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Fall 2025 HR Summit and Master Class Summary Schedule

Thursday, October 9: (HR Summit, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm): Blue Ridge Ballroom

  • 8:00 - 8:30 am: Seating and Continental Breakfast
  • 8:30 - 9:00 am: Welcome
  • 9:00 - 9:15 am: Kick-Off
  • 9:15 - 10:10 am: Plenary Session - The HR + AI Equation: Practical Insights from the Field
  • 10:10 - 10:25 am: Break
  • 10:25 - 11:20 am: Plenary Session - The Caring Workplace: Where Empathy and Accountability Coexist
  • 11:20 - 11:35 am: Morning Coffee Break
  • 11:35 am - 12:30 pm: Morning Concurrent Breakouts
    • No Title, No Problem: Identifying, Harnessing, and Supporting Early Career Emergent Leaders
    • Making the Shift: Evolving from Transactional to Strategic HR
    • HR Department of One (Few or None): Practical Strategies to Go From Surviving to Thriving
  • 12:20 - 1:10 pm: Networking Lunch
  • 1:10 - 2:05 pm: Afternoon Concurrent Breakouts
    • Architecting HR’s Competitive Edge
    • Future-Ready Starts with You: The Seven Behaviors of Resilient HR Leadership
  • 2:05 - 2:20 pm: Break
  • 2:20 - 3:15 pm: Plenary Session - The HR Almanac: A Recap of Critical Employment Law Updates and Remaining Forecast for 2025
  • 3:15 - 3:30 pm: Afternoon Coffee and Snack Break
  • 3:30 - 4:25 pm: Plenary Session - Leading from Congruence: The Inner Edge of Sustainable, Strategic Leadership
  • 4:25 - 5:00 pm: HR Summit Wrap-Up

Friday, October 10 (Concurrent Master Classes, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm): Second Floor Peacock Hall

  • The What and How of AI: Where to Start Integrating AI into Your Work
  • Leading Well: The Inner Work of Sustainable Leadership
  • 2025 Employment Law Checkup: AI, EEOC, and the Evolving Landscape

Fall 2025 HR Summit and Master Class Detailed Schedule

Thursday, October 9: (HR Summit, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm): Blue Ridge Ballroom

8:00 - 8:30 am: Seating and Continental Breakfast

8:30 - 9:00 am: Welcome

  • Dr. Tim Ludwig (HR Summit emcee)
  • Dr. Tim Huelsman (IOHRM program director)
  • IOHRM Professional Foundation

9:00 - 9:15 am: Kick-Off

  • Dr. Brooke Burrows (HR Summit co-host)

9:15 - 10:10 am: Plenary Session - The HR + AI Equation: Practical Insights from the Field

Presenters: Shawn Bergman, Rickey Carroll, Amanda Hutchins, and Daniel Shanklin

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the workplace, HR professionals are uniquely positioned to lead the implementation of AI tools into daily workflows. This interactive panel session examines how AI can be incorporated into HR functions and provides practical insights and strategies for effective AI integration. It will include an overview of AI capabilities, including the importance of training data, preparing employees across the organization to be AI-ready, and turning AI-generated insights into meaningful actions. Participants will engage in small-group discussions to explore practical applications and challenges, reflecting on how these ideas relate to their work. A Q&A with a HR professionals panel of HR professionals implementing AI in their organizations will allow attendees to gain valuable insights. Whether you're just starting to explore AI or already testing tools, this session will provide practical tips, peer insights, and real-world examples to help you become more "People First, Future Ready."<?p>

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand fundamental AI concepts relevant to HR, including the importance of training data and effective prompting techniques.
  • Identify practical strategies for integrating AI tools and applications into various HR functions.
  • Explore potential challenges and ethical considerations associated with AI implementation in business.

10:10 - 10:25 am: Break

10:25 - 11:20 am: Plenary Session - The Caring Workplace: Where Empathy and Accountability Coexist

Presenters: Stacey Hussey, Donovan Mattox, Julie Marrow, and Dawna Blackburn

Fostering a culture of care is more critical than ever in today’s evolving workplace, and it is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s a strategic imperative. This engaging panel discussion explores how empathy and accountability can work hand-in-hand to foster trust, boost engagement, and drive performance. The session

This panel discussion will delve into "The Caring Workplace," exploring how empathy and accountability can not only coexist but thrive, driving engagement, retention, and performance. This session will explore what it means to "care" at work and examine how culture and leadership set the tone. The session will cover practical strategies for supporting well-being, including empathetic listening and creating psychological safety. The session will also highlight the importance of appreciation and recognition in boosting morale, motivation, and performance. The session will challenge a traditional view of accountability, discussing how it can be a profound form of care rather than a contradiction, enabling clear expectations with empathy. Whether you're an HR leader, people manager, or culture champion, this session will help you reimagine what it means to lead with care.

Learning Objectives:

  • Define what a caring workplace culture looks like and why it matters for engagement, retention, and performance.
  • Identify practical ways to support employee mental health and how to hold caring conversations that foster psychological safety and trust.
  • Apply strategies for appreciation and recognition that are timely, personal, and impactful.

