CREATIVE LEADERSHIP KEYNOTES + WORKSHOPS
Help your people think better when the answer isn’t obvious.
Organizations need people who can solve unfamiliar problems, adapt as conditions change, and contribute ideas.
Lauren McConnell delivers interactive keynotes and workshops that help leaders and teams strengthen and actively use creative thinking, not just learn about it.
The three fastest-growing workplace skills through 2030 are technology-related.
CREATIVE THINKING ranks fourth.
AI and big data
Networks and cybersecurity
Technological literacy
Creative thinking.
World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025
Creative thinking is how people generate, connect, evaluate and improve possibilities. It helps us question assumptions, see alternatives, experiment with ideas and find new paths forward.
Organizations need linear systems to operate.
But they need nonlinear thinking to evolve.
Because telling people to “think outside the box” doesn't make them more creative.
Creative thinking is nonlinear thinking in action: seeing alternatives, connecting ideas and experimenting with what could work.
Lauren designs participatory keynotes and workshops that combine storytelling, humour, reflection, play, collaboration and practical application. People don’t simply hear about creative thinking—they practise it and connect what they discover to the work and teams waiting for them.
Designed to feel more like a creative reset than corporate training, each experience leaves people with practical ways to access and use more of their own creative thinking.
Keynotes + Workshops
Signature sessions and bespoke experiences designed around your people, your goals and the questions you’re navigating.
workshop
Unlocking Creative Leadership
Creativity · Innovation · Courage · Creative Team Culture
For leaders who need to find creative ways forward and want more ideas, initiative and ownership from their teams.
An interactive workshop that helps leaders access more of their own creative thinking when the answer isn’t obvious, while examining how their responses and behaviour affect what other people are willing and able to contribute.
Best for: Leadership development, management training, executive teams and organizational retreats.
Creative Recess
Play · Experimentation · Creative Thinking · Connection
A playful reset that reconnects people with their creative energy.
Part workshop, part creative playground, Creative Recess gives participants a chance to step out of the pace of the day and reconnect with the curiosity, experimentation and play that fuel creativity.
Through hands-on challenges and shared experiences, participants loosen familiar patterns, remember what makes them feel creatively alive and return to the event refreshed, energized and more open to possibility.
Best for: Conferences, festivals, retreats, creative communities and professional gatherings.
workshop
Bringing your spark back online
Energy · Self-Trust · Creativity · Personal Leadership
Reconnect people with the energy and agency to contribute.
An experiential keynote about what happens when capable people become disconnected from their curiosity, creativity and sense of possibility, and how they can reconnect with more of themselves in the way they work, lead and contribute.
Best for: Women’s leadership programs, employee engagement events, professional associations and conferences.
keynote
Your challenge doesn’t need to fit neatly into a keynote title.
Interested in one of these sessions, or looking for something built around a specific challenge? Lauren designs keynotes, workshops and facilitated experiences around the people in the room, the outcomes you’re working toward and the questions you’re navigating.
That might mean helping a leadership team generate new approaches to an old problem, getting a newly formed team thinking together, creating greater participation during change, or designing an experience people genuinely want to be part of.
custom work
“Lauren was confident and clearly well-rehearsed, yet still felt natural and conversational. The audience was well engaged and gave feedback that Lauren really spoke to them. A lot of women said the message was exactly what they needed to hear. ”
Stacey Barry, WYCC Grey Bruce
- International Women's Day Keynote
Comfortable in front of the room.
…And a camera.
Commercial work includes:
Let's create something your people will actually remember & implement.
Planning a conference, team event, leadership session or learning experience? Tell me what you're working on and let's see what we can create.