Tallahassee keynote speaker for association, healthcare, and university 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 Florida associations, state agencies, health systems, universities, and employers across the Big Bend.
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Almost everyone here already chose meaningful work. That is exactly why leaders here stop supplying meaning.
Tallahassee has an unusual economy, and the unusual part is not that it is a capital. It is what the residents actually do for a living.
The top employment sectors for people in this city are educational services, public administration, and healthcare and social assistance. Look at that list again. Nearly the entire working population is employed by an institution whose purpose is to serve somebody rather than to return a profit. Florida State, founded in 1851, employs around nine thousand people. FAMU, founded in 1887 and the only public historically Black university in Florida, brings nearly ten thousand students and a large faculty and staff. Tallahassee State College adds more, and close to sixty six thousand students are enrolled across the city’s institutions. Tallahassee Memorial, a nonprofit founded in 1948, runs a 772-bed acute care hospital and five residency programs serving a multi-county region reaching into South Georgia. State agencies fill in the rest.
In most cities a speaker has to persuade a room that their work matters. In Tallahassee everybody already believes that, and they took a pay cut to act on it. Which creates the specific failure mode of a mission economy: leaders assume the mission does the motivating for them.
It does not, and it wears out. When the mission is functionally part of the compensation, and the mission gets harder every year while the pay stays flat, people do not leave for money. They leave because the mission stopped feeling real to them, because the caseload grew until they could not do the work the way it deserved, or because nobody ever connected their Tuesday to the reason they signed up. That is a slower and quieter departure than a competing offer, and it takes your most committed people first, since they are the ones who cared enough to notice the gap.
The work in a city like this is not convincing people the mission matters. It is making sure they can still see it from where they are standing.
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.
Mission-Sector Audiences
Healthcare, education, and public service rooms are the core of the work, which is nearly the whole of this city.
Association Conference Work
Statewide association general sessions are the format Chris works in most often, and Tallahassee hosts them constantly.
Groups Chris speaks for.
Tallahassee holds Florida’s state government, two major universities, and the region’s referral hospital, which makes it a natural place for a workforce keynote to reach public, academic, and clinical leadership.
- Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, a nonprofit founded in 1948 with a 772-bed acute care hospital, a psychiatric hospital, five residency programs, and roughly fifty affiliated physician practices serving a multi-county region across North Florida and South Georgia
- HCA Florida Capital Hospital, with 266 beds, more than eleven hundred employees, and roughly five hundred physicians
- Florida State University, founded in 1851 with around nine thousand employees, and Florida A&M University, founded in 1887, the only public HBCU in Florida, plus their joint college of engineering and Tallahassee State College
- State of Florida agencies and departments, headquartered in the capital across every branch, for in-service and leadership development days
- Florida statewide associations in hospital, long-term care, municipal, school board, and education sectors, which convene members and hold advocacy days in Tallahassee
- Capital Health Plan, Florida Blue, and the region’s more than thirty assisted living facilities
- Leon County Schools, city and county government, and the law and association management firms clustered around the Capitol
Tallahassee employers running on mission.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, and in this city nearly every other major employer faces the same motivational economics.
State Government
Agencies where people took public service pay to do work they believe in, and where leadership development happens through in-service days.
Higher Education
FSU, FAMU, and Tallahassee State College, where faculty and staff commitment is assumed rather than actively sustained.
K-12 Education
Leon County Schools and the surrounding districts, where the gap between why people teach and what the job has become is widest.
Nonprofits and Associations
The association management, advocacy, and social service organizations clustered around the Capitol.
Tallahassee and Big Bend venues.
- Downtown Tallahassee hotel and conference space for statewide association annual meetings and advocacy days
- The Florida State Capitol and surrounding state office buildings for agency in-service and leadership sessions
- Tallahassee Memorial and HCA Florida Capital campuses for staff, nurse leadership, and all-staff days
- Florida State University, FAMU, and Tallahassee State College for campus, student, and staff programming
- Leon County schools and district facilities for in-service days
- Thomasville, Valdosta, Panama City, and the Big Bend and South Georgia communities, with Orlando and Tampa for organizations that rotate their meeting location
Tallahassee events Chris speaks at.
Association Conferences
Statewide association annual meetings, advocacy days, and general sessions, the format Chris works in most often.
Hospital and Health System Events
Leadership days, nurse recognition events, and all-staff meetings.
University and Student Leadership
Campus leadership programming, student organization events, and faculty and staff development.
School and Education Events
District in-service days, teacher kickoffs, and student and athletic banquets.
Long-Term and Senior Care
Skilled nursing, assisted living, and continuing care conferences and in-service days.
Retention and Frontline Leadership
Supervisor development for mission organizations where commitment is assumed rather than sustained.
Keynote topics for your Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee
Has Chris spoken in Florida before?
Does Chris travel to Tallahassee?
Our people are already mission driven. Do they need a motivational keynote?
We are losing our most committed people, not our weakest. Why?
Can Chris speak at an advocacy day or association gathering during session?
What does a Tallahassee keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to a Florida audience?
Bring Chris to your Tallahassee 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 · Florida speaking · All locations