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CultureCon believes that every individual, regardless of role, has the power to make work more meaningful for themselves and their organization. Join us!
CultureCon® believes that every individual, regardless of role, has the power to make work more meaningful for themselves and their organization. CultureCon® creates experiences and curate meaningful connections that empower individuals to become cultural change agents. You can join our our community of Culture Geeks and support the movement toward more uplifting, fulfilling, and healthier workplaces.
💡AI today is the worst you’ll ever see.
At CultureCon’s AI Summit, Julie Williamson of Karrikins Group made a point that completely reframes how leaders should think about AI:
The problem isn’t the technology.
The problem is whether people are willing to actually use it.
Because the AI you’re using today?
It’s the worst AI you’ll ever use again.
It’s improving every single day at an almost unimaginable pace.
That’s why leaders can’t afford to sit on the sidelines waiting for “perfect.” The real learning happens when people get their hands on the keyboard and start experimenting.
Grab a ticket to our AI Summit 2027: https://www.cultureconusa.org/ai-summit-2027
💡 AI Solutions: Solve Business Problems, Not Just New Tech
At CultureCon’s AI Summit, Katie Grillaert of Assessed Intelligence shared one of the most grounded takes on AI adoption:
Don’t start with the latest AI model.
Start with your actual business problem.
Where are the bottlenecks?
What processes are broken?
What would genuinely improve the business?
Sometimes the answer is AI.
Sometimes the answer is a conversation with the person in the next department.
The organizations getting AI right aren’t chasing hype. They’re focused on solving real problems intentionally.
Grab your early bird tickets to AI Summit 2027: https://www.cultureconusa.org/ai-summit-2027
06/12/2026
CultureCon 2026 Speaker Announcement
We’re excited to welcome Dr. Kyle Elliot as a speaker at CultureCon 2026!
His session is titled: “From Burnout to Boundaries: Protecting Your Peace as a Workplace Culture Leader”
Culture leaders are often the ones holding space for everyone else.
They guide change. Support teams. Navigate conflict. Carry emotional weight. And yet the people responsible for sustaining culture are often the most vulnerable to burnout.
In this highly interactive workshop, Dr. Elliott will help attendees rethink what well being actually means in high responsibility roles. Through guided exercises, peer dialogue, and practical reflection, participants will explore how professional identity shapes boundaries and learn how to protect their energy without sacrificing their impact.
In this session, you’ll explore how to:
- Challenge common myths about productivity, availability, and leadership that contribute to burnout.
- Define boundaries that support greater focus, resilience, and effectiveness.
-A pply practical, trauma informed tools to protect energy and navigate high pressure environments.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Kyle Elliott is an executive coach who helps leaders navigate major career transitions and demanding professional environments with clarity and confidence. Known for his trauma informed approach, he supports senior managers and executives in building fulfilling careers while protecting their well being and sense of purpose. His clients have landed roles at organizations including Meta, Amazon, and Google, and his work blends psychological insight with practical strategies for thriving in today’s workplace.
CultureCon 2026
- August 4 to 6
- Madison, Wisconsin & Virtual
💡 Stop Confusing Agreement With Alignment
Agreement is easy. Alignment is where the real leadership work begins.
Kate Zappitelli (Karrikins Group) explains why leaders cannot stop at saying, “That’s a good idea.” Real alignment requires intentionality, growth mindset, and the courage to have uncomfortable conversations.
The question every leader should ask daily: Where am I still in the failure gap?
Watch the full episode for more on building aligned teams that turn strategy into everyday behavior.
We sat down with Sergio Santamaria of People People at CultureCon West in Las Vegas. Sergio shared that AI and social media makes it easier to stay connected on the surface. But it can also make it easier to avoid the real stuff: awkwardness, rejection, vulnerability, and the discomfort that comes with building actual human relationships.
Human connection still matters. We cannot outsource connection to technology when it is so integral to human nature.
06/10/2026
CultureCon 2026 Speaker Announcement
We’re excited to welcome Eric Glenn, CDP® and Sertrice Shipley as copresenters at CultureCon 2026!
