Attention Registered Attendees: The conference platform is now open.
Please check your email for the access instructions. Sessions begin at 9:00 AM EST on Tuesday, July 25.
Difficulty logging in? Missing your event link? For technical support, please email: webinars@hrpa.ca.
Summer Conference, July 25
Calling all HR Superheroes! Now is the time to prioritize your self-care.
HRPA values its members and wants to give back to HR professionals everywhere. All too often we dismiss our needs in order to support others. We push our boundaries and fail to unplug resulting in being overwhelmed and burned out both personally and professionally. We want to shift our focus – motivate ourselves, redirect our career – and are just stuck, not sure where to begin.
Now is the time to start showing up and checking in with yourself. Let’s reconnect and use your HR tools and skills – but for you.
We’ll treat you to wellness activities and breaks, a lunch gift certificate and prize giveaways* to fully immerse yourself in HR for your HR mindset.
Swing into summer and refresh your superhero self at the Summer Conference – register today!
*Some restrictions apply. Full details to be announced.
ABOUT
The 2023 Summer Conference aims to transform your well-being and nurture you as an individual, not just an HR professional. Sessions and resources will focus on your superhero self and the “power skills” that set you apart. Together we’ll explore and create awareness of compassion fatigue, challenge you and provide tools for how to fuel your journey and “big idea”, and tackle the importance of radical self-care. Then we’ll wrap up the day with mindset coaching that will foster your propensity to experience happy moments.
While we’re focusing on your care, we know that you will most likely be thinking about taking this important information back to your organization. All the sessions will include ways you can take the day’s learnings back to work for everyone’s benefit.
Swing into summer and refresh your superhero self at the Summer Conference – register today!
Why you should attend:
- Are you someone that constantly dismisses your needs to support others?
- Are you feeling overwhelmed and burnt out with your personal and professional responsibilities?
- Don’t know where to begin and how to start showing up for yourself?
- Difficulties with ‘unplugging’ and creating boundaries?
- At a crossroads with your career and need motivation, support and direction?
Continuing Professional Development
The 2023 Summer Conference will be eligible for 5.58 CPD hours
CPD codes are only issued for sessions you attended live. No CPD code is provided for sessions viewed on-demand. Sessions you view on-demand do qualify for CPD Hours and will accumulate toward the total eligible CPD hours, however you will need to log those hours manually. Details can be found on the CPD FAQs page.
AGENDA
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM | Welcome and Opening Remarks
9:15 AM – 9:25 AM | Purposeful Pause with Live Sound
This purposeful pause will immerse participants in a sound experience with guided gentle movement lead by a certified sound therapy practitioner. Live sound, specifically crystal singing bowls invoke relaxation through resounding vibrations with the pleasant sounds they emanate. They are also known to elicit a parasympathetic response in the body responsible for rest and relaxation.
Sound is one of the many great powerful tools available that help us relax and release tension while also grounding us into the present moment.
Hosted by: Michaela Bekenn, MeditationWorks
9:25 AM – 10:15 AM | Self-Awareness Superhero
You can’t control how your brain works but you can understand it – and use that intel to change the way you relate to others and show up in the world. This is exactly what Self-Awareness Superhero is all about.
It leverages the Emergenetics profile, a psychoanalytic tool that uses four thinking attributes and three behavioural attributes to understand the way you think which, in turn, affects the way you see and interact with the world. Emergenetics is a measurable, proven way to recognize and apply thinking and behavior patterns people use regularly. They were identified by reviewing research from a wide body of academic literature covering personality, psychology, and neuroscience. These results were then subjected to rigorous statistical analysis. I am a certified Emergenetics Associate and I’m so looking forward to introducing you to the tool!
Speaker: Lindsay Recknell (she/her/hers), President & CEO, Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc.
10:15 AM – 10:25 AM | Pause to Ignite Your Superpowers
Experience and learn how mindfulness and meditation can support you in managing stress and sharpening focus while living healthier and happier in all aspects of your life.
This purposeful pause will focus on igniting your personal superpowers!
4 superpowers you gain from meditation:
- Zooming In | Paying attention on Purpose, Being Present | Breathe & Focus
- Zooming Out Provides Perspective | See the Bigger Picture
- Pausing | Creates Space | Clarity | Provides a Reset
- Changing the Channel | Active Observer | Simply Notice | Holding the Converter of your Life
Hosted by: Michaela Bekenn, MeditationWorks
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | Compassion Fatigue: Caring for You While You Care for Others
Compassion Fatigue is a call to rest. Although we may highly value our caregiving role, there is a cost to caring. However, advocating and caring for others is not actually what strains our empathy. What gives us compassion fatigue is not caring for ourselves. During this course participants will pick up valuable insights to make their role as a caregiver (and HR professional) more sustainable. Additionally, capacity building strategies help people recover more quickly and regain control over their lives. We can end up compromising our care of others when we try to support them, but we’re running on empty. In the words of Charles Figley, “First, do no harm to yourself in the line of duty while helping / treating others. Second, attend to your physical, social, emotional, and spiritual needs as a way of ensuring high quality services for those who look to you for support as a human being.”
During this interactive keynote address, participants will pick up valuable insights to make their supportive role at work and beyond more sustainable. We will explore the nuance between Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Trauma, Burnout, and Moral Distress. And get creative about capacity-building strategies that can help us recover more quickly, AND model healthy strategies for those who look to us for support.
Speaker: Shawna Percy, President, Life Voice Workshops
12:00 PM – 12:45 PM
12:00 PM – 12:25 PM | Purposeful Pause: Tapping, and We Don’t Mean Your Foot
EFT or “tapping”, stands for Emotional Freedom Technique and is a science-based mind body tool that works by tapping on specific parts of the body to reduce stress and cortisol levels in the body. This powerful technique can change your emotional state in a matter of minutes and can be used in various areas to improve emotional wellbeing in the workplace and in your overall life.
This purposeful pause is led by a certified EFT Tapping practitioner who specializes in stress and burnout. The technique is a blend of traditional Chinese medicine and modern psychology. The techniques you will learn work the same way as acupuncture but without the needles by tapping on meridian points, points on the face, head and body.
Hosted by: Traci Shepheard & Meeta Darji, MeditationWorks
12:00 PM – 12:45 PM | Lunch and Break
12:45 PM – 2:15 PM | MY BIG IDEA® Fueling Your Journey: Making Positive Change in Your Personal and Professional Life
At HRPA, we are dedicated to shaping your success in all aspects of life, be it personal or professional. That’s why we are thrilled to partner with MY BIG IDEA® to bring you a transformative 90-minute workshop designed to refuel your motivation and guide you on a path to personal and professional achievement.
Led by Michele Bailey, Forbes author and CEO of The Blazing Group, this workshop will empower you with the tools and insights to ignite positive change in every aspect of your life. Through self-reflection, addressing burnout, and actively seeking ways to achieve work-life blend and integration, you’ll gain a renewed sense of purpose and fulfillment.
Drawing from the powerful MY BIG IDEA® Planner while sharing captivating personal stories, Michele will help you explore six goal-setting categories that encompass different areas of your life. With carefully crafted thought-provoking questions, you’ll reflect on your personal drivers and identify the key goals to which you aspire.
