Companies often provide generalized leadership training content for all of their employees. This can make it challenging for companies to address the unique leadership challenges facing Asian professionals due to perceived conflicts between Asian culture and US-based leadership culture. Statistics continue to show that there is a wide gap in Asian representation at executive levels. Through this session, you will gain self-awareness to see your relationships objectively, and understand the different leadership behaviors you exhibit as an Asian American.

In our time together, you will begin to see yourself how others see you. By objectively getting to know yourself, you'll be able to better lead yourself with influence across all cultures. You will also see how your Asian culture creates a biased Leadership Voice and you will begin to recalibrate it in order to achieve your goals with influence. Start opening doors of opportunity and breaking through cultural barriers. By managing your Asian cultural prohibitions and seeing them as inhibitions, you stop holding yourself back into transactional relationships with self-imposed disbeliefs.

Best for: Managers/Leaders of Others with 5+ years of Experience

Jim Lee’s leadership experience emerged from traditional large corporate top down management. During his 11 years working for several Fortune 10 telecommunications companies, he strove to bring out the best in his teams through empowerment and organizational health. Jim’s success proved counter culturally that great accomplishments can come as a byproduct of secure, confident, and humble employees that were led by influence, not positional power.

Abraham and Jim created B-SPOKE to respond to people desiring personal coaching typically reserved for executives and upper management. Having seen the transformative power of GiANT based personal coaching in clients across the world, they developed B-SPOKE so that everyone can have the opportunity to become the best version of themselves. Using practical and proven tools used by over 300 Asian American leaders in organizations like NAAAP, Google, Dropbox, Movember, various startups, and small businesses, we have the passion for unlocking everyone's potential. Join others along this journey and take ownership of your life and learn more about B-SPOKE!

Krys Doctor is a Senior Certified Professional with the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM-SCP). She has been an active pro bono consultant with Taproot Foundation since 2013 and a volunteer with the Downtown Women’s Center of Los Angeles. She continues to support the homeless population as a staff development consultant with the LA County Housing for Health program.

Krys is a mom to a daughter and a son. She is also a grandmother to three beautiful girls – two human and one canine. She is a bookworm and a foodie who advocates for non-traditional educational and career paths, and equal access to education, housing, and healthcare. As a human resources and leadership consultant with 25 years’ experience working in Fortune 500 companies, Krys has learned that leadership development is a critical need to many who do not have access to the right resources. The professional results she is most proud of include coaching numerous individuals discover their career passions and promote to leadership roles; and helping non-profit organizations and small businesses gain greater effectiveness through talent management, learning and development, and coaching. Her mission is to cultivate leadership growth and help people exceed their potential.

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What sets us apart, and the sum of our differences, not our similarities - makes us stronger together. Through interactive & creative exercises, uncover your unique qualities and talents that you can contribute to make any team and organization stronger. Then, find practical ways to apply these skills and attributes to the workplace to empower teamwork, partnership, and collaboration, making teams stronger and more resilient. In this presentation, Van will also share her personal story of how through the sum of their differences, twenty Vietnamese refugee women, including her mom - and a Hollywood movie star, trail blazed the now 8.3 million dollar manicure industry in the United States.

Van is the founder of worksmart. A progressive team development and leadership training consultancy that utilizes creativity, play, and experiential learning to evolve mindset, skill sets, and behaviors in the workplace. Her work is built on the foundation that we are all creative, good ideas can come from any level of an organization, and by cultivating idea sharing in the workplace, everyone has a chance to have their voice heard. And when that happens - company culture, performance, and innovation can skyrocket! She recently shared her work in a TEDx Talk titled, ‘What if? The Life Changing Power of Curiosity’. Van studied Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and earned her MBA from Pepperdine University. With over 15 years of corporate and start-up experience, Van actively works to rewrite the way we apply creativity in the workplace, inviting clients to think with their hands and use right brain creative tools to disrupt traditional training methods. Her clients include gamechangers such as Google, LinkedIn, and Pandora.

Feedback is typically framed as a necessity for individual and organizational performance. However, the act of delivering and receiving meaningful feedback – positive or negative - is not always an easy thing to do. In this session, you’ll learn and practice an objective, proactive, and constructive approach to offering and accepting feedback that enables you to increase your effectiveness as a professional and a leader.

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Does pitching and presenting ever feel like a minefield? One minute everything seems fine, but the moment you’re not on the same page as your listener, things can go south pretty quickly.

