Drawing on her experience serving on the personal staffs of two U.S. Cabinet members—as well as three Secretaries of State and two Secretaries of Defense—Jana Nelson distills ten essential leadership lessons from the highest levels of American diplomacy and national security. In this keynote, she shares practical insights on navigating complex interpersonal dynamics, leading under pressure, and finding humor amid even the most challenging circumstances. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies for strengthening their leadership in any high-stress environment.

When citizens become used to ordering food, the supermarket and their clothing through their phones, they expect the same from their governments. Audiences will learn how governments around the world are adapting to a new digital age and how these efforts also increase trust in government and improve transparency in democracies.

The sudden shift in focus toward the Western Hemisphere will leave those who spent the last decades building business in Asia and Europe with a feeling of whiplash. Jana Nelson can explain, simply, why our Hemisphere has drawn such attention, who are the relevant actors in the U.S. and in the Hemisphere, and how business can navigate the changing focus of U.S. Foreign and Defense policy.

We are nearing a point of no return for Amazon deforestation. As trees disappear, the Amazon’s natural rain cycle weakens, creating a feedback loop of drought and heat that could ultimately transform the forest into a savannah and release vast amounts of stored carbon. In this eye-opening, personal and first-hand account, Jana Nelson describes how the Amazon will disappear slowly at first, then all of a sudden.