Indianapolis keynote speaker for life sciences, 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 Indiana associations, life sciences and manufacturing employers, health systems, state agencies, and organizations across central Indiana.
Check Indianapolis Availability
Response within one business day.
Your work takes ten years. Your feedback loops run on ninety days.
Indianapolis is built on industries where the thing you are working on today will not be finished for a very long time, and the way organizations are designed to motivate people does not account for that at all.
Eli Lilly was founded here in 1876 and is headquartered here still, employing around fifty thousand people worldwide with somewhere in the range of ten to twelve thousand in the metro. The regional life sciences cluster runs roughly three hundred fifty companies and about twenty nine thousand jobs. Rolls-Royce puts its North American headquarters here with around four thousand people in aerospace engineering. Roche Diagnostics, Allison Transmission, Cummins and the wider manufacturing base sit alongside them, in a state with one of the highest concentrations of manufacturing employment in the country. Education and health services employ around one hundred ninety one thousand across the metro, with IU Health carrying the largest physician network in Indiana.
A compound. An engine program. A transmission platform. A clinical protocol. Every one of those is measured in years, and most of them fail. A scientist who joins here at twenty six may work a full career and watch very few of the things they touched reach an actual patient.
Meanwhile the organization runs quarterly reviews, annual goals, and an engagement survey every spring. Every feedback mechanism a company owns operates on a cycle dramatically shorter than the work itself. So people spend a decade being evaluated on progress toward something that will not resolve inside any timeframe the review process can see, and the honest emotional experience of that is a very long stretch of not knowing whether any of it mattered.
The leadership answer is not more patience talk. If the outcome is ten years out, the meaning has to come from somewhere closer. Progress that is visible this month. Craft, meaning being demonstrably better at the work than last year. And a leader willing to treat the intermediate milestones as real achievements rather than as prelude to the only thing that counts. Organizations that only celebrate approvals and launches are asking people to go a decade without a reason to feel good about their job.
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.
Long-Cycle Work
Material for organizations whose results arrive on a timeline no review cycle can measure.
Technical and Clinical Rooms
Works for a research organization, an engineering group, or a hospital leadership day.
Groups Chris speaks for.
Indianapolis combines the state capital with one of the country’s deepest life sciences clusters, a large health system base, and a substantial manufacturing and logistics economy.
- Eli Lilly and Company, founded in Indianapolis in 1876 and headquartered here, along with the region’s roughly three hundred fifty life sciences companies and Roche Diagnostics
- IU Health, Indiana’s largest healthcare provider with the state’s largest physician network, plus Community Health Network and Ascension St. Vincent, for nurse leadership, all-staff, and recognition events
- Rolls-Royce North America, headquartered in Indianapolis with about four thousand people in aerospace and defense engineering, alongside Allison Transmission and Cummins
- State of Indiana agencies, employing tens of thousands across the region, for in-service and leadership development days
- Indiana statewide associations in hospital, long-term care, manufacturing, municipal, and education sectors, which convene members in the capital
- National associations and sports governing bodies, including the organizations clustered around the NCAA headquarters, in a sports sector employing around sixteen thousand people
- Amazon and FedEx hub operations, Salesforce, Infosys, IU Indianapolis, and Butler University
Indianapolis employers on long clocks.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, but the gap between work cycles and feedback cycles runs across this economy.
Life Sciences and Pharmaceuticals
Research and development organizations where most programs fail and the successful ones take a decade.
Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing
Engineering teams on multi-year platform programs, where a career can span two product generations.
Healthcare
Clinical teams whose outcomes are often invisible, delayed, or attributable to nobody in particular.
Logistics and Corporate Services
Hub and operations teams running on daily cycles, which is a different problem needing a different session.
Indianapolis and central Indiana venues.
- The Indiana Convention Center and downtown hotel ballrooms for national and statewide association annual meetings
- The Indiana Statehouse and surrounding state office buildings for agency in-service and leadership sessions
- Corporate and research campuses across Indianapolis for all-hands and leadership summits
- IU Health, Community Health Network, and Ascension St. Vincent campuses for nurse leadership and all-staff days
- Manufacturing, hub, and distribution facilities for shift-repeated crew sessions
- Carmel, Fishers, Greenwood, and central Indiana, with Fort Wayne and Evansville for organizations that rotate their meeting location
Indianapolis events Chris speaks at.
Association Conferences
National and statewide association annual meetings and general sessions, the format Chris works in most often.
Corporate and Research All-Hands
Company gatherings, leadership summits, and kickoffs for life sciences, engineering, and manufacturing organizations.
Hospital and Health System Events
Leadership days, nurse recognition events, and all-staff meetings.
Retention and Frontline Leadership
Supervisor development for teams working toward outcomes that are years away.
Long-Term and Senior Care
Skilled nursing, assisted living, and continuing care conferences and in-service days.
HR and SHRM Chapter Events
Human resources conferences and chapter meetings on recognition and engagement in long-cycle work.
Keynote topics for your Indianapolis 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 Indianapolis
Has Chris spoken in Indiana before?
Does Chris travel to Indianapolis?
Our programs take years and most of them fail. What do you tell that room?
Our scientists and engineers are skeptical of motivational speakers.
Can Chris speak to a research or engineering audience rather than a healthcare one?
What does an Indianapolis keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to an Indiana audience?
Bring Chris to your Indianapolis 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 · Indiana speaking · All locations