Memphis keynote speaker for logistics, 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 Tennessee associations, logistics employers, health systems, and organizations across the Mid-South.
Response within one business day.
This city’s real workforce is asleep when your leadership meeting happens.
Memphis runs at night more than any other major American city, and its management runs during the day. That mismatch is the leadership problem here, and almost nobody names it.
The FedEx World Hub at Memphis International is the largest air cargo facility on earth, sorting more than a million and a half packages, and the whole model depends on darkness. Freight lands late, gets sorted through the small hours, and leaves before dawn. FedEx is the area’s largest single employer with somewhere in the range of thirty to thirty five thousand local jobs, and transportation and material moving occupations account for more than one hundred eight thousand workers across the metro. Add the intermodal yards, the port, and the interstate corridor, then layer the hospitals on top, with Methodist Le Bonheur near fourteen thousand employees and Baptist Memorial around eleven thousand five hundred, all of which staff overnight too.
Now look at how organizations actually operate. Decisions get made in daytime meetings. Announcements go out in mid-morning emails. Recognition happens at lunch events and afternoon town halls. The service awards are handed out at three in the afternoon.
None of that is malicious. It is just scheduled, and the effect is that the people doing the work this city is known for are structurally outside the organization’s attention. They hear about decisions secondhand. They meet their director twice a year. They are described in meetings they are not in, by people who have never watched them work.
The fix is not a program and it is not free of effort. A leader who wants the overnight shift to believe they matter has to be there at two in the morning, more than once, often enough that it stops being an event and starts being normal. Nothing else substitutes for it, and everyone on nights can tell the difference between a visit and a habit.
Worth noting this city has proof it can be done well. St. Jude was ranked among the best large employers in America, ninth nationally on one recent list, which is not an accident and did not happen from a daytime desk.
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, an industry that runs every hour of the clock.
Sessions That Run at Night
Bookings here regularly include an overnight repeat, because a session only the day shift attends proves the point being made.
Frontline and Dock Rooms
Material written for people who work on their feet, not for a conference room.
Groups Chris speaks for.
Memphis combines the world’s largest air cargo operation with a substantial medical district, which puts logistics and clinical audiences in one city.
- FedEx, headquartered in Memphis as the region’s largest employer, along with the third party logistics, intermodal, and distribution operators across the metro
- Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare with roughly fourteen thousand employees and Baptist Memorial Health Care with around eleven thousand five hundred, for nurse leadership, all-staff, and recognition events
- St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, anchoring the Memphis Medical District
- Corporate headquarters including AutoZone, International Paper, First Horizon, and Smith and Nephew, for all-hands gatherings and leadership summits
- Memphis-Shelby County Schools, among the largest districts in Tennessee, for in-service and staff development days
- Tennessee statewide associations in hospital, long-term care, trucking, municipal, and education sectors
- University of Memphis and the region’s colleges, plus the Port of Memphis and rail intermodal operators
Memphis employers running through the night.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, and in this city it shares a clock with everything else.
Air Cargo and Logistics
Hub, ramp, and sort operations whose peak hours run while the rest of the city sleeps.
Warehousing and Distribution
Fulfillment and cross-dock facilities across the metro and into north Mississippi, staffed around the clock.
Healthcare
Hospitals and long-term care providers whose overnight clinical teams face the same invisibility.
Rail, Port, and Manufacturing
Intermodal terminals, river operations, and plants running continuous shifts.
Memphis and Mid-South venues.
- The Renasant Convention Center and downtown hotel space for statewide and regional association annual meetings
- Hub, sort, and distribution facilities for overnight and shift-repeated crew sessions
- Methodist Le Bonheur, Baptist Memorial, and Medical District campuses for nurse leadership and all-staff days
- Corporate headquarters across East Memphis and the metro for all-hands and leadership summits
- University of Memphis and UTHSC for campus and staff programming
- Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett, and DeSoto County, Mississippi across the metro
Memphis events Chris speaks at.
Logistics and Operations Meetings
Shift meetings, safety kickoffs, peak season sessions, and all-hands gatherings, including overnight repeats.
Hospital and Health System Events
Leadership days, nurse recognition events, and all-staff meetings.
Association Conferences
Statewide and regional association annual meetings and general sessions.
Retention and Frontline Leadership
Supervisor development for organizations whose most critical work happens outside business hours.
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 shift work, recognition, and retention.
Keynote topics for your Memphis 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 Memphis
Has Chris spoken in Tennessee before?
Does Chris travel to Memphis?
Will Chris actually run a session overnight?
Will this land with a dock or sort audience rather than an office one?
Our peak season is brutal. Is there a right time to book?
What does a Memphis keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to a Memphis audience?
Bring Chris to your Memphis 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 · Tennessee speaking · All locations
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