• Please click here to download a copy of the final program.

• Please click here to download a copy of the Tech Brief.
• Please click here to download a copy of the Human Brief.
• Please click here to download a copy of the Solutions Brief.
• Please click here to download a copy of the Table Distribution.

• Please take a moment to complete the post-event survey.

Program for Day 1

• 11:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Networking Luncheon
Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside - St. James
Join us for a lunch with a purpose. A Tarot deck seeds the conversation – draw from a thirteen-card deck whose conceptual anchors map to the program's themes. The card you draw opens up avenues for you to meet peers you haven't worked with before, and gives you a single question to open with. 

• 12:30 p.m.-12:50 p.m.
Welcome & Framing
Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside - St. James
Moderator: John Dony, CEO, What Works Institute
Twenty minutes, wide-angle. Why are we still solving 2016's problems? What changes when the rote work that has buried the profession becomes the work that technology can finally absorb? Setting the room up to do what follows. 

• 12:50 p.m.-1:45 p.m.
Opening Panel: The Problem Statement
Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside - St. James
Moderator: John Dony, CEO, What Works Institute
Presenters: Joe Stough, CEO, Fly Guys; Mei-Li Lin, Senior Vice President - Deputy Head of Digital Solutions, DEKRA; LaKisha Wilson, VP EHS, Southwire, LLC.
The premise: the Tech and the Human are two halves of the same coin. We have spent a decade addressing them in sequence and wondering why the field hasn't moved. The panel reframes the problem statement so that the work that follows can be substantively different. John Dony moderates

Focused Table Discussions
Following the problem statement panel, the program is organized into three lanes, each with multiple themed tables that you help prioritize. Themes and tables will also be clustered by focus area and directed by ongoing attendee input.

• 1:45 p.m.-2:50 p.m.
Focused Table Discussions: Rotation I · Human
Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside - St. James
Moderator: Jane Beaudry, HSE Director for Life Sciences North America, Jacobs
Kicking off with an industry share on the very real needs for human skills and resiliency, attendees will take structured deep-dives on critical thinking, trust, SIF/HOP integration, and more.

• 2:50 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
Focused Table Discussions: Rotation II · Tech
Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside - St. James
Moderator: Martin Cohen, ScD, CIH, CSP, Teaching Professor and Assistant Chair, University of Washington Environmental & Occupational Health
Kicking off with an industry share on governance and AI interventions, attendees will take structured deep dives on data quality and integration, adoption and use cases, human-in-the-loop design, and more.

• 4:05 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
Focused Table Discussions: Rotation III · Solutions
Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside - St. James
Moderator: John Dony, CEO, What Works Institute
Where surfacing becomes commitment. Each of the ten Solutions partners runs their own table; you join the partner whose anchor matches what your day has surfaced. 

• 5:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Closing Remarks · Reception opens · Puzzler
Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside - River Room
Reception begins. A piece of art is projected in the room, starting with one of nine visible pieces. 
   • 5:15 PM    Puzzler reveals begin over food and drink. 
   • 6:15 PM    Reception remarks. The final piece arrives. The lesson surfaces. 
   • 6:20 PM    Live capture Day 1 capture revealed. You see yourselves. 
   • 6:30 PM    Wind-down Drinks and conversation. New Orleans flavor throughout. 

*Sessions and schedule are subject to change.

Program for Day 2

• 7:00 a.m.-7:45 a.m.
Sunrise Sip and CEE
Location: New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center - Room 398-399
Start the day with coffee and a light networking breakfast as CEE attendees gather to connect, recharge, and prepare for the day ahead before heading to the AIHA Connect Opening General Session.

Convention Center. Coffee bar; monitors play Sunday back. Soft start, designed for arrivals on your own timing. 

This session is an easy, welcoming way to start the day, build connections early, and get oriented to the broader conference experience happening around you.

Sponsored by: Benchmark ESG

• 8:00 a.m.-9:30 a.m.
Opening Keynote: This Is Your Brain On… How the Brain Interprets Data, Adapts to AI, and Responds to Emerging Sensory Technologies (VIP Seating)
Location: New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center - New Orleans Theater
Presenter: David Eagleman, Author/Speaker
Our world is becoming more technologically advanced. What if the key to success is already inside our heads? Through his unparalleled understanding of the human brain, David Eagleman gives AIHA Connect 2026 attendees the knowledge and tools we need to maximize our brains' potential and thrive in the world of tomorrow. As one of the world's foremost neuroscientists and host of the #1 Science Podcast, Inner Cosmos, Eagleman unlocks new senses for humans, like feeding data into a vest worn by a drone pilot. He argues that, by making sense of the magic of the mind, we can unleash our fullest potential.

• 10:00 a.m.-10:05 a.m.
Morning Reconvening
Location: New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center - Room 398-399
Moderator: Lawrence Sloan, CEO, AIHA
CEE26 moves to room 398 at the Convention Center. Larry Sloan (CEO, AIHA) brings a five-minute frame.

• 10:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m.
Late Show/Fireside
Location: New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center - Room 398-399
Presenters: Sarah Williams Ischer, CIH, CSP; Kevin Ferguson, Chief of Staff, City of New Orleans; Karl Fasold, Executive Director, Orleans Parish Communications District (OPCD)
Kevin Ferguson, Chief of Staff to the Mayor of New Orleans. Climate, resilience, and AI in a city that has carried it all. Joined by Karl Fasold, Executive Director, Orleans Parish Communications District at the working interface of the city's public safety infrastructure on how AI is reshaping that work. After, a conversation with Sarah Ischer on personal resilience and the need to build this community for ourselves, in the spirit of the place we gather in.

