Speakers

Track One – Presentation Skills/Executive Presence

Presenter – Adelaide Ness

Session Information

This session is designed to help participants give effective presentations to clients, prospects, and other audiences. Through the development of brief presentations, recorded and followed by group feedback, participants better understand proper presentation techniques and their strengths and weaknesses. They learn how to strengthen presentations, whether delivered in-person or virtually. This session focuses on impactful presentations to close new business again and again.

Speaker Information

Adelaide Ness

As Owner & Chief Learning Officer, Adelaide is a speaker, trainer, coach and consultant to accounting firms around the world. Adelaide’s strengths are in marketing, branding, communications, leadership and business development. For over sixteen years she has been working with accounting firms to help them build stronger cultures and stronger brands by encouraging excellence and consistency at all levels in a firm. She does this through curriculum development that addresses each firm’s unique challenges and strengths and through energetic and impactful training that keeps firms excited about growth. Adelaide heads up the training of The Rainmaker Academy, the premier leadership and business development program to the industry. More recently, Adelaide has spearheaded and oversees the development of all of our virtual training as well as our video modules to supplement growth efforts inside of firms.

Adelaide is a bilingual and bicultural citizen of the United States and France. Her unique background gives her the ability to connect with people around the world. As a consultant, her capacity to understand the cultural differences and nuances of various locales makes her a valuable asset to The Rainmaker Companies. Her previous role was as Executive Director of Enterprise Worldwide, an international association of independent accounting firms. She continues to work with firms around the world for their training and consulting needs.

Adelaide has her BA from Vanderbilt University and her MA from the American University of Paris. Adelaide and her husband, Matthew, have four children, Eleonore, Josephine, Charles-Henri and Amelie and two dogs, Lafayette and Elsa (yes, like the princess.)

FUN FACTS

  • Wine Enthusiast
  • Speaks fluent French
  • Labels everything
  • Met her husband on a layover
  • Ran the last 11 miles of the Boston Marathon on a broken foot

Track Two – Leadership Development

Presenter – Dr. Claire Carver-Dias

Session Information

OVERVIEW

SECTION 1 – Self-Mastery

  • Discuss the 4 components of emotional intelligence (EI): Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management, and why developing and exercising EI is important in your workplace
  • Participants are given best practices around how to enhance their higher emotional intelligence
  • Debrief the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator from a communication lens
  • Learn about what energizes you and others, and how that affects the way you interact, how you structure and participate in meetings, how you engage in decision-making, and how you plan and lead engagements
  • Discover how to use this knowledge to build relationships, influence others, demonstrate resilience and stave off burnout

SECTION 2 – Building Your Team

  • Explore top tips around how to diagnose dysfunction in a team and turn it around; how to foster a team environment founded on trust and accountability; and what practical steps a leader can take to build a team that is dependable, committed and passionate about their work
  • Build on-the-job coaching skills to help develop workplace talent, retain employees, and meet performance goals
  • Participants will learn how to set up clear coaching relationships, build trust, provide feedback, and conduct difficult/collaborative conversations

SECTION 3 – Communicate for Impact

  • Enhance your presentation skills for better business results.
  • Become a more impactful and influential speaker. Learn how to present with confidence and competence to groups of varying sizes, structure a presentation, and tell stories that inspire action
  • Learn how to listen actively and ask powerful questions
  • Develop meeting management techniques that optimize business productivity and results
  • Networking

THE GAME – Participants will be challenged to complete a series of tasks related to the learning that must be completed by the end of the bootcamp

Speaker Information

DR. CLAIRE CARVER-DIAS, PhD, MBA, MA, OLY, ACC

Claire’s professional life has straddled the worlds of sport, business and academia. A PhD specializing in English and Communications and a Cornell MBA, Claire has also won medals in synchronized swimming at the Olympic, Pan American, World Championship and Commonwealth Games. In 2003, she launched Clearday, her own executive coaching consultancy, combining her appreciation of effective business coaching techniques, and keen understanding of teaming, goal-setting, performance management, and communications, to help corporate leaders achieve their full potential. Her corporate clients include KPMG Global, KPMG US, Johnson Controls, University of Toronto, Goodmans LLP, and Royal Bank of Canada. Claire is also an award-winning writer and a professor with the institute of Communications, Culture & Information Technology, and Management Departments at the University of Toronto.

Since 2007, Claire has run presentation skills group coaching sessions for Olympians and corporate teams. In the past, Claire worked as the Practice Leader for Impact-Coaches, a top-tier executive coaching firm. Formerly, Claire was a Director on the board of the Coaching Association of Canada, and President of AthletesCAN. Currently, she is a Director on the board of Commonwealth Games Canada, and served as Chef de Mission for Team Canada at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She holds a coaching certification from the International Coaching Federation, and is certified in administering several psychometric assessments.