NSA Ohio's Communication Mastery Conference 2026

Sponsored by Ohio University Scripps College of Communication

Led by NSA Ohio’s elite speakers, you'll gain practical tools, expert insights, and real-world strategies that will transform your communication skills overnight.

Unlock Your Communication Potential: Explore Our Dynamic Agenda

Get ready for an immersive day designed to elevate your communication mastery! Our agenda is thoughtfully curated with inspiring General Sessions, Masterclass Experiences, and focused Concurrent Sessions, ensuring a rich and rewarding experience for every communication professional.

Ignite Your Day with Powerful General Sessions:

Curiosity Quest - Molly Ketcham

Most presenters invest hours refining their slides and rehearsing their delivery, but overlook the simple act of getting curious about their audience. True connection doesn’t start with your message; it starts with your questions.

In this interactive session, keynote speaker Molly Ketcham explores how curiosity can transform both the preparation and delivery of your presentations. You’ll learn to ask better questions before designing your presentation, stay attuned to real-time audience cues, and use the CARA framework to build meaningful connections from start to finish.

​After this, the audience will:

• Design relevant and personalized presentations so your audience leans in from the very beginning
• Capture and keep attention by reading the room and adapting with confidence
• Build deeper influence and trust by turning your presentations into co-created conversations

Experience how curiosity turns a presentation into a conversation. And how that subtle shift changes everything.

Workplace Communication: Real Every Day Solutions - Michael Davis

Instead of a standard presentations skills lecture, this highly interactive morning Masterclass is built entirely around the real-world communication challenges you face at work every day. Whether you are delivering a high-stakes status update to executives, leading a department town hall, or navigating a difficult one-on-one meeting, this session provides the actionable tools you need to succeed.

Led by presentation skills coach Michael Davis, this session flips the traditional script. Rather than just teaching theory, will apply proven communication and storytelling principles to solve your specific workplace challenges, complete with live coaching.

Key Takeaways you can expect:

• Reading the Room: Learn how to accurately gauge your audience, build conversational delivery, and confidently address the "elephants" in the room.
• Avoiding Information Overload: Executives and colleagues are smart, but busy. Learn how to combat the "curse of knowledge" by knowing exactly what to take out of your presentation so your core message lands.
• Managing the "Story": Overcome the fear of speaking up by becoming aware of the stories you are telling yourself, while learning how to effectively understand and address the story playing in your audience's head.
• Last-Minute Preparation: Discover easy-to-implement structures, vocal exercises, and physical prep routines for when you are put on the spot.
• Fostering Feedback: Learn how to convey a message of safety to encourage real, actionable feedback from your team. 

Presenting to the C-Suite: Navigating the Executive Audience - Panel Facilitated by Patrick Donadio

When you step into the boardroom to present to senior executives, the traditional rules of public speaking change. A standard presentation format will not work for an audience that is time strapped, highly analytical, and focused on the big picture. You may only have 15 minutes to pitch a new idea, but successfully securing buy-in in that high stakes environment often requires weeks of strategic, behind the scenes preparation.

In this dynamic panel discussion, panelists will unpack the realities of presenting to an executive audience. The panel will explore how to adopt the executive mindset, anticipate tough questions before they are asked, and maintain composure when a presentation is interrupted or derailed.

Behind the Curtain - Getting Complex Messages Across - Bob Meader

In the corporate world, you often have to deliver mandatory, technical, or dry information - such as compliance updates, new policies, or dense data. The challenge is keeping your audience engaged when the details are critical but inherently boring. 

In this focused, rapid-fire How-To session, retired Columbus Police Commander Bob Meader pulls back the curtain on exactly how he tackles this challenge. Bob trains law enforcement officers on complex legal regulations and laws, a setting where ensuring the audience actually retains the information is a matter of public safety. Bob will share the specific care and creative techniques he uses to bring dry material to life.

Key Takeaways you can expect:

• Transforming Dry Content: Learn how to take dense, technical rules and deliver them in a way that is easily digestible and memorable for your team.
• Creative Visual Anchoring: Discover how Bob uses creative tools - such as incorporating videos and generating AI visuals of specific locations - to ground abstract concepts in the real world.
• Audience Retention: Master techniques to ensure your listeners don't just hear the required information, but actually internalize and remember the details.

The Communication Mastery Thread: Conference Recap - Bethany George

As the conference draws to a close, you don't have to worry about missing out on the concurrent sessions you couldn't attend. In this 25-minute closing keynote recap, Bethany George will weave together the core themes and best ideas shared throughout the day.

Instead of delivering a standard, pre-written speech, Bethany will act as a real-time event reporter - meeting with speakers, spending time with the content, and attending various sessions to capture the most valuable insights from every room. 

Known as someone who brings a fun, sassy twist to her presentations, Bethany will deliver a true, dynamic recap that connects the dots across the entire event.

Dive Deeper in Focused Concurrent Sessions (choose one per session time)

Segment 1

Engineering Your Influence: How to Own a Room Without Saying a Word - Hope Yin

In our fast-changing business culture, a leader’s ability to drive results depends less on their title and more on their presence. Most professionals imagine a leader who commands the room with a perfect script and all the right answers. I am here to share a different yet powerful truth: You can own a room without saying a word.

By blending the precision of an aerospace engineer with the intuition of a seasoned Leadership Coach, this session goes beyond standard body-language lectures. We will dive into Energy Leadership, giving you
a practical formula for maintaining radical composure and influencing your stakeholders when the stakes are highest.

When a high-stakes conversation goes sideways, how do you recalibrate? The framework will allow you to regain executive presence without needing a script.
We will practice radical techniques to stay grounded and credible when the power dynamic in the room shifts.

This is a workshop on internal mindset and external expression alignment, a winning formula for communication that is felt before it is ever heard.

After this session, you’ll be able to…

1. Engineer Instant Composure: Identify personal triggers and utilize a 10-second mental framework to shift from defensive stress to high influence presence.
2. Master the Art of the Pivot: Demonstrate the ability to redirect a high-friction or hostile meeting back to key strategic goals using high-energy communication.
3. Execute Radical Influence: Successfully influence cross-functional peers and senior stakeholders, building trust and buy-in without the traditional authority.

Engagement is the Scoreboard, Not the Game - Tom Daniels

For more than two decades, organizations have measured, benchmarked, surveyed, and debated employee engagement. Despite all this activity, employee engagement levels have remained largely flat.

The reason is simple: engagement was never the real problem. Engagement is an outcome. It reflects how people experience their work and their leaders. But there is another data set that tells a more revealing story and it leads to the Five Pillars of Employee Wellbeing.

After this session, you’ll be able to…

1. Clearly understand the distinctions between employee engagement and employee wellbeing.
2. Define the Five Pillars of employee wellbeing to drive employee engagement.
3. Develop an approach to embedding employee wellbeing as a core driver of engagement and performance.

The Moment Before You Speak: Influencing Without Authority When the Stakes Feel High - Stephanie Nowak

Most professionals know *what* they want to say in the workplace. The challenge is saying it…especially when the stakes feel high.
In moments that require influence without authority, something often gets in the way. We hesitate. We soften our message. We over-explain or avoid the conversation altogether. Not because we lack skill, but because of what’s happening in the moment before we speak.

This session takes a closer look at the patterns that shape how we communicate under pressure. Attendees will learn how to recognize these patterns as they’re happening, understand how they impact
communication, and apply simple, in-the-moment shifts to respond with greater clarity and intention.

Through relatable workplace scenarios, this session moves beyond surface-level communication tips and into practical awareness - helping professionals navigate high-stakes conversations, influence outcomes, and communicate effectively without relying on formal authority.

After this session, you’ll be able to…

1. Recognize the internal patterns that show up in high-stakes moments and how those patterns shape what they say (or don’t say).
2. Interrupt hesitation or overthinking in the moment and respond with clear, intentional communication.
3. Approach conversations with greater ownership and influence, even when navigating power dynamics
   or uncertainty.

Segment 2

Anatomy of an Uncomfortable Conversation: Is Your Team Equipped? - Laurie Sharp-Page

Most teams don’t struggle because they lack communication skills. They struggle because they lack the emotional regulated skills to have an uncomfortable conversation effectively.

The missed expectations.
The performance concern.
The moment where something real needs to be said—and no one wants to say it.

This session goes beyond standard feedback models to unpack what actually happens in high-stakes conversations. When pressure rises, the brain shifts, emotions escalate, and even the most well-intentioned leaders can become reactive, avoidant, or unclear—creating more friction instead of resolution.

In this session, participants will break down the anatomy of an uncomfortable conversation—from the internal physiological response to the external relational impact—and learn how to navigate these moments without burning bridges or sacrificing clarity.

After this session, you’ll be able to…

1. Navigate high-stakes conversations without escalation or avoidance
2. Deliver difficult, career-impacting messages with clarity and composure
3. Maintain psychological safety while addressing real tension and accountability

The Invisible Agenda: How to Shape Decisions Before You Ever Enter the Room - Preston Pickett

The effective leaders in any organization understand something that rarely gets taught: influence doesn't live in the meeting room. It lives in the conversations, messages, and moments that happen before the
agenda ever gets sent.

In this session, Preston introduces a structured Before/During/After communication framework for leaders who need to move people, projects, and decisions forward without relying on title or authority.
You'll walk away with three pre-meeting moves that shape how a room thinks before it assembles, two in room techniques that catalyze alignment without rank, and one post-meeting habit that converts a verbal yes into a lasting commitment.

This isn't about being more persuasive. It's about being more deliberate, and learning to catalyze decisions before you ever open your mouth in the room.

After this session, you’ll be able to…

1. Apply three Before-phase communication moves — a stakeholder conversation, a framing statement, and agenda co-design — that build alignment before anyone sits down at the table
2. Use two in-room facilitation techniques, the Structured Turn and the Redirect, to guide a group toward a decision without relying on rank or authority;
3. Craft a post-meeting message framed around what they said that locks in commitment and makes the agreed path forward the only natural next step

The Pivot: Radical Composure Under Pressure - Rob Mullins

The Focus: What happens when the slide deck fails or the client turns hostile? This session uses high-level techniques to help professionals maintain executive presence, bridge back to key points, and keep their
credibility during a pivot.

After this session, you’ll be able to…

1. Understand that composure is a skill, not a personality trait Leaders can train themselves to regulate emotion, slow the moment down, and project confidence even when things go sideways.
2. Control the pivot, control the outcome
   When disruption hits (tech failure, tough client), the ability to acknowledge, reframe, and bridge back to your key message preserves credibility and influence.
3. Let go of perfectionism. Presence > Perfection.  Audiences don’t expect flawless delivery, they trust leaders who stay grounded, adapt in real time, and lead through uncertainty with clarity.

Communication Mastery Conference Agenda October 16

8:30 - 9:00 - Registration, Breakfast & Networking

9:00 - 9:10 - Welcome - Emcee Craig Mills

9:10 - 9:30 General Session - Curiosity Quest - Molly Ketcham

9:30 - 10:15 General Session - Workplace Communications part 1 - Michael Davis

10:15 - 10:30 Break

10:30 - 10:35 Sponsor Spotlight

10:35 - 11:10 General Session - Workplace Communication part 2 - Michael Davis

11:15 - 11:20 Sponsor Spotlight

11:25 - 11:55 General Session - Presenting to the C-Suite panel - Patrick Donadio, CSP

12:00 - 12:45 Lunch & Networking

12:45 - 1:10 General Session - Ohio University Scripps College of Communication

1:15 - 2:00 Concurrent Sessions

1 - Engineering Your Influence - Hope Yin

2 - Engagement is the Scoreboard, Not the Game -Tom Daniels

3. The Moment Before You Speak - Stephanie Nowak

2:00 - 2:20 - Networking Break

2:20 - 3:05 Concurrent Sessions

1 - Anatomy of an Uncomfortable Conversation - Laurie Sharp-Page

2 - The Invisible Agenda -Preston Pickett

3. The Pivot: Radical Composure Under Pressure - Rob Mullins

3:10 - 3:30 General Session - Behind the Curtain - Getting Complex Messages Across -Bob Meader

3:35 - 4:00 General Session - The Communication Mastery Thread - Bethany George

4:00 - 4:20 Final Drawings

4:20 - 5:00 Informal Networking