Workshop Outcomes
- Renewed sense of optimism and personal perspective
- A toolbox of processes to track steps to goal achievement and remain motivated
- An understanding of how to build and maintain strong network of professional contacts and how to leverage these relationships for personal and professional growth
- Increased awareness and understanding of the importance of work-life blend and strategies for achieving it
- Follow-up tools and implementation support to encourage accountability to goals and objectives
- Motivation implement the regular practice of gratitude to build and strengthen relationships
Don’t miss out on this transformative opportunity—reserve your spot in MY BIG IDEA’s ‘Fueling your Journey’ Workshop now.
Speaker: Michele Bailey, Founder, The Blazing Group
2:15 PM – 2:25 PM | Purposeful Pause: Breath as Your Anchor
Breath as your anchor? Yes! Your breath is always with you; you cannot breathe a breath from the past or the future. Your breath grounds you into the present moment.
Learn how to boost or chill your energy with your breath. During this purposeful pause you will learn and experience how breathwork can be integrated into different parts of your day to energize you or support relaxation and rest.
Hosted by: Leoni Parkinson, MeditationWorks
2:45 PM – 3:45 PM | Radical Self-Care
We understand the importance of self-care and recognize that this can include intentional activities that rejuvenate our physical, mental and emotional health, however, it can be challenging to take the time and make the space to provide this critical self-care.
The intention of this webinar is to support participants in reframing the way we view self-care, not as a luxury, but as an integral part of our overall health. With time-honoured techniques, participants will begin to explore what self-care is and how implementing regular self-care practices can support them both personally and professionally.
Speaker: CJ Calvert, Motivational Speaker, Author, Life Coach
3:45 PM – 4:00 PM | Pause on Purpose: Shake it Off
Sometimes in the day we just need to “Shake it Off”; Move, Stretch & Energize. Increase Your Energy with Mindful Movement | Join Us seated or standing! Move Your Body, Change Your Mindset & Increase Energy. Suitable for all fitness levels especially those who like to Move it, Move it!
Hosted by: Michaela Bekenn, MeditationWorks
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM | Happy Moments: Well-Being and Mindset Coaching
Discover mindset coaching techniques to improve your well-being and be empowered by self-coaching. Sophie will share several impactful coaching exercises for you to employ so that you may truly enjoy practicing self-care and flourish in the pursuit of a brighter future. Together, let’s cheers to a fulfilling and transformational journey.
Speaker: Sophie Brochu, President & Founder, Happy Moments
5:00 PM – 5:10 PM | Event Wrap up and Closing Remarks
PRICING
Registration fees include access to the live, streamed event as well as access to the on-demand recordings for one year post-conference.
Not sure of your schedule? Register anyway to get the recordings.
Whether you attend the sessions live or not, register anyway to gain access to the conference recordings post-event. On-demand viewings still qualify for CPD Hours and recordings are made available for one year post-event date.
| Summer Conference Registration | Member | Non-Member | Student |
| Regular July 1, 2023 onward | $185 | $265 | $70 |
| Group 3+ More Registrants | Save 10% per registrant. | Save 10% per registrant. | N/A |
BOGO: Summer + Fall
NEW! While you plan for summer, get ready for fall! Purchase the two conferences together and save more!
This year’s fall conference will take place virtually on Tuesday, November 28. The theme of the event will focus on technology and artificial intelligence. Further program details will be announced in October.
| BOGO BUNDLE: Summer + Fall | Member | Non-Member | Student |
| Regular July 1, 2023 onward | $278 Savings: $92 | $398 Savings: $132 | N/A |
| Group 3+ More Registrants | Save 10% per registrant. | Save 10% per registrant. | N/A |
PRIZE GIVEAWAYS
We are excited to offer great prize pack giveaways that will give back to you!
Check out the prize packs and details below.
Registration Prizes
- First person to register for the Summer Conference – $50 Amazon gift card plus The Currency of Gratitude book.
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- Congratulations Jennifer M.!
- First person to register for the BOGO Summer + Fall Conference – $50 Amazon gift card plus Living an Exceptional Life book.
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- Congratulations Renu V.!
Conference Prizes
- 15 lucky winners will each receive a $50 Uber Eats gift certificate.
- Ask an interesting question? You’re automatically entered for your chance to win 1 of 5 $50 Ultimate Dining gift cards plus The Currency of Gratitude and Living an Exceptional Life books.
- In one select presentation, stay alert and watch for a QR code for you to enter a draw for 1 of 4 $25 Starbucks gift cards plus The Currency of Gratitude and Living an Exceptional Life books.
Grand Prize Packs
- $100 Gift card of your choosing (some limitations apply) plus a 30 minute virtual MeditationWorks Mindful Experience Voucher for up to 50 people (value $750).
- $200 gift card of your choosing (some limitations apply) plus two tickets to a Cirque du Soleil Canadian Show for 2023 (value is approximately $150, based on availability).
- $500 gift card of your choosing (some limitations apply) plus an Experience Happy Moments at Work Bundle (value $129).
Participation Guidelines
If you are a paid registrant of the 2023 Summer Conference, HR for HR – A Superhero Check-in, you are automatically entered for all of the prize pack giveaways.
Each prize draw will include all eligible registrants. If you are a speaker, sponsor, partner, HRPA staff, volunteer and/or HRPA family member, you are excluded from the prize draw eligibility.
You do not need to be present or participating live to win. Chances of winning are dependent upon the number of valid registrants at the time of the draw.
Prize draw winners are selected at random using an online name randomizer or selected based on the prize criteria noted for that prize.
Prizes are not redeemable in cash or cash equivalents. All prize values are listed in Canadian dollars.
An HRPA staff member will connect with each prize winner directly following the selected draw.
For questions regarding these prize details, please email professionaldevelopment@hrpa.ca.
Stay tuned for more prize announcements!
Kris Tierney (she/her), CHRP, CHRL
Vice President, Human Resources and Learning, HRPA
Kris’ approach as an executive leader is to achieve results by creating outstanding workplaces where people and culture are strategic priorities. She is a passionate and skilled business executive with 15 years’ experience leading HR in hi-tech, high growth companies in automotive and financial services, where she served as a trusted people and culture strategist, advisor and business partner to the C-Suite.
Kris started her career in hospitality where she held various leadership and management positions. For more than 20 years, Kris has served as a valued member of senior and executive leadership teams, where her skills in HR, leadership, strategy and culture were honed and her passion for business and HR were developed. She is periodically called upon by media, conferences and academia to contribute her experience and perspectives as an HR and business leader.
Kris has achieved the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) and Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) designations as awarded by HRPA. As a lifelong learner, Kris is thrilled to bring professional development and learning opportunities to the HR community in her role as Vice-President, Human Resources and Learning at HRPA.
Lindsay Recknell (she/her)
President & CEO, Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc.
Lindsay gets people talking, teaches self-awareness and brain science, and helps as many people as she can use positive psychology to motivate positive change. As President & CEO of Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc, she continues to raise mental health maturity in organizations while making conversations about mental health in the workplace as normalized as any other conversation.
A certified Psychological Health & Safety Advisor, Lindsay works with leaders and HR professionals to give them the knowledge and confidence to know what to say about mental health at work, how to help while considering the moral, ethical and legal considerations and how to make mental health-related decisions in the best interest of the company, their individual teams and themselves.
She empowers individuals, strengthens teams and transforms organizations through her podcast, Mental Health for Leaders, a certificate program for leaders and HR professionals titled, Mental Health Skills Training, a digital subscription of conversation starters titled, Language of Mental Health, and a live, virtual or in-person workshop titled, From Burnout to Hope. Lindsay lives in Calgary with her husband and their two Golden Retrievers.
Michele Bailey
Founder, The Blazing Group
Michele Bailey is the Founder of The Blazing Group, a brand and culture agency born of her strategy-first approach to business, flair for sharing stories, and desire to enhance employee wellness while pursuing business goals. Michele is the daughter of a Haitian-born physician who, along with his French-Canadian wife, moved his family many times from Haiti to various U.S. states during Michele’s formative teen years. Michele credits her unique perspective on valuing relationships to those experiences and to the manner in which her parents placed a premium on ensuring their family felt anchored and supported.
Her advertising agency, Blazing, is turning branding inside out with My Big Idea®, an employee mentoring and wellness program designed to propel individuals forward in their quest for personal and professional success. Blazing, a creative strategic communications agency founded in 1994 builds external marketing programs for its clients, while My Big Idea® is an interactive program highly valued by leaders of organizations who understand the value of linking culture, brand and marketing to drive business growth. Delivered virtually or in-person, My Big Idea® is uniquely designed to help business owners, leaders and employees address the challenges of both work and personal life.
Countless companies have discovered greater team cohesion and boosted their bottom-line results as a direct result of Michele’s proprietary process. Working together, and anchored in a practice of gratitude, the companies of The Blazing Group help their clients “brand from within” thus driving successful marketing programs from the ground up.
Michele is on a quest to get her clients to take it one important step further; to make true gratitude integral to the way business is done. Her passion for gratitude is contagious. Her new book, The Currency of Gratitude, published in 2021 by Forbes Books offers a moving and straightforward guide to enabling business growth using gratitude as your currency.
As a bi-racial woman, Michele has faced her share of challenges, yet her boundless energy and vision have earned her international recognition as a champion of women in business. A driving force in bringing the first Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) chapter to Canada, she currently sits on the WPO board as its international representative. She is also committed to supporting entrepreneurs in the underrepresented diverse and inclusion markets and completed the Tuck University (Dartmouth) course on “Growing an Established Diverse Business” in 2021. Michele’s companies are certified by WBE and WeConnect International.
Michaela Bekenn
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Michaela is a Toronto-based singer-songwriter, yoga and meditation teacher and certified sound therapy practitioner. She is an instructor of Compassion-Based Resilience Training and mindfulness for stress reduction, addiction recovery and chronic pain. Michaela believes deeply in the power of community and integrative wellness. She is committed to holding inclusive space for participants to feel supported and nourished, wherever they may be on their personal journey.
Diane Biesinger (she/her) CHRP
Lead, HR & Learning, HRPA
Diane Biesinger has more than 20 years of experience in HR and has enjoyed working in a wide range of industries from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Diane holds the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation as awarded by the HRPA. She currently brings her passion for HR to the role of HR & Learning Specialist at the HRPA, where her focus runs the range of the workplace experience for all HRPA employees, “keeping the lights on in HR” and delivering on the association’s strategic initiatives.
Diane is proud that HRPA has been certified as a Great Place to Work by GPTW Canada for the last four years and is looking forward to having that continue and improve. Prior to joining HRPA, she spent six years in the telecommunications space working with companies such as Bell and Rogers, as Director of HR. She is passionate about IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility) and supporting leaders and staff to promote organizational objectives. Diane likes to bring her whole self to work and is enthusiastic about relationships as she brings a genuine love of people, especially our differences, to her daily interactions.
Sophie Brochu
President & Founder, Happy Moments
Sophie is the proud owner and founder of Happy Moments, a purpose-driven company on a heartfelt mission to help leaders throughout the world create values-based “happy moments experiences” within their team.
She has been on a journey to help enhance happiness in the workplace since the very beginning of her career. She has more than 10 years of combined experience as a head of human resources, as a board member of a Quebec sectorial workforce committee and as a member of the HR committee and executive team at one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies. She is also a certified corporate coach with a specialization in neuro-linguistic programming, which gives her a distinct set of skills.
Sophie is known for her “joie de vivre”, her striking creativity and her sincere love for Happy Moments’ mission and clients.
CJ Calvert
Motivational Speaker, Author, Life Coach
CJ Calvert is a professional speaker and author of Bouncing Back Through COVID-19. He regularly speaks before world-class organizations such as IBM, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Golden State Warriors. He has also presented on the TEDx stage in Vancouver and has been a featured guest on Breakfast Television. He makes his home near Toronto, Ontario with his amazing wife and son.
Meeta Darji
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Meeta is a Certified Health Coach & EFT (Tapping) Practitioner, specializing in stress and burnout. Using her unique approach that combines EFT Tapping and her extensive knowledge in holistic health, Meeta empowers individuals to feel calmer, happier, healthier and thrive in life. Meeta is dedicated to helping others transform their physical and emotional well-being.
Leoni Parkinson
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Leoni is a trauma-informed breathwork and somatic coach. She has two breathwork certifications from Pause Breathwork and YogaBody. She has studied Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy techniques with The Embody Lab and is currently getting her certification in emotional freedom coaching with The Energetic Revolution. Leoni’s passion for wellness at work derives from knowing the importance of connecting people back with their bodies which enables them to make better decisions for themselves which is so important in the corporate environment where we can sometimes end up getting lost. When we’re connected to our bodies and the signals that our bodies are sending us, we can tailor our daily life to what is right for us.
Shawna Percy
President, Life Voice Workshops
Shawna is a TEDxUW speaker, creator of the START Psychological Health and Safety training program and President of Life Voice workshops.
Before founding Life Voice workshops, she spent 15 years working for corporations. Her roles spanned human resources, national account management, sales, marketing, training development and delivery. Each of these roles taught Shawna a great deal. However, after the suicide of her first husband in 2011, Shawna transitioned to a deeper purpose: teaching others how to create psychologically safer conversations at work and beyond.
Shawna is now a certified Mental Health First Aid, Suicide First Aid and Compassion Fatigue trainer. She has trained thousands of HR personnel, people leaders, Indigenous community members and front-line workers. Shawna’s ability to share lived experiences in a trauma-informed way engages listeners and takes learning from theory to real-life application.
To learn more about Shawna and to watch her TEDxUW talk “Suicide IS Preventable,” please visit www.LifeVoice.ca
Traci Shepheard
Founder, MeditationWorks
Traci Shepheard is the Founder of MeditationWorks, Certified in the Foundations of Mindfulness & Mindful Meditation through the University of Toronto. After spending 20+ years in a successful corporate career in beverage alcohol, sport and entertainment Traci knows first-hand the priceless benefits of meditation and how a consistent wellness regime can assist in managing stress, sharpening focus while enhancing overall well-being.
Kris Tierney (she/her), CHRP, CHRL
Vice President, Human Resources and Learning, HRPA
Kris’ approach as an executive leader is to achieve results by creating outstanding workplaces where people and culture are strategic priorities. She is a passionate and skilled business executive with 15 years’ experience leading HR in hi-tech, high growth companies in automotive and financial services, where she served as a trusted people and culture strategist, advisor and business partner to the C-Suite.
Kris started her career in hospitality where she held various leadership and management positions. For more than 20 years, Kris has served as a valued member of senior and executive leadership teams, where her skills in HR, leadership, strategy and culture were honed and her passion for business and HR were developed. She is periodically called upon by media, conferences and academia to contribute her experience and perspectives as an HR and business leader.
