2025 Midwest Staffing Conference - Speakers and Sessions

Jon DeVore is a world-renowned skydiver, wingsuit pilot, and stuntman celebrated for his innovative contributions to aerial sports. As the longtime captain of the Red Bull Air Force, he has led groundbreaking projects and he has shown how passion, discipline, and creativity can transform a sport into an art form. His willingness to take on challenges—whether performing complex aerial stunts, navigating extreme environments, or choreographing breathtaking feats—demonstrates the power of persistence and innovation. His expertise has also brought him to Hollywood, where he has worked as a stunt coordinator and performer in films like Point Break (2015), Iron Man 3 and Mission Impossible-Dead Reckoning. DeVore’s career is a testament to the idea that with dedication and courage, the impossible becomes possible. Moreover, he inspires others not only through his daring accomplishments but also by mentoring aspiring skydivers and sharing his love for flight, encouraging people to embrace their dreams and overcome their fears.

 

Opening Keynote - April 23, 2025  - Elevating the Game, From Passion to Peak Performance

Conquering Fear, Leading Teams and Pushing Limits

    

In this captivating keynote, aerial stuntman Jon Devore will pull you into the world of human flight. With breathtaking visuals and videos , Jon shares lessons learned in his decades of experience in extreme sports and leadership and makes them unforgettable. This session will focus on key themes that drive individuals and teams to greater achievement:

• Overcoming Fear: Sharing of Jon's personal journey of facing and conquering fear, offering actionable strategies to embrace challenges and thrive under pressure.

• Teamwork and Leadership: As the leader of a high-performance team, Jon emphasizes the importance of trust, communication, and collaboration in achieving extraordinary results.

• Innovation and Risk Management: Jon discuss how pushing boundaries and managing calculated risks can lead to breakthrough achievements, both in the air and in life.

• Pursuing Passion: Jon inspires audiences to chase their dreams with dedication, resilience, and a growth mindset.

This presentation will motivate individuals, teams and aspiring adventurers to reach new heights in their personal and professional lives.

**Midwest Conference attendees may enter a drawing to win a tandem skydiving experience and photo package at Skydive Chicago. Details to follow**

 jondevore.com

 redbullairforce.com

Robert Reid,  principal of Butler Street, brings 13 years of staffing industry experience from business development to recruiting and key account management. Additionally, he is a highly successful improv theatre talent and creative content writer. His ability to add the “fun factor” into instructor-led training and eLearning has proven to increase retention of Butler Street’s highly successful methodologies, processes and skills training.

From 2007 to 2017, Robert utilized his theatre improv ability as a corporate trainer and performer for various theaters including the famed Second City in Chicago, IL. Robert facilitated training sessions for companies and organizations looking for a unique approach to training on topics such as communication, collaboration and innovation skills as well as team-building. Robert also performed both improv and sketch comedy for corporate entertainment offerings. Prior to his role as corporate trainer, Robert began his career with Randstad, an international staffing firm currently ranked second largest in the world. During his 11-year tenure, Robert worked in business development and recruitment with a focus on office administrative and light industrial roles in a retail setting. From there, Robert shifted focus to Randstad’s onsite and key account clients in both Jacksonville and Chicago where he handled high-volume recruitment projects. Immediately after Randstad, Robert was a recruitment manager for PPR and later Hueman People Solutions; both companies focused in the healthcare industry.

A graduate of the University of Florida, Robert now lives in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. He teaches and performs improv regularly, sings in a local band and does his best to get out and surf every once in a while, when he’s not in front of the classroom.

Opening Keynote - April 24, 2025 - From Challenges to Champions: Building Success in 2025 

Empowering Resilience and Driving Innovation in the Rapidly Evolving World of Staffing and Business

In this keynote, Robert Reid brings his unique blend of staffing industry expertise and improv theatre background to deliver an inspiring and actionable keynote. Drawing on Butler Street’s Four Cornerstones of Success®, Robert will guide participants in building a psychological foundation of resilience, adaptability, and perseverance—essential traits for thriving in today’s evolving world. Through active learning exercises rooted in improv, attendees will explore how to enhance collaboration, embrace change, and develop rejection immunity while staying attuned to the unique operating realities of their clients and teams. This session promises not only to ignite motivation but also to equip staffing professionals with practical strategies to innovate, grow, and succeed in 2025 and beyond.

