Brady Gill
For Brady Gill, play is an essential part of life. As such, he has consistently immersed himself in play, both personally and professionally.
TOPICS
- Character Development
- Creative Thinking
- First Year Experience
- Leadership
- Orientation
- Personal Growth
- Community Building
- Faculty & Staff Training
KEYNOTES
Getting to know
Brady Gill
Brady Gill is passionate about inspiring people with his insights on the power of play. His expertise comes from his time at summer camp; he’s been at summer camp 25 of his 33 summers. Starting as a summer camp counselor in 2002, Brady enthusiastically came back to camp, every summer, moving up through the ranks. Motivated to bring play back into grown ups lives, Brady helped create Camp Grounded: Summer Camp for Adults, and continues to be their Camp Director and Director of Play.
To date, Camp Grounded has hosted over 2,000 grown up campers not to mention a tidal wave of inspiration and transformation through play! Before opening up Camp Grounded, Brady worked as a recess consultant, traveling the country teaching schools how to promote safe and healthy recesses. He also completed the MFA program at ART/MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University at the age of 20—the youngest in history for the program.
FOR BRADY GILL, PLAY IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF LIFE. AS SUCH, HE HAS CONSISTENTLY IMMERSED HIMSELF IN PLAY, BOTH PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY.
Brady watched as his friends, who found lucrative careers in medicine, law, and business, began to lose their playful spirit. He saw that many of his friends were unhappy and entirely lost as to how to fix it. That’s when Brady’s mission began, to seriously reintroduce play into the lives of grown-ups. As a Summer Camp Director for kids as well as a co-creator of Camp Grounded: Summer Camp For Adults, he has seen first-hand the impact that play has on people’s ability to learn, gain confidence, build community, and be joyful. Brady has traveled across the country teaching thousands of educators, students, parents and professional the benefits of leading a playful life.
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
To help you promote your event with Brady, CAMPUSPEAK has created promotional templates you can use. In this folder, you will find resources for social media, a promotional poster for printing, and press photos you can use for your event.
Link to Promotional Materials
LOGISTICAL MATERIALS
AV needs (PDF)
Speaking introduction (PDF)
Discussion questions (PDF)
SEE WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY About Brady Gill!
KEYNOTES
Resilient Together: Building Personal & Community Resilience
College students today are navigating an increasingly overwhelming world. Between academic pressure, social expectations, uncertainty about the future, and constant digital stimulation, many students are asking themselves how they can continue showing up for others without burning themselves out. In this interactive keynote, Brady Gill explores what resilience really means — not simply “pushing through,” but developing the skills, practices, and relationships that help us recover, adapt, and grow together.
Through hands-on activities, reflection, storytelling, and community-building exercises, students will learn practical tools to increase emotional resilience, strengthen supportive communities, and create healthier responses to stress and challenge. Brady helps students discover that resilience is not something we build alone — it is deeply connected to play, belonging, vulnerability, and meaningful connection with others.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- practical tools and habits that help strengthen emotional resilience,
- how community and connection contribute to personal wellbeing and recovery from stress, and
- techniques to navigate setbacks, uncertainty, and challenges with greater adaptability and self-awareness.
Play to Your Strengths
Too often, students focus more energy on fixing weaknesses than identifying what already makes them powerful. Drawing from positive psychology, strengths-based leadership practices, and years of experience building communities and teams, Brady Gill helps students discover how understanding and utilizing their strengths can dramatically improve not only academic and professional success, but also relationships, confidence, and emotional wellbeing.
In this highly interactive keynote, students will explore their own natural strengths, learn how to recognize the strengths of the people around them, and discover how diverse strengths contribute to stronger teams and communities. Through engaging activities and reflection, Brady challenges students to rethink success — not as becoming good at everything, but as learning how to fully leverage what makes them uniquely effective.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how to identify and better utilize their personal strengths,
- how recognizing the strengths of others improves teamwork, communication, and relationships, and
- practical strategies for applying strengths-based thinking to leadership, academics, and personal growth.
Three New Friends
Making meaningful connections in college can feel surprisingly difficult, even when surrounded by people all day long. In this high-energy, highly interactive workshop, Brady Gill creates an environment where students move beyond awkward small talk and quickly build authentic connections through creative games, playful challenges, and engaging group experiences.
Designed to break down social barriers and create genuine interaction, this program gives students the opportunity to laugh together, collaborate, and connect in ways that feel natural and exciting. Whether participants arrive knowing nobody or attend with friends already, everyone will leave having formed meaningful new connections — and at least three new friends by the end of the experience.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- techniques for creating authentic social connections and conversations,
- how play and shared experiences help foster belonging and friendship, and
- increased confidence in meeting and connecting with new people.
Lead Outside the Box: Creative Leadership for the Modern World
Whether it’s your fraternity or sorority, student government, or a class project, you can be sure that you’ll be leading a group in some way while in college. As a leader, you might ask your team to think outside the box, but how can that work if your leadership style isn’t supporting collaboration and innovation? Brady Gill brings over a decade of experience in creating community and leading groups to his audiences.
In this interactive keynote, students will explore the three necessary ingredients for a productive team, how to empower people to think creatively, facilitation best practices and how to keep it fun, even when it gets hard. By the end, students will be able to walk away feeling supported and inspired to lead outside the box.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- three key ingredients for building community,
- five tools/games they can use to foster trust and respect within their team, and
- three facilitation methods to help make any group conversation inclusive and engaging.
The Power of Play
In a highly competitive collegiate atmosphere, students tend to fill their schedules with classes, organizations, leadership positions, work, and volunteer opportunities. Too often, their only off time is spent participating in behaviors without a positive impact or even a potentially harmful impact, such as excessive drinking to “let loose.” In this keynote, Brady Gill gives new meaning to the value of incorporating play into life. Through hands-on demonstrations and experiences, students will explore the physical and emotional benefits of play. Brady helps students learn how they can make play a priority in group projects, planning events for their organization, and recharging throughout their day to improve their overall wellness and experience in college. Students learn about how living playfully has the power to reduce stress, increase productivity in studies, and create opportunities for connection and friendship with peers.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- the value of incorporating time for play in their schedules,
- that by utilizing play as a technique, they will experience reduced stress levels and increased productivity, and
- how to more effectively foster strong bonds with others.
Mistaking Your Way to Your Best Self
It’s pretty uncommon these days for anyone to encourage mistakes, let alone celebrate them. More often, mistakes are thought of as a negative and something to be avoided. But it isn’t that simple. Mistakes are crucial for your personal growth and avoiding them is the best way to keep you from being your most successful self. If you believed this to be true, what would you do? How would your life change if you saw how mistakes were marvelous?
In this keynote, Brady teaches audiences how to celebrate mistakes by reflecting on the lessons they learn from them, how to be open enough to share mistakes with others, and looking at life in a more playful way. Brady believes that if we take ourselves a little less seriously and worry less about perfection, we will lay the groundwork for a more dynamic and less fearful life.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how making mistakes are beneficial in their lives,
- how to reflect on mistakes they have made and transform them into learning experiences, and
- actual practices of how to celebrate mistakes in everyday life.