Their session is titled: “From Mistrust to Momentum: Turning Employee Voice into Culture Change During Turbulent Times”
When organizations experience leadership transitions, restructuring, low morale, or other forms of disruption, employees often feel disconnected from decision making and skeptical that their feedback will lead to meaningful change.
Rebuilding trust takes more than communication. It requires a clear path from employee voice to visible action.
In this case-based session, Eric and Sertrice will share how they partnered with Virginia Tech University Libraries to address deep mistrust through employee listening, community dialogue, leadership engagement, and culture strategy. Attendees will gain practical insights into how organizations can transform feedback into momentum and create lasting change, even in low trust environments.
Through real world examples, participants will explore how to balance quick wins, leadership development, and long term culture infrastructure to create sustainable progress.
In this session, you’ll explore how to:
-Translate employee voice into action using a structured data to decision framework.
-Select and partner with external consultants in ways that strengthen credibility and trust.
-Design culture strategies that balance immediate action with long term transformation.
06/09/2026
🎧 New Podcast: Aligning Teams Through Clarity, Courage and Commitment
Nick and Zach sit down with Kate Zappitelli, Principal Consultant at Karrikins Group and Chair of the Alignment Institute, to unpack why agreement is not enough for people-first leaders.
Listen Now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aligning-teams-through-clarity-courage-and-commitment/id1826574869?i=1000771839133
💡 HR Should Become Human Potential
What if HR stood for something bigger?
Latesha Byrd (Perfeqta) shares a powerful reframe: move from human resources to human potential.
Great teams don’t just manage policies, processes, or people operations. They create the conditions where people, teams, and organizations can truly thrive. That’s the future of people-first leadership.
Watch the full conversation on The CultureCon Podcast.
06/05/2026
CultureCon 2026 Speaker Announcement
We’re excited to welcome Rema Lolas, Founder of Grozaic and Unstoppable Leadership, as a speaker at CultureCon 2026!
Her session is titled: “The Next Evolution of Team Performance: Why Talent, Engagement, and Personality Tests Aren’t Enough”
Organizations have spent decades trying to improve performance by hiring better talent, measuring engagement, and leveraging personality assessments. Yet many teams still struggle with misalignment, unclear accountability, and communication breakdowns that quietly undermine results.
Why?
Because team performance is not simply the sum of individual strengths. It is a reflection of the dynamics between people.
In this thought provoking session, Rema will explore why traditional approaches often miss the deeper drivers of performance and introduce a more systemic way of understanding how high performing teams actually operate.
Drawing on organizational research and insights from thousands of team performance data points, attendees will discover the critical dynamics that influence trust, accountability, communication, clarity, and team effectiveness.
In this session, you’ll explore how to:
-Understand why team performance is driven by dynamics, not just individual talent.
-Recognize the performance pillars that sustain high performing teams.
-Identify hidden barriers to alignment, accountability, and communication.
About the Speaker:
Rema Lolas is the Founder of Grozaic and Unstoppable Leadership, where she helps organizations unlock the dynamics behind high performing teams. With more than two decades of experience across the technology industry and extensive work with leadership teams in technology, finance, consulting, and professional services, Rema has focused her career on helping organizations improve alignment, accountability, communication, and trust. She is the creator of the Team Dynamics Assessment, a framework designed to uncover how teams are truly functioning beneath the surface and what leaders can do to strengthen performance.
AI Experimentation: Curiosity, Courage, and Ethical AI
At CultureCon’s AI Summit, Daniel Raffield of Karrikins Group shared a perspective that really stuck with the room:
No one hands us a roadmap for the meaningful moments in our careers. We figure it out through experimentation, reflection, mistakes, and growth.
AI feels the same way right now.
There’s no perfect playbook. We have to learn where to experiment, where to slow down, where ethics matter most, and where we as humans still need to show up fully.
That’s the real challenge of this moment. Not just adopting AI, but navigating it intentionally.
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