Alvin Law

Why organisations work with Alvin Law

• A resilience keynote built on six decades of lived practice, not a framework borrowed from research. Born without arms, he has worked, broadcast, performed music, and raised a family by inventing methods most people assume cannot exist.
• Hall of Fame platform craft. Inducted into the Canadian Speakers Hall of Fame (CAPS) in 2009 and one of the under-ten-percent of professional speakers globally to hold the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation.
• A trained broadcaster’s command of room, pacing, and message. The keynote is built for large internal audiences, sales kick-offs, and association main stages where a speaker has to reset attention, not just hold it.
• Subject of three internationally distributed documentaries by John Zaritsky and an Emmy-winning ABC FrontRunners segment, which gives the booking a level of cultural recognition that travels beyond the room.
• Inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame in 2018 and recipient of the Peter Legge Philanthropic Award in 2022, signalling a track record of substantive contribution rather than platform alone.

Biography highlights

• Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) and inductee, Canadian Speakers Hall of Fame (CAPS), 2009.
• Inductee, Canadian Disability Hall of Fame, 2018.
• Author, Alvin’s Laws of Life: 5 Steps To Successfully Overcome Anything.
• Subject of three John Zaritsky documentaries: Broken Promises (1989), Extraordinary People (1993), and No Limits: The Thalidomide Saga (2016).
• Vanier Award for Outstanding Young Canadians (1982); Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal (2002); Peter Legge Philanthropic Award (2022).
• Trained broadcaster, Mount Royal College (graduated with honours, 1980), with a professional radio career at CFMQ FM Regina before founding AJL Communications Ltd. in 1988.

Biography

Resilience is the variable that quietly decides how organisations come through repeated change. When it thins, every other leadership tool gets harder to use. The keynote that restores it cannot be theoretical; it has to be earned in front of the audience. That is the room Alvin Law has been built for.

Born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan in 1960 without arms, the result of his birth mother’s exposure to thalidomide, Law was placed for adoption at five days old and raised by Hilda and Jack Law. He learned to use his feet for tasks most people associate with hands, including playing trombone and drumming, and trained as a broadcaster at Mount Royal College, graduating with honours in 1980. A radio career at CFMQ FM in Regina followed, then full-time speaking from 1988 through AJL Communications Ltd.

The credentials are unusually concrete for the resilience category. Law holds the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, sits in the Canadian Speakers Hall of Fame (CAPS, 2009) and the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame (2018), and was named a Vanier Outstanding Young Canadian in 1982. He is the author of Alvin’s Laws of Life: 5 Steps To Successfully Overcome Anything and the subject of three John Zaritsky documentaries, including the Emmy-recognised FrontRunners segment on ABC.

What buyers actually book is platform craft applied to a workforce problem. Law uses broadcasting discipline, drumming, and direct storytelling to move a room from spectator to participant inside an hour, which is why association main stages, sales kick-offs, and large internal town halls return to him.

Key speaking topics

• Resilience and adversity
• Mindset and personal agency
• Motivation and inspiration
• Storytelling and stagecraft
• Workforce engagement after change
• Mental health and wellbeing in the workplace
• Disability advocacy and inclusion

Ideal for

• Sales kick-offs, association annual conferences, and large internal town halls reopening after restructuring or repeated change.
• CHROs and culture leads commissioning a credible, non-clinical voice on resilience for a whole-workforce moment.
• Healthcare, education, and not-for-profit audiences where lived experience carries more weight than corporate framing.
• Internal communications and event leads briefing a main-stage opener or closer that needs to reset attention across a wide demographic.

Audience outcomes

• A reset on what the room treats as a real obstacle versus a story about one.
• Specific, repeatable mental habits for keeping composure when conditions stay difficult.
• A renewed sense of personal agency, including in roles where people feel acted upon by change.
• A shared experience that managers can refer back to in team conversations months later.