CHROs: At the Intersection of People, Technology, and Business Success
The success of any business lies in its people.
This summit provides a comprehensive exploration of modern talent management, employee engagement, and the role of technology in hiring. From developing diverse strategies that power business success at every level to navigating employee engagement trends for 2025, we dive into the strategic approaches needed to build a cohesive and resilient workforce. Attendees will also gain insights on how to effectively integrate AI into their hiring processes while maintaining a human-centered approach.
Prepare to walk away with actionable strategies and best practices to elevate your organization’s HR capabilities for long-term success.
Immerse yourself in thought-provoking insights
Exclusively curated from our previous
HR Physical Summit
Core Themes
Breaking the AI Barrier in HR: Overcoming Hesitancy and Building Confidence
AI adoption in HR often meets resistance due to misconceptions, lack of training, or fear of job displacement. This session explores how to address these hesitations, leverage AI to enhance—not replace—human roles, and build trust through transparency and education.
Future-Ready Leadership: Preparing Leaders for Tomorrow's Challenges
As the workplace evolves, leaders must adapt to navigate complexities like remote work, diverse teams, and rapid technological change. Learn strategies to upskill leadership, foster agility, and equip them with the tools to lead effectively in a fast-changing world.
Investing in Culture: Building a Resilient and Thriving Organization
A strong culture is the foundation of an adaptable and future-ready workforce. This session dives into strategies for embedding resilience into organizational values, enhancing employee engagement, and fostering a culture that withstands disruptions and thrives through innovation.
Speakers
Aryeh Lehrer
Edward Marx
Stacy Winsett
Janine Pajot
Dr. Norma Tirado
Cyril George
Renee Konzelman
Zack Kelem
Robin Bouvier
Amit Fernandes
Tia Butler
Jeff Arnold
Vitor Hugo Cid
Shon Holyfield
Marie Norman
Michelle Balsick
Daniel Swartz
Agenda
12:30 pm - 1:45 pm
Networking Lunch
2:05 pm - 2:30 pm
Keynote
Beyond the “Seat at the Table” HR’s Role in Enhancing Organizational Effectiveness
In today's fast-paced business world, HR leaders must go beyond traditional roles to build and sustain high-performing teams. This session will delve into the challenges of being more than a standard HR leader and helping your organization improve organizational effectiveness using the Galbraith Star Model as a framework for strategic thinking. Explore the strategies that have led to success and ask yourself: How can you enhance your approach to HR leadership for a profound and lasting impact?
Key Takeaways Include:
- Galbraith Star Model Application: Learn how to utilize the Galbraith Star Model to diagnose and enhance organizational effectiveness
- Innovative HR Strategies: Understand how to foster a vibrant, people-first culture that keeps employees motivated and dedicated
- Driving Business Impact: Gain insights into aligning HR practices with business goals to drive productivity and efficiency
2:30 pm - 2:55 pm
Keynote
Let’s Talk: How Conversations Yield Faster, Better Results for HR Leaders
Understanding how employees feel and why they feel that way is critically important to HR Leaders and workplaces everywhere. Despite decades of development, traditional surveys still look and feel like tests. Results and insights from traditional surveys can be, at times, challenging. Yet, what if there was a better way to talk with your people and gather the insights needed to effectively drive meaningful change?
Key Discussion Points:
- HR Leader Conversation: Quickly explore and share how HR leaders feel about Recruiting, HR Compliance, and Employee Experience.
- Discussion: Real-time peer feedback on topics critically important to HR leaders and teams
- The Future is Now: Real-time employee conversations with structured AI
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Roundtables
Track 1: Hiring Analytics with AI: Unlocking Efficiency, Safety, and Success
Discover how AI-driven analytics can revolutionize hiring processes by enabling faster and fairer decisions while maximizing organizational safety. Learn how businesses are diagnosing hiring health and enhancing background checks by leveraging underutilized data. Hear insights into how actionable analytics drive better outcomes and empower HR leaders to make smarter decisions.
Key Takeaways:
- Efficiency & Fairness: Explore how AI enhances hiring speed while ensuring fairness and equity in decision-making.
- Background Check Optimization: Learn how to leverage background check analytics to improve processes and outcomes.
- Diagnosing and Acting on Data: Gain actionable insights into hiring health and strategies to transform raw data into measurable success.
Track 2: Streamlining Workforce Management: Creating Scalable and Seamless Employee Experiences
Efficient workforce management is essential for saving time, reducing costs, and navigating everyday challenges. Explore strategies to optimize operations, minimize friction, and ensure new hires seamlessly assimilate into their roles. Learn how to create scalable experiences that enhance productivity and support long-term organizational success.
