Virginia Beach keynote speaker for healthcare, defense, 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 Virginia associations, health systems, defense and hospitality employers, and organizations across Hampton Roads.
Check Virginia Beach Availability
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You already know roughly when a lot of your people are leaving. Most employers here waste that.
Virginia Beach sits inside one of the most concentrated military regions in the country, and that gives its civilian workforce a feature almost no other labor market has.
Naval Air Station Oceana is the largest employer in the city, the Navy’s East Coast Master Jet Base, with roughly ten thousand active duty personnel and several thousand civilians, and a Navy community around twenty thousand people counting families. Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek and Fort Story and the Dam Neck Annex add thousands more. Sentara Healthcare employs thousands across the city, alongside Virginia Beach City Public Schools, STIHL, GEICO, the city itself, and a substantial oceanfront hospitality economy.
Here is what that does to hiring. A large share of the civilian workforce in this region is made up of military spouses, and a military family relocates on orders every few years no matter how good the job is, how well someone is performing, or how much they like their manager. The clock is not set by you and it is not negotiable.
Most retention thinking assumes an open-ended relationship and treats an early departure as a failure to be diagnosed. In Hampton Roads that framing is simply wrong, and it leads employers to underinvest in exactly the people who would repay investment fastest. If someone is going to be with you for two or three years, the worst thing you can do is spend the first year deciding whether they are worth developing.
The employers who do well here run a compressed cycle on purpose. Real responsibility early rather than after a probationary stretch. Training front-loaded instead of parceled out by seniority. Knowledge documented as it goes, because handoffs are constant. And a genuine alumni relationship afterward, since a spouse who leaves for another base carries an opinion about you into a nationwide community that talks constantly.
There is an upside in this that gets missed. Someone who has restarted a career in three states is adaptable, quick to learn a new system, and used to walking into a room where they know nobody. That is a strong hire in almost any organization, and here it is standing in front of you regularly.
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, and has spoken in Virginia for the Virginia Community Healthcare Association.
Operator, Not Consultant
President and COO of national healthcare staffing organizations, still making the hiring and retention calls he speaks about.
Virginia Community Healthcare Association
The Spark Advantage for Virginia community health center leaders.
High-Turnover Environments
Material for employers whose people arrive on a clock, where speed of development matters more than length of service.
Groups Chris speaks for.
Virginia Beach combines major naval installations with a large health system, a growing corporate base, and a year-round hospitality economy.
- Sentara Healthcare, employing thousands across the city, for nurse leadership, all-staff, and recognition events
- Naval Air Station Oceana, Dam Neck Annex, and Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek and Fort Story, including their civilian workforces
- Defense contractors and support employers across Hampton Roads, for program and team sessions
- Virginia Beach City Public Schools and the City of Virginia Beach, two of the region’s largest employers
- STIHL and GEICO, along with the region’s manufacturing, insurance, and corporate employers
- Oceanfront hotels, resorts, and the convention district, for hospitality team and manager development
- Virginia statewide associations meeting at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, the format Chris works in most often
Virginia Beach employers hiring on a clock.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, and the relocation cycle affects every employer in this region.
Healthcare
Clinical and support teams constantly onboarding experienced people who will move again.
Defense and Contracting
Programs where staffing turns over with orders and knowledge has to survive the handoff.
Hospitality and Tourism
Oceanfront operations layering seasonal turnover on top of military relocation.
Education and Public Sector
Schools and agencies serving a community where families arrive and depart on a cycle.
Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads venues.
- The Virginia Beach Convention Center and oceanfront hotel ballrooms for statewide association meetings
- Sentara campuses for nurse leadership and all-staff days
- Base and contractor facilities for civilian workforce and program sessions
- Corporate and manufacturing sites across the city for all-hands meetings
- City and school district facilities for in-service and leadership days
- Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and communities across Hampton Roads
Virginia Beach 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.
Recruiting and Onboarding
Sessions for employers who are always hiring and need people productive quickly.
Retention and Frontline Leadership
Supervisor development for teams where two good years is a win rather than a loss.
Emerging and New Leaders
Development for people given real responsibility early because there is no time to wait.
Corporate and Team All-Hands
Company meetings, kickoffs, and leadership summits across the region’s employers.
Keynote topics for your Virginia Beach 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 Virginia Beach
Has Chris spoken in Virginia?
Does Chris travel to Virginia Beach?
Our turnover is driven by relocation, not dissatisfaction. Does a retention talk still apply?
We hire a lot of military spouses. Does the session speak to them?
Can the session run for multiple shifts or sites?
What does a Virginia Beach keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to a Virginia audience?
Keynote speaking across Hampton Roads.
Each city page covers the local employers, the venues Chris speaks in, and the specific workforce pressure leaders there are working on.
Bring Chris to your Virginia Beach 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 · Virginia speaking · All locations
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