11:20 - 11:35 am: Morning Coffee Break

11:35 am - 12:30 pm: Concurrent Breakouts

No Title, No Problem: Identifying, Harnessing, and Supporting Early Career Emergent Leaders

Presenter: Meaghan Buell

In today’s dynamic and rapidly evolving workplace, leadership continues to emerge outside traditional or formal roles. Flattened hierarchies, increased need for remote collaboration, and the accelerated adoption of AI and advanced technologies have reshaped how work gets done. In this new landscape, professionals, particularly professionals earlier in their careers, often find themselves stepping up in critical ways: leading without authority, navigating ambiguity, and influencing outcomes across distributed teams. This interactive session will explore how individuals and organizations can identify, nurture, and amplify emergent leadership in the workplace.

Learning Objectives:

  • Define and understand emergent leadership and its evolution in the post-COVID-19 workplace.
  • Recognize key traits, behaviors, and situational factors that contribute to the rise of emergent leaders.
  • Evaluate the impact of emergent leadership on team dynamics, innovation, and organizational change initiatives.
  • Discuss the challenges faced by emergent leaders – such as burnout, recognition gaps, and unclear career paths- and explore strategies to retain the best and support them.
Making the Shift: Evolving from Transactional to Strategic HR

Presenter: Jodie Cunningham

Growing your career in HR requires a shift from being the day-to-day “doer” to talent strategist. But how?

This interactive workshop will guide HR professionals through the critical mindset and skillset shift from being primarily transactional to becoming a strategic human resources partner in their organization.

Participants will explore the difference between day-to-day operational HR functions and long-term, big-picture HR thinking that drives organizational success. Through real-world examples, group discussion, and self-assessment exercises, attendees will learn how to identify transactional habits, align HR initiatives with business goals, and build influence with leadership teams. By the end of the session, participants will walk away with actionable strategies to enhance their strategic value, drive culture and talent outcomes, and position themselves as key contributors to business success.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the mindset shift required to become a strategic HR leader.
  • Identify opportunities to add value beyond day-to-day operations.
  • Learn to speak the language of business and communicate HR’s impact.
  • Develop a personal roadmap for evolving from transactional to strategic.
  • Gain tools and techniques to prioritize long-term goals without neglecting daily responsibilities.
HR Department of One (Few or None): Practical Strategies to Go From Surviving to Thriving

Presenter: Leslie Speas

Are you an HR Department of (N)One and stretched thin? You’re not alone.

If you’re the only HR person in your organization—or if HR is just one part of your already packed role—this session is for you. Join us for a power-packed, practical session where you’ll discover the THRIVE Framework—a 6-step system to help you focus, prioritize, and lead with confidence.

T – Time & Tools
H – HR Compliance
R – Relationships
I – Improvement
V – Vision & Values
E – Empower Others

Walk away with plug-and-play templates, practical tools, and a renewed sense of direction, so you can CRUSH your HR role (even if you never signed up for it).

Learning Objectives:

  • Develop practical interpersonal skills to build strong relationships with stakeholders and empower others to assist with HR tasks.
  • Gain a renewed sense of purpose and strategic direction by aligning HR activities with the organization's broader vision and values.
  • Implement actionable steps to move beyond a reactive, survival-based approach to HR and become a thriving, proactive leader in their role.

12:20 - 1:10 pm: Networking Lunch

1:10 - 2:05 pm: Concurrent Breakouts

Architecting HR’s Competitive Edge

Presenter: Keith Ferguson II

In the next decade, the most successful organizations will not simply manage talent - they will engineer organizational capabilities that anticipate disruption, harness emerging technologies, and unlock human potential at scale. HR leaders will be central to this transformation.

This session goes beyond upskilling HR for operational excellence; it repositions HR as the architect of future-proof capabilities that directly impact revenue growth, innovation velocity, and risk mitigation.

Participants will explore the eight high-value skills that will define competitive advantage, learn how to tie them to measurable business outcomes, and gain strategies for embedding adaptability into the organizational DNA.

The result: a workforce that is not just ready for the future - but actively shaping it.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify eight future-focused HR capabilities that directly align with strategic business priorities and shareholder value.
  • Analyze how macroeconomic shifts, technology adoption, and global talent dynamics are reshaping organizational competitiveness.
  • Apply frameworks that link talent strategy to quantifiable business outcomes, including growth, innovation, and risk mitigation.
  • Foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptability that enables the entire organization, not just HR, to thrive in uncertainty.
Future-Ready Starts with You: The Seven Behaviors of Resilient HR Leadership

Presenter: William Lewis

In today’s climate of rapid change and increasing workplace complexity, HR professionals are being called upon to lead with both empathy and agility. This interactive workshop explores The Seven Behaviors of Resilience—a robust framework designed to help HR professionals navigate disruption while remaining anchored in people-centered values. This session will guide participants through the following seven behaviors:

  • Mindset Mastery
  • Adaptability
  • Service-Oriented Leadership
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Strategic Career Growth
  • Continuous Learning & Innovation
  • Work-Life Integration

Together, these behaviors offer a blueprint for fostering a resilient organizational culture—one where people thrive and the future is met with confidence rather than fear.