Key Takeaways:
- Seamless Onboarding: Discover ways to simplify new hire processes for faster assimilation and better first impressions.
- Operational Efficiency: Learn strategies to streamline workforce management and tackle daily challenges with ease.
- Cost and Time Savings: Explore scalable solutions to reduce inefficiencies and maximize ROI on workforce investments.
3:00 pm - 6:30 pm
1:1 Meetings
4:10 pm - 4:40 pm
Learning Lab
Shaping the Future of the HR Leader: An Interactive Discussion on the Ever-Expanding Role
HR leader’s roles are rapidly evolving, with expanding responsibilities and varying career paths, including potential transitions into CEO, COO, or other executive roles, as well as consultancy positions and board memberships. This interactive session will invite HR leaders to share their perspectives on the future of their role and explore how HR leadership is evolving.
Join this session to discuss:
- Understanding the evolving scope of the CHRO role and potential career paths in other executive positions
- What do the CHRO/Chief People Office roles look like to you over the next 5 – 10 years?
4:45 pm - 5:15 pm
Panel
Breaking the AI Barrier in HR: From Hesitancy to Confidence
Despite its transformative potential, AI adoption in HR often encounters resistance rooted in misconceptions and fears about its impact on jobs and human connections. This panel will explore practical strategies for overcoming hesitancy, building trust, and empowering HR teams to embrace AI as a tool for innovation. Join experts as they discuss how to demystify AI and position it as a partner in creating more effective and human-centered workplaces.
Key Discussion Points:
- Demystifying AI: Learn how to educate teams on AI's true potential to support, not replace, human decision-making in HR processes
- Fostering Trust and Transparency: Explore ways to increase confidence in AI by involving employees in implementation processes and providing clarity on its use and limitations
- Upskilling for Success: Discover training strategies to equip HR professionals with the skills needed to effectively use AI tools and integrate them into everyday workflows
5:20 pm - 5:50 pm
Presentation
Strategic Plans for Cultivating Outstanding Leaders
Organisations are placing elevated expectations on leaders and managers, demanding multifaceted skillsets and enhanced adaptability in an ever-changing business landscape to guide teams toward successful outcomes. Rather than only enforcing more training and skill development programs, CHROs must create a strategic vision to enhance manager capability and effectiveness in meeting rapidly evolving business expectations. In this open conversation, HR leaders will discuss and debate solutions to empower managers to lead amid ongoing uncertainty and disruption.
Join us to discuss creating effective manager development pathways:
- What factors contribute to the success or failure of your current manager development initiatives?
- What key performance indicators do you use to measure the success of your manager development initiatives?
- What strategies have you put in place to empower managers to connect employees with others for coaching and development?
7:20 pm - 9:30 pm
Gala Dinner
8:30 pm - 8:55 pm
Dinner Keynote
Boosting Workplace Culture in the Digital Age without Losing the Human Spark
Digital is the rage and here to stay, reinventing life and work as we know it. AI utilization alone introduces high speed change with new iteration, invention and marvel each day. What can leaders like us do to maintain the core of who we are and not lose our identity to the machine? How do we strike healthy balance between technological transformation and humanness? Marx shares 4 things he is learning to enhance workforce culture while maintaining the human connection in the digital world.
8:00 am - 8:40 am
Panel
Future-Ready Leadership: Navigating the Challenges of Tomorrow
The evolving workplace demands leaders who can adapt to complexities like remote work, diversity, and constant technological innovation. This panel will delve into strategies for fostering agility, upskilling leadership teams, and cultivating resilience in the face of change. Join industry experts to discover how to prepare leaders to thrive in a fast-changing, future-oriented landscape.
Key Discussion Points:
- Upskilling for the Future: Explore effective programs and tools to equip leaders with the skills needed to manage evolving workforce dynamics and technological advancements.
- Leading with Agility: Learn how to foster adaptability in leadership to handle uncertainty, rapid change, and global disruptions.
- Building Resilient Teams: Discuss how leaders can create supportive, inclusive, and empowered teams to drive innovation and long-term success.
8:40 am - 9:10 am
Keynote
Is Your Company's Culture More Connected Than TikTok?
Social media, especially TikTok, shows how a 15-second video can influence people to buy products, visit places, or try new restaurants. In fact, 56% of TikTok users make purchases based on what they see. What's TikTok's secret? Personalized connections that resonate with viewers.
Now, consider your organization's culture. Does it create the same influence and connection? Can it inspire loyalty, drive engagement, and foster a high-performing workforce? Building a successful company culture goes beyond policies and perks. It requires genuine trust and meaningful connections. Join us to explore strategies for transforming your workplace culture to be as engaging and influential as a viral TikTok.
