Fall 2026 Agenda

• Why traditional capability-building programs plateau — and what separates organizations that turn talent into a true market differentiator from those that simply check the development box
• Moving beyond competency frameworks to outcome-driven talent models that align leadership development to business strategy and tie investment in people directly to growth, innovation, and competitive positioning
• Building leadership pipelines that are future-ready — accelerating the gap between high-potential identification and actual readiness so the right leaders are deployed at the right time to navigate complexity and transformation at scale
• Designing development that’s embedded in the flow of work rather than siloed in a classroom, and leveraging culture as the multiplier that turns individual capability into collective competitive advantage
• Making the case to the C-suite and the board: translating talent transformation into the language of business results, not just HR metrics — and the lessons from the front lines of what’s working, what’s not, and what senior leaders wish they had done sooner

• Creating intentional rituals and touch points for distributed teams
• Preventing cultural fragmentation between remote and office-based employees
• Leadership presence strategies that build trust across physical distance
• Maintaining high-trust culture across multiple work models

AI is reshaping every stage of the employment lifecycle — from how we attract and onboard talent to how employees learn, perform, grow, move, and transition through the organization. Join us for a fireside chat focused on the practical opportunities, risks, and leadership responsibilities associated with AI-enabled workforce transformation. We’ll explore what is changing, what needs to remain human-centered, and how leaders can help employees build confidence and capability in an AI-enabled future.

Leading HR teams toward a $110 billion exit surfaced one defining question: can your people strategy carry your company’s ambition? Whether the goal is a landmark transaction, an IPO, rapid growth, or a turnaround, execution comes down to people, and to the tools that help them do their best work. Donald Knight challenges HR leaders to stop treating technology as an efficiency play and start using it to accelerate business strategy through sharper hiring, stronger managers, and faster decisions. His guiding principle: “Automate the mundane. Personalize the exceptional.”

• A practical lens for judging whether an HR tech investment moves business outcomes, not just HR metrics

• Hard-won lessons from a $110B transaction on where automation earns trust and where the human touch is non-negotiable

• An inside look at Donald’s own tech stack, plus an open invitation to pressure-test it against theirs

• Creating meaningful employee voice: Strategies for building continuous feedback channels that strengthen dialogue between employees and leadership.
• Turning insight into action: Approaches for connecting employee feedback to organizational priorities, leadership expectations, and measurable outcomes.
• Using technology to extend HR’s reach: How emerging tools can help scale coaching, development, feedback analysis, and employee support.
• Driving accountability through transparency: Ways to create shared ownership for action planning and communicate progress effectively.
• Leading change in the age of AI: Why adoption, trust, and change management are often bigger barriers than the technology itself.

Building Resilient Talent Pipelines Across Humans & Technology

• Why “who replaces whom” succession planning is already failing and what’s replacing it.
• The reframe most leaders haven’t made yet: your next successor might not be a person.
• A practical framework for decoupling role criticality from seniority, so succession investment follows real value.
• How AI quietly repurposes a role before anyone plans for a successor and what that demands of leaders.
• The dual capability stack 2026 leadership requires: human judgment paired with AI orchestration.
• A three-to-five-year outlook on where this is headed, plus a takeaway you can act on now.