Virtual Events
Thursday, September 15 & Friday, September 16
National Payroll Week 2022 kicks off with a pair of virtual events. Join us online as we celebrate you and all payroll professionals across Canada!
This year’s events will truly be works of art! Each online session will feature a virtual “Portraits of Payroll” gallery, displaying incredible images of payroll professionals from coast-to-coast-to-coast, captured by renowned Canadian photographer Christopher Wahl. Be sure to enjoy the exhibit featuring some of your inspiring colleagues from across the country – you may even know some of them personally!
The cost to attend each event is $25 plus tax for members ($35 plus tax for non-members), which includes:
- An engaging keynote speaker
- Live entertainment
- The latest news from the National Payroll Institute
- One and a half CPE hours
Each event will be translated in real-time, providing a fully bilingual experience!

National Payroll Week Kickoff
September 15
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Eastern Time
Keynote Speaker – Sarah Blackwood
Join us online to start off the National Payroll Week celebrations.
Connect with payroll professionals from across the country, be entertained by singer Shawnee Kish, and be inspired by keynote speaker Sarah Blackwood!
About Sarah Blackwood
Sarah Blackwood is a leading member of the band Walk Off the Earth which is an unconventional, multi-talented four-piece musical phenomenon that has taken the world by storm. Sarah has a social media reach of over5million dedicated followers between the band and her individual pages. Sarah’s most acknowledged strength is her ability to work a crowd, and speak to an audience with clarity, truth and passion in an array of different environments. Views on all socials fall above and beyond 1 billion to date. Sarah has built a massive following of dedicated fans from around the world through her unique and heartwarming approach to song writing, filming and constant open interaction with everyone her journey touches.
Keynote Topic: Living out Loud
A positive, emotionally empowering dialogue about using our voices to accelerate and achieve all of our life goals.
Sarah Blackwood, the award-winning lead singer of Walk Off the Earth, passionately speaks about hard work, family, focus, and learning from the upsets and obstacles in life while persevering in a demanding and challenging industry as an artist, mother and life partner. She continues to strive to live out her dreams while raising three young boys, while teaching them their potential to do the same. Sarah’s life has been an incredibly eventful journey and she thrives on sharing these stories with the world through intensely honest and positive language.
National Payroll Week Kickoff (French)
September 15
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm ET
Keynote Speaker – Bruny Surin
Join us online to start off the National Payroll Week celebrations. This French event will be translated in real-time, providing a fully bilingual experience to all attendees.
Connect with payroll professionals from across the country and be inspired by Olympic Champion Bruny Surin!
About Bruny Surin
Bruny Surin was recently appointed to the Order of Canada. He is also a recipient of the Order of Quebec, a member of Canada’s Olympic Committee Hall of Fame, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame, the Canada Games and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Born in Haiti, Bruny Surin is one of the best sprinters in the world. A four-time Olympian, he was instrumental in one of Canada’s most important sporting moments by helping his country win gold in the 4×100m relay at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
Thanks to his perseverance and his mantra, “The me I see is the me I’ll be,” this giant of athletics has accumulated the following achievements:
- Olympic champion 4×100 metres (1996)
- 7th fastest sprinter of all time in the 100 metres.
- Eight-time Canadian champion at the 100 metres and Canadian record holder (9.84 seconds) and at the 60 metres (6.45 seconds)
- Two-time world runner-up at the 100 metres
- Two-time world champion in the 60-metre indoor event
- Two-time world champion in the 4×100 metre relay
Bruny is also an accomplished businessman. In addition to making investments in real estate, he is the founder of Sprint Management Inc. an organization that develops business and real-estate partnerships and provides motivational speaking, team-building and mentoring services to the business community worldwide. In 2002, after retiring from sports, he launched the Bruny Surin Foundation, whose mission is to promote a healthy and active lifestyle among young people and to fight against school dropouts.
Keynote Topic:
Bruny shares his concept of success and discusses the sacrifices, dedication and perseverance required to achieve one’s dreams. Through his inspirational journey and strength of character, he has encouraged and influenced over 150,000 students, employees and business leaders worldwide.