If only you knew EXACTLY what your audience was looking for…

If you knew you’d eliminate the details your audience didn’t care about. You’d skip frustrating delays, confusion and rework. And you’d nail your presentation in record time.

If you’re tired of wondering how to more accurately target what your audience wants, then come and learn this fast and practical approach to pinpoint top-of-mind needs. This session is designed to help you target and adjust your message based on your audience, and more successfully engage them.

You’ll learn how to:

• Identify what your audience is looking for.
• Strike the perfect balance of insight and details.
• Position your topic as a “must-learn-more” proposition.
• Create a concise update or message in 10 sentences or less.

Rebecca Okamoto is a communication and personal brand consultant, and the founder of Evoke Strategy Group. Rebecca helps professionals master clear, concise communications so they become better recognized for their ideas, potential, and strengths. She’s an expert at helping people introduce themselves in 20 words or less, and showing them how to pitch the big picture in under 60 seconds. Rebecca also teaches strategic communications and executive presence where leaders learn how to capture the room, and project confidence, expertise and insight.

Rebecca is a former P&G executive and first Asian American woman to reach the top 1% of the Supply Chain Function. She was also P&G’s first Asian woman to run a supply chain in Japan. Today she is on a mission to develop Asian leaders who will develop Asians, everywhere.

Rebecca is a popular blogger and speaker, and she consults with corporations, associations and entrepreneurs on career and communication success. Her clients include Procter & Gamble, Medtronic, Asian Business League San Francisco, and Network of Executive Women.

We work in a multi-tasking, attention deficit environment. Did you know you have a better chance of engaging with a goldfish than the person next to you?

You may have important ideas to share, but it won’t matter if no one’s listening.

This is a practical workshop where you’ll learn a fast, effective process to construct a compelling proposal, and create presentations that keep listeners engaged from start to finish. You’ll learn how to tailor your message and design presentations that maximize engagement and demonstrate your insights and expertise.

In this interactive workshop we’ll walk through:

• 4 Guidelines to maximize audience engagement.
• Layout your proposal to capture and keep attention, overcome objections and gain agreement.
• Step by Step framework to present any concept in a few as 10 slides.

Best for: Experienced mid-level managers of others

Rebecca Okamoto is a communication and personal brand consultant, and the founder of Evoke Strategy Group. Rebecca helps professionals master clear, concise communications so they become better recognized for their ideas, potential, and strengths. She’s an expert at helping people introduce themselves in 20 words or less, and showing them how to pitch the big picture in under 60 seconds. Rebecca also teaches strategic communications and executive presence where leaders learn how to capture the room, and project confidence, expertise and insight.

Rebecca is a former P&G executive and first Asian American woman to reach the top 1% of the Supply Chain Function. She was also P&G’s first Asian woman to run a supply chain in Japan. Today she is on a mission to develop Asian leaders who will develop Asians, everywhere.

Rebecca is a popular blogger and speaker, and she consults with corporations, associations and entrepreneurs on career and communication success. Her clients include Procter & Gamble, Medtronic, Asian Business League San Francisco, and Network of Executive Women.

This session will help strengthen your Business Acumen, which is both a real skill gap and a perceived gap for Asians as some leaders view Asians as technical masters but less business savvy.

The objective of this session is to help you “Speak the Language of Business” – understand your Company and your Business Unit business through the lens of the Profit & Loss (P&L) model, and to help you connect YOUR work to your organization's business performance. It is also a way to build understanding and relationship with your manager(s) by understanding their role and the larger context of what drives their decision-making.

Best for: Early/Mid-Career Professionals

Dennis Hirotsu’s 35-year R&D career at Procter & Gamble spanned multiple businesses; Baby Care, Feminine Care, Household Cleaners, and Hair Color. His global experience includes 13 years located in Asia building P&G’s Baby and Feminine Care business in the region, and the launch of Ultrathin diapers in Europe. Dennis also led innovation capability for the R&D function reporting to P&G's Chief Innovation and Technology Officer. Dennis supported the API community as the executive sponsor for APIs in R&D. Dennis previously served on the SASE Board, and currently is an Executive Advisor for SASE following his retirement from P&G in 2016.

Uday’s 31-year R&D career at Procter & Gamble spanned multiple businesses: Fabric & Home Care and Beauty, Skin, Personal, and Hair Care. His global experience includes 8 years living in Asia - in Manila and Beijing – as well as extensive travel across the region. Uday also led innovation capability for the R&D function in the areas of consumer understanding and disruptive innovation. Uday was heavily involved in P&G’s Asian ERG, serving in different roles including ERG leader. Following his retirement from P&G in 2018, Uday serves as Executive Advisor for SASE Professional, when he is not busy walking his dog, working out, or trading stocks & options.

