Give your audience the people skills leadership requires.
Cassandra Thompson delivers funny, practical experiences that help capable professionals become more connected, trusted, and effective with people.
Prefer to talk now? Call Cassandra directly at 602-529-6947.
Tell Cassandra About Your Event“Honestly, hire her!”
—Christine Anderson,
VP Innovation and Strategy, Banner Health
Trusted by organizations including:
They’ll laugh. They’ll take notes. They’ll know what to do next.
Cassandra talks about the interpersonal moments almost everyone recognizes:
- The introduction you keep waiting for someone else to make.
- The follow-up you have rewritten six times and still have not sent.
- The question you need to ask—but perhaps after one more week of “thinking about it.”
Her keynotes pair those recognizable moments with smart ideas, memorable stories, practical language, and specific behaviors people can use immediately.
“Cass had people laughing while they were taking notes.”
Krissy Buck
Vice Chair, Digital Wichita
Putting people in the same room is not the same as helping them build relationships.
We tend to treat connection like a logistics problem;Â schedule the offsite, add a networking break, put everyone in a ballroom, and hand them a name tag.
Done, right?
Not quite.
An opportunity to connect and an actual relationship are two different things.
That gap shows up in ways that matter: colleagues know one another’s names but not how to ask each other for help, capable professionals have plenty to contribute but remain relatively unknown, and useful relationships end when the calendar invitation does.
Cassandra’s work explores why so many opportunities to connect go unused—and helps audiences build the people skills that lead to stronger relationships, greater trust, and more professional opportunity.
Because getting people together is the easy part. What happens next is where things get interesting.
NEW KEYNOTE
Connection in an Isolating Age
You can order lunch, ask a bot a question, check into a hotel, and attend an entire conference without talking to anyone you do not already know.
Convenient? Absolutely.
Great practice for being a person among other people? Debatable.
Modern life has made ordinary interaction easier to avoid. The problem is that relationships still depend on the small moments we are increasingly tempted to skip.
Connection in an Isolating Age is a funny, practical keynote for capable professionals who want stronger relationships but may feel a little out of practice in the moments that build them.
Cassandra helps audiences understand why those ordinary interactions matter and gives them useful language and practical ways to approach them with more confidence and intention—without pretending everyone needs to become an extrovert or develop an exciting new passion for nametags.
Audiences leave with:
- A clearer understanding of why ordinary interaction can feel harder than it used to
- Practical ways to initiate connection without forcing or performing
- Useful language for navigating everyday interpersonal moments
- A stronger understanding of how small behaviors build trust and relationships over time
This keynote is especially useful for:
- Leadership and emerging-leader programs
- Employee and manager offsites
- ERGs and internal communities
- Association conferences and company events
“Cassandra delivered an outstanding presentation that resonated well with our audience. The content was engaging and provided actionable insights that our team found valuable. Her unique approach, including the use of humor and relatable references, made the session enjoyable and memorable for everyone involved.”
—Sarah Warren
Human Resources Business Partner, AlixPartners
KEYNOTE
This Is Why You Hate Networking (and How to Fix It)
Why does something so important feel so... awful?
Most networking advice sounds simple enough: “Put yourself out there.” “Give value first.” “Work the room.”
Then you get to the event and realize none of that tells you how to walk up to a stranger, start a conversation, or keep in touch without feeling like you want something.
In this funny, practical keynote, Cassandra pulls apart the advice that makes networking feel fake and offers a more useful way to think about professional relationships.
Through real stories—including a spectacularly uncomfortable lunch at the Four Seasons—she gives audiences a five-step plan for meeting people, building trust, and staying in touch.
No schmoozing. No collecting business cards you will find in a tote bag six months from now. Just a way to build professional relationships that feels more human.
Audiences leave with:
- A clearer understanding of why traditional networking advice can feel unnatural
- A practical five-step plan for building professional relationships
- Useful language for making introductions and following up
- A more natural way to stay in touch over time
This keynote is especially useful for:
- Leadership and emerging-leader programs
- Employee resource groups and affinity groups
- Teams building stronger internal or client relationships
- Association conferences and professional events
“Hearing the real-life examples of how to improve and apply our networking skills was the most helpful part of the presentation, and we have already been putting these new skills to work.”
—Christine Anderson
VP Innovation and Strategy, Banner Health
BREAKOUT SESSION / KEYNOTE ADD-ON
The Second Hello
Following Up Without Feeling Weird
You made the introduction. You had the coffee. You even said, “We should stay in touch.”
Then three weeks pass, and reaching out again somehow feels more awkward than the original introduction.
Most professional relationships do not disappear because the first conversation went badly. They disappear because no one is quite sure what to do next.
The Second Hello is a practical breakout or add-on session that can stand on its own or follow Cassandra’s networking keynote.
Using her Relationship Runway framework, Cassandra shows audiences how to turn a promising first conversation into a professional relationship they can actually maintain.
She gives them useful language for what to say, guidance on when to reach out, and a clear approach to staying in touch without defaulting to “just checking in” or waiting until they need a favor.
Attendees leave with:
- A clear plan for what to do after a promising first conversation
- Useful language for following up without sounding generic or transactional
- A simple framework for staying in touch over time
- More confidence reaching out before they need something
This session is especially useful for:
- Conferences adding a practical follow-up to Cassandra’s networking keynote
- Leadership and emerging-leader programs
- Mentorship, sponsorship, and talent-development programs
- Teams strengthening internal, client, or community relationships
“It is rare to find a presenter who can offer a message that is pinpoint accurate to my students’ needs, and also deliver it in a fashion that captivates their attention throughout the entire presentation. Cassandra is one of those rare presenters...”
—Dr. Waleed Rashidi
Professor, College of Communications, CSUF
INTERACTIVE CONFERENCE FORMAT
Small Talk to Big Opportunities
Part practical instruction. Part guided networking. Cassandra calls it a "network-shop."
Most conference networking is built on a fairly hopeful plan: put everyone in the same room, add coffee, and assume the useful conversations will happen.
Sometimes they do.
Sometimes people talk to the colleagues they already know, compare travel delays, and head to the next session.
Small Talk to Big Opportunities gives the networking block more structure without turning it into a forced icebreaker.
Cassandra helps attendees get clear on what they need right now in their career or business, put that need into words, and have focused conversations with people who may be able to offer an idea, resource, or introduction.
The result is a room where small talk has somewhere to go.
Attendees leave with:
- A clearer sense of the support, opportunity, or connection they are looking for
- A concise ask they can comfortably say out loud
- Useful ideas, resources, and introductions from other attendees
- Stronger relationships built around real goals and conversations
This format is especially useful for:
- Conferences and summits that want more from their networking blocks
- Association and member events
- Leadership and career-development programs
- Company events, internal conferences, and team offsites
FOR EVENT PLANNERS
A great talk matters. So does everything around it.
Event planners need more than a good person onstage. They need someone who prepares, understands the room, responds quickly, and does not create a second job for the person who booked them.
Cassandra is experienced, prepared, low-drama, and genuinely collaborative from the first call through event day.
CUSTOMIZED, NOT CANNED
Cassandra spends time learning about your organization and audience before she arrives, then uses what she learns to make the talk feel like it belongs in that room.
PREPARED AND EASY TO WORK WITH
Clear communication. Thoughtful preparation. No last-minute chaos for the person already managing a hundred other details.
FUNNY WITHOUT LOSING THE POINT
The room will laugh, but the humor always serves the ideas. People stay engaged—and still leave with notes worth keeping.
USEFUL AFTER THE APPLAUSE
Cassandra gives audiences practical language and specific next steps they can use long after the conference badge comes off.
“Cassandra brought her expertise to our community and shared a seamless talk that was well-prepared and relevant to our audience. She took into consideration their skill level and added her own personality and flair to a technical presentation. She entertained our audience while also teaching practical skills they can use today! Cass had people laughing while they were taking notes. We highly recommend Cassandra Thompson as a speaker for any event.”
—Krissy Buck
Vice Chair, Digital Wichita
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
What is it like to bring Cassandra to your event?
SELECTED ENGAGEMENTS
Organizations, events, and campuses
A selection of companies, professional communities, conferences, and colleges that have brought Cassandra in.
ORGANIZATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Banner Health
Speedo
AlixPartners
Wilderness Education Project
WIMCO
NextUp Phoenix
CONFERENCES AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITIES
SHRM AZ
ACDIS
Social Media Day Wichita
Sister Site Conference, City Mom Collective
WISE LA
WISE PHX
Social Media Marketing World — Emcee
VidSummit — Emcee
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Nassau Community College
Biola University
California State University, Long Beach
Southern California PRSSA chapters
Miramar College
California State University, Fullerton
UC Irvine
ASU
GCU
PLANNING AN EVENT?
Let’s talk about your event.
You know your audience. Tell Cassandra who will be in the room, what matters to them, and what you want the session to accomplish. She’ll help you choose the talk or format that fits.
Prefer to talk? Call Cassandra at 602-529-6947.
Tell Cassandra About Your Event