Pre-Dinner Presentation: Rewiring Leadership: Neuroscience-Backed Strategies to Maximize Project Impact

Ana Smith is the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) of BrighFlare Performance Solutions and a 20-year career veteran operating in the crossing of business, psychology, and tech. she is highly sought-after international speaker, TEDx speaker, talent strategist and executive coach noted for her passion and energetic, inclusive, and interactive style. She’s been part of executive teams in organizations such as Microsoft, GE, HP, and American Express and has developed deep expertise in helping thousands of senior leaders, managers and teams successfully manage the human side of organizational change and digital transformation. She has also throughout her global career, been extremely curious about the impact and relationship between humans and technology and how it can be humanized.

She has worked for Fortune 50 organizations and possess a vast multilingual and bicultural background, including experiences implementing global initiative in People Operations, Sales, Finance, and Marketing – originating in the US, Mexico, Asia, South American, Europe, and Canada.

Topic Synopsis:

In a world where project timelines are shrinking and complexity is skyrocketing; leaders can no longer rely on traditional playbooks. The secret to breakthrough performance isn’t working harder, it’s working smarter; by aligning leadership behaviors with the way the brain actually operates under pressure.
In this transformative session, Ana Smith—global leadership strategist, executive coach, and two-time TEDx speaker—will unpack the neuroscience of peak leadership performance. You’ll learn practical, science-backed strategies to rewire your thinking, optimize focus, and lead with clarity—delivering not just results, but maximum, lasting impact.

Because the best project outcomes don’t start with a plan—they start with a leader whose brain is wired for success.

Today’s leaders are navigating unrelenting demands: faster delivery, heightened complexity, and teams spread across multiple time zones and platforms. Under these conditions, stress and cognitive overload can derail even the most strategic projects.
This session blends cutting-edge neuroscience research with actionable leadership strategies to help you rewire your brain for sustained performance and high-impact results. You’ll explore how to:
• Activate neuroplasticity to adapt to change faster and think more strategically.
• Protect and direct your most valuable leadership asset—attention—in an age of constant distraction.
• Regulate emotional and cognitive states to remain clear, decisive, and inspiring under pressure.
By mastering these brain-based strategies, you’ll create the conditions for stronger collaboration, more innovative problem-solving, and delivery that hits both business and human targets.

Learning Objectives:

• Harness Neuroplasticity for Adaptive Leadership. Apply neuroscience principles to rewire thinking patterns, enabling faster learning, greater resilience, and sharper decision-making in complex project environments.
• Optimize Cognitive Capacity for Peak Performance. Implement attention management and emotional regulation strategies to sustain focus, reduce cognitive overload, and boost both individual and team productivity.
• Translate Brain Science into Leadership Action. Leverage neuroscience-backed frameworks to foster trust, collaboration, and innovation—ensuring projects deliver maximum business and human impact.

PDU Triangle:

0.5 Ways of Working and 0.5 Business Acumen PDU

    

Dinner Presentation: Brand Awareness in Project Leadership

Eddie Monroe is the CEO of CCE Business Solutions. A consulting services company created in 2022 focusing exclusively on Technical Project Leadership. After spending 10+ years working for major consulting firms, leading projects and teams for small to fortune 500 companies, Eddie decided to start CCE to fill a gap in the industry. That gap is true customer focused project management, that resource project managers who think like entrepreneurs.
To handle simple or complex technical engagements, Eddie believes in remaining calm, staying adaptive, understanding the business impact and focusing on the customer experience.

Eddie has a bachelor’s degree and attained certifications from PMI, Microsoft, AWS and Cisco. Since earning his PMP in 2011, Eddie has held roles from Project Manager to Executive Leadership that embodies leading Project Management Offices (PMO) and technical delivery teams. These roles prepared Eddie to become a CEO, an author (Your Career Will…) and mentor numerous project managers.

PDU Triangle:

0.5 Ways of Working and 0.5 Business Acumen PDU