Business Services Academy Agenda

NAWDP’s agenda for the Business Services Academy is based on four core competencies:

Linkages and Promotion of the Workforce System
Business Engagement and Interaction
Engagement in Economic Development
Talent Pipeline Development

Schedule

Whether you are looking for a high-level overview or detailed session information, you can access both the Schedule-at-a-Glance and the Full Schedule below to plan your Academy experience. Please note that the schedule is subject to change as additional speakers, sessions, and event details are confirmed.

Schedule-at-a-Glance

View a snapshot of daily activities, key sessions, and event highlights.

View Schedule-at-a-glance

Full Schedule

Explore complete session descriptions, speakers, learning objectives, and timing details to customize your Academy experience.

View Full Schedule

Pre-Conference Session

Shift Happens: From Programs to Partnerships

Engaging Businesses in a True Demand‑Driven System

This interactive pre-conference session equips Workforce Development and Career Development professionals with the strategies, language, and consulting mindset required to authentically engage businesses in a demand-driven workforce system. Rather than offering programs and hoping employers “fit,” participants will learn how to position themselves as strategic partners who uncover real business needs and co-design solutions that strengthen businesses within their community and regions.

Through a blend of practical frameworks, live demonstrations, and peer‑to‑peer exercises, attendees will explore how to shift from transactional service delivery to consultative business engagement that drives measurable impact for employers and jobseekers alike.

Learning Objectives:

How to define and operationalize a true demand-driven approach within WIOA and non-WIOA environments
Techniques for initiative high-value business conversations that uncover root-cause workforce challenges
A structured discovery process that identifies talen, training, retention, and productivity needs
How to translate business needs into coordinated workforce solutions across partners and programs
Strategies for building long-term, trust-based relationships with employers
Ways to integrate labor market intelligence into business engagement conversations
How to position your organization as a workforce solutions consultant, not a program provider

Session Presenter:

Aaron Leson
Director of Training & Development,
TAD Grants

Opening Session

Start the Business Services Academy by hearing directly from businesses across the Las Vegas region. Leaders from a variety of industries will share what they are looking for in today’s workforce, the challenges they are facing, and what meaningful workforce partnerships look like from their perspective. This opening panel will provide the business perspective and set the stage for the academy, helping you identify new opportunities to strengthen employer partnerships, enhance your business engagement strategies, and make the most of the learning and conversations throughout the event.

Session Presenters:

Carlos Rodriguez
Ted Wiens Complete Auto Service

Greg Gilbert
Welding School of Nevada

Milli Ventling
Nicolas and Company

Nicole Graham
Lumina Las Vegas

Wesley Gregg
Gaudin Motor Company

Closing Session

Working Across the Laborshed: Building Rivian’s Workforce Pipeline

When Rivian selected Normal, Illinois as home for a major manufacturing facility, workforce boards faced a challenge no single region could solve alone. This session showcases how a state workforce agency, five Local Workforce Innovation Areas (LWIAs), a community college, and Rivian worked together across traditional boundaries to better serve a major manufacturer through coordinated, improved business services. Attendees will see how workforce professionals inventoried existing services, identified gaps, and coordinated efforts — including hiring events, career services, manufacturing job training promotion, customized training, and apprenticeship expansion — while collaborating with a training provider as they piloted an employer-driven strategy, including short-term training, candidate screening and employment placement. Panelists will share what worked, what they would do differently, and how this employer engagement and talent pipeline model can be replicated in other regions.

Session Presenters: