2025 AIN Global Conference Schedule

Click here to register for this Learning Journey.

LJ #5 Stop Pulling Your Hair Out by Building in Recovery!
Presenter: Brent Darnell

Date: Thursday, July 31st, 2025

Time: 8:30 am - 12:30 pm

Location: Amphitheater

Description: We live in a highly stressful world. We are starting to see the effects of living and working with these high levels of stress. So, how do we positively manage this stress? How do we work at our highest levels of peak mental, physical, and emotional performance? Welcome to Stress Management for Peak Performance: Stop Pulling Your Hair Out by Building in Recovery. This learning journey helps you understand the impact of stress on your body and how to implement simple techniques and lifestyle choices to maintain optimal performance and create a life that is not dominated by stress.

Click here to register for this Learning Journey.

LJ #6 Corporate Detox
Presenter: Sunita Deshpande

Date: Thursday, July 31st, 2025

Time: 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Location: Bayshore Room C, at the Safety Harbor Resort & Spa

Description: Corporate Detox is a no-bullshit learning journey for people who’ve been chewed up by corporate culture and are ready to reclaim their voice, creativity, and self-worth. Through applied improv, reflection, and embodied practice, we help you shed the residue of toxic systems—whether that’s ageism, anti-DEI backlash, silent sabotage, or just years of being told you’re “too much” or not enough.

-Detox The Boss

-Circle Back Never

-PTO: Post-Toxic Optimism

-Escorting HR Out

-DEI: Defy Expectations Instantly.

It's anything but career coaching. It's your LinkedIn exploding, and the person who was always behind it reappearing into the world, on their terms. HR was built to protect the company. Not you. So where’s your class? The one that helps you process the layoff, the burnout, the politics, the gaslighting? It’s this one.

Click here to register for this Learning Journey.

LJ #7 Re-authoring Your Work: An Improvisational Journey in Job Crafting
Presenters: Andrea Montuschi and Marco Villa

Date: Thursday, July 31st, 2025

Time: 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Location: Location: Bayshore Room A, at the Safety Harbor Resort & Spa

Description: This interactive workshop introduces Creative Job Crafting, empowering individuals to proactively redesign their work for greater meaning and satisfaction. Participants analyse their work, identifying energising and draining factors, and explore their passions. The session guides attendees through Task, Relational, and Cognitive Crafting, developing personalised strategies to modify tasks, reimagine workplace relationships, and reframe their professional contribution. Integrating applied improvisation principles, this workshop provides actionable techniques for a more fulfilling work experience.

Learning Journey Refund & Exchange Policy

If you cancel your Learning Journey before July 15th, you will receive a full refund (minus the $25 admin fee). After July 15th, we can give you a 50% refund. If you wish to change your Learning Journey, please note that this is handled individually. At any time, you can provide your Learning Journey seat to anyone for no extra charge. You must email Anna at [email protected] with the person's name and email address who will be taking your Learning Journey seat.

AINx Talks

AINx Talk: Asynch & Alive: Keeping the Heart of Improv in Self-Paced Learning

Presenters: Kat Koppett and Bård Brænde

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: Between 10am — 10:30am

Description: How do you bottle the magic of real-time connection, spontaneity, and embodied learning—and deliver it through a screen, on demand, without a facilitator present? In this session, we’ll explore how to design asynchronous applied improv programs that retain the energy, interactivity, and transformative power of live experiences. In this session Bard and Kat will share their recently created Kajabi program and share behind-the-scenes tips and insights.

This is a session for learning designers, improv practitioners, and L&D leaders who believe asynchronous learning doesn’t have to feel lifeless—and want to create programs that spark growth, not just clicks.

AINx Talk: A Gallery of Growth: Curating a Thriving Workforce Through Artistic Insights

Presenter: Andrea Montuschi

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: Between 10am — 10:30am

Description: Discover how art from Leonardo da Vinci to Jackson Pollock can offer fresh perspectives on challenges such as employee retention, the rise of AI, and the need for greater agility. We'll explore how to re-centre the human element in a tech-driven world, cultivate a sense of community and well-being, and empower employees through autonomy and purpose. Prepare to be inspired to paint a new picture for your organization!

AINx Talk: Once upon a time I failed...how I learned to love failure and why you should be ready to fail too.

Presenter: Jennifer Strouf

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: Between 9:30am — 10am

Description: Many applied improv practitioners are familiar with the "failure bow" exercise. This talk seeks to go beyond the basic failure bow to address how failure has become the new "F" word. The inability to admit failure along with an almost pathological fear of failure has limited potential and left individuals feeling alone. Join attorney and improv performer Jennifer Strouf as she takes us on a journey of failure, rediscovery, and hope. By the end of this talk, listeners will be ready to embrace failure and risk it all for the possibility of something more.

