Scott Pooch, Keynote Speaker

Each keynote has one central argument, a practical framework, and a written exercise. Scott adapts the examples to the audience without changing the core session. No sales pitch.

BEND YOUR BASELINE: why diets, budgets, and big initiatives snap back, and what actually holds. Organizations launch things they mean to keep. A service standard. A new workflow. A coaching routine. It can work while attention is on it, then fade when attention moves elsewhere. The session starts with the familiar version: the diet or budget that held until it didn't. Then Scott applies the same question to organizational initiatives built on repeated information, motivation, a tool expected to carry adoption on its own, or one person championing it. The trouble starts when an initiative rests on one of them alone. Attendees leave with one initiative from their own organization mapped against the four dependencies, four design tests for the next one, and one design change worth making, written down.

THE WORK I STOPPED DOING: how a non-technical business owner decided what to hand to AI, and what he would never hand over. Scott does not write code and has no technical background. He shows what he actually runs, in the order he built it, then gives attendees a four-question test for deciding whether a task is a candidate at all. Attendees leave with the four-question test, three levels of handover (from draft it and I will edit, to run it without me), and a list of tasks from their own week sorted into hand over now, hand over with a check in place, and keep. Keynote or hands-on breakout.

THE GOAL IS THE GLUE: what actually turns a group into a team. What turns a group of people who may not like each other into a team? A goal that requires each other, and a hard stretch they pass through together. The session does not assume people have to like one another first. Scott uses coaching examples to build and test the argument. Attendees leave with their team's goal in one line, one line for how each role contributes to it, and one real challenge already in front of the team, checked against the four conditions that separate shared effort from imposed hardship.

Length: 45 to 60 minutes for a keynote; 20 to 90 minute versions are available, depending on the session and format. Format: general session or breakout, in person or virtual. In person: projector and screen with a laptop connection; attendee wifi only for the hands-on AI version. Commercial content: none. Credit: content aligns with SHRM Business Acumen and HR Expertise and with the CPE fields Personnel/Human Resources or Business Management and Organization. Hosts determine eligibility and issue any credit. Fee: $1,500 plus travel. Booking dates from December 2026 through 2028.

Scott spent more than twenty years working alongside business owners. Before that he was a collegiate athlete, and for years afterward he coached high school and college athletes. His coaching experience is the foundation for The Goal Is the Glue.

He presented at the Ohio Society of CPAs' Employee Benefit Plan Audit Conference in April 2026, and is scheduled to return for two sessions at its Accounting Show in October and November 2026. He is scheduled to speak at the Michigan SHRM State Conference in October 2026, at CSRA SHRM in Augusta, Georgia in January 2027, and at the Alabama Bankers Association Leadership Conference in July 2027.

He is based in Columbus, Ohio. His sessions use plain language, avoid jargon, and end with a written exercise attendees can take back to work.

From a July 2026 host post: "Rather than focusing on science fiction or technical jargon, Scott showed how AI is becoming an everyday tool that can help individuals, nonprofits, and businesses save time, improve productivity, and make better decisions when used thoughtfully. Thank you, Scott, for helping make AI a little less intimidating and a lot more approachable." (Rotary Club of Beavercreek)