On December 2, 2025, I opened the HP 2026 fiscal year sales kickoff with a 30-minute interactive keynote at the Hilton Alpharetta Atlanta. Over 170 employees from HP’s North America and Latin America Go-To-Market teams were in the room.
As a top corporate mentalist, I’ve performed at many sales kickoffs, but this one stood out for how directly HP’s event theme “Making it Happen” tied into my keynote topic of making the impossible happen.
Event Details
- Client: HP Inc.
- Division: HP Industrial Print Go-To-Market team (North America + Latin America)
- Occasion: FY2026 Sales Kickoff
- Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2025
- Venue: Hilton Alpharetta Atlanta, Alpharetta, GA
- Region: Metro Atlanta, with an international audience drawn from across North and Latin America
- Theme: “Making it Happen”
- Format: Mentalist Keynote — a 30-minute interactive stage presentation
- Attendees: ~170, predominantly sales, with marketing, service, and sales ops also represented
- Staging: Ballroom riser approximately 12 feet deep and 18 inches high, black curtain backdrop, even stage wash
- A/V: Provided by the venue, including two large screens that enabled a fully interactive video element
- Seating: Round tables; dinner followed the keynote rather than running alongside it
A Fast-Moving Booking
HP’s team reached out on November 10th, less than a month before the event. After a single video call and a proposal, the contract and deposit were finalized within the week.
We scheduled a pre-event consultation in late November, and I worked to make sure my keynote messaging would stay aligned with their goals. Even a 30-minute slot deserves the same care and attention to detail as a full hour presentation.
I flew into Atlanta the day before to settle in and prep, and by showtime the ballroom was all set. There was professional sound & lighting, HP branding on the screens, and a stage built to ensure all 170 employees had a perfect view.
The Right Mix of Information & Fun
Some keynotes are all about the information. Others are all about inspiration. When I first designed my mentalist keynote “Moments of Astonishment,” I wanted an interactive keynote that could adapt to the needs of my clients.
If my clients want a high-information presentation: I focus on the message and use mentalism as a tool to illustrate the concepts and change models I teach.
If my clients want inspiration: I’d focus on the fun and lightly touch on the overarching themes of connection.
My keynote would always feature a mix of mentalism and messaging, but the mix of information and entertainment is be entirely up to them.
Making it Happen
HP knew exactly what they wanted. They didn’t need a data-heavy talk or a detailed slide deck. They wanted a fun, high-energy start to the kickoff for a team that had just flown in from across the Americas.
I kept the message broad and accessible, and focused on interaction, inspiration and astonishment. The one message I wove in echoed HP’s “Making it Happen” theme back to them:
“There are many things in your business, and in your life, that may seem impossible. But mentalists make the impossible happen every single day, and so can you!”
A Fully Interactive Screen Moment
My favorite part of the night was a performance piece I absolutely love, but don’t get to do at every event. It’s a fully interactive performance piece using the venue’s video screens.
It requires the kind of screen setup HP’s production team already had in place, and it let all 170 people participate and follow along together in real time. This piece has been a huge hit in my theater shows, and I even adapted it for my appearance on Fox Business.
It’s one thing to watch a mentalist read one volunteer’s mind. It’s another to have the whole room experience a shared moment of “how is this happening?!?” at exactly the same time.
This was exactly the kind of energy HP wanted to kick off their year.
Results
The applause was thunderous, and a lot of people whistled (is that a South American thing?).
Several attendees came up to me after my performance to thank me, and the next morning, as I was leaving the hotel, more HP team members stopped me in the lobby with the same kind of enthusiasm.
I genuinely believe that most of what we consider to be “impossible” is just a mindset. I hope that everyone realized that when we truly connect with others, we can do amazing things.
One HP team member had this to say:
“It was the most phenomenal thing I’ve ever seen, and I will spend the rest of my life trying to figure out how he did it.”
Looking to Kick Off Your Own Event?
If you’re planning a sales kickoff, conference, or company event in metro Atlanta and want your audience talking about it long after the closing session, I’d love to help make it happen. Learn more about what I offer as a mentalist for Atlanta events.