AINx Talk: The Rhetoric of Humor

Presenter: Dave Tarvin

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: Between 9:30am — 10am

Description: We all know Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle: ethos, pathos, and logos. But in a world of constant noise, short attention spans, and digital overload, something’s missing: humor. In this engaging and thought-provoking talk, Professor Dave explores humor as the fourth dimension of persuasion, one that helps us unwind stress, unlock creativity, and uplift our communication. Drawing from classical theory, modern research, and lived experience (including a journey from childhood dyslexia to a PhD in Communication), this session blends storytelling, scholarship, and spontaneous fun. Come laugh, reflect, and leave with a renewed appreciation for the power of humor as a tool for influence and change.

AINx Talk: AI Meets AI: What Artificial Intelligence Can't Teach, Applied Improv Can

Presenter: Dawn Wisher

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: Between 10am — 10:30am

Description: As artificial intelligence rapidly changes how we learn, work, and communicate, it’s helping us clarify our writing, organize our ideas, and operate more efficiently. But there’s a growing concern: what happens to the neural pathways tied to spontaneity, human connection, and embodied presence? In this AIN Talk, I’ll explore how applied improvisation offers something AI can’t—an invitation back into the moment, into our bodies, and into real connection with others. Drawing from my teaching experience with both undergraduates and PhD students navigating AI in higher ed, I’ll share what I’m seeing in the classroom—and what we can do about it. Let’s talk about how improv doesn’t just support communication skills, it safeguards our capacity to think, feel, and relate in ways machines can’t replicate.

AINx Talk: Give Yourself A Standing Ovation!

Presenter: Matt Weinstein

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: Between 9:30am — 10am

Description: As performers, many improvisors have received standing ovations as enthusiastic gestures of appreciation from our audiences. But what if we flipped that gesture on its head, and standing ovations became a currency of support and appreciation that our workshop participants could give to each other?

In this AINx talk Matt proposes the use of standing ovations in workshops, “not for what you’ve accomplished, but just for who you are!”

Workshop Sessions

Workshop Block I —

Workshop: What's Next?: The Phoenix

Presenters: Carrie Klewin Lawrence and Joann Yarrow

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: 2pm — 3:30pm

Description: "What’s Next?: The Phoenix" is a guided storytelling exercise that invites participants to reflect on a personal narrative that feels unresolved. Using the metaphor of the phoenix, they identify what part of their story is ready to be released—burned away—to make space for clarity, growth, or transformation. Through structured prompts and partner dialogue, participants explore how their “ending” might be reimagined as a new beginning rooted in agency and possibility. This exercise centers healing, identity, and imagination, especially for those navigating change, loss, or transition. It is trauma-informed, opt-in, and designed to uplift diverse lived experiences.

Workshop: How to Create a Motivating Environment - with and for Improvisation

Presenter: Kat Koppett

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: 2pm — 3:30pm

Description: Self-determination theory (SDT) states that in order to feel intrinsically motivated, we must have a sense of autonomy, belonging and competence. At a time when folks may feel more alienated and uncertain than ever, how can we use our work to support connection and a sense of safety and achievement. In this interactive and practical session we will unpack SDT and apply it to our work both as facilitators, and to the larger world, experiencing activities that support intrinsic motivation. This session are for those who want to deepen their applied improv facilitation practice - and who enjoy nerding out on theory a bit.

Workshop: Building Community and Connection Through Applied Improvisation: A Case Study from NERDS Camp

Presenter: Amy Ressler

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: 2pm — 3:30pm

Description: Expand your Applied Improvisation practice into bold new territory! In this lively, hands-on workshop, you’ll explore how improv techniques were used to transform a professional development weekend for STEM faculty into a vibrant, connected, and engaged learning community. Through interactive exercises, real-world stories, and practical tools, you’ll discover how to adapt your skills to support educators in traditionally structured fields—helping them connect, collaborate, and teach with greater presence and joy. Come play, reflect, and leave inspired to bring your practice into powerful new spaces.