Bruny shares his difficult journey and the sacrifices he had to make to become the second-fastest man in the history of the 100-meter dash in 1999.
Bruny is able to draw a natural parallel between teamwork and the symbolic passing of the baton. He motivates, inspires and encourages organizations, businesses and educational institutions by sharing stories of hope, dreams and achievement in a personalized approach.
National Payroll Week Virtual Event
September 16
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Eastern Time
Keynote Speaker – David Usher
National Payroll Week celebrations continue on Friday with keynote speaker David Usher! His presentation Core Creativity: How to Bring Creativity, Innovation and Inspiration to the Work that You Do is sure to bring out the creativity in everyone.
Today’s event will feature entertainment from singer Cheryl Ireland – a great way to start off the weekend.
About David Usher
Keynote Topic:
Core Creativity: How to Bring Creativity, Innovation and Inspiration to the Work that You Do
The Internet has changed everything we know about business and art… and it continues to do so. You can no longer get by because you’re the best in your town, province, or even country. Location means nothing. Everything now has a global audience, and products and services need to do more than simply perform — they need to sing.
Nobody understands this better than David Usher. The multi-platinum artist has sold more than 1.4 million albums as a solo artist and frontman for the rock band Moist, won countless awards, sold out venues all over the world, and works tirelessly to improve his creative process. Along with being a famed musician, Usher is also active in many business ventures, from technology and the environment to creative and social endeavors. He believes that creativity is a learnable skill and he’s bringing his formula to your event.
Usher demonstrates his fascinating formula to stimulating creativity at work through a mix of music, video, and experimentation, and brings to life the core elements needed to build a more dynamic, fulfilling, and innovative creative process.
Juno Award-Winning Musician | Creativity and AI Expert
When innovative companies like Google, 3M, Cisco, Pepsi, Rogers, and SAP want to spark creativity in their employees and executives, they bring in David Usher. He doesn’t just talk creativity and artificial intelligence (AI) — he lives it. Usher draws from his unique experience as the lead singer of Moist; a multi-platinum, four-time Juno award-winning musician; a bestselling author; and as the founder of the artificial intelligence creative studio, Reimagine AI, to help organizations reboot their creativity in this brave new world of disruptive change.
At Reimagine AI, Usher and his team build virtual beings and AI-powered minds for the metaverse, gaming, animation studios, and intelligent NFT collections. He draws from his experience at the forefront of the AI revolution to reveal why now more than ever, creativity and innovation are the only way forward and an organization’s last, best competitive advantage.
Through his dynamic, interactive presentations, Usher uses live music, video, improvisation, technology, and humour to electrify audiences and demonstrate that creativity and creative success is a learnable skill that anyone can master, and helps audiences jumpstart their creative process both in their work and their lives.
Usher is also the author of Let the Elephants Run: Unlock Your Creativity and Change Everything, which explores creativity and innovation.
National Payroll Week Virtual Event (French)
September 16
11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET
Keynote Speaker – Sonia Benezra
National Payroll Week celebrations continue on Friday with keynote speaker Sonia Benezra! Rightly nicknamed “The Oprah of Quebec”, Sonia has demonstrated throughout her career that talent and professionalism transcend ages, languages and cultures.
Today’s event will feature entertainment from Suzette Vidale – an innovative steelpan artist. Her fascinating performance will have you saying bravo!
About Sonia Benezra
MAKING YOUR DIFFERENCES AN ASSET
Because she was different from anyone in the industry at the time, Sonia tells us how standing out from others became an asset for her. She elaborates on how she never stopped believing in her dreams despite the projections of others who believed she would fail. In this Keynote presentation, Sonia explains how her differences have in fact, helped to propel her towards tremendous success.
Inspired by the quote: “When you don’t fit in, maybe God wants you to stand out…”
Sonia will share in her experiences to drive success through;
- Using “your differences” to stand out
- Respecting yourself, by being yourself
- Paying attention to your environment to maximize your maneuverability
- Knowing how to have a variety of tools to create influence
- Adapting to circumstances and to individuals
- Building bridges in unfamiliar environments