PreCon 2025
Tuesday, August 5th, 2025
The Madison Concourse Hotel
Madison, WI
Agenda:
12:30PM: Registration and Networking
1:00PM: Workshop
5:00PM: Happy Hour & Innovation Showcase
7:30PM: Adjourn
Innovate Your Culture: Mindset, Skills and Action for New Growth
Key Benefits:
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Become a transformational leader who fosters innovation and inspires new ideas.
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Master the principles of design thinking to teach others how to innovate.
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Make your meetings more dynamic and engaging with design thinking facilitation.
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Collaborate with peers to design an actionable innovation program for your organization.
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Leave with a toolkit of resources you can immediately apply.
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Learn simple, practical techniques to integrate innovation into daily practices.
Workshop Overview: Leading innovation across an organization is both essential and challenging in today's fast-paced world. Many teams have mastered execution but lack the skills for innovation. This workshop bridges that gap, equipping you with the tools to foster a culture of innovation that drives new growth and creative problem-solving.
Through a hands-on, collaborative experience, you’ll learn how to lead more interactive, human-centered meetings and workshops. By applying design thinking techniques, you'll confidently guide others to generate fresh ideas and solutions. This workshop isn’t just about theory—it's about putting those skills into practice right away.
Expect to participate in creative activities, co-create solutions with your peers, and leave with the knowledge and confidence to implement design thinking for innovation. Whether you’re leading a team, facilitating workshops, or driving organizational change, this workshop will help you become a catalyst for transformation.
What’s Next:
Following the workshop, you'll receive complimentary access to additional online resources, workshops, and guides that reinforce what you’ve learned and support your ongoing innovation journey.
Trainer
Dr. Darin Eich
Founder
InnovationTraining.org
Dr. Darin Eich is the founder of InnovationTraining.org and author of Innovation Step-by-Step: How to Create & Develop Ideas for your Challenge and Root Down & Branch Out: Best Practices for Leadership Development Programs. He is a widely sought after design thinking expert, innovation workshop leader and keynote speaker as the CEO of Innovation Learning. Darin is known for making innovation fun, simple, and contagious to pass on. Darin has helped over 100 organizations from Silicon Valley to Boston to Singapore and Berlin with their culture of innovation. Darin designs and facilitates programs used by over 1 million people that have been featured in USA TODAY and offered dozens of times by the University of Wisconsin and Dartmouth College. He started in design thinking more than 10 years ago as the president of BrainReactions where he led projects for clients like P&G and the United Nations.
Attendee Testimonials
Thank you for generously sharing your insights, expertise, and valuable resources. I especially appreciate the gift you have for creating an environment where participants can learn from one another, are challenged to try new activites in a safe space, and have fun all at the same time. The best part of the workshop is that it never really ended!
Thank you for teaching state of the art techniques on how to build a more innovative workplace culture through design thinking. I've already used several of your techniques to make our team meetings more engaging, fun, and productive. We're generating more ideas, cultivating empathy, and taking action more so than we ever did before!
During the workshop, I picked up a lot of tips and simple techniques that can be used throughout the workday. Things that will help me translate [innovation] theory into the practice. For me, the workshop was about affirmation and confidence for becoming a more transformational leader that helps others learn and start new ideas.
Innovation Showcase
Network with conference attendees, speakers and event partners and hear short presentations from innovative companies who are developing products and services that are driving the future of work. Past presenters include:
Joe Plasterer
Co-founder, Cirrus Change Readiness
Cirrus Change Readiness helps teams master change, while improving engagement, retention and productivity. Every team can be ready for change with the right supports. The Cirrus workspace and education, encourage positive cultures by setting up systems for communication, feedback, accountability and transparency.
Cirrus provides predictive analytics on your staff's readiness to change, a custom plan to support your team, certified education, alignment tools and dashboards. Your workspace includes private discussion space, tools to generate and keep alignment, and clear visuals to indicate growing success.
Mel Starkweather
Co-founder, Cirrus Change Readiness
Cirrus Change Readiness helps teams master change, while improving engagement, retention and productivity. Every team can be ready for change with the right supports. The Cirrus workspace and education, encourage positive cultures by setting up systems for communication, feedback, accountability and transparency.
Cirrus provides predictive analytics on your staff's readiness to change, a custom plan to support your team, certified education, alignment tools and dashboards. Your workspace includes private discussion space, tools to generate and keep alignment, and clear visuals to indicate growing success.
Nikki Lewallen-Gregory
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Founder & Chief Meaningful Work Officer, PeopleForward Network
PeopleForward Network provides innovative podcasting, communications, and partnership services for people-first leaders to impact meaningful work. From podcast production and distribution to creative services and growth consulting, PeopleForward Network's mission is to share resources and insights with their global community of leaders, connectors, and creators to inspire and build workplaces where people thrive.
Shira Grife
Market Growth Manager, Loop & Tie
Loop & Tie is the first and only carbon regenerative corporate gifting platform, enabling companies to engage in global gifting that gives back.
Focused on environmental, social and economic impact, Loop & Tie marketplace gifts are selected to bring corporate gifting budgets to small and artisan makers, women-owned businesses, BIPOC- and minority-owned businesses, and businesses making a direct positive impact on environmental sustainability issues.
For every gift shipped, whether from our marketplace or the swag we fulfill on your behalf, you’re making a net positive carbon impact through our land restoration and regenerative agriculture initiatives.
Yiannis Gavrielides
Co-founder & CEO, Covve
Helping people make meaningful relationship-building a habit to improve their lives and careers.
