Keynote Speaker
A Workplace Inclusion Speaker with a Story Organizations Remember
Lauren Pires spent 30 years as the employee organizations are trying to reach: someone with a significant disability, fully hidden, appearing fine on the outside while quietly managing something most people around her knew nothing about. Her workplace inclusion keynotes are built from the inside of that experience.
Why Lauren
She has been the employee your inclusion programs are designed for
Lauren Pires was born with Central Core Disease and has about 33% of the physical strength of the average person. Not 33% less. Just 33%. For over 30 years, she hid it at work, managing her energy invisibly, compensating constantly, and never telling a single colleague what she was actually dealing with. She knows what it costs an employee to do that, and she knows what it costs an organization when that's the norm.
Her workplace inclusion keynotes draw on that experience to help HR teams, ERGs, leaders, and employees understand what disability inclusion actually looks like from the inside. Not the policy. Not the checklist. The human experience of showing up every day in a culture that doesn't know you're there.
Lauren has spoken for corporations including Arc'teryx, The Co-operators, GroupHEALTH Benefit Solutions, McKesson Canada, and Health Canada. She left an 11-year career in festivals and events to build this work full time.
What to Expect
What a Lauren Pires workplace inclusion keynote delivers
The hidden workforce, made visible
Between 70 and 80% of disabilities are invisible. Lauren helps teams understand that the colleagues they think they know well may be carrying something significant that workplace culture has made it unsafe to name.
A business case that goes beyond compliance
Disability inclusion tied to psychological safety, retention, and performance is a business argument, not just a values argument. Lauren frames it both ways, giving leaders what they need to champion the work internally.
Language people can actually use
One of the most common barriers to disability inclusion is that people don't know what to say. Lauren gives employees and managers concrete language for conversations they've been avoiding or getting wrong.
Psychological safety, explained plainly
Lauren articulates what psychological safety means in practice for employees with disabilities: the freedom to stop pretending everything is fine. She makes the concept tangible in a way that resonates across the organization.
Top satisfaction ratings
Lauren consistently earns top scores at the organizations she speaks for. The Co-operators' IDEA team reported her session was one of the highest-rated employee learning events of the year.
Customized for your team
Lauren consults with organizers in advance to understand your audience and goals. ERG sessions, all-hands events, leadership offsites, and HR conferences each get a different approach, because the audience and intent are different.
Case Studies
Workplace inclusion keynotes that moved the room
The Co-operators: Visible & Invisible Differing Abilities ERG
Lauren was selected by The Co-operators' IDEA and Wellbeing team to deliver a company-wide invisible disability keynote for Invisible Disabilities Week. The session created space for employees to reflect on their own experiences and biases around disability. Multiple employees sent personal messages to the organizer after the event describing the impact it had on them.
GroupHEALTH Benefit Solutions: International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Lauren delivered a virtual inclusion keynote for GroupHEALTH in recognition of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Her approach of combining personal story with interactive moments sparked discussion across the team and moved the audience in a way the organizer described as rare for a virtual setting.
Arc'teryx Equipment: Disability Inclusion 101
Lauren delivered a disability inclusion keynote for Arc'teryx's People Operations team. The depth of engagement during the session, with employees coming off camera and the volume of questions in the chat, demonstrated a level of impact the team hadn't expected from a single session.
What Clients Say
Hear it from the organizations themselves
What a great talk for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. A nice balance between sharing lived experience and weaving in moments of reflection for employees, to expand people's perspectives on disability inclusion and build respect and mutual understanding. Thank you to Lauren for taking the time to understand our needs and for being so responsive.
Lauren delivered a motivating and impactful speech to the Class of 2024 at our Annual Last Lecture event. Working with Lauren was seamless and fun. She followed the guidelines of what was requested and put deep thought into what she wanted to say. Lauren is a pleasure to work with and I highly recommend her for your next motivational engagement!
Through her authentic storytelling, the audience really appreciated her sincerity, relevance, vulnerability, and resilience. She was inspiring, innovative, and diverse with her delivery, and her desire to genuinely connect with the crowd was evident. Lauren is such a versatile communicator and an amazing human being in general.
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