Kansas City keynote speaker for healthcare, corporate, 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 associations, health systems, corporate employers, and organizations across the Kansas City metro on both sides of the state line.
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Your people watched a company move for money and nothing about their own job change. They drew a conclusion.
Kansas City is the only major American labor market split down the middle by a state line, and for roughly a decade that produced something no other city experienced in the same way.
Companies relocated across State Line Road to collect state incentives, in both directions, while the actual work stayed exactly where it was. Between 2009 and 2018 the two states spent hundreds of millions of public dollars on those moves with almost no net new jobs created. One firm went from Missouri to Kansas and then back to Missouri again, claiming subsidies each time, without ever leaving the metro. Employees generally did not move house or change school districts. Their commute shifted by a few minutes and their tax withholding changed.
In 2019 the two states did something genuinely unusual and ended it, with a law on the Missouri side and an executive order on the Kansas side, the first legally binding agreement of its kind between two states. It has come under strain since, with large relocations still moving existing jobs across the line.
Set the policy argument aside entirely, because that is not a leader’s problem to solve. What matters for anyone managing people here is what an employee learned from watching it. They learned that the institution will relocate for a sufficient incentive, and that the relationship between a company and a place is transactional at the top. People are not naive. They calibrate their own commitment to match what they observe, and most leaders never connect that to the engagement scores.
So a Kansas City supervisor is working against a specific piece of local knowledge, and arguing about it is useless. What works instead is being the thing that did not move. Consistency about small commitments. Doing what you said you would do about a schedule, a shift swap, a promised conversation. In an environment where the institution has publicly demonstrated it is not the stable object, the direct leader becomes the only available one, and that role is worth far more here than any employer brand campaign.
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.
Regional Neighbor
Based in Nebraska, a straightforward drive from Kansas City, with keynote work across the plains and midwest.
Both Sides of the Line
Sessions run for organizations with sites in both Missouri and Kansas, including repeats across locations.
Groups Chris speaks for.
The Kansas City metro spans seven core counties across two states, with major health systems, a large federal presence, and a deep corporate headquarters base.
- Health systems across the metro, including the region’s academic, children’s, and community hospitals on both sides of the state line, for nurse leadership, all-staff, and recognition events
- Health technology and services employers, in a region that has been a national center for health information technology for decades
- Corporate headquarters including Hallmark, Burns and McDonnell, JE Dunn Construction, and the engineering and construction firms rooted in the region
- Federal agencies and operations, one of the largest concentrations of federal employment outside Washington
- Missouri and Kansas statewide associations in hospital, long-term care, municipal, and education sectors, which frequently convene members in Kansas City
- Logistics, distribution, and manufacturing employers across the metro’s rail and interstate corridors
- Area school districts, universities, and long-term care providers on both sides of the line
Kansas City employers working against the same memory.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, but the credibility problem belongs to every employer in this metro.
Corporate and Professional Services
Firms whose headquarters decisions are visible to staff and whose loyalty messaging has to survive that visibility.
Health Systems
Hospitals competing across a state line for the same clinicians, where consistency at the unit level decides retention.
Construction and Engineering
Employee-owned and long-rooted firms that have an unusual advantage here and often underuse it.
Logistics and Manufacturing
Distribution and plant operations where supervisor reliability is the whole employment experience.
Kansas City and metro venues.
- The Kansas City Convention Center and downtown hotel ballrooms for statewide and regional association meetings
- Hospital campuses across Jackson, Clay, Platte, Johnson, and Wyandotte counties for nurse leadership and all-staff days
- Corporate headquarters and campuses on both sides of the state line for all-hands and leadership summits
- Overland Park, Leawood, Lee’s Summit, and the Northland for organizations with multiple metro sites
- Distribution and plant facilities for shift-repeated crew sessions
- Topeka, Wichita, Columbia, and St. Louis for organizations that rotate their meeting location
Kansas City events Chris speaks at.
Association Conferences
Statewide and regional association annual meetings and general sessions, the format Chris works in most often.
Hospital and Health System Events
Leadership days, nurse recognition events, and all-staff meetings across the metro.
Corporate All-Hands and Summits
Company gatherings, leadership meetings, and kickoffs for headquarters and operations organizations.
Retention and Frontline Leadership
Supervisor development built on consistency and keeping small commitments.
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 trust, engagement, and frontline retention.
Keynote topics for your Kansas City 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 Kansas City
Has Chris spoken in Missouri or Kansas before?
Does Chris travel to Kansas City?
Does the session take a position on economic development incentives?
Our people are cynical about company loyalty messaging. Will this help?
We have sites on both sides of the state line. Can the session cover both?
What does a Kansas City keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to a Kansas City audience?
Bring Chris to your Kansas City 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 · Missouri speaking · Kansas speaking · All locations