Inspiring Leaders Workshop on AI-Ready Leadership: How Inspiring Leaders Can Use AI Without the Overwhelm
Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 1PM-2:30PM CDT
AI is changing how we lead—but you don't need to feel overwhelmed by it.
Join your PMI colleagues for a PMI Inspiring Leaders Workshop. "AI-Ready Leadership: How Inspiring Leaders Can Use AI Without the Overwhelm,” Sept. 29, 1-2:30 p.m. CT. All employees of PMI member companies are encouraged to attend. Register today!
Most organizations know AI is coming. Few know what to do with it once it arrives
AI and sales strategist Clevette Coombs will lead a 90-minute, hands-on session that meets plumbing manufacturing leaders where the industry sits: curious about AI, but uncertain where to start.
You'll move through a practical three-level framework—from basic AI questions to reusable, task-specific skills you can use the next day. The exercises will focus on the work leaders do: meeting prep, email drafting, data analysis, and team communication. No tech background required.
Every attendee leaves with a ready-to-use Prompt Pack.
Apply AI in practical ways
One of Canada's Top 20 Sales Influencers for 2025, Clevette Coombs brings into the PMI workshop 20 years of Fortune 500 sales experience and more than three years building production-ready AI tools. She facilitates AI masterclasses for leaders in manufacturing and the trades, helping those still early in the AI adoption curve to apply it in useful ways.
PMI26 Inspiring Leaders Program
The PMI26 Inspiring Leaders Program will take place at the National WWII Museum on Nov. 2, the first day of the PMI26 Manufacturing Success Conference, Nov. 2-5, 2026, in New Orleans. Executive coach and leadership consultant Erin Meadows will lead participants through a half-day, hands-on workshop to achieve “Leadership That Feels As Good As It Looks.”
Using her Legacy Mapping framework, Meadows will help attendees identify gaps in their leadership style through facilitated discussions, individual reflection exercises, and small-group conversation. Participants will develop their personal 30-day leadership action plans and gain practical tools for navigating leadership communication, visibility, connection, and time management.
Each year, the PMI Inspiring Leaders Program draws inspiration from art, industry, sports, history, and other fields to help PMI members become stronger leaders, innovators and collaborators. Delivered in a small-group setting ideal for connecting with colleagues, the program continually evolves as members weigh in on topics important to developing their careers and leadership skills.
The program consists of an annual, day-long, in-person workshop at the PMI Manufacturing Success Conference and three virtual 60- to 90-minute workshops held throughout the year. Members can participate in as many workshops as they like.
Attendees of the annual workshop have explored the four-acre flight deck of the USS Midway Museum in San Diego; been surrounded by beautiful works of art at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg; toured Louisville’s Muhammad Ali Center where they learned a visualization technique Ali used to become “The Greatest” boxer of all time; were inspired by aircraft and spacecraft innovations at Seattle’s Museum of Flight; explored the peaceful and hopeful legacy of the nation’s 39th president at the Carter Center in Atlanta, and tapped into the creativity and playfulness of Chicago’s Catalyst Ranch.
Here’s what a few attendees have to say:
| Jeff Baldwin, director of engineering with T&S Brass & Bronze Works, has participated in the program several times and describes his first experience as “eye-opening.” At the time, he was focused on adjusting his mindset to be more proactive to new and innovative product ideas. “This program helped me to leave my comfort zone from a ‘black and white’ engineer, and it helped give me some tools to utilize—listen more and talk less,” he said. |
| Timo Kopka, Roca Group head of product certification and standards, Laufen Bathrooms, said he has enjoyed the program for several years and collects “small bits of information from this program and other places to build up to bigger improvements. . . It’s helpful to have these brief trainings to learn something new, and the topics are a good connection to my work,” Kopka stated. “There were some points where I was thinking, ‘Oh yes, this is something I want to use directly—maybe next week’. . . You get to know some new people that you have never met or spoken with before and then you get several days during the conference to build on these new relationships,” he added. |