Kris has achieved the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) and Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) designations as awarded by HRPA. As a lifelong learner, Kris is thrilled to bring professional development and learning opportunities to the HR community in her role as Vice-President, Human Resources and Learning at HRPA.
Lindsay Recknell (she/her)
President & CEO, Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc.
Lindsay gets people talking, teaches self-awareness and brain science, and helps as many people as she can use positive psychology to motivate positive change. As President & CEO of Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc, she continues to raise mental health maturity in organizations while making conversations about mental health in the workplace as normalized as any other conversation.
A certified Psychological Health & Safety Advisor, Lindsay works with leaders and HR professionals to give them the knowledge and confidence to know what to say about mental health at work, how to help while considering the moral, ethical and legal considerations and how to make mental health-related decisions in the best interest of the company, their individual teams and themselves.
She empowers individuals, strengthens teams and transforms organizations through her podcast, Mental Health for Leaders, a certificate program for leaders and HR professionals titled, Mental Health Skills Training, a digital subscription of conversation starters titled, Language of Mental Health, and a live, virtual or in-person workshop titled, From Burnout to Hope. Lindsay lives in Calgary with her husband and their two Golden Retrievers.
Michele Bailey
Founder, The Blazing Group
Michele Bailey is the Founder of The Blazing Group, a brand and culture agency born of her strategy-first approach to business, flair for sharing stories, and desire to enhance employee wellness while pursuing business goals. Michele is the daughter of a Haitian-born physician who, along with his French-Canadian wife, moved his family many times from Haiti to various U.S. states during Michele’s formative teen years. Michele credits her unique perspective on valuing relationships to those experiences and to the manner in which her parents placed a premium on ensuring their family felt anchored and supported.
Her advertising agency, Blazing, is turning branding inside out with My Big Idea®, an employee mentoring and wellness program designed to propel individuals forward in their quest for personal and professional success. Blazing, a creative strategic communications agency founded in 1994 builds external marketing programs for its clients, while My Big Idea® is an interactive program highly valued by leaders of organizations who understand the value of linking culture, brand and marketing to drive business growth. Delivered virtually or in-person, My Big Idea® is uniquely designed to help business owners, leaders and employees address the challenges of both work and personal life.
Countless companies have discovered greater team cohesion and boosted their bottom-line results as a direct result of Michele’s proprietary process. Working together, and anchored in a practice of gratitude, the companies of The Blazing Group help their clients “brand from within” thus driving successful marketing programs from the ground up.
Michele is on a quest to get her clients to take it one important step further; to make true gratitude integral to the way business is done. Her passion for gratitude is contagious. Her new book, The Currency of Gratitude, published in 2021 by Forbes Books offers a moving and straightforward guide to enabling business growth using gratitude as your currency.
As a bi-racial woman, Michele has faced her share of challenges, yet her boundless energy and vision have earned her international recognition as a champion of women in business. A driving force in bringing the first Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) chapter to Canada, she currently sits on the WPO board as its international representative. She is also committed to supporting entrepreneurs in the underrepresented diverse and inclusion markets and completed the Tuck University (Dartmouth) course on “Growing an Established Diverse Business” in 2021. Michele’s companies are certified by WBE and WeConnect International.
Michaela Bekenn
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Michaela is a Toronto-based singer-songwriter, yoga and meditation teacher and certified sound therapy practitioner. She is an instructor of Compassion-Based Resilience Training and mindfulness for stress reduction, addiction recovery and chronic pain. Michaela believes deeply in the power of community and integrative wellness. She is committed to holding inclusive space for participants to feel supported and nourished, wherever they may be on their personal journey.
Diane Biesinger (she/her) CHRP
Lead, HR & Learning, HRPA
Diane Biesinger has more than 20 years of experience in HR and has enjoyed working in a wide range of industries from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Diane holds the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation as awarded by the HRPA. She currently brings her passion for HR to the role of HR & Learning Specialist at the HRPA, where her focus runs the range of the workplace experience for all HRPA employees, “keeping the lights on in HR” and delivering on the association’s strategic initiatives.
Diane is proud that HRPA has been certified as a Great Place to Work by GPTW Canada for the last four years and is looking forward to having that continue and improve. Prior to joining HRPA, she spent six years in the telecommunications space working with companies such as Bell and Rogers, as Director of HR. She is passionate about IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility) and supporting leaders and staff to promote organizational objectives. Diane likes to bring her whole self to work and is enthusiastic about relationships as she brings a genuine love of people, especially our differences, to her daily interactions.
Sophie Brochu
President & Founder, Happy Moments
Sophie is the proud owner and founder of Happy Moments, a purpose-driven company on a heartfelt mission to help leaders throughout the world create values-based “happy moments experiences” within their team.
She has been on a journey to help enhance happiness in the workplace since the very beginning of her career. She has more than 10 years of combined experience as a head of human resources, as a board member of a Quebec sectorial workforce committee and as a member of the HR committee and executive team at one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies. She is also a certified corporate coach with a specialization in neuro-linguistic programming, which gives her a distinct set of skills.
Sophie is known for her “joie de vivre”, her striking creativity and her sincere love for Happy Moments’ mission and clients.
CJ Calvert
Motivational Speaker, Author, Life Coach
CJ Calvert is a professional speaker and author of Bouncing Back Through COVID-19. He regularly speaks before world-class organizations such as IBM, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Golden State Warriors. He has also presented on the TEDx stage in Vancouver and has been a featured guest on Breakfast Television. He makes his home near Toronto, Ontario with his amazing wife and son.
Meeta Darji
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Meeta is a Certified Health Coach & EFT (Tapping) Practitioner, specializing in stress and burnout. Using her unique approach that combines EFT Tapping and her extensive knowledge in holistic health, Meeta empowers individuals to feel calmer, happier, healthier and thrive in life. Meeta is dedicated to helping others transform their physical and emotional well-being.
Leoni Parkinson
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Leoni is a trauma-informed breathwork and somatic coach. She has two breathwork certifications from Pause Breathwork and YogaBody. She has studied Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy techniques with The Embody Lab and is currently getting her certification in emotional freedom coaching with The Energetic Revolution. Leoni’s passion for wellness at work derives from knowing the importance of connecting people back with their bodies which enables them to make better decisions for themselves which is so important in the corporate environment where we can sometimes end up getting lost. When we’re connected to our bodies and the signals that our bodies are sending us, we can tailor our daily life to what is right for us.
Shawna Percy
President, Life Voice Workshops
Shawna is a TEDxUW speaker, creator of the START Psychological Health and Safety training program and President of Life Voice workshops.
Before founding Life Voice workshops, she spent 15 years working for corporations. Her roles spanned human resources, national account management, sales, marketing, training development and delivery. Each of these roles taught Shawna a great deal. However, after the suicide of her first husband in 2011, Shawna transitioned to a deeper purpose: teaching others how to create psychologically safer conversations at work and beyond.
Shawna is now a certified Mental Health First Aid, Suicide First Aid and Compassion Fatigue trainer. She has trained thousands of HR personnel, people leaders, Indigenous community members and front-line workers. Shawna’s ability to share lived experiences in a trauma-informed way engages listeners and takes learning from theory to real-life application.
To learn more about Shawna and to watch her TEDxUW talk “Suicide IS Preventable,” please visit www.LifeVoice.ca
Traci Shepheard
Founder, MeditationWorks
Traci Shepheard is the Founder of MeditationWorks, Certified in the Foundations of Mindfulness & Mindful Meditation through the University of Toronto. After spending 20+ years in a successful corporate career in beverage alcohol, sport and entertainment Traci knows first-hand the priceless benefits of meditation and how a consistent wellness regime can assist in managing stress, sharpening focus while enhancing overall well-being.
SPONSORSHIP
Please complete our sponsor submission form here.
Contact Adam Hart, Business Development Manager, to learn more about partnership or sponsorship opportunities.
Tel: 416.923.2324 ext. 7353
Email: ahart@hrpa.ca
ABOUT
The 2023 Summer Conference aims to transform your well-being and nurture you as an individual, not just an HR professional. Sessions and resources will focus on your superhero self and the “power skills” that set you apart. Together we’ll explore and create awareness of compassion fatigue, challenge you and provide tools for how to fuel your journey and “big idea”, and tackle the importance of radical self-care. Then we’ll wrap up the day with mindset coaching that will foster your propensity to experience happy moments.
While we’re focusing on your care, we know that you will most likely be thinking about taking this important information back to your organization. All the sessions will include ways you can take the day’s learnings back to work for everyone’s benefit.
Swing into summer and refresh your superhero self at the Summer Conference – register today!
Why you should attend:
- Are you someone that constantly dismisses your needs to support others?
- Are you feeling overwhelmed and burnt out with your personal and professional responsibilities?
- Don’t know where to begin and how to start showing up for yourself?
- Difficulties with ‘unplugging’ and creating boundaries?
- At a crossroads with your career and need motivation, support and direction?
Continuing Professional Development
The 2023 Summer Conference will be eligible for 5.58 CPD hours
CPD codes are only issued for sessions you attended live. No CPD code is provided for sessions viewed on-demand. Sessions you view on-demand do qualify for CPD Hours and will accumulate toward the total eligible CPD hours, however you will need to log those hours manually. Details can be found on the CPD FAQs page.
AGENDA
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM | Welcome and Opening Remarks
9:15 AM – 9:25 AM | Purposeful Pause with Live Sound
This purposeful pause will immerse participants in a sound experience with guided gentle movement lead by a certified sound therapy practitioner. Live sound, specifically crystal singing bowls invoke relaxation through resounding vibrations with the pleasant sounds they emanate. They are also known to elicit a parasympathetic response in the body responsible for rest and relaxation.
Sound is one of the many great powerful tools available that help us relax and release tension while also grounding us into the present moment.
Hosted by: Michaela Bekenn, MeditationWorks
9:25 AM – 10:15 AM | Self-Awareness Superhero
You can’t control how your brain works but you can understand it – and use that intel to change the way you relate to others and show up in the world. This is exactly what Self-Awareness Superhero is all about.
It leverages the Emergenetics profile, a psychoanalytic tool that uses four thinking attributes and three behavioural attributes to understand the way you think which, in turn, affects the way you see and interact with the world. Emergenetics is a measurable, proven way to recognize and apply thinking and behavior patterns people use regularly. They were identified by reviewing research from a wide body of academic literature covering personality, psychology, and neuroscience. These results were then subjected to rigorous statistical analysis. I am a certified Emergenetics Associate and I’m so looking forward to introducing you to the tool!
Speaker: Lindsay Recknell (she/her/hers), President & CEO, Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc.
10:15 AM – 10:25 AM | Pause to Ignite Your Superpowers
Experience and learn how mindfulness and meditation can support you in managing stress and sharpening focus while living healthier and happier in all aspects of your life.
This purposeful pause will focus on igniting your personal superpowers!
4 superpowers you gain from meditation:
- Zooming In | Paying attention on Purpose, Being Present | Breathe & Focus
- Zooming Out Provides Perspective | See the Bigger Picture
- Pausing | Creates Space | Clarity | Provides a Reset
- Changing the Channel | Active Observer | Simply Notice | Holding the Converter of your Life
Hosted by: Michaela Bekenn, MeditationWorks
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | Compassion Fatigue: Caring for You While You Care for Others
Compassion Fatigue is a call to rest. Although we may highly value our caregiving role, there is a cost to caring. However, advocating and caring for others is not actually what strains our empathy. What gives us compassion fatigue is not caring for ourselves. During this course participants will pick up valuable insights to make their role as a caregiver (and HR professional) more sustainable. Additionally, capacity building strategies help people recover more quickly and regain control over their lives. We can end up compromising our care of others when we try to support them, but we’re running on empty. In the words of Charles Figley, “First, do no harm to yourself in the line of duty while helping / treating others. Second, attend to your physical, social, emotional, and spiritual needs as a way of ensuring high quality services for those who look to you for support as a human being.”
During this interactive keynote address, participants will pick up valuable insights to make their supportive role at work and beyond more sustainable. We will explore the nuance between Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Trauma, Burnout, and Moral Distress. And get creative about capacity-building strategies that can help us recover more quickly, AND model healthy strategies for those who look to us for support.
Speaker: Shawna Percy, President, Life Voice Workshops
12:00 PM – 12:45 PM
12:00 PM – 12:25 PM | Purposeful Pause: Tapping, and We Don’t Mean Your Foot
EFT or “tapping”, stands for Emotional Freedom Technique and is a science-based mind body tool that works by tapping on specific parts of the body to reduce stress and cortisol levels in the body. This powerful technique can change your emotional state in a matter of minutes and can be used in various areas to improve emotional wellbeing in the workplace and in your overall life.
This purposeful pause is led by a certified EFT Tapping practitioner who specializes in stress and burnout. The technique is a blend of traditional Chinese medicine and modern psychology. The techniques you will learn work the same way as acupuncture but without the needles by tapping on meridian points, points on the face, head and body.
Hosted by: Traci Shepheard & Meeta Darji, MeditationWorks
12:00 PM – 12:45 PM | Lunch and Break
12:45 PM – 2:15 PM | MY BIG IDEA® Fueling Your Journey: Making Positive Change in Your Personal and Professional Life
At HRPA, we are dedicated to shaping your success in all aspects of life, be it personal or professional. That’s why we are thrilled to partner with MY BIG IDEA® to bring you a transformative 90-minute workshop designed to refuel your motivation and guide you on a path to personal and professional achievement.
Led by Michele Bailey, Forbes author and CEO of The Blazing Group, this workshop will empower you with the tools and insights to ignite positive change in every aspect of your life. Through self-reflection, addressing burnout, and actively seeking ways to achieve work-life blend and integration, you’ll gain a renewed sense of purpose and fulfillment.
Drawing from the powerful MY BIG IDEA® Planner while sharing captivating personal stories, Michele will help you explore six goal-setting categories that encompass different areas of your life. With carefully crafted thought-provoking questions, you’ll reflect on your personal drivers and identify the key goals to which you aspire.
Workshop Outcomes
- Renewed sense of optimism and personal perspective
- A toolbox of processes to track steps to goal achievement and remain motivated
- An understanding of how to build and maintain strong network of professional contacts and how to leverage these relationships for personal and professional growth
- Increased awareness and understanding of the importance of work-life blend and strategies for achieving it
- Follow-up tools and implementation support to encourage accountability to goals and objectives
- Motivation implement the regular practice of gratitude to build and strengthen relationships
Don’t miss out on this transformative opportunity—reserve your spot in MY BIG IDEA’s ‘Fueling your Journey’ Workshop now.
Speaker: Michele Bailey, Founder, The Blazing Group
2:15 PM – 2:25 PM | Purposeful Pause: Breath as Your Anchor
Breath as your anchor? Yes! Your breath is always with you; you cannot breathe a breath from the past or the future. Your breath grounds you into the present moment.
