Featured Speakers & Entertainers

Adam Nepon creates conversations that meet people where they are, and helps them move forward from there. Rather than delivering the same presentation to every audience, he works with organizers to shape each session around the people in the room, creating experiences that are relevant, respectful, and useful.

Adam’s speaking and facilitation centre on Indigenous economic development, meaningful Indigenous engagement, and the ways bias, race, class, and inherited assumptions influence how people work, lead, and relate to one another. He helps organizations move beyond good intentions by approaching Indigenous relationships with greater authenticity, integrity, and accountability.

Adam also speaks candidly about neurodivergence, trauma, grief, resilience, and the assumptions people carry about one another. His perspective has been shaped by living with ADHD and CPTSD, navigating childhood adversity, and experiencing significant personal loss. He shares these parts of his story with humility, not only as a formula for overcoming hardship, but as a way of creating space for more honest conversations about what people carry and how we connect across difference.

As a Métis and Ashkenazi Jewish leader, Adam brings together lived experience, business knowledge, organizational leadership, and more than 20 years of community involvement. His work has brought him into conversations with communities, business leaders, educators, nonprofit organizations, corporate teams, and public-sector decision-makers. He is equally comfortable connecting with youth in schools and engaging CEOs and senior leaders.

Whether he is delivering a keynote, facilitating a difficult conversation, or leading an interactive workshop, Adam’s goal is the same: to build bridges, strengthen relationships, and leave people with something they can carry into how they think, work, and lead.

Michelle Cameron is a proud member of Peguis First Nation and the Founder and CEO of Dreamcatcher Promotions, Canada’s largest Indigenous-owned promotional products company. What began in 2011 with a single embroidery machine in her home has grown into a thriving group of businesses that employ dozens of people and serve clients across the country.

In addition to Dreamcatcher Promotions, Michelle is the Founder of the Indigenous Nations Apparel Company, a nationally recognized Indigenous clothing brand, and Dreamcatcher Executive Offices, Manitoba’s first Indigenous-owned co-working space located on urban reserve land.

Michelle’s journey to success was not a straight path. Growing up in a family affected by intergenerational trauma and the lasting impacts of residential schools, she experienced challenges that could have easily defined her future. Instead, she transformed those experiences into fuel for building businesses that create opportunities for others and contribute to meaningful economic reconciliation.

Her leadership and vision have earned her numerous honours, including National Indigenous Business of the Year from the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association, the Manitoba Champions Award, the Spirit of Winnipeg Award, and several national business recognitions.

Today, Michelle serves on several influential boards and is recognized as one of Canada’s leading Indigenous business voices. Through her powerful storytelling, honesty, and lived experience, she inspires audiences to overcome adversity, embrace leadership, and build lives and businesses rooted in purpose.

Jessica Dumas is an Indigenous Emcee, Speaker and Life Coach from Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation, is the first Indigenous woman to chair both the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce. She has spoken at over 200 events, hosted international gatherings, and introduced Michelle Obama on stage before an audience of 7,500.

Jessica combines business acumen, warm humour, and masterful facilitation to create seamless, memorable events. As a TEDx speaker, Manitoba 150 Women Trailblazer, and CBC Top 40 Under 40 honouree, she helps leaders and audiences feel confident, connected, and inspired. Learn more at jessicadumas.ca.

Joanne Roberts is a Winnipeg-based storyteller and filmmaker whose work is rooted in questions of identity and belonging. She is the creator of Threads of Identity, a workshop series that encourages people to look more closely at the stories that have shaped how they see themselves. Before moving into independent creative work, Joanne spent several years as a TV reporter, an experience that changed the way she thinks about who gets to tell stories and who gets to be seen. Today, she speaks, creates and works with people of all ages to help them recognize that their own experiences are worth making space for.