Sales Breakout - April 24, 2025 - Into the Rabbit Hole: Bravery in Uncovering Client Truths

Ask the Right Questions, Embrace the Answers, and Follow Them Fearlessly

In this workshop, Robert Reid invites sales professionals to confront their fear of deep client conversations and embrace the art of thoughtful questioning. This workshop will empower participants to move beyond surface-level exchanges by leveraging SIGN Questions to uncover client needs and challenges. Through dynamic, improv-based active listening exercises, attendees will learn how to ask the right questions, embrace customer responses, and follow conversations fearlessly to uncover meaningful insights. Whether you're a salesperson, leader, or business owner, this session will equip you with the confidence and skills to transform client interactions and drive sales success.

 butlerstreet.com

Randy Fox's incredible energy, leadership expertise, and undeniable stage charisma all come together to engage audiences and help people transform their professional and personal lives.

Randy has delivered keynotes to tens of thousands of leaders across the US. They love his authenticity, humor, and captivating stories that help them live and work with excellence.

Prior to becoming an international award-winning speaker, author, and coach, Randy earned his stripes with 23 years as an NCAA basketball official and 20 years filled with much success (and some failure too) as a corporate operations and sales leader.

Randy is honored to hold the esteemed designation of Certified Speaking Professional, has hit #1 best-seller on Amazon, and is actively seeking to remain uninjured from all his spirited pickleball matches in sunny Florida!

Closing Keynote - April 23, 2025  -   Game Plan: How the Best Teams Win!

Discover life and leadership lessons from Randy's 23 years on and off the court as an NCAA basketball official. This program is full of real-life stories that will keep attendees engaged, inspire them to embrace the journey, propel them into action, and challenge them to fall in love with life.

Key Takeaways:

⭑ 9 strategies every winning team needs to get results

⭑ Key strategies in how to get along with anyone (including the LADR principle)

⭑ Tools to work together effectively and find common ground

⭑ A desire to succeed & never give up!

Leadership Breakout - April 24, 2025 - The Call to Excellence: Influential Leadership for Impactful Results

In The Call to Excellence, you will find stories, strategies, and insights that will show you how to have influential leadership that delivers impactful results! Based on Randy's Amazon #1 best selling book, this experience will reignite your passion to serve with excellence and live a life the world is truly waiting for.

Key Takeaways:

⭑ Building margin for maximum impact

⭑ 3 simple and significant ways to be brilliant

⭑ The fundamental elements to daily excellence

⭑ Service excellence strategies

Click images to order books by Randy Fox: 

The Call to Excellence: Influential Leadership for Impactful Results

Silver Platter Service: How to Create a Culture of Excellence

A Leader Worth Following: The Real Take on Real Leadership

 foxpoint.net

Tori Begg is a dynamic leader and AI innovator, with a specialty in helping companies integrate AI into sales and marketing processes. As the Head of AI Enablement and Strategy, she empowers sales teams to operate more efficiently and effectively through cutting-edge AI tools and systems.

Previously, Tori served as the Director of Recruiting and Marketing for an on-demand staffing app, where she combined her expertise in marketing and operations to support scalable growth and workforce engagement.

With a passion for efficiency, creativity, and problem-solving, Tori continues to lead forward-thinking initiatives that shape the future of sales and marketing in the AI era.

Her unique ability to bridge technology with human-centered strategies is a continuing hallmark of her career.

Sales Panelist - April 23, 2025 

Sales Breakout - April 24, 2025 - The AI Toolkit for Sales Success: Tools You Need and How to Use Them

This session provides a curated list of AI tools that can supercharge sales processes. Learn which tools can make the biggest difference in your day-to-day operations and how to use them.  we'll cover how to seamlessly incorporate these tools and provide real-world examples of how sales teams are already using them to boost efficiency and close more deals. 

Key Takeaways:

• Overview of the top AI tools and their use cases
• Step-by-step guidance on integrating these tools into existing workflows
• Real-world success stories and practical tips
• Criteria for evaluating and selecting the right AI tools for your team

 

vdigitalservices.com

Stephanie Garwood is Vice President Recruitment & Talent Solutions at Advanced Resources, working with a team highly dedicated to connecting exceptional Human Resources and Finance professionals with award-winning companies in the Chicagoland area. With 15+ years of experience building high-performing teams, she has developed a reputation for consistently delivering top talent with an unmatched sense of urgency to ensure clients and candidates have the best advocate to meet their individual goals.

