New Orleans keynote speaker for healthcare, hospitality, 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 Louisiana associations, health systems, hospitality and port employers, and organizations across the New Orleans region.
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In New Orleans, your people do not make the product. They are the product.
New Orleans runs on two industries that share one unusual feature, and it changes what leadership is worth here.
This is one of the most hospitality dependent economies in the country. Leisure and hospitality account for tens of thousands of local jobs, the city draws well over ten million visitors in a strong year, and tourism supplies a large share of the sales tax the city collects. The other giant is healthcare. Ochsner Health is the largest private employer in Louisiana with a workforce around forty thousand, and together with LCMC Health the two systems employ more than seventy thousand people across the metro. Around them sit Tulane University, Entergy, the Port of New Orleans, and the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility.
Look at what hospitality and healthcare actually sell. Not an object that can be inspected before it ships. They sell an experience that a person delivers in the moment, a served meal, a welcome, a shift of care, and the quality of that experience is inseparable from the state of mind of the worker delivering it. A disengaged server and an engaged server hand over the same plate and a completely different experience.
New Orleans also cannot standardize its way around that the way some destinations can. A theme park or a casino floor can engineer a guest experience through systems and scripts. What New Orleans sells is its actual culture, delivered by the people who live it, and there is no script for that. It works when the person delivering it is genuinely bought in, and it visibly falls flat when they are not.
So in this city the way a leader treats the frontline is not a soft concern sitting next to the product. It is the product. How a housekeeper, a server, or a nurse’s aide is led on a Tuesday is what a guest or a patient feels on Wednesday, and there is no layer of automation in between to cover for a morale problem.
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.
Frontline Experience Work
Built for hospitality and clinical teams whose daily engagement becomes the customer’s and the patient’s experience directly.
NATHO Annual Conference
You Are Capable of More: A Leadership Workshop for healthcare staffing executives, as incoming President of NATHO.
Groups Chris speaks for.
New Orleans combines one of the country’s most concentrated hospitality economies with one of the South’s largest health systems.
- Ochsner Health, the largest private employer in Louisiana, and LCMC Health, together employing more than seventy thousand across the metro, for nurse leadership, all-staff, and recognition events
- Hotels, restaurants, and hospitality groups across the French Quarter, the Central Business District, and the convention corridor
- Tulane University and the region’s colleges and universities
- The Port of New Orleans and the maritime, trade, and logistics employers along the river
- Entergy, headquartered in the city, and the region’s energy and professional services firms
- The NASA Michoud Assembly Facility and area aerospace and defense manufacturing
- Louisiana statewide associations and the city’s major convention business, the format Chris works in most often
New Orleans employers whose product is an experience.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, and it shares its core with the hospitality economy that defines this city.
Hospitality and Tourism
Hotels, restaurants, and venues where the guest experience is only ever as good as the person delivering it.
Healthcare
Clinical and support teams whose care is a human experience, not a product that can be inspected in advance.
Conventions and Events
A top national meeting destination where local teams carry a visitor’s entire impression of the city.
Port, Trade, and Service
Operations where reliability is delivered by people, shift after shift, and felt by everyone downstream.
New Orleans and regional venues.
- The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and French Quarter and downtown hotel ballrooms for national and statewide association meetings
- Ochsner and LCMC campuses for nurse leadership and all-staff days
- Hotels, restaurants, and hospitality groups for team and manager development
- Corporate offices across the Central Business District
- Tulane and the region’s universities for campus and staff programming
- Metairie, the North Shore, and the surrounding parishes
New Orleans events Chris speaks at.
Association Conferences
National and statewide 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.
Patient and Guest Experience
Sessions on the frontline behaviors that decide what a patient or a guest actually feels.
Retention and Frontline Leadership
Supervisor development for hospitality and clinical teams where engagement is the deliverable.
Corporate and Team All-Hands
Company meetings, kickoffs, and leadership summits across the region’s industries.
HR and SHRM Chapter Events
Human resources conferences and chapter meetings on recognition and retention.
Keynote topics for your New Orleans 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 New Orleans
Has Chris spoken for health systems and hospitality organizations?
Does Chris travel to New Orleans?
We are in hospitality, not healthcare. Does the message still fit?
Our frontline morale shows up in our guest reviews. Can you speak to that?
Can the session run for multiple properties and shifts?
What does a New Orleans keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to a Louisiana audience?
Bring Chris to your New Orleans 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 · Louisiana speaking · All locations
You Are Capable of More.
Leadership, culture, and peak-performance insights from Chris — only when there’s something genuinely worth sending. No fluff, unsubscribe anytime.