Learn how to boost or chill your energy with your breath. During this purposeful pause you will learn and experience how breathwork can be integrated into different parts of your day to energize you or support relaxation and rest.
Hosted by: Leoni Parkinson, MeditationWorks
2:45 PM – 3:45 PM | Radical Self-Care
We understand the importance of self-care and recognize that this can include intentional activities that rejuvenate our physical, mental and emotional health, however, it can be challenging to take the time and make the space to provide this critical self-care.
The intention of this webinar is to support participants in reframing the way we view self-care, not as a luxury, but as an integral part of our overall health. With time-honoured techniques, participants will begin to explore what self-care is and how implementing regular self-care practices can support them both personally and professionally.
Speaker: CJ Calvert, Motivational Speaker, Author, Life Coach
3:45 PM – 4:00 PM | Pause on Purpose: Shake it Off
Sometimes in the day we just need to “Shake it Off”; Move, Stretch & Energize. Increase Your Energy with Mindful Movement | Join Us seated or standing! Move Your Body, Change Your Mindset & Increase Energy. Suitable for all fitness levels especially those who like to Move it, Move it!
Hosted by: Michaela Bekenn, MeditationWorks
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM | Happy Moments: Well-Being and Mindset Coaching
Discover mindset coaching techniques to improve your well-being and be empowered by self-coaching. Sophie will share several impactful coaching exercises for you to employ so that you may truly enjoy practicing self-care and flourish in the pursuit of a brighter future. Together, let’s cheers to a fulfilling and transformational journey.
Speaker: Sophie Brochu, President & Founder, Happy Moments
5:00 PM – 5:10 PM | Event Wrap up and Closing Remarks
PRICING
Registration fees include access to the live, streamed event as well as access to the on-demand recordings for one year post-conference.
Not sure of your schedule? Register anyway to get the recordings.
Whether you attend the sessions live or not, register anyway to gain access to the conference recordings post-event. On-demand viewings still qualify for CPD Hours and recordings are made available for one year post-event date.
| Summer Conference Registration | Member | Non-Member | Student |
| Regular July 1, 2023 onward | $185 | $265 | $70 |
| Group 3+ More Registrants | Save 10% per registrant. | Save 10% per registrant. | N/A |
BOGO: Summer + Fall
NEW! While you plan for summer, get ready for fall! Purchase the two conferences together and save more!
This year’s fall conference will take place virtually on Tuesday, November 28. The theme of the event will focus on technology and artificial intelligence. Further program details will be announced in October.
| BOGO BUNDLE: Summer + Fall | Member | Non-Member | Student |
| Regular July 1, 2023 onward | $278 Savings: $92 | $398 Savings: $132 | N/A |
| Group 3+ More Registrants | Save 10% per registrant. | Save 10% per registrant. | N/A |
PRIZE GIVEAWAYS
We are excited to offer great prize pack giveaways that will give back to you!
Check out the prize packs and details below.
Registration Prizes
- First person to register for the Summer Conference – $50 Amazon gift card plus The Currency of Gratitude book.
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- Congratulations Jennifer M.!
- First person to register for the BOGO Summer + Fall Conference – $50 Amazon gift card plus Living an Exceptional Life book.
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- Congratulations Renu V.!
Conference Prizes
- 15 lucky winners will each receive a $50 Uber Eats gift certificate.
- Ask an interesting question? You’re automatically entered for your chance to win 1 of 5 $50 Ultimate Dining gift cards plus The Currency of Gratitude and Living an Exceptional Life books.
- In one select presentation, stay alert and watch for a QR code for you to enter a draw for 1 of 4 $25 Starbucks gift cards plus The Currency of Gratitude and Living an Exceptional Life books.
Grand Prize Packs
- $100 Gift card of your choosing (some limitations apply) plus a 30 minute virtual MeditationWorks Mindful Experience Voucher for up to 50 people (value $750).
- $200 gift card of your choosing (some limitations apply) plus two tickets to a Cirque du Soleil Canadian Show for 2023 (value is approximately $150, based on availability).
- $500 gift card of your choosing (some limitations apply) plus an Experience Happy Moments at Work Bundle (value $129).
Participation Guidelines
If you are a paid registrant of the 2023 Summer Conference, HR for HR – A Superhero Check-in, you are automatically entered for all of the prize pack giveaways.
Each prize draw will include all eligible registrants. If you are a speaker, sponsor, partner, HRPA staff, volunteer and/or HRPA family member, you are excluded from the prize draw eligibility.
You do not need to be present or participating live to win. Chances of winning are dependent upon the number of valid registrants at the time of the draw.
Prize draw winners are selected at random using an online name randomizer or selected based on the prize criteria noted for that prize.
Prizes are not redeemable in cash or cash equivalents. All prize values are listed in Canadian dollars.
An HRPA staff member will connect with each prize winner directly following the selected draw.
For questions regarding these prize details, please email professionaldevelopment@hrpa.ca.
Stay tuned for more prize announcements!
Kris Tierney (she/her), CHRP, CHRL
Vice President, Human Resources and Learning, HRPA
Kris’ approach as an executive leader is to achieve results by creating outstanding workplaces where people and culture are strategic priorities. She is a passionate and skilled business executive with 15 years’ experience leading HR in hi-tech, high growth companies in automotive and financial services, where she served as a trusted people and culture strategist, advisor and business partner to the C-Suite.
Kris started her career in hospitality where she held various leadership and management positions. For more than 20 years, Kris has served as a valued member of senior and executive leadership teams, where her skills in HR, leadership, strategy and culture were honed and her passion for business and HR were developed. She is periodically called upon by media, conferences and academia to contribute her experience and perspectives as an HR and business leader.
Kris has achieved the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) and Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) designations as awarded by HRPA. As a lifelong learner, Kris is thrilled to bring professional development and learning opportunities to the HR community in her role as Vice-President, Human Resources and Learning at HRPA.
Lindsay Recknell (she/her)
President & CEO, Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc.
Lindsay gets people talking, teaches self-awareness and brain science, and helps as many people as she can use positive psychology to motivate positive change. As President & CEO of Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc, she continues to raise mental health maturity in organizations while making conversations about mental health in the workplace as normalized as any other conversation.
A certified Psychological Health & Safety Advisor, Lindsay works with leaders and HR professionals to give them the knowledge and confidence to know what to say about mental health at work, how to help while considering the moral, ethical and legal considerations and how to make mental health-related decisions in the best interest of the company, their individual teams and themselves.
She empowers individuals, strengthens teams and transforms organizations through her podcast, Mental Health for Leaders, a certificate program for leaders and HR professionals titled, Mental Health Skills Training, a digital subscription of conversation starters titled, Language of Mental Health, and a live, virtual or in-person workshop titled, From Burnout to Hope. Lindsay lives in Calgary with her husband and their two Golden Retrievers.
Michele Bailey
Founder, The Blazing Group
Michele Bailey is the Founder of The Blazing Group, a brand and culture agency born of her strategy-first approach to business, flair for sharing stories, and desire to enhance employee wellness while pursuing business goals. Michele is the daughter of a Haitian-born physician who, along with his French-Canadian wife, moved his family many times from Haiti to various U.S. states during Michele’s formative teen years. Michele credits her unique perspective on valuing relationships to those experiences and to the manner in which her parents placed a premium on ensuring their family felt anchored and supported.
