2017 NARA Licensing Seminar Keynote Speakers

 

This year's Licensing Seminar features two great keynote speakers: Joe Schmit and Sam Killermann.

Monday, September 11

8:45 – 10:15am
Opening Keynote Address: Silent Impact
Presented by: Joe Schmit

NARA from Joe Schmit on Vimeo.

Through research, Joe has discovered the “we make our biggest impressions when we are not trying to be impressive.” That is what Silent Impact is all about. Your success and happiness are not related to your title or how many awards you have won, but to the impact you have on others. If there was a

going-away party tonight at your office, which person would bring the biggest crowd? The person you just identified is keenly aware of the impact he or she is making on others. Joe will teach you how to ramp up your influence so you make better connections, stronger relationships, and win more often.

 Meet Joe:


Joe Schmit is an author, award-winning sports broadcaster with KSTP-TV, community leader, and

popular keynote speaker. His book, Silent Impact: Stories of Influence Through Purpose, Persistence & Passion has won numerous awards, and Joe received the 2015 Next Level Award by the National Speakers Association, Minnesota chapter. He has covered every major sporting event in the past three decades and has interviewed the biggest names in sports. Joe has won seventeen Emmys from the National Television Academy, was honored with a National Headliner Award in 2001, and is also a regular on 1500 ESPN radio.

Joe is a long-time youth mentor, committed to advocating for a number of community organizations, with Big Brothers and Big Sisters at the top of the list. He is a past president and board member of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities. He has raised over $3 million for the organization through the Joe Schmit Celebrity Golf Tournament which had a sixteen-year run. He was the winner of the 2000 Jim Kelly Distinguished Service Award from Big Brothers and Big Sisters, the winner of the 2001 Odyssey Award for commitment to youth mentorship, and the 2005 Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF) Community Leader of the Year. He is past president and board member of the Fairway Foundation and has contributed time to many other charitable organizations. Joe and his wife Laura chaired a $5 million capital campaign for VEAP, the largest food shelf in Minnesota.

 

Tuesday, September 12

8:30 – 10am
Keynote Address: Applying a Social Justice Lens to Your Work & Life
Presented by: Sam Killermann

If someone said “don’t think about the color red,” what’s the first thing you’d think of? In that same way, when we’re made aware of the lenses through which we see the world, it’s hard not to think about them. In this keynote, Sam will provide you with a social justice lens (or sharpen yours, if you bring it with you), and other tools that will help you identify injustice, and advocate for justice, in all aspects of your life. Sam will also talk about the components of gender, how they fit together, and how we can be more aware of them to create spaces that are comfier for folks of all genders.

 Meet Sam:



Sam Killermann is a multi-disciplinary artist who puts his gifts to work to achieve global justice as the Director of Creativity for hues. Sam is also the person behind It’s Pronounced Metrosexual, the comedy show performed at colleges and universities, as well as the online resource, which has educated millions of readers on themes of social justice, gender, and sexuality.

Sam’s work (that he uncopyrighted in 2013) has been downloaded by hundreds of millions of people around the world who utilize it to bolster their educational and advocacy efforts toward equity. His version of the Genderbread Person, a model for understanding and teaching gender and sexual diversity, has been translated into over a dozen languages.

In 2014, Sam designed an all-gender restroom sign that he gifted to the commons, which is now being implemented on three continents, is featured in the White House, and is becoming the standard for dozens of communities around the U.S. and world.

Sam is the author of A Guide to Gender, which is an exploration of gender from a social justice perspective, with humor and comics sprinkled in. The book opened as the #1 bestseller in gender on Amazon, and as a reflection of Sam’s commitment to access as a core social justice value, he’s given away over 10,000 copies of the book. He gave a well-received TEDxTalk that has over 200,000 views called “Understanding the Complexities of Gender,” where he distilled the themes of the book into a few minutes of fun, energetic, and easily-digestible speech.

Sam is the co-creator of TheSafeZoneProject.com, a free online resource for LGBTQ and Ally training materials. The open source curriculum they published is being used by over ten thousand educators in at least 100 countries.

Outside of his key initiatives, Sam is a frequent keynote speaker, serves on the Board of Directors for Healthy Teen Network, is the comedy half of S.E.X., head elf at Socially Just Cards, and is always dreaming up new social good projects. When he’s not on the road, he likes to spend at least a few hours a day bicycling around sunny Austin, TX, where he counts himself lucky to live.