Stephanie has a passion for connecting people to companies they love, and connecting employers to the people that make a positive impact for their organization.  She has a straightforward, no-nonsense approach to gaining real-time insights, consulting clients and candidates to achieve their desired outcomes and remain competitive within the current market.

Recruiting Breakout - April 23, 2025 - 

Recruiting Panelist - April 23, 2025 - 

www.advancedresources.com

Pankaj Jindal is a staffing industry veteran and the co-founder of Sense, the first talent engagement platform designed specifically for the staffing industry. With over 20 years of running staffing and recruiting technology companies, Pankaj is an expert on candidate experience, recruiter productivity, redeployment, and understanding the day-to-day problems faced by recruiters. Pankaj used this practitioner’s knowledge to create Sense, which can help transform the consultant-care paradigm for staffing companies.

Prior to founding Sense, Pankaj was the CEO of Akraya, President of Aditi Technologies and Aditi Staffing, and completed the Advanced Management Education Program from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He routinely speaks at Industry Conferences on candidate engagement, employer branding and increasing retention.

Recruiting Breakout - April 24, 2024 

 sensehq.com

Lauren Jones: staffing industry titan, workforce innovation architect, and fierce champion for female leadership. As Founder and CEO of Leap Advisory Partners, she's transformed the company into a powerhouse of digital transformation and workforce solutions. With a team of experts in business process and automation, Lauren guides organizations through technological evolution. A sought-after speaker and co-author of "Together We Rise," she's recognized among LinkedIn's Inspiring Women and top industry influencers. Lauren's impact extends beyond business, supporting community organizations and balancing her professional life with passions for road racing and goat farming in Elk Grove, California.

Recruiting Breakout - April 24, 2025 - Workshop: Supercharge Your Agency With AI 

Recruiting Breakout - April 24, 2025 - Optimize Your Tech Stack

 leapadvisorypartners.com

Charlie Saffro empowers leaders to uncover their everyday power, step into their influence, and drive extraordinary outcomes. As the CEO and founder of CS Recruiting, Charlie has seen firsthand that true leadership goes beyond traditional metrics; it relies on fostering engagement, trust, and collaboration. A distinguished thought leader, keynote speaker, and TEDx presenter, Charlie is passionate about inspiring audiences to rethink their ability to make a difference and build a culture they want to be a part of.

Charlie’s commitment to a more hopeful, human-centered future of work makes her a vital voice in today’s evolving landscape. By modeling authenticity and openness, she demonstrates how leaders can create ripple effects that build cultures where people truly thrive.

Leadership Breakout - April 24, 2025 - Human-Centered Leadership: Small Actions, Big Impact

In the world of recruiting and talent acquisition, true leadership is not just about titles or hierarchy—it’s about showing up authentically and making a difference in everyday interactions.

In this session, Charlie Saffro will delve into how small, intentional actions can create powerful ripple effects within your recruitment teams, candidate relationships, and overall results. Drawing from her personal leadership journey and extensive experience as an entrepreneur and recruiting expert, Charlie will share practical strategies to inspire trust, strengthen human connections, and drive meaningful outcomes in the recruitment landscape.

This session will empower leaders of all levels to own their influence by engaging in ways that elevate others and achieve extraordinary outcomes in the day-to-day moments of recruitment.

Takeaways:

Attendees will gain actionable insights to:

• Reframe recruitment challenges as opportunities to grow, innovate, and inspire others.
• Build trust and stronger relationships by showing genuine appreciation and recognizing contributions within your recruitment processes.
• Foster a human-centered environment where ideas and feedback flow freely, driving alignment and effective solutions in your recruitment strategies.

 csrecruiting.com

David Searns is Co-CEO of Haley Marketing, a web design and recruitment marketing firm that focuses exclusively on the staffing and recruiting industries.

For the past 27 years, David and his team have helped staffing companies to stand out from the competition, improve recruiting response, increase sales productivity, and stay top-of-mind with employers and talent. Haley Marketing and their sister company Recruiters Websites offer website design, blogging and social media, job advertising management, email & direct mail marketing, SEO and PPC, reputation management, strategy development and creative services.

Prior to forming Haley Marketing, David was Director of Marketing for a Western New York temporary staffing and direct placement service. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor's in Management Information Systems from Clarkson University.