Her advertising agency, Blazing, is turning branding inside out with My Big Idea®, an employee mentoring and wellness program designed to propel individuals forward in their quest for personal and professional success. Blazing, a creative strategic communications agency founded in 1994 builds external marketing programs for its clients, while My Big Idea® is an interactive program highly valued by leaders of organizations who understand the value of linking culture, brand and marketing to drive business growth. Delivered virtually or in-person, My Big Idea® is uniquely designed to help business owners, leaders and employees address the challenges of both work and personal life.
Countless companies have discovered greater team cohesion and boosted their bottom-line results as a direct result of Michele’s proprietary process. Working together, and anchored in a practice of gratitude, the companies of The Blazing Group help their clients “brand from within” thus driving successful marketing programs from the ground up.
Michele is on a quest to get her clients to take it one important step further; to make true gratitude integral to the way business is done. Her passion for gratitude is contagious. Her new book, The Currency of Gratitude, published in 2021 by Forbes Books offers a moving and straightforward guide to enabling business growth using gratitude as your currency.
As a bi-racial woman, Michele has faced her share of challenges, yet her boundless energy and vision have earned her international recognition as a champion of women in business. A driving force in bringing the first Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) chapter to Canada, she currently sits on the WPO board as its international representative. She is also committed to supporting entrepreneurs in the underrepresented diverse and inclusion markets and completed the Tuck University (Dartmouth) course on “Growing an Established Diverse Business” in 2021. Michele’s companies are certified by WBE and WeConnect International.
Michaela Bekenn
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Michaela is a Toronto-based singer-songwriter, yoga and meditation teacher and certified sound therapy practitioner. She is an instructor of Compassion-Based Resilience Training and mindfulness for stress reduction, addiction recovery and chronic pain. Michaela believes deeply in the power of community and integrative wellness. She is committed to holding inclusive space for participants to feel supported and nourished, wherever they may be on their personal journey.
Diane Biesinger (she/her) CHRP
Lead, HR & Learning, HRPA
Diane Biesinger has more than 20 years of experience in HR and has enjoyed working in a wide range of industries from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Diane holds the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation as awarded by the HRPA. She currently brings her passion for HR to the role of HR & Learning Specialist at the HRPA, where her focus runs the range of the workplace experience for all HRPA employees, “keeping the lights on in HR” and delivering on the association’s strategic initiatives.
Diane is proud that HRPA has been certified as a Great Place to Work by GPTW Canada for the last four years and is looking forward to having that continue and improve. Prior to joining HRPA, she spent six years in the telecommunications space working with companies such as Bell and Rogers, as Director of HR. She is passionate about IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility) and supporting leaders and staff to promote organizational objectives. Diane likes to bring her whole self to work and is enthusiastic about relationships as she brings a genuine love of people, especially our differences, to her daily interactions.
Sophie Brochu
President & Founder, Happy Moments
Sophie is the proud owner and founder of Happy Moments, a purpose-driven company on a heartfelt mission to help leaders throughout the world create values-based “happy moments experiences” within their team.
She has been on a journey to help enhance happiness in the workplace since the very beginning of her career. She has more than 10 years of combined experience as a head of human resources, as a board member of a Quebec sectorial workforce committee and as a member of the HR committee and executive team at one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies. She is also a certified corporate coach with a specialization in neuro-linguistic programming, which gives her a distinct set of skills.
Sophie is known for her “joie de vivre”, her striking creativity and her sincere love for Happy Moments’ mission and clients.
CJ Calvert
Motivational Speaker, Author, Life Coach
CJ Calvert is a professional speaker and author of Bouncing Back Through COVID-19. He regularly speaks before world-class organizations such as IBM, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Golden State Warriors. He has also presented on the TEDx stage in Vancouver and has been a featured guest on Breakfast Television. He makes his home near Toronto, Ontario with his amazing wife and son.
Meeta Darji
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Meeta is a Certified Health Coach & EFT (Tapping) Practitioner, specializing in stress and burnout. Using her unique approach that combines EFT Tapping and her extensive knowledge in holistic health, Meeta empowers individuals to feel calmer, happier, healthier and thrive in life. Meeta is dedicated to helping others transform their physical and emotional well-being.
Leoni Parkinson
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Leoni is a trauma-informed breathwork and somatic coach. She has two breathwork certifications from Pause Breathwork and YogaBody. She has studied Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy techniques with The Embody Lab and is currently getting her certification in emotional freedom coaching with The Energetic Revolution. Leoni’s passion for wellness at work derives from knowing the importance of connecting people back with their bodies which enables them to make better decisions for themselves which is so important in the corporate environment where we can sometimes end up getting lost. When we’re connected to our bodies and the signals that our bodies are sending us, we can tailor our daily life to what is right for us.
Shawna Percy
President, Life Voice Workshops
Shawna is a TEDxUW speaker, creator of the START Psychological Health and Safety training program and President of Life Voice workshops.
Before founding Life Voice workshops, she spent 15 years working for corporations. Her roles spanned human resources, national account management, sales, marketing, training development and delivery. Each of these roles taught Shawna a great deal. However, after the suicide of her first husband in 2011, Shawna transitioned to a deeper purpose: teaching others how to create psychologically safer conversations at work and beyond.
Shawna is now a certified Mental Health First Aid, Suicide First Aid and Compassion Fatigue trainer. She has trained thousands of HR personnel, people leaders, Indigenous community members and front-line workers. Shawna’s ability to share lived experiences in a trauma-informed way engages listeners and takes learning from theory to real-life application.
To learn more about Shawna and to watch her TEDxUW talk “Suicide IS Preventable,” please visit www.LifeVoice.ca
Traci Shepheard
Founder, MeditationWorks
Traci Shepheard is the Founder of MeditationWorks, Certified in the Foundations of Mindfulness & Mindful Meditation through the University of Toronto. After spending 20+ years in a successful corporate career in beverage alcohol, sport and entertainment Traci knows first-hand the priceless benefits of meditation and how a consistent wellness regime can assist in managing stress, sharpening focus while enhancing overall well-being.
Kris Tierney (she/her), CHRP, CHRL
Vice President, Human Resources and Learning, HRPA
Kris’ approach as an executive leader is to achieve results by creating outstanding workplaces where people and culture are strategic priorities. She is a passionate and skilled business executive with 15 years’ experience leading HR in hi-tech, high growth companies in automotive and financial services, where she served as a trusted people and culture strategist, advisor and business partner to the C-Suite.
Kris started her career in hospitality where she held various leadership and management positions. For more than 20 years, Kris has served as a valued member of senior and executive leadership teams, where her skills in HR, leadership, strategy and culture were honed and her passion for business and HR were developed. She is periodically called upon by media, conferences and academia to contribute her experience and perspectives as an HR and business leader.
Kris has achieved the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) and Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) designations as awarded by HRPA. As a lifelong learner, Kris is thrilled to bring professional development and learning opportunities to the HR community in her role as Vice-President, Human Resources and Learning at HRPA.
Lindsay Recknell (she/her)
President & CEO, Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc.
Lindsay gets people talking, teaches self-awareness and brain science, and helps as many people as she can use positive psychology to motivate positive change. As President & CEO of Paradigm Corporate Wellness Inc, she continues to raise mental health maturity in organizations while making conversations about mental health in the workplace as normalized as any other conversation.