• 10:45 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Closing Keynote: Superhuman Leadership — The Missing Link in Health, Safety, and Well-Being
Location: New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center - Room 398-399
Presenter: Hamza Khan
Modern organizations now have unprecedented access to AI, real-time detection, and predictive tools—yet many still struggle to translate capability into consistent outcomes across health, safety, and well-being. The missing link is not more technology, but the human system that interprets, trusts, and acts on it. In this engaging closing session, Hamza Khan explores the critical gap between insight and execution, showing how leadership, alignment, and psychological safety shape not only performance and safety, but the overall well-being of people at work. Drawing on systems thinking and the realities of modern operating environments, this session reframes health, safety, and well-being as outcomes of Superhuman (AI + human-centered) Leadership—not just AI—and challenges leaders to confront a deeper question: what are we doing collectively to make this system work?

Attendees of this session will:
•    Understand why technology alone cannot deliver health, safety, or well-being outcomes without aligned human systems
•    Identify breakdowns between data, decision-making, and execution—and how they impact health, safety, and well-being, and how to address them
•    Apply a systems-level perspective to strengthen alignment, trust, and real-world impact across health, safety, and well-being
 

• 11:30 a.m.-11:35 a.m.
What Comes Next
Location: New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center - Room 398-399
Moderator: John Dony, CEO, What Works Institute
The inaugural Connect Executive Exchange may be at an end - but the vision for the future is for a sustainable conversation and a living platform for insight. Event moderator John Dony will share what to expect in the weeks and months following CEE.

*Sessions and schedule are subject to change.

ADMISSION TO CONFERENCE EVENTS  

All participants at CEE26 must be officially registered and display the official conference badge credentials at all times to be admitted to event functions. Badges are non-transferable.

LIABILITY

I acknowledge that I will be participating in CEE26 events and activities of my own free will and intention, and I am fully aware that possible physical injury to me or damage to my property might occur because of my travel to, participation in, and travel from these events and activities. By registering for this conference, for myself, my estate, and my heirs, I hereby release and discharge and agree to indemnify and forever hold harmless AIHA and its members, managers, officers, directors, agents, volunteers, representatives, and employees, from any and all causes of action and damage arising from or relating to my participation in CEE, and any travel associated therewith, except to the extent caused solely by AIHA's gross negligence or intentional misconduct. I also agree not to allow any other individual to participate in my place (unless I notify AIHA of the need for a substitution for my conference registration in advance and such individual executes the registration form and any required agreements and releases, including, but not limited to, this release).  

USE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC AND VIDEO IMAGES

AIHA will build a photo, quote, and video library of CEE26 that AIHA may use for its internal and external purposes. By participating in CEE26, you grant AIHA the right to use your photograph for such purposes. If we interview you, and film and record your words, AIHA will seek your express permission. All photographs, recordings, and quotes shall become the property of AIHA and may be displayed, distributed, or used by AIHA for any such purpose, and in any media, whether print, electronic, or on the AIHA or Connect websites, and without payment of any royalty to you.

DATA COLLECTION

Data collected may be shared with attendees and/or sponsor partners in aggregate; personal information is not shared. I acknowledge that by attending a sponsored event, my personal information may be shared with the sponsoring organization.

BEHAVIOR STANDARDS

CEE26 is a professional event. AIHA reserves the right to take any action deemed necessary and appropriate, including immediate removal from the conference without warning or refund, in response to any incident of unacceptable behavior, and AIHA reserves the right to prohibit attendance at any future meeting. Examples of unacceptable behavior include, but are not limited to:

• Harassment, intimidation, or discrimination in any form

• Physical or verbal abuse of any attendee, speaker, volunteer, AIHA staff member, service provider, or other meeting guest

• Verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, national origin, inappropriate use of nudity and/or sexual images in public spaces or in presentations, or threatening or stalking any attendee, speaker, volunteer, exhibitor, AIHA staff member, service provider, or other meeting guest

• Disruption of presentations  

AIHA has zero-tolerance for any form of discrimination or harassment, including, but not limited to, sexual harassment by participants or staff at conferences. If you experience harassment or hear of any incidents of unacceptable behavior, AIHA asks that you inform Larry Sloan, CEO, lsloan@aiha.org or Franky Spangler, COO, fspangler@aiha.org, or 703-849-8888 so that we can take the appropriate action. 

Requests for cancellation or substitutions must be submitted in writing to AIHA. Registration for CEE26 is complimentary. If you are unable to attend, please notify us as soon as possible so we can accommodate others on the waiting list. Cancellations must be emailed to Tanya Vandermoon at tanya@whatworksinstitute.com at least 5 days before the event start date.

There is no penalty for cancellation; however, timely cancellations help us ensure a smooth experience for all participants.  

Since this event is by invitation only, substitution requests will be considered at the time of the request. 

Please complete our interest form here.

Please contact: Tanya Vandermoon, Director, Events & Engagement, What Works Institute, tanya@whatworksinstitute.com