Colin Powell leads keynote lineup for 2016 Conclave

Las Vegas--The American Gem Society has begun announcing the lineup of keynote speakers for 2016 Conclave, which is slated to take place at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City outside of Washington, D.C. from April 13 to 16.

Delivering the opening keynote will be: Colin Powell, the 65th U.S. secretary of state and a retired four-star general. 

Powell also served as both the national security advisor and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he was both the youngest officer and ROTC graduate to ever serve in the position and the first African-American to do so. During his time as chairman, Powell oversaw 28 crises, including the Panama intervention of 1989 and Operation Desert Storm.

In 1995, Powell published his autobiography, My American Journey, which was a bestseller and has been published in many different languages. His second book, It Worked for Me, was published in 2012 and was an instant New York Times bestseller.

The AGS also revealed Thursday that Shawn Achor, the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage and Before Happiness, will deliver a keynote at Conclave.

After graduating from Harvard and earning a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School in Christian and Buddhist ethics, Achor taught at the university for 12 years, where he won more than a dozen teaching awards and delivered lectures on positive psychology. 

Achor has become one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and success. He has worked with more than one-third of the Fortune 500 companies as well as the NFL, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Treasury, and his research on happiness has made the cover of the Harvard Business Review. 

Additionally, the talk he gave at a TEDx event in Bloomington, Ind., is one of the most popular TED talks of all time, with more than 11 million views.

The AGS said it will make more announcements in the upcoming weeks about additional keynote and featured speakers for Conclave, as well as registration information.