Atlanta keynote speaker for corporate, healthcare, and association events.
Chris Sund is a keynote speaker, Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach, and sitting executive who leads national healthcare staffing organizations. He speaks on workforce motivation, leadership, retention, and human potential for Georgia associations, health systems, airlines and logistics employers, corporations, and organizations across metro Atlanta.
Response within one business day.
Your people spend all day absorbing anger for things they did not cause and cannot fix.
That is the defining condition of work in this city, and it is a direct consequence of what Atlanta does for a living.
Hartsfield-Jackson is the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic, and the airport together with Delta and its supporting businesses employs more than sixty three thousand people, making it the single largest source of employment in Georgia. Transportation and material moving occupations account for better than three hundred five thousand workers across the metro, and trade, transportation and utilities leads the region at roughly six hundred forty nine thousand jobs. Delta runs above forty two thousand people locally. UPS is headquartered here. Layer on Emory, Northside, Piedmont, Wellstar, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Grady, and a very large share of this metro works at the exact point where a complicated system finally touches an actual human being.
That position has a cost nobody puts in a job description. A gate agent absorbs the fury generated by a thunderstorm over Dallas. A ramp crew absorbs a turn time set months ago by someone building a schedule. A driver takes the complaint for a delay in a sorting facility two states away. A nurse at Grady absorbs frustration about a wait caused by capacity upstream of her. Not one of those people caused the problem, not one of them can solve it, and all of them stand there and take the reaction anyway, shift after shift.
Here is the part leaders control, and it is more important than they think. The person can survive being yelled at by a customer. What breaks them is being yelled at by the customer and then, twenty minutes later, hearing it again from a supervisor about the metric. That second conversation is where the turnover actually gets created. The anger has to stop with the customer. When a supervisor absorbs it instead of passing it down, the job stays survivable. When they relay it, the employee concludes that nobody is on their side, and that conclusion is permanent.
That is a specific, teachable behavior, and it is what this session works on.
Chris runs national healthcare staffing organizations and has keynoted state association conferences in eleven states, including LeadingAge Illinois and health care associations in Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado.
Operator, Not Consultant
President and COO of national healthcare staffing organizations, still making the hiring and retention calls he speaks about.
Customer-Facing Frontlines
Material built for people who take the reaction, whether the badge says airline, hospital, hotel, or distribution center.
Convention and Corporate Formats
Works in a large general session, a corporate all-hands, or a shift-repeated operations meeting.
Groups Chris speaks for.
Metro Atlanta employs more than three million people across a mix of aviation, logistics, healthcare, and corporate headquarters, which makes it one of the widest markets in the country for a workforce keynote.
- Delta Air Lines and the Hartsfield-Jackson employer community, including Delta TechOps and the ground handling, concessions, and support businesses that make the airport the state’s largest employment source
- Emory Healthcare with eleven hospitals, alongside Northside Hospital, Piedmont Healthcare, Wellstar Health System, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, for nurse leadership, all-staff, and recognition events
- Grady Health System, the region’s safety-net and teaching hospital affiliated with the Emory and Morehouse schools of medicine
- Logistics and distribution employers including UPS, headquartered in Sandy Springs, and the warehousing and supply chain operations across the metro
- Corporate headquarters including The Home Depot, The Coca-Cola Company, Southern Company, and Cox Enterprises, for all-hands gatherings and leadership summits
- National and regional associations holding annual meetings in Atlanta, the format Chris works in most often
- Emory University, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, the Atlanta University Center institutions, and metro school districts
Atlanta employers on the receiving end.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, but the absorbing role is shared across this economy.
Aviation and Airport Operations
Gate, ramp, maintenance, catering, and concessions teams whose day is dictated by weather and by decisions made elsewhere in the network.
Logistics and Distribution
Drivers, sorters, and dispatchers taking the consequence of delays generated upstream, in a sector currently absorbing significant restructuring.
Hospitality and Retail
Hotel, restaurant, and store teams serving a major convention destination, where the frontline is the entire brand experience.
Contact Centers and Corporate Services
Customer service and support operations across the metro’s headquarters and shared service centers.
Atlanta and metro venues.
- The Georgia World Congress Center and downtown hotel ballrooms for national association annual meetings and general sessions
- Corporate headquarters and campuses across Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, and Dunwoody for all-hands and leadership summits
- Airport area facilities and operations centers for shift-friendly sessions with ground and maintenance teams
- Emory, Northside, Piedmont, Wellstar, Children’s, and Grady campuses for nurse leadership and all-staff days
- Emory, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, and the Atlanta University Center for campus and staff programming
- Marietta, Decatur, Lawrenceville, and the surrounding counties, with Savannah and Athens for Georgia organizations that rotate their meeting location
Atlanta events Chris speaks at.
Association Conferences
National and statewide association annual meetings and general sessions, the format Chris works in most often.
Corporate and Operations Meetings
All-hands gatherings, sales kickoffs, leadership summits, and shift-repeated operations sessions.
Hospital and Health System Events
Leadership days, nurse recognition events, and all-staff meetings across the metro’s systems.
Patient and Customer Experience
Sessions connecting how frontline staff are treated to what customers and patients actually experience.
Retention and Frontline Leadership
Supervisor development for teams that absorb pressure generated elsewhere in the system.
Long-Term and Senior Care
Skilled nursing, assisted living, and continuing care conferences and in-service days.
Keynote topics for your Atlanta event.
Every session is customized for the audience, the format, and what you are actually trying to change.
See what conference organizers and HR leaders have said after booking Chris.
Booking a keynote speaker in Atlanta
Has Chris spoken in Georgia before?
Does Chris travel to Atlanta?
Our frontline takes abuse from customers daily. Can a keynote actually help?
Can the session run around a 24 hour operation?
Can Chris speak to a large convention general session?
What does an Atlanta keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to a Georgia audience?
Bring Chris to your Atlanta event.
Send your date, location, and audience. You will get availability and a quote back within one business day.
info@chrissund.com · 402-212-5771 · Georgia speaking · All locations