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COVID-19 has caused many of us to reflect on our purpose in life and even reconsider the kind of work we do. It has given us the opportunity to pause and take a good look at the lives that we have been living.

Are you tired of seeing other people succeed?

Are you tired of having a mediocre life and career?

Are you tired of feeling frustrated knowing you can do better than this?

Don’t spend one more day feeling disconnected, lost, stuck, or unworthy.

The Reason of Being framework is based on the ancient teaching of the Japanese IKIGAI. Studies show the secret to Japanese living a long and happy life is in IKIGAI which gives us the purpose to wake up with joy everyday.

In this interactive one-day workshop you will:

• Discover the step-by-step framework that will help you pinpoint what lights you up so you can gain clarity over your life and career to unleash your full potential and create more leadership capacity
• Tap into your brilliance and leverage every ounce of your potential and become the leader at work and in life
• Find how to align your work and your life to create more time and energy and NATURALLY start to make the progress you want to make.
• Stop doubting yourself and start trusting yourself.

Each of us has a unique reason of being. You belong here to make your unique contribution to this world. Attend this workshop and start your journey to make the changes that will bring you more purpose, clarity, and confidence, so you can increase your leadership capacity and be the change in this world.

Best for:8+ years of workplace experience (manager or non-manager)

Nozomi Morgan is the CEO of Michiki Morgan Worldwide. Her passion is to develop global leaders who can lead beyond cultural differences and boundaries and do good in this world. She is known as the bridge-builder helping global leaders, teams, and corporations to overcome the tension and frustration that arise from cultural differences. She leads a team of world-class experts who help international organizations when they have a critical need to improve quality, performance, and profitability through building a culture of excellence.

Earlier in her career, she was appointed to open the Japan office for a U.S. firm and she continued to lead international teams and projects for industry-leading global companies through complex situations such as merger and acquisitions. Her diverse international background — having lived and worked in Asia, Europe and North America — gives her a wealth of experience and knowledge as a trusted partner to international organizations. Born and raised in Japan, she values integrity, professionalism, and respect, all of which are core tenets of her deeply ingrained heritage.

She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and Huffington Post. She holds an MBA from Yale School of Management.

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How effective are you at influencing others' behavior? The more your career grows, the more you will "play for yes" in the form of proposals, suggestions, and requests to the people you work with. You will often stumble upon No which can be frustrating. But leadership is not about your position or title, it is about your ability to influence the way others think, and act!

What if No was just the starting point? In this session, you will discover the psychology and mechanics of influence, and learn how to turn more of those No's in Yes's

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Turbulent times can wreak havoc on a global, and personal scale. And resilience is needed in our work, and personal lives. Improvisation can help you improve your communication, and learn to better navigate our current world.

A variety of exercises will help you identify your own communication tendencies. And you’ll practice techniques to help you keep a positive mindset, and strengthen your resilience, public speaking, interpersonal skills, and creativity. In addition, coming from a STEM and Asian background can present its own challenges and preconceived notions. Come see how improvisation can help free you to embrace change, failure, and collaboration. And learn skills to enjoy more enriching and effective communication, in your work, family, and social life.

Stir Friday Night is a 25-year-old Asian-American nonprofit theater company, specializing in sketch comedy and improvisation. Avery Lee joined in 2010, became the Artistic Director, and then the Executive Director. Stir Friday Night’s mission is to improve representation and affect the perception of Asian Americans. Based in Chicago, their alumni include Danny Pudi from Community, and Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead. Stir Friday Night performs shows and conducts workshops at companies, schools, and organizations around the country. Avery has also performed with Second City and iO Chicago, and worked with NBC and Comedy Central.

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Emotional intelligence is the #1 sought after leadership skill organizations pay billions of dollars to nurture leaders. Empathy is proven to be a core foundational skill that all other emotional intelligent leadership skills are built on to succeed. The misconception is empathy makes a leader soft, research has proven the opposite. Empathy strengthens leadership decisions, team engagement, relationship between leaders and direct reports as well as impact on community and social responsibility.

In this session, learn the 3 pillars that make you an effective leader - compassion for self, empathy for others and accountability for both.

