Pierre keynote speaker for state association conferences and agency 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 South Dakota associations, state agencies, hospitals, long-term care providers, schools, and municipalities.
Response within one business day.
You serve a hundred mile radius. You hire from a town of fourteen thousand.
That gap is the whole problem, and most workforce advice written for bigger places quietly assumes it does not exist.
Pierre is the second least populous state capital in the country, with roughly fourteen thousand residents. But its trade and service area reaches out about a hundred miles in every direction and covers something in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand people. Avera St. Mary’s, the largest private employer in the city, carries a caseload sized to that whole region with a staff of around five hundred. The school district, the state agencies, the municipal offices, and the retailers all run on the same arithmetic. Demand scales to the region. Hiring scales to the town.
When the ratio is that lopsided, every departure lands harder than it would somewhere else. Losing one experienced nurse or one veteran caseworker in Sioux Falls is a staffing inconvenience. Losing one in Pierre is a service change for the counties around you, and the people still in the building feel that weight immediately. Retention here is not an HR metric. It is the difference between covering the region and not covering it.
The other half of it is that the replacement usually is not sitting nearby waiting. So the practical question becomes how you keep the people you already have engaged enough to stay through the year when they are stretched. That is a supervisor level question, not a compensation one, and it is where the session lives.
Chris runs national healthcare staffing organizations and has keynoted state association conferences in eleven states, including the South Dakota Health Care Association and health care associations in Iowa, Montana, and Colorado, along with LeadingAge Illinois.
Already Worked South Dakota
Chris has keynoted the South Dakota Health Care Association conference, so the state’s long-term care audience is familiar ground rather than a first visit.
Operator, Not Consultant
President and COO of national healthcare staffing organizations, still making the hiring and retention calls he speaks about.
Understands Thin Staffing
Based in Nebraska and used to markets where the nearest replacement hire is two hours away, not two blocks.
Groups Chris speaks for.
Pierre punches far above its size for statewide member organizations, because the associations that lobby the legislature keep their offices near it. These are the kinds of groups that book a workforce and leadership keynote for an annual conference, a member education day, or a board retreat.
- South Dakota Health Care Association, representing skilled nursing and assisted living providers statewide, whose annual conference Chris has already keynoted
- South Dakota Municipal League, organized in 1934 and based just across the river on Island Drive in Fort Pierre, whose annual conference also hosts a long list of affiliate groups including the state’s governmental human resource, finance officer, city management, and police chief associations
- Associated School Boards of South Dakota, headquartered on East Capitol Avenue in Pierre, serving school board members and district leadership across the state
- South Dakota High School Activities Association, founded in 1905 and based on North Euclid in Pierre, governing activities for roughly 181 member high schools
- State Bar of South Dakota, headquartered in Pierre, which runs continuing education programming for its members
- State agencies and departments across the executive branch, for in-service and leadership development days
- Avera St. Mary’s and the regional health system, the Pierre School District, and central South Dakota employers
Pierre employers facing the same arithmetic.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, but the service area problem belongs to every employer in a regional hub city.
State Government
Agencies whose staff serve the whole state from a small city, where leadership development happens through in-service days rather than outside conferences.
Education
The Pierre School District and the districts across central South Dakota, where a single teacher vacancy can mean a program stops running.
Municipal Government
City and county offices, and the municipal officials the Municipal League serves in towns all over the state.
Agriculture and Regional Retail
The ag businesses and retailers serving the hundred mile trade area, staffed thin and covering a lot of ground.
Pierre and central South Dakota venues.
- Pierre hotel and conference space for statewide association annual meetings
- The State Capitol and surrounding state office buildings for agency in-service and leadership sessions
- Fort Pierre, across the Missouri, including the Municipal League offices and event space
- The Ramkota and other convention properties used for South Dakota statewide gatherings
- Regional school and community venues across central South Dakota, from Chamberlain to Gettysburg to Winner
- Sioux Falls and Rapid City for South Dakota organizations that rotate their annual meeting location
Pierre events Chris speaks at.
Association Conferences
Statewide association annual meetings and general sessions, the format Chris works in most often and the one Pierre hosts most.
Long-Term and Senior Care
Skilled nursing, assisted living, and continuing care conferences and in-service days, including the audience Chris keynoted for SDHCA.
Rural and Critical Access Healthcare
Leadership days for the critical access hospitals and clinics serving central and western South Dakota.
School and Education Events
District in-service days, school board gatherings, and student and athletic banquets.
HR and SHRM Chapter Events
Human resources conferences and chapter meetings on hiring and retention in a thin labor market.
Corporate and Annual Meetings
All-hands gatherings, employee appreciation events, and annual meetings for regional employers.
Keynote topics for your Pierre 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 Pierre
Has Chris spoken in South Dakota before?
Does Chris travel to Pierre?
Our audience is a few dozen people, not a thousand. Is that worth it?
Our real problem is that we cannot find people at all. Does a keynote change that?
Our staff serve a huge area and are stretched thin. Will the session speak to that?
What does a Pierre keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to a South Dakota audience?
Bring Chris to your Pierre 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 · South Dakota speaking · All locations