For immediate release. Vancouver, 5 October 2026.
Sleep and leadership at SFU Harbour Centre.
Dai Manuel speaks at LUX Talks 2026 on Friday, 16 October. This page carries the press release text and a ready-to-use event listing for media and local calendars.
The announcement
Dai Manuel, a Vancouver keynote speaker, executive coach and author of The 2% Solution, will speak at LUX Talks 2026: DRIVE, Built to Lead. The conference runs on Friday, 16 October and Saturday, 17 October 2026 at SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, in downtown Vancouver. His session starts at 1:45 pm on the Friday and runs 35 minutes within a 45-minute speaking slot.
The talk is about sleep and leadership: what happens to a team when the person at the front runs on empty. Dai will walk managers through the 15/5/10 practice: fifteen minutes of movement, five minutes of stillness and ten minutes of learning. Thirty minutes, about two percent of a day. He will also share the numbers behind the message, drawn from published sleep research.
Dai Manuel: “Leaders rarely lose their edge in one dramatic moment. It slips in small ways when the tank is empty. I am not bringing a perfect routine to LUX Talks. I am bringing one practice a team can start on Monday.”
The research behind the talk
The figures in the session are verifiable. In a laboratory study by Donga and colleagues, a single night with a four-hour sleep window cut mean glucose disposal during an insulin clamp from 40.7 to 32.5 µmol per kg lean body mass per minute in nine healthy subjects, roughly a 20 percent drop in insulin sensitivity. That is a metabolic result in a small group, not a forecast for every person.
In a separate field study, Barnes and colleagues tracked leaders day by day. Nights of poorer sleep quality were followed by more abusive supervision the next day, and abusive supervision linked to lower engagement in the leader’s work unit. It is a daily association, not a claim of destiny.
The general benchmark is simple. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society recommend adults get at least seven hours of sleep regularly.
- Donga et al., Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (2010)
- Barnes et al., Academy of Management Journal (2015)
- AASM and Sleep Research Society consensus statement (2015)
More detail, charts and sources sit on the site’s sleep and leadership page, and a two-minute sleep check lets leaders test their own starting point.
Event details
LUX Talks 2026: DRIVE, Built to Lead.
- Event
- LUX Talks 2026: DRIVE, Built to Lead
- Dates
- Friday 16 and Saturday 17 October 2026
- Venue
- SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3
- Dai’s session
- Fuel the Driver: The 2% Leader, Friday 16 October, 1:45 to 2:30 pm (Vancouver time)
- Session length
- 35 minutes within a 45-minute speaking slot
- Organiser
- LUX Talks (luxtalks.ca)
- Tickets
- Sold by LUX Talks on the official event page. This site does not sell tickets.
- Official event
- LUX Talks 2026: DRIVE, Built to Lead
- Speaker page
- daimanuel.com/lux
For media and calendars
Ready-to-use event listing.
The text below is written to paste into event listings, community calendars and directory entries without editing.
Event listing Name: LUX Talks 2026: DRIVE, Built to Lead, featuring Dai Manuel Category: Conference / leadership event Venue: SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3 Dates: Friday 16 October 2026, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm; Saturday 17 October 2026, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Featured session: Fuel the Driver: The 2% Leader with Dai Manuel, Friday 16 October, 1:45 to 2:30 pm (Vancouver time) Organiser: LUX Talks, https://www.luxtalks.ca Tickets: sold by LUX Talks on the official event page, https://www.luxtalks.ca/event-details/lux-talks-2026 Speaker page: https://daimanuel.com/lux Speaker enquiries: Dai Manuel, daimanuel@daimanuel.com, https://daimanuel.com/media-kit Description: LUX Talks 2026 brings leadership talks to SFU Harbour Centre in Vancouver on 16 and 17 October. Dai Manuel speaks on sleep and leadership in Fuel the Driver: The 2% Leader, Friday at 1:45 pm.
About the speaker
About Dai Manuel.
Dai Manuel has spent nearly thirty years in fitness, from one-to-one coaching to the boardroom and the stage. A former Chief Operating Officer, he runs MERGE Fitness Inc. and co-owns CrossFit BC with his wife, Christie. He is a TEDx speaker and the author of The 2% Solution.
He still coaches on the gym floor, and his talks are plain-spoken and interactive. The point is not another perfect routine. It is one useful practice a team can carry back to work.
Media contact
Press enquiries.
Dai Manuel handles press enquiries personally at daimanuel@daimanuel.com. Headshots, bio and starting rates live in the media kit. Speaking availability is on the speaking page.