she believes in stakeholder leadership, building supportive teams, and the power of associations to make a positive difference in the world.