2026 Southwest Learning Summit | Keynote Speakers

Morning Keynote Topic: 

Hidden Value: Making the Impact Visible

 

Dr. Keith Keating

Chief Learning and Development Officer, BDO Canada

Extraordinary value gets overlooked every single day. Not because it doesn't exist. Because nobody made it visible.

This is the story of L&D.

L&D creates work that changes careers, shifts culture, and drives business outcomes — and it goes unnoticed. Not because it has no impact. Because impact without language is hidden.

In this keynote, Dr. Keith Keating makes the case that we are living in a Value Economy — where knowledge is no longer the differentiator, and every function must answer one question: what value are you creating?

Drawing on powerful stories, hard data, and a framework built from the ground up for L&D practitioners, Keith introduces the Value Creation Compass — four directions, four ways to connect what we do to what the business cares about most.

Seek Value. Create Value. Measure Value. Tell the Story of Value.

More than a keynote, this is a call to action. Attendees will leave with a new lens, a clear framework, and one non-negotiable mindset shift — that hidden value is not inevitable. It is a choice.

Drawing on more than two decades of hands-on experience leading learning transformation at organizations such as BDO, HSBC, General Motors, and other Fortune 500 companies, Dr. Keating delivers a session that is inspiring and practical in equal measure — designed to send every L&D practitioner back into their organization ready to act. 

In this dynamic session, you will learn:

Dr. Keith Keating is the Chief Learning Officer at BDO Canada where he champions human-centered learning as the foundation for organizational success. With a 25-year career in talent development, he is also a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the award-winning books The Trusted Learning Advisor and Hidden Value. Through his work, writing, and teaching, he helps L&D practitioners navigate an evolving business landscape with curiosity, courage, and a belief in the transformative power of learning. He resides in Toronto. 

Afternoon Keynote Topic: 
The Hourglass Problem: Why AI Efficiency Is Hollowing Out Expertise 

David Chestnut

Principal Director of Human + AI Talent Strategy, Accenture

Most organizations are deploying AI to make work faster. Few are asking what gets lost when effort disappears. The answer is expertise. 

Career development follows a predictable shape: early careers build judgment through repetition and mistakes, mid-careers carry the heaviest workload where expertise deepens, and senior careers contribute through synthesis and decisions. AI compresses the middle first, where efficiency gains are most visible, but that’s also where judgment is forged. The result is a “frozen middle”: a workforce moving faster, producing more, and learning less. 

This session gives talent leaders a diagnostic framework for recognizing where AI adoption is silently eroding the expertise pipeline, and a design model for deploying AI differently at every career stage to protect judgment formation. 

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David Chestnut is a Principal Director of Human+AI Talent Strategy in Accenture’s management consulting practice, where he advises C-suite leaders on AI-driven workforce transformation. A frequent speaker, teacher, and writer on agentic AI and the future of work, David has published 20+ articles on the intersection of AI adoption, organizational change, and expertise development. His practitioner-first perspective draws from years of hands-on AI collaboration and leading large-scale workforce transformation at one of the world’s largest professional services firms.

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