The Unregulated Conference
About this Event
Public works have always been about building the foundations of society --- roads, water systems, energy grids, and the infrastructure that keeps communities thriving. But in today's rapidly changing world, the biggest breakthroughs often come when we step outside the usual boundaries.
The Unregulated Conference is not your typical industry gathering. It's a space for public works leaders, innovators, policymakers, and disruptors to explore what happens when we challenge convention, rethink regulation, and embrace bold experimentation.
Astonishing Keynote: Envision reshaping infrastructure, sustainability, and governance.
Hands-On Activities: Practical, relevant sessions to foster inspiration and continuous improvement.
Cross-Sector Collaboration: Bringing together engineers, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and academics to spark new ideas.
Future-Focused Panelists: Covering the role of public works in an uncertain world.
Networking Without Borders: Conversations that break silos and connect people across industries and geographies.
This conference is for professionals who believe that the future of public works isn't about the status quo --- it's about thinking bigger, acting faster, and daring to innovate. Whether you're designing smarter communities, reimagining utilities, or tackling infrastructure equity, The Unregulated Conference is where you'll find ideas, partners, and energy to make it happen.
~Breaking Boundaries to Build the Future~
Agenda
🕑: 08:00 AM - 08:30 AM
Registration, Networking, and Vendor Visits
Info: Coffee, Light Refreshments, Networking, and Vendor Visits
🕑: 08:30 AM - 08:45 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
🕑: 08:45 AM
Keynote Presentation: Robert Kenney, President, Partners through Training
Info: Public works have always been about building the foundations of society—roads, water systems, energy grids, and the infrastructure that keeps communities thriving. When was the last time you thought about how to strengthen and reinforce the foundations of your team, the human element, those responsible for helping your organization to keep your community safe, healthy, and functional?
The cultural infrastructure or mindset inside your business determines how team members see themselves as part of the organization, how they relate to customers, how they interact with authority, how they approach problems and growth opportunities, how they understand the business overall, how they help make strategic decisions, and how they describe their organization’s purpose.
Intentionally shaping your workplace culture is one of the most important responsibilities of government leadership. After all, in the public sector, the stakes are incredibly high.
🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:00 AM
PPE:WFO
Info: Wait until you witness the first ever PPE:WFO that illuminates all the fantastic PPE available through area vendors!
🕑: 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Break and Vendor Visits
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Breakout Session A1: Tightwads? Number One to Numb
Info: Financial behavior isn’t just personal — it directly shapes decision making, leadership effectiveness, team dynamics, and organizational outcomes. This breakout session examines the tightwad mindset through a business lens, revealing how over controlling financial habits can become a primary coping strategy that ultimately limits innovation, agility, and strategic growth.
Participants will explore the “Number One to Numb” cycle: the pattern where rigid financial control becomes the default response to stress, uncertainty, or risk. While it may appear fiscally responsible on the surface, this mindset often suppresses creativity, slows decision velocity, and creates blind spots that impact performance. Presenter: Steve Nichols, Fleet & Safety Lead, Western Virginia Water Authority.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Breakout Session A2: Mommie Dearest Debunked - Enhancing Professional Decorum
Info: In today’s workplace, professionalism is often challenged not by lack of skill, but by unexamined personal narratives and emotional habits carried over from early life. Mommie Dearest Debunked explores how outdated relational patterns — especially those shaped by authority figures, family dynamics, and learned emotional responses — can subtly undermine communication, collaboration, and executive presence.
This session reframes the “Mommie Dearest” archetype as a metaphor for the internalized scripts that drive overreaction, under reaction, conflict avoidance, perfectionism, or controlling behaviors in professional settings. By debunking these inherited patterns, participants learn how to elevate their decorum, strengthen interpersonal effectiveness, and model the kind of leadership that fosters trust and psychological safety. Presenter: Jeanne Lewis, Corporate Trainer, Virginia Western Community College.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Breakout Session A3: Innovation Lab-Dare to Speak-This Isn't Working Anymore
Info: Every organization reaches moments when long standing habits, processes, or communication norms stop delivering results. Yet naming what’s no longer working — clearly, respectfully, and constructively — is one of the hardest professional skills to master. This session equips participants with the courage, language, and strategic communication tools needed to address breakdowns before they become barriers to performance.
This session explores why professionals often stay silent in the face of inefficiency, misalignment, or outdated practices, and how that silence impacts innovation, morale, and organizational agility. Participants will learn how to speak up in ways that strengthen collaboration rather than create conflict, and how to transform uncomfortable conversations into catalysts for progress. Presenter: Regina Cook, Workforce Development Strategist, Virginia Western Community College.
🕑: 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Breakout Session B1: AI Overreliance Risk: Rosie's Not Home
Info: As AI becomes embedded in every workflow, the temptation to outsource judgment, communication, and even decision making grows. But when professionals lean too heavily on automated systems, they risk weakening critical thinking, diminishing interpersonal competence, and eroding the very leadership qualities that drive organizational excellence. AI Overreliance Risk – Rosie’s Not Home challenges participants to examine where convenience has quietly become dependency — and how to restore balance.
This session explores what happens when we assume technology will always “handle it,” even when human discernment is essential. Participants will learn how overreliance shows up in subtle ways: reduced initiative, avoidance of difficult conversations, blind trust in automated outputs, and a decline in professional decorum when AI becomes the default communicator. Presenters: Uma Marques, Director of Information Technology and Joseph Sidor, Cybersecurity Analyst II, Roanoke County.
🕑: 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Breakout Session B2: Twisted Minds-Managing Safe Workplaces
Info: Modern workplaces are increasingly challenged by complex interpersonal dynamics, including disruptive behaviors rooted in narcissistic tendencies, emotional dysregulation, and untreated mental health concerns. These issues can quietly erode psychological safety, productivity, and team cohesion if leaders are not equipped to recognize and address them early and effectively. Twisted Minds provides a grounded, professional framework for navigating these realities with clarity, compassion, and firm boundaries.
This session examines how problematic behavioral patterns manifest in professional environments — from manipulation and blame shifting to volatility, chronic conflict, and erosion of trust. Participants will learn how to differentiate between personality driven behaviors and mental health related struggles and respond without escalating tension. Presenter: Andrea Randle, CEO, The Compassion Clinic Resource Center.
🕑: 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Breakout Session B3: Future Disruption-The High Cost of Invalidation
Info: In fast moving organizations, disruption isn’t caused only by market shifts or emerging technologies — it’s often triggered internally by subtle patterns of invalidation. When employees’ ideas, concerns, or contributions are dismissed or minimized, the long term cost is steep: disengagement, stalled innovation, eroded trust, and a culture where people stop speaking up. Future Disruption – The High Cost of Invalidation examines how these dynamics quietly undermine organizational resilience and what leaders can do to reverse the trend.
This session explores the mechanics of invalidation in professional environments — how it shows up in communication, decision making, and leadership behaviors, and why it becomes more damaging during periods of rapid change. Presenter: Regina Cook, Workforce Development Strategist, Virginia Western Community College.
🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Gourmet Lunch, Plenary Workforce Panel, and Closing Remarks
Info: The Plenary Workforce Panel Topic: Performance in a Multi-Generational Workplace
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 1000.00