A certified Psychological Health & Safety Advisor, Lindsay works with leaders and HR professionals to give them the knowledge and confidence to know what to say about mental health at work, how to help while considering the moral, ethical and legal considerations and how to make mental health-related decisions in the best interest of the company, their individual teams and themselves.
She empowers individuals, strengthens teams and transforms organizations through her podcast, Mental Health for Leaders, a certificate program for leaders and HR professionals titled, Mental Health Skills Training, a digital subscription of conversation starters titled, Language of Mental Health, and a live, virtual or in-person workshop titled, From Burnout to Hope. Lindsay lives in Calgary with her husband and their two Golden Retrievers.
Michele Bailey
Founder, The Blazing Group
Michele Bailey is the Founder of The Blazing Group, a brand and culture agency born of her strategy-first approach to business, flair for sharing stories, and desire to enhance employee wellness while pursuing business goals. Michele is the daughter of a Haitian-born physician who, along with his French-Canadian wife, moved his family many times from Haiti to various U.S. states during Michele’s formative teen years. Michele credits her unique perspective on valuing relationships to those experiences and to the manner in which her parents placed a premium on ensuring their family felt anchored and supported.
Her advertising agency, Blazing, is turning branding inside out with My Big Idea®, an employee mentoring and wellness program designed to propel individuals forward in their quest for personal and professional success. Blazing, a creative strategic communications agency founded in 1994 builds external marketing programs for its clients, while My Big Idea® is an interactive program highly valued by leaders of organizations who understand the value of linking culture, brand and marketing to drive business growth. Delivered virtually or in-person, My Big Idea® is uniquely designed to help business owners, leaders and employees address the challenges of both work and personal life.
Countless companies have discovered greater team cohesion and boosted their bottom-line results as a direct result of Michele’s proprietary process. Working together, and anchored in a practice of gratitude, the companies of The Blazing Group help their clients “brand from within” thus driving successful marketing programs from the ground up.
Michele is on a quest to get her clients to take it one important step further; to make true gratitude integral to the way business is done. Her passion for gratitude is contagious. Her new book, The Currency of Gratitude, published in 2021 by Forbes Books offers a moving and straightforward guide to enabling business growth using gratitude as your currency.
As a bi-racial woman, Michele has faced her share of challenges, yet her boundless energy and vision have earned her international recognition as a champion of women in business. A driving force in bringing the first Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) chapter to Canada, she currently sits on the WPO board as its international representative. She is also committed to supporting entrepreneurs in the underrepresented diverse and inclusion markets and completed the Tuck University (Dartmouth) course on “Growing an Established Diverse Business” in 2021. Michele’s companies are certified by WBE and WeConnect International.
Michaela Bekenn
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Michaela is a Toronto-based singer-songwriter, yoga and meditation teacher and certified sound therapy practitioner. She is an instructor of Compassion-Based Resilience Training and mindfulness for stress reduction, addiction recovery and chronic pain. Michaela believes deeply in the power of community and integrative wellness. She is committed to holding inclusive space for participants to feel supported and nourished, wherever they may be on their personal journey.
Diane Biesinger (she/her) CHRP
Lead, HR & Learning, HRPA
Diane Biesinger has more than 20 years of experience in HR and has enjoyed working in a wide range of industries from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Diane holds the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation as awarded by the HRPA. She currently brings her passion for HR to the role of HR & Learning Specialist at the HRPA, where her focus runs the range of the workplace experience for all HRPA employees, “keeping the lights on in HR” and delivering on the association’s strategic initiatives.
Diane is proud that HRPA has been certified as a Great Place to Work by GPTW Canada for the last four years and is looking forward to having that continue and improve. Prior to joining HRPA, she spent six years in the telecommunications space working with companies such as Bell and Rogers, as Director of HR. She is passionate about IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility) and supporting leaders and staff to promote organizational objectives. Diane likes to bring her whole self to work and is enthusiastic about relationships as she brings a genuine love of people, especially our differences, to her daily interactions.
Sophie Brochu
President & Founder, Happy Moments
Sophie is the proud owner and founder of Happy Moments, a purpose-driven company on a heartfelt mission to help leaders throughout the world create values-based “happy moments experiences” within their team.
She has been on a journey to help enhance happiness in the workplace since the very beginning of her career. She has more than 10 years of combined experience as a head of human resources, as a board member of a Quebec sectorial workforce committee and as a member of the HR committee and executive team at one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies. She is also a certified corporate coach with a specialization in neuro-linguistic programming, which gives her a distinct set of skills.
Sophie is known for her “joie de vivre”, her striking creativity and her sincere love for Happy Moments’ mission and clients.
CJ Calvert
Motivational Speaker, Author, Life Coach
CJ Calvert is a professional speaker and author of Bouncing Back Through COVID-19. He regularly speaks before world-class organizations such as IBM, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Golden State Warriors. He has also presented on the TEDx stage in Vancouver and has been a featured guest on Breakfast Television. He makes his home near Toronto, Ontario with his amazing wife and son.
Meeta Darji
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Meeta is a Certified Health Coach & EFT (Tapping) Practitioner, specializing in stress and burnout. Using her unique approach that combines EFT Tapping and her extensive knowledge in holistic health, Meeta empowers individuals to feel calmer, happier, healthier and thrive in life. Meeta is dedicated to helping others transform their physical and emotional well-being.
Leoni Parkinson
MeditationWorks Facilitator
Leoni is a trauma-informed breathwork and somatic coach. She has two breathwork certifications from Pause Breathwork and YogaBody. She has studied Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy techniques with The Embody Lab and is currently getting her certification in emotional freedom coaching with The Energetic Revolution. Leoni’s passion for wellness at work derives from knowing the importance of connecting people back with their bodies which enables them to make better decisions for themselves which is so important in the corporate environment where we can sometimes end up getting lost. When we’re connected to our bodies and the signals that our bodies are sending us, we can tailor our daily life to what is right for us.
Shawna Percy
President, Life Voice Workshops
Shawna is a TEDxUW speaker, creator of the START Psychological Health and Safety training program and President of Life Voice workshops.
Before founding Life Voice workshops, she spent 15 years working for corporations. Her roles spanned human resources, national account management, sales, marketing, training development and delivery. Each of these roles taught Shawna a great deal. However, after the suicide of her first husband in 2011, Shawna transitioned to a deeper purpose: teaching others how to create psychologically safer conversations at work and beyond.
Shawna is now a certified Mental Health First Aid, Suicide First Aid and Compassion Fatigue trainer. She has trained thousands of HR personnel, people leaders, Indigenous community members and front-line workers. Shawna’s ability to share lived experiences in a trauma-informed way engages listeners and takes learning from theory to real-life application.
To learn more about Shawna and to watch her TEDxUW talk “Suicide IS Preventable,” please visit www.LifeVoice.ca
Traci Shepheard
Founder, MeditationWorks
Traci Shepheard is the Founder of MeditationWorks, Certified in the Foundations of Mindfulness & Mindful Meditation through the University of Toronto. After spending 20+ years in a successful corporate career in beverage alcohol, sport and entertainment Traci knows first-hand the priceless benefits of meditation and how a consistent wellness regime can assist in managing stress, sharpening focus while enhancing overall well-being.
SPONSORSHIP
Please complete our sponsor submission form here.
Contact Adam Hart, Business Development Manager, to learn more about partnership or sponsorship opportunities.
Tel: 416.923.2324 ext. 7353
Email: ahart@hrpa.ca
Thank you to our Sponsors and Partners
Supporting Sponsors
