Navigate: From Uncertainty to Action
In uncertain times, finding clarity and direction isn’t easy. But some of the most powerful change comes from people — those who are purpose-driven, courageous, and committed to navigating the unknown with intention.
That’s why The Gathering offers more than inspiration—it’s a space to get equipped.
Through our immersive workshops, you’ll gain practical tools, fresh perspectives, and renewed confidence to take your next steps. Whether you’re seeking personal clarity, professional insight, or deeper community, these sessions are designed to help you grow, connect, and move forward—together.
What are Navigate Workshops?
Navigate is a professional development track designed for managers and leaders seeking to enhance their impact in both life and work. Through expert-led workshops, Navigate equips participants with essential skills in leadership, innovation, and strategic thinking.
Sessions explore topics such as career transitions, agile methodologies, personal branding, futurism thinking, change management, creative brainstorming, and cross-functional leadership. With a focus on practical tools and real-world application, Navigate serves as a compass for charting a more effective and fulfilling professional path.
How to Join a Workshop
All registered attendees will be given an opportunity to choose a program track of their chose for our breakout portions of the Gathering. Breakout sections take place:
Wednesday (10/8), 2:45pm - 5:30pm
Thursday (10/9), 10:30am - 1:30pm
If you select the “Navigate Workshop” track, you’ll then have the option to choose which if the workshops to attend and it will be added to your personalized schedule.
Learn more about all 2025 Navigate Workshops below.
2025 Navigate Workshops
(Registered attendees can join a workshop of their choice as we near the event)
Here are the workshops that will be offered during the 2025 Gathering. Note that some of the workshops require a 2-day commitment. Some are only offered on one day.
All workshops are first-come, first-serve so make your selection asap when registration for these special breakouts goes live to all attendees.
Visual Eloquence
An interactive do-session for innovators that explores the power of effective, low-tech, visual expression. An experience every leader, manager, and team member working on systemic challenges should have.
WORKSHOP DETAILS
2-session workshop (both days required)
24 spots
Facilitator: Enrique Martínez-González
Director | Muchieast LLC
Enrique’s expert power is to apply a design mindset to the challenges that leaders across all sectors face today. He helps organizations build cultures of ideas that breed innovation. From his early career as a practicing architect and industrial designer, he holds simplicity, know-how, and insightfulness as core values. To transform leaders with a vision of work that places imagination at the core of diversity of thought, insightful action, and effective communication, he founded Muchieast LLC, a design and innovation consultancy that partners with companies and individuals committed to a better tomorrow.
Nexting: Pivot with Purpose
2-session workshop (both days required)
14 spots
How to navigate a career transition moment / reconnecting with why you do this work / where your vitality comes from and how to harness it.
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This hands-on interactive workshop is designed to help folks who are in moments of career transition in their life reconnect with their values, purpose, and sources of vitality and make an action plan for next steps. With society currently feeling more unpredictable and uncertain than ever, it’s not surprising many of us feel unmoored. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Will I be able to continue doing my important work? Will I still have a job? We must be ready to pivot with purpose and choose a next step that will feel like forward movement, rather than treading water or taking a step back. Nexting can guide you through this process with intention and support as we dive into these questions and provide practical exercises and tools to participants seeking to (re)design your work and life with insight and intention.
By the end of the workshop you will feel:
• Purposeful and prepared
• More energized and enthusiastic
• More meaningfully connected to others
• Confident in their next steps
• Ready to re-engage more productively in their job and life
By the end of the workshop you will have:
• A clear personal ambition statement
• A clarified list of their core values
• A set of action steps they can start immediately
• New connections to help with next steps
Facilitator: Jonathan Gibson
Co-Founder | Sonder Collaborative
Jonathan is a genuine, caring person who thrives on forming connections and building community. He is passionate about personal growth and self-discovery and has spent his career as an experiential educator honing his skills to facilitate people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.
Along the way, Jonathan has received extensive education and training in social and cognitive psychology, social emotional learning, leadership, and group development (at Duke University where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, National Outdoor Leadership School, and beyond).
Cross-Functional Leadership—Building a Culture Beyond Silos
1-session workshop (only offered one day)
14 spots
How to break down silos and effectively manage and collaborate across different departments or functional areas within an organization.
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In business environments of any size, the most effective companies are those that break free from silos and foster true cross-functional collaboration. This workshop is designed for leaders and change-makers who want to create work cultures and systems where teams continuously work across boundaries, leveraging the full potential of their organizations.
Through real-world examples, actionable frameworks, and personalized exercises, participants will learn how to diagnose and dismantle silos, build trust across teams, and design processes that benefit the entire company—not just individual departments. The workshop emphasizes practical tools for communication, decision-making, and sustaining change, empowering attendees to return to their organizations ready to lead a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
Facilitator: Christine Senn
SVP, Site-Sponsor Innovation | Advarra
Christine Senn, PhD has worked in clinical research since 2005, starting as a Coordinator at the University of Vermont College of Medicine then for 16 years at Centricity Research, a site network with more than 40 clinical research sites in the U.S. and Canada. There, she was actively engaged in everything related to change management: integrating companies after M&A, strategizing growth initiatives, planning and executing special projects and lines of business, and continuous process improvement. Today she is delighted to serve the industry as SVP of Site-Sponsor Innovation at Advarra, a global company offering services and technology solutions to enable collaboration across all industry domains.
Dr. Senn holds her PhD in Psychology and has Masters degrees in both Clinical Psychology and in Advertising and Public Relations. She was the 2023 Chair of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP), is a proud ACRP Fellow (FACRP), and is double-certified as a Certified Clinical Research Coordinator (CCRC) and Certified Principal Investigator (CPI).
A Skillful Climb Through Change
How to lead a team through a change process in an organization including topics such as change communication, change resistance, and change readiness.
WORKSHOP DETAILS
1-session workshop (only offered one day)
35 spots
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This interactive workshop equips leaders to navigate organizational change with confidence and clarity. Participants explore the emotional dynamics of change using the Change Curve, develop critical listening skills, and engage in applied practice using the GROW coaching model to support their teams. Through reflection, application, and peer dialogue, leaders leave better prepared to guide others through transitions with empathy and effectiveness.
Facilitator: Mike Capaldi
Owner | Versatile Collaboration LLC
Mike Capaldi is an owner of a strategic consulting firm and executive coaching practice (LeadingEdge) focused primarily in the life sciences sector. He is also a Senior Advisor for Penn Quarter Partners, a public affairs firm based in Washington D.C. where he consults with clients across the biopharmaceutical, diagnostics, and medical device industries. Lastly, he is the Executive Director for
the Institute for Gene Therapies, a nonprofit advocacy coalition.
Prior to these roles he had a successful 22-year career at Sanofi (Genzyme) and most recently was the Head of US Public Affairs & Patient Advocacy for the Oncology, Transplant and Consumer HealthCare units.
What attendees are saying…
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"I left the Innovation Network Gathering inspired and filled with new perspectives!"
- Aaron Horowitz
Founder & CEO | Empath Labs -
"Every aspect of the Gathering is highly orchestrated...from start to finish, participants are engaged in a seamlessly executed program."
- Laura Hilty
Principal | HealthX Ventures -
"Well done. Great opportunity to bring great minds together."
- Kim Buchanan
Associate Director Development Quality | Merck