In this session you will learn:
- The importance of psychological safety in fostering employee authenticity and engagement
- Practical strategies to foster trust, strengthen team connections, and improve employee wellbeing and satisfaction
- How to create a culture of intentional belonging that drives organizational performance
- Insights on leveraging principles of influence and connection to reshape workplace culture
9:20 am - 12:10 pm
1:1 Meetings
9:20 am - 10:20 am
Roundtables
Track 1: Hiring Analytics with AI: Unlocking Efficiency, Safety, and Success
Discover how AI-driven analytics can revolutionize hiring processes by enabling faster and fairer decisions while maximizing organizational safety. Learn how businesses are diagnosing hiring health and enhancing background checks by leveraging underutilized data. Hear insights into how actionable analytics drive better outcomes and empower HR leaders to make smarter decisions.
Key Takeaways:
- Efficiency & Fairness: Explore how AI enhances hiring speed while ensuring fairness and equity in decision-making.
- Background Check Optimization: Learn how to leverage background check analytics to improve processes and outcomes.
- Diagnosing and Acting on Data: Gain actionable insights into hiring health and strategies to transform raw data into measurable success.
Track 2: Streamlining Workforce Management: Creating Scalable and Seamless Employee Experiences
Efficient workforce management is essential for saving time, reducing costs, and navigating everyday challenges. Explore strategies to optimize operations, minimize friction, and ensure new hires seamlessly assimilate into their roles. Learn how to create scalable experiences that enhance productivity and support long-term organizational success.
Key Takeaways:
- Seamless Onboarding: Discover ways to simplify new hire processes for faster assimilation and better first impressions.
- Operational Efficiency: Learn strategies to streamline workforce management and tackle daily challenges with ease.
- Cost and Time Savings: Explore scalable solutions to reduce inefficiencies and maximize ROI on workforce investments.
10:30 am - 11:00 am
Future Focus Speakers
De-Romanticising AI: Practical Lessons and Next Steps for HR Professionals
As organizations increasingly look to AI for transformative solutions, it’s easy to get swept up in the romance of futuristic possibilities. However, real success lies in understanding and implementing AI practically. This session begins by deconstructing the hype around AI, offering a realistic perspective on what AI can and cannot achieve in HR. We will then explore the next critical step: how to leverage the business to prioritise HR use cases for AI. This involves focusing on impactful problems, ensuring alignment with organizational needs, and creating a roadmap for AI adoption. Finally, the session will share practical lessons from real-world implementations, providing attendees with actionable insights to make AI work effectively in their organizations.
Session Highlights:
- De-Romanticising AI: Gain a clear understanding of what AI realistically offers HR and how to avoid being misled by exaggerated promises
- Prioritizing HR Cases: Learn how to evaluate and rank AI use cases for HR, balancing strategic importance with feasibility
- Practical Lessons for Success: Explore best practices for integrating AI solutions into HR processes, including leveraging APIs, simple orchestrations, and working effectively with IT systems
11:05 am - 11:35 am
Presentation
Transforming Employee Experience: Insights from Daikin Comfort's Innovative Approach
A significant challenge for HR leaders is employee retention, and a crucial aspect of retaining employees is fostering a positive employee experience. This session will examine Daikin Comfort's ongoing case study on implementing a candidate and employee experience initiative to tackle these challenges. Attendees will discover how the employee experience is a journey that spans from recruiting to onboarding and up through leadership. Additionally, they will learn how a deeply embedded company culture serves as the foundation for retaining employees and keeping them engaged in their organization throughout their career journey.
Join this session to discuss:
- Understand the importance of the candidate and employee experience and its impact on retention and organizational success
- Learn what is lost without a strong employee experience initiative and the benefits of improving it
- Discover actionable steps to enhance candidate and employee experience and retention within your organization
12:35 pm - 1:00 pm
Closing Keynote
AMA: Ask Me Anything!
We all have questions we wish we could ask our peers, and now is your chance! Join our closing keynote AMA session. Ask the Chief People Officer of The Pampered Chef anything....You read that right--ANYTHING!
1:05 pm - 2:10 pm
1:1 Meetings
2:15 pm - 2:30 pm
Beyond the Challenges
Eaglewood Resort - Chicago IL
Eaglewood Resort & Spa offers a unique resort experience combining scenic beauty, sporty diversions, and technically savvy meeting space. An escape to experience.
Why attend?
Connect with like-minded senior leaders for a curated agenda, focused on tackling your current business critical challenges and driving industry forward.
Be a part of exclusive shared learning, horizon scanning and actionable insights enabling organizations to deliver transformative strategies.
Build meaningful relationships with solution providers matched to your business priorities to help accelerate your projects and deliver your objectives.