Workshop: The OTHER A.I. -- Appreciative Inquiry Techniques for Applied Improv Practitioners

Presenter: Yael Schy

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: 2pm — 3:30pm

Description: Times are tough! Now more than ever, we need to use positive approaches for uplifting ourselves and others in our work as Applied Improv practitioners. Appreciative Inquiry is a strengths-based organizational change approach which emphasizes identifying and amplifying an organization's strengths and positive values. It’s not just a method--but a philosophy that can transform organizational culture and leadership--a participative learning process to identify and spread best practices through sharing success stories. It’s the epitome of a YES AND mindset! Participants will learn techniques for drawing out and sharing stories of resilience in overcoming obstacles. They will then be able to use these tools both for themselves and to help their clients. They will learn about the "5 D's" of Appreciative Inquiry: DEFINE, DISCOVER, DREAM, DESIGN, & DELIVER. This technique has been shown to increase innovation, enhance collaboration, and promote a positive organizational culture.

Workshop Block II —

Workshop: Bring a Brick: Using LEGO® Serious Play® for Leadership And Connection

Presenter: Chris Esparza and Laura Osteen

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: 3:45pm — 5:15pm

Description: What do LEGO® bricks have to do with leadership? In this playful, hands-on workshop, we’ll explore how the LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP®) method can enhance leadership learning, group communication, and co-creation. While a full LSP session often spans several hours, we’ve crafted a series of short, improv-aligned build challenges that invite storytelling, metaphor, and reflection. Along the way, we’ll discover how LSP® principles like “build first, think later” mirror improv’s tenets of spontaneity, presence, and making your partner look good. Even building a simple LEGO® duck can offer fresh insights into how we understand ourselves and others as communicators and leaders. Whether you’re new to play-based learning or already fluent in bricks and bits, come ready to unlock your imagination—and leave with ideas you can use right away.

Workshop: Improv for Adults in Diverse Settings

Presenters: Karelisa Hartigan, Karen Jacoby, Sally Kimberly, and Shanti Vani

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: 3:45pm — 5:15pm

Description: This workshop includes presentations by four improv practitioners, describing what they do with diverse groups of adults in different settings: a Retirement Center, a Co-Housing Neighborhood, a Veterans Administration Rehabilitation Facility, and an Alzheimer Care Center. We will show and tell what we do and invite attendees to share their experiences and ideas. We will play some games and talk about our groups and how we present improv. In closing, we will each summarize our experiences with the different groups. This workshop will work best if we have a 90-minute session.

Workshop: TELL ME MORE: Creating Interest in Applied Improvisation with Everyone You Meet

Presenter: Steve Hughes

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: 3:45pm — 5:15pm

Description: One of the challenges we face as AI practitioners is explaining what we do to a variety of people. Especially to people who can hire us. The problem is we often don't know the best way to describe the impact and benefits of what we do. Thus, we miss out on opportunities to help people unlock and uplift. TELL ME MORE is a dynamic, content-rich, interactive workshop that shows you new and exciting ways to get people to say, "Tell me more about applied improvisation." And when they do, you'll have permission to engage them more deeply and increase your opportunities to secure more work. These concepts are natural, repeatable, and effective. Best of all, you’ll walk away with easy-to-use tools you can apply right away.

Workshop: Games for Personal Growth, Self-Discovery, and Connection

Presenter: Matt Weinstein

Date: Friday, August 1st

Time: 3:45pm — 5:15pm

Description: As children, games and play are the principal way we learn about living in the world. But as adults, laughter, fun and play can also be a magical doorway into learning about our inner selves---and they can help us create a powerful feeling of connection with each other. In this highly interactive and fun session Matt will share some of his favorite stories and games designed for Personal Growth, Self-Discovery, and Connection. Come prepared to have some serious fun!

Workshop Block III —

Workshop: Shaking Hands with Ourselves: harmonious embodiment for an improvised life

Presenter: Ilene Bergelson

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 10:45am — 12:15pm

Description: For all it takes to be present, moments of disconnect happen. There is a silent partner that is with us every single moment and we hardly know them. What does it mean to be in touch with our body? What does it mean to listen to our body’s signals? As we improvise our lives, how can we be a more present, loving partner to the one who is with us 24/7? This session is for anyone with a body, who wants to feel more fluid and connected with it. We will lean into our curiosity, spend a spacious moment exploring what it is to be present in and with our body. We’ll play and ponder through simple experiences to foster our awareness, connection, and appreciation. We might even get to unlock, unwind, and uplift a few areas that’ll make your body say, “Ahhhh, thanks for noticing me!”

Workshop: The Art of Receiving Feedback Without Shrinking, Defending, or Exploding (An Applied Improv Approach to Receiving Feedback)

Presenter: Marc Levine

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 10:45am — 12:15pm

Description: We've all felt it—that jolt of anxiety when someone says, “Can I give you some feedback?” or sends a vague “Call me” text. Most of us freeze, fight, or flee. But what if feedback was simply an offer, like we receive on an Improv stage. What if it is an insight into our blind spots, and a chance to grow?In this hands-on, life-changing workshop, we’ll rewire the way we respond to feedback. Through real practice, improv-style “yes, and,” and reflection on your own reactions, you'll learn to stop defending and start receiving. You’ll unlock deeper relationships, increase your self-awareness, and create a safer space where truth can be shared.