Leadership Breakout - April 23, 2025 

 haleymarketing.com

Ben Solomon is Director of Sourcing at Objective Paradigm, an IT recruiting firm headquartered in Chicago. Ben has over 16 years of experience building and managing OP's sourcing team, leading client sourcing engagements, and training sourcers and recruiters on sourcing tools, technologies, and techniques. Ben is a frequent conference speaker and three-time SourceCon hackathon champion.

Recruiting Breakout - April 23, 2025 - Using AI to Power Up Your Placements 

AI tools have the potential to supercharge every part of the recruiting process. Join for an overview of how to use AI tools for market research, sourcing, outreach messaging, and more.

You’ll walk away with ideas on how AI can make your workflow faster and more efficient today.

 oprecruiting.com

Mark Winter is an expert at driving sales performance, keeping focus on customers, and keeping things simple. For 20+ years, Mark has held every sales role out there- from Branch Manager to Vice President of Sales and Enablement for a $2.5B publicly traded staffing company. During that time, he has spent countless hours figuring out what works and of course, what doesn't. This enables Mark to sniff out things that are blocking performance, remove the barrier, and get people to act. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and holds master certifications from some of the top sales training organizations in the world. Whether its strategic planning, sales process development, sales training, customer acquisition & engagement, sales team performance, or system and tool adoption, Mark can help get your team on track.​

Sales Panelist - April 23, 2025

Sales Breakout - April 23, 2025 - The Power of Sales Enablement: Driving Sales Performance With A Smart, Simple Approach

In today's competitive marketplace, success demands a seamless integration of sales and marketing efforts. Many salespeople spend as much time gaining access to prospects as they do selling. This presentation reveals how sales enablement can transform your business by tweaking your approach with the right tools and messaging at crucial points in the sales process.

This will:

• Dramatically increase sales effectiveness and shorten your sales cycles

• Create a repeatable, scalable process for moving prospects through your pipeline

• Align your marketing efforts with your sales process for maximum impact

• Implement the most effective tools and messaging to boost sales productivity

Join us to explore the fundamentals of a robust sales enablement approach and learn how to harness its power to drive your sales performance forward. Don't miss this opportunity to fine tune your sales approach and get maximum benefits from your efforts.

 winsourcegroup.com

Wendi Zimmer is a professor at Texas A&M University. She is an educational consultant, the owner of Learning Engaged, and an expert in mindset development. An educator for over 20 years, Wendi has seen the impact of destructive mindsets on learning, self-esteem, and well-being, having the potential to completely derail a person or lead them to success.

While we have all heard that we should think positively, if it were that easy, we would do it. Instead, we experience a gap between theory and practice. The disconnect comes when we do not know how to take action to change our mindset. Wendi has worked with thousands of people to help them influence their mindsets. She has created actionable strategies to take the relatively abstract concept of mindset development to an actionable state.

Leadership Breakout - April 23, 2025 - Empowering Leadership: Believing in Yourself to Inspire Confidence in Others

As a leader, your ability to inspire confidence in others starts with believing in yourself. This powerful workshop is designed to help you cultivate the self-assurance and mindset needed to lead effectively, empowering your growth and fostering belief in your team, organization, and community.

Through a combination of personal reflection, practical tools, and leadership strategies, you’ll learn how to:

• Develop and strengthen self-belief: Recognize the internal barriers that undermine your confidence and discover strategies to overcome them.
• Model authentic leadership: Understand how your actions, communication, and decisions shape how others perceive their own potential.
• Inspire others to believe in themselves: Learn how to create an environment where trust, encouragement, and empowerment thrive, enabling your team to reach new heights.
• Enhance emotional resilience: Build the emotional intelligence needed to navigate challenges with a positive mindset, setting the tone for those around you.

This session will provide the mindset shifts and practical tools to elevate your leadership effectiveness, specifically, the MIND Method for mindset development. By strengthening your belief in your capabilities, you’ll unlock the power to inspire others to do the same—creating a culture of trust, growth, and success within your organization.

Join Wendi to take the first step toward becoming a leader who believes in their potential and inspires others to reach theirs.

Click image to purchase book by Wendi Zimmer:

The Force Continuum: How to Shift Your Mindset to Transform Your Life

 www.learningengaged

 www.wendizimmer.com