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A personal brand is a widely-recognized and largely-uniform perception or impression of an individual based on their experience, expertise, competencies, actions and/or achievements within a community, industry, or the marketplace at large. Does reading that definition make you curious to learn more? Or does it make you cringe because you shy away from self-promotion? If it's some of the latter, then you're like most of us Asians. Join Engineer-Turned-Entertainer Rajiv Satyal for his Personal Branding workshop where he’ll provide the Definitions and Elements of Personal Branding (What It Is and What It Is Not), outline the process, and walk you through a number of exercises that will help you finalize your own Personal Brand. Rajiv will also share his own journey with personal branding… literally… as he shifted from working on product branding for companies like Procter & Gamble and FIJI Water to working on branding himself as a comedian.

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A workshop to help ambitious employees chart their path to the top.

It begins with dispelling the myth of the ‘lone wolf’ success theory and introducing the mindset needed to succeed. Next, attendees learn how to break down and know their core motivations, personality characteristics and inherent strengths. They discover how to harness all these personal characteristics and transform them into high impact ideas and services they can offer their employer. Finally, they learn about the types of professional evangelists needed in their corner, how to cultivate those relationships and how to strategically build goodwill in their workplace and their larger network.

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We work in a multi-tasking, attention deficit environment. Did you know you have a better chance of engaging with a goldfish than the person next to you?

You may have important ideas to share, but it won’t matter if no one’s listening.

This is a practical workshop where you’ll learn a fast, effective process to construct a compelling proposal, and create presentations that keep listeners engaged from start to finish. You’ll learn how to tailor your message and design presentations that maximize engagement and demonstrate your insights and expertise.

In this interactive workshop we’ll walk through:

• 4 Guidelines to maximize audience engagement.
• Layout your proposal to capture and keep attention, overcome objections and gain agreement.
• Step by Step framework to present any concept in a few as 10 slides.

Best for: Experienced Mid-Level Managers of Others

Rebecca Okamoto is a communication and personal brand consultant, and the founder of Evoke Strategy Group. Rebecca helps professionals master clear, concise communications so they become better recognized for their ideas, potential, and strengths. She’s an expert at helping people introduce themselves in 20 words or less, and showing them how to pitch the big picture in under 60 seconds. Rebecca also teaches strategic communications and executive presence where leaders learn how to capture the room, and project confidence, expertise and insight.

Rebecca is a former P&G executive and first Asian American woman to reach the top 1% of the Supply Chain Function. She was also P&G’s first Asian woman to run a supply chain in Japan. Today she is on a mission to develop Asian leaders who will develop Asians, everywhere.

Rebecca is a popular blogger and speaker, and she consults with corporations, associations and entrepreneurs on career and communication success. Her clients include Procter & Gamble, Medtronic, Asian Business League San Francisco, and Network of Executive Women.

Learn how to build a functional, capsule wardrobe that works for you (not the other way around). Premier stylist and fashion entrepreneur, Samantha Shih, has styled thousands of clients from young professionals to professional athletes. In our workshop, Sam will show you her simple approach to building your life's uniform. She will also discuss which pieces to invest in; how to mix and match the essentials in your wardrobe; why fit is so important, and how to develop your own personal style. With these tips, Sam believes that anyone can feel confident and look their best for any occasion.

Best for: All Professionals

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Over the past year, our society has simultaneously experienced a pandemic, civil unrest, natural disasters and a new social consciousness. These factors have had a major impact on today’s workplace as outside influencers have a significant effect on employees’ emotional and physical wellbeing. How a leader responds can affect employee engagement as well as the efficacy of teams. Leaders of all levels have been challenged to demonstrate social awareness, develop emotional intelligence, evolve, and “up skill” quickly to address the needs of employees within their organizations. In this session, our leaders will discuss how they have adjusted their leadership styles, learned to be better listeners, demonstrated empathy, and developed skills in allyship to maintain employee engagement, increase team productivity, and facilitate unity across the organization. They will share relevant stories from personal experiences over the past year, and provide tips on how current and future leaders can effectively lead when employees are experiencing stress outside of the organization that carries over into their workplace experience.

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Strategies to Leverage and Boost Relationships in the Workplace

Allies and adversaries exist in many ways at work, yet how do we average each? Alliances prove easier, as they often form from common cause, and can forge friendships. This session includes tactics to advance your relationships from alliances. Equally important, adversaries can prove quite valuable in professional and leadership development—if you know how to leverage these relationships. How can adversaries support us as we refine positions, recognize blind spots, and reduce conflict? Join us with this interactive session to learn how.