If we want to change, we have to hear the truth. And if we want to hear the truth, we have to make it safe for others to tell it.

Let’s get good at this.

Workshop: Improv for Communication Skills, an applied improv curriculum designed to teach powerful communication skills to students with autism ages 8-80.

Presenter: Craig Price

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 10:45am — 12:15pm

Description: When transitioning from one stage of life to the next, students with autism and their families undergo a huge amount of stress, excitement, anticipation, and questions. How will they survive in the real world? For that matter, how does anyone survive in the real world? While attending this workshop, participants will play, laugh, and learn together while practicing our evidence-based curriculum: Improv for Communication Skills! This curriculum was developed with the help of applied Improv scholars Jim Ansaldo from Indiana University and Lacy Alana from Yes And Brain. The Naples Players Theatre has been able to share this powerful mode of teaching with over 2500 students and teachers every year. Now we want to share it with you!

Workshop: Uplift your health by unlocking awareness of your resilience formed with improvisation.

Presenter: Wieslaw Rocki, MD PhD

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 10:45am — 12:15pm

Description: Our health, relationships, and professional success directly relate to how effectively we improvise with resilience while responding to life’s challenges. Practical knowledge of the principles and routines of theatrical improv can be applied and practiced on the stage of life. This application requires that natural improvisational resources be fully unlocked into our awareness and habits. Practically, that unlocking will be the subject of our workshop. We will discuss, play, meditate, and explore the unlimited potentiality of the fully unlocked improvisation-based resilience. The gained experience and knowledge in this seminar can be applied to all life events, allowing us to respond to them at the highest level of our intelligence (another word for adaptation).

Workshop: Grab & Go Chinese: Improv Your Way to Basic Chat! (No Improv or Chinese Experience Needed!)

Presenter: Xuan Zhao

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 10:45am — 12:15pm

Description: Ready to dive into Chinese with a fun and stress-free approach? "Grab & Go Chinese: Improv Your Way to Basic Chat!" combines the power of applied improv with language learning, making it easy for English speakers to pick up everyday Chinese phrases. Through interactive improv games, you’ll practice greetings, simple conversations, and get comfortable with Mandarin tones—without the pressure of formal lessons. No prior experience with improv or Chinese is needed! Whether you're a language beginner or just looking for a fresh way to learn, this workshop will give you the confidence to start speaking Chinese in real-life situations. You’ll leave with key phrases, a few laughs, and the tools to continue learning with ease. Join us for a fun, relaxed way to speak and connect in Chinese!

Workshop Block IV —

Workshop: "ADAPTing" to participant distress

Presenter: Elizabeth Bojsza

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 2pm — 3:30pm

Description: It is critical to address participant distress and psychological safety in an improv learning environment to prevent damage to the learning capacities of individual participants and the group as a whole. This workshop explores a protocol for responding productively to participant distress addressing Distress in Applied Improvisation Participants Tool (ADAPT). This tool provides guidance for facilitators to anticipate, prevent, and address participant distress effectively during improv sessions. In this workshop, we will first identify and co-create examples of different types of distress, and then use role-plays to try out different strategies to proactively mitigate and also respond to participant distress.

Workshop: Behind the Game: How Improv Structures Shape Learning and Insight

Presenters: Corean Canty, Yoshee Sodiq, and Peter Williamson

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 2pm — 3:30pm

Description: Join us for an interactive workshop that delves into the mechanics and dynamics of improv games to enhance your facilitation skills. Participants will engage in a series of short-form improv activities, such as the Name Game, A to C and Mind Meld, each followed by reflective discussions to unpack the underlying principles that drive engagement and learning. We'll explore frameworks like Barometer XP's Pressure Matrix and Mechanics & Dynamics to provide a structured approach to game selection and debriefing. Whether you're new to applied improvisation or looking to deepen your practice, this session will equip you with tools to make your sessions more impactful, help participants get unstuck, and foster a playful learning environment.

Workshop: H2H (Human to Human): How to Transform Our Future by Focusing on People and What Connects Us as Humans

Presenter: Brent Darnell

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 2pm — 3:30pm

Description: What factors contribute to the division we are seeing in our society and workplaces today? Why are so many organizations experiencing workforce development issues, mental health crises, diversity and inclusion challenges, and an overall dissatisfaction with workplaces and projects? Join us in this interactive session to uncover the interconnectedness of these issues. Explore the power of human connection and discover how this simple concept along with straightforward initiatives and ideas can help to tackle these difficult issues. Let's delve into strategies of human connection for nurturing a productive, inclusive workforce and allow people to show up as themselves. Together, let's create spaces so our workplaces and our society at large can move forward in a positive way and create a future where everyone is connected and thriving.

