Keynote Addresses

Keynotes that Inspire Success

Designing and implementing collaborative solutions can be an uphill journey, and the need for inspiring people to think creatively and expansively about their work is a vital component of success. Tom Wolff’s keynote addresses have provided this inspiration to audiences throughout North America, in virtually every field where collaborations play a key role. He is an engaging, high-energy speaker whose talks are illustrated with audiovisuals and handouts that engage audiences and enhance comprehension. Audiences report Tom’s keynotes as inspiring and provocative, compelling them to think in new ways about their issues.

Tom’s keynote addresses cover a broad range of topics, disciplines and interest areas and are filled with real-life examples that anchor the theoretical material. Keynote addresses are often focused on specific
issues, including: health care, mental health, public health, violence prevention, health specialties, children’s issues, systems planning and healthy communities.

Tom Wolff Delivers Keynote to Canadian Community Psychology Conference

In May 2010 I was honored to be invited by Tim Aubry to be the keynote speaker at the biennial Canadian Community Psychology meeting. I was delighted to be able to join this bright, energetic and warm Canadian gathering at the University of Ottawa.

The talk entitled “The Power of Collaborative Solutions: Community Psychology Building Healthy Communities was based on my book The Power of Collaborative Solutions that had been published earlier in the year. The talk focused on collaborative solutions in the context of the field of community psychology. The gracious bilingual introduction was done by my colleague, Liesette Brunson from the University of Quebec at Montreal. A video of the keynote is available below:

Recent titles of keynote addresses include:

Building Hope and Inspiration through Community Coalitions
Mobilizing Communities to Action
Engaging the Grassroots
Successfully Sustaining Your Collaborative
Developing Real Clout: Learning Advocacy Skills, and Building Healthy Communities from the Ground Up

Popular Titles and Synopses

“Engaging the Grassroots,”

This keynote focuses on the critical role that the grassroots community can play in seeking collaborative solutions. The audience is asked to examine whether their work comes from an agency based or community based model. The advantages and how to’s of engaging the grassroots are explored. Case examples of success and failure highlight the talk.

“Successfully Sustaining Your Collaborative”

We explore what needs to be sustained how it can be sustained and how to build sustainability into the ongoing life cycle of your collaborative work. Sustaining collaborations is explored from a four-step approach including but also going beyond seeking new sources of financial support. Policy changes, community institutionalization and community ownership add excitement to the sustainability process.

“Building Healthy Communities from the Ground Up.”

The major issues facing communities are outlined in the light of healthy communities solutions. The delineation of the core principles of healthy communities approaches creates new opportunities for addressing community identified needs. Principles of success for healthy community efforts along with numerous lively case examples highlight this talk.

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Customized Presentations

Tom’s keynote addresses are most often customized for the audience. This provides an inspiring presentation that hones in on the interests and issues of the designated audience. To accomplish this involves discussions prior to the keynote and the review of written material, web sites etc. from your organization. Tom has been able to customize talks on collaboration for audiences as diverse as those concerned with asthma, food security, optometry, and others.

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Tom Wolff Delivering Keynote Address to the Champions Conference in Snowbird, Utah.

In June 2004, Tom Wolff had the honor and privilege to address the Champions for Progress gathering in Snowbird, Utah. Champions provides support to a national network of those working with children with special health care needs. We are pleased that Champions chose to put the video of the keynote address on its website.

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Tom Wolff offers six principles for collaboration

Tom Wolff spoke about partnerships and collaborative solutions as sparks and catalysts for social change and innovation, at the EQUAL conference Powering a New Future. He said he understood collaboration to be doing together that which you cannot do apart". A more formal definition is:

A collaboration is a group of individuals and organisations with a common interest who agree to work together to a common goal.

The advantage of collaboration is that agencies can provide a rounded solution to problems - but in order to achieve that we need to bring to the table everyone who has a part to play, including those who would benefit. Tom offered six principles of collaboration

Engage a broad spectrum of the community
Practice true collaboration. This involved going beyond networking (talking to each other); coordination (modified activities); and cooperation (sharing resources). Collaboration occurred when you aimed to enhance the capacity of others involved.
Practice democracy, so that decisions are made by the group as a whole
Employ an ecological approach, looking at the strengths and weaknesses in the community
Take action - you can't achieve change just by sitting talking
Align your goals and the process. For example, if you wish to develop a respectful community, you can't achieve that by disrespectful leaderships.

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