As the Chair of Elevate, Vu H. Pham, Ph.D. works with dozens of organizations from the Fortune 500 to government and non-profit agencies. Elevate is a partnership with the University of California Irvine Merage School of Business’ Executive Education, as well as Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside's Career Centers, the UC Office of the President—MESA, & Spectrum Knowledge. The Elevate Program boosts organizational performance and strategic effectiveness through interactive learning and research. Dr. Pham's work has been featured on national and international multimedia, such as CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, Forbes, Voice of America, Los Angeles Times, KSCI International Television, Strategic Innovators, Asian Week and Radio Free Asia. He has given numerous keynote speeches internationally and has written many publications. He has helped generate over a million dollars for non-profit groups and donates many hours to them.

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Beena Kavalam is a leadership consultant, located in the Metro New York area, and CEO of Personal Revolution Consulting, an executive coaching and training consultancy.

Beena received an M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business and a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Rutgers University. She also has her

Executive Coaching certifications from the International Coaching Federation (PCC) and the Co-Active Training Institute (CPCC).

Beena started her career as a management consultant for Accenture and later worked as a brand manager on the Bayer Aspirin®, Flintstones™ Vitamins and International Delight® brands. Today, she coaches over 600 top millennial leaders and C-level executives around the country on the topics of mindset, communication and leadership.

In this fast-paced world, clear and concise communications are vital in any interaction, whether you’re talking to your board, your boss, your team, or your clients. In this workshop, leadership coach and communications trainer Lily Tung Crystal teaches you how to get your message across quickly and clearly, in a compelling, impactful way. You’ll learn effective techniques and hands-on exercises that you can use to hone your messaging throughout your career.

• Create clear, focused, persuasive messages.
• Understand what your audience needs and focus on content that resonates with them.
• Increase your awareness of body language, non-verbal communication, and your voice and how they affect you getting your message across.
• Learn techniques to create and communicate clear, concise messages in 20 seconds or less.
• Understand and enhance the three elements that operate in any communication – you, your audience, and your message.
• Use bridging to transition from difficult questions to your key message.
• Learn how to assess how you’re doing and adjust your communications on the spot.

Lily Tung Crystal is a Hudson-certified leadership coach and a media and communications trainer, who has navigated diverse careers in both the corporate and creative world. She is also an actor, director, and the artistic director of Theater Mu in the Twin Cities, one of the largest Asian American theaters in the country.

As a coach and trainer, Lily helps people embrace their voice, improve their communication skills, and build their leadership presence. To this work, she brings 15 years of experience as a corporate communications trainer and 25 years as a journalist/producer. She uses a holistic methodology to train corporate executives, managers and other staff in a variety of industries – from the arts, media, and nonprofit, to healthcare and technology. Her clients have included Intel, Sandoz, Pfizer, and Eli Lilly.

For the last decade, Lily has also been a prominent social activist promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the arts, pushing forward representation on America’s stages, and giving voice to marginalized stories. She is a 2016 YBCA 100 honoree, named by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, as a “creative pioneer making the provocations that will shape the future of culture.”

The creation, sharing and exchange of ideas is the foundation of innovation. However, these things can be vulnerable and scary. This human element of innovation can be the roadblock that prevents organizations from truly innovating.

So how do you create the conditions for success to enable a free flow of ideas in innovation? The answer is psychological safety. Harvard Business School Professor, Amy Edmondson, defines this as “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.”

In this experiential workshop, participants will learn what it takes to cultivate a healthy environment that empowers courageous innovation. Participants will be equipped with tools to develop this for themselves and others.

Takeaways:

1. Participants will learn what psychological safety is and why it’s important.
2. Participants will learn the challenges and roadblocks that prevent psychological safety in innovation.
3. Participants will gain tools to create a healthy environment to empower courageous innovation for themselves and for others.

Leo is the founder of Abound Innovation – their mission is to unleash the power + joy of innovation & creativity to all. He brings 20+ years of experience to the world of innovation & creativity. He's the former Senior Innovation Lead at Chick-fil-A and former innovator at State Farm Insurance.

Leo was the catalyst for a thriving culture of innovation at Chick-fil-A. Leo redesigned Hatch, Chick-fil-A's 30,000 sq. ft Innovation Center, transforming it into an epicentre for innovation. He developed, trained and mentored Chick-fil-A innovators. He also designed and created innovation events attended by 1000+ employees.

Leo is a formally trained graphic designer, a named inventor on 41 US patents, insatiably curious and a lifelong learner. Leo is a licensed trainer of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methods with Strategic Play Global, a Certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator, Certified Virtual Facilitator and a Certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach.

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