Workshop: Grow Through What You Go Through: Improvising a Growth Mindset

Presenter: Robin Fox

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 2pm — 3:30pm

Description: Now is the perfect time to “grow through what you go through” by combining growth mindset and applied improvisation. In this interactive, research-based workshop, you’ll engage in playful, energizing exercises to unlock new neural pathways, unwind mental rigidity, and uplift your response to setbacks. Explore how neuroplasticity and resilience work together to reframe fixed mindset thoughts into fresh possibilities that lift the heart and transform dead ends into new beginnings. These are essential skills right now--when personal flexibility and collective resilience and grit are needed more than ever. Whether you're navigating change, supporting others, or seeking to recharge your creative spark, this session will help you let go of perfectionism, embrace uncertainty, and unwind into possibility. You'll leave with practical tools you can apply right away—in your work, your relationships, and your inner dialogue—to become the boss of your brain.

Workshop Block V —

Workshop: Uplifted Voices, Unscripted Power: Improv for WOC, BIPOC, and EVERYBODY in a DEI-Threatened Era.

Presenter: Sunita Deshpande

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 3:45pm — 5:15pm

Description: Attention DEI: Ready to unlock your unscripted power? This 90-minute workshop blends the transformative power of applied improvisation with DEI principles to help BIPOC individuals break free from self-doubt, microaggressions, and burnout. Through fun and liberating exercises, we’ll dig deep into embodied confidence, group energy, and authentic self-expression. By the end of this session, you’ll have a fresh toolkit to step into any room with strength and ease. We’ll dive into exercises like “Unlock Your Inner Angels,” “Uplift Your DEI Narrative” and “Unwind & Un-Apologize for the Past: Collaborative Writing Exercise” to create lasting personal and professional transformation. This isn’t just another workshop—it’s your moment to rise, reclaim, and thrive!

Workshop: Positive Communication in Dementia/Altered Mental Care with Improvisation

Presenter: Sandi Gansel RN, CRRN, CNLCP

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 3:45pm — 5:15pm

Description: Through exercises and scenes you will be able to transition in time and place to communicate with an altered/demented person.

Live in the altered/dementia person’s moment – A tenant of improv is to “live in the moment your create” Through positive communication, along with Yes, an or Yes let’s. This is perhaps the greatest show of acceptance and agreement within the dementia community. A person with dementia often, reverts to the past. They easily shift a conversation to the past where they are comfortable and can direct the conversation. This helps them deflect admitting that they are confused and may not know where they are or what is going on.

Workshop: Improv Pioneers Del Close & Keith Johnstone at Work: Foundational Tools for Applied Improvisation

Presenters: Richard Laible and William Hall

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 3:45pm — 5:15pm

Description: As an Applied Improvisation practitioner, you’ve probably quoted Del Close or Keith Johnstone—without even realizing it. This workshop is a deep but playful dive into the philosophies of two of improvisation’s most influential minds. Richard (a Del devotee from his iO Chicago days) and William (a longtime student of Keith at BATS Improv) bring personal experience and a shared love of the craft to this interactive session. You’ll explore the foundational ideas that Del and Keith championed—from group mind to narrative structure —and show how those ideas show up in the activities, tools, and choices you’re already making in your applied improv work. Whether you’re coaching execs, training teams, or teaching students, this session will give you a deeper connection to the why behind the what. Expect laughs, insights, exercises, a few friendly debates, and plenty of practical takeaways.

Del Close: co-created The Harold, performed and directed at The Second City, acting coach at SNL and much more.

Keith Johnstone: a pioneering force in modern improvisation, best known for creating Theatresports and authoring the seminal book Impro.

Workshop: Musical Improv For Everybody

Presenters: Max Schafer and David Hepburn

Date: Saturday, August 2nd

Time: 3:45pm — 5:15pm

Description: Musical Improv is so much more than just making up verse -chorus songs for stage. It's traditional games, vocal games, warm-up games, acting games, rapping and karaoke games. These are games played for team-building, for the classroom, and for special needs. Musical Improv should be accessible to all groups of all abilities. You shouldn't have to be a great singer or a great actor to experience the same wonderful joy. There will be little lecture, little waiting for turns, and a lot of playing, as well as addressing your personal concerns. And you will go back to your own group with a many new games and ideas.