Learning Objectives:

  • Strengthen their leadership presence in uncertain times
  • Support team well-being without sacrificing performance
  • Align talent development with future-focused priorities
  • Become a steady, strategic voice in organizational transformation
  • Let’s build the future by putting people first and resilience at the center.

2:05 - 2:20 pm: Break

2:20 - 3:15 pm: Plenary Session - The HR Almanac: A Recap of Critical Employment Law Updates and Remaining Forecast for 2025

Presenters: Michael Morrison and Bryan Holbrook

This plenary session will discuss the ever-changing legal landscape in 2025, with a focus on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); U.S. Immigration Policy/Enforcement; and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

This interactive session will discuss the impact of the unprecedented turnover within the EEOC, including the firing of commissioners (and subsequent litigation), the appointment of a new EEOC Chair, and the EEOC's ability to bring lawsuits and pursue its 2024-2028 Strategic Enforcement Plan. The presenters will discuss the trends they have observed thus far in 2025 and provide employers with guidance on what to expect from the EEOC for the remainder of 2025 and beyond. The presenters will also discuss the current administration's focus on DEI programs and the treatment of DEI policies/decisions by the U.S. District Courts. The session will close with an overview of changes to immigration policy/enforcement and a discussion of what employers must do to comply with the federal government’s priorities.

The session will feature opening remarks by each presenter, followed by an interactive Q&A. Attendees will gain valuable insights into the challenges in recruiting/retaining a diverse workforce, and learn best practices for implementing lawful Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policies while minimizing legal risks for personnel decisions.

Learning Objectives:

  • Explore the current points of emphasis at the EEOC.
  • Examine the treatment of DEI policies/decisions by the U.S. District Courts.
  • Learn how to implement policies that value diversity in the workplace while maintaining compliance with equal employment opportunity laws.
  • Gain insights into the sea change in immigration policy, with a focus on common and historical employment practices that may trigger investigations or enforcement actions.

3:15 - 3:30 pm: Afternoon Coffee and Snack Break

3:30 - 4:25 pm: Plenary Session - Leading from Congruence: The Inner Edge of Sustainable, Strategic Leadership

Presenter: Jacquelyn Wieland

In a world saturated with strategy, metrics, and hustle, the leaders who truly rise are not just productive—they are aligned. This keynote plenary session will invite you to disrupt conventional leadership thinking and challenge high-capacity leaders to stop leading from burnout, bravado, or borrowed personas—and instead lead from congruence.

This is not about doing more. It’s about showing up differently. It's about tapping into your Internal narratives, Unchallenged beliefs, and repetitive stories.

Drawing from years of executive coaching inside Fortune 300 firms and institutions navigating disruption, this session will deliver a direct, insightful, and profoundly human look at what it means to lead with clarity, presence, and power. This is a call to recalibrate—not just how you lead others, but how you lead yourself.

Learning Objectives:

  • Define congruence in the context of modern leadership—and recognize where they’re out of alignment.
  • Identify the internal disconnects that silently erode influence, energy, and trust.
  • Understand how presence, not performance, builds long-term leadership credibility.
  • Discern the five core shifts that congruent leaders make to move from reactive to intentional leadership.
  • Recognize how emotional fluency, self-awareness, and energetic clarity become strategic tools in high-stakes environments.

4:25 - 5:00 pm: HR Summit Wrap-Up

 

Friday, October 10 (Concurrent Master Classes, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm): Second Floor Peacock Hall

The What and How of AI: Where to start to integrate AI into your work

Presenter: Shawn Bergman

Feeling the pressure to leverage AI but unsure where to start? This hands-on master class is tailored for HR professionals ready to go beyond the hype and incorporate generative AI as a practical and powerful tool. Participants will be encouraged to stop viewing AI as a complex, one-size-fits-all solution and begin seeing it as a specialized tool that, when used correctly, can significantly enhance quality and efficiency.

This session will ditch jargon and take a practical, tailored, step-by-step approach, beginning with the critical first step many miss: mapping your and your team’s workflow. By identifying the most significant bottlenecks, attendees will learn to embed AI where it strategically produces the most value. The session will instill a “tool kit” mindset, showing that the best results come from using the right tool for the right job, not trying to force one "cool" tool to do everything (or worse, the wrong thing). Walk away with a clear plan and the confidence to use AI to streamline your work and elevate your role from tactical to strategic.

Learning Objective:

  • Reframe their perspective on AI, viewing it not as a replacement but as a specialized, responsible tool to be strategically integrated into their daily work.
  • Identify and map their existing HR workflows to pinpoint specific areas where AI can produce the most value and alleviate bottlenecks.
  • Apply a "multi-tool" mindset to select the proper AI application for the right task, avoiding the common pitfall of trying to use a single tool for every problem.
  • Develop the skills to act as an "AI Translator" within their organization, bridging the gap between AI-generated data and the human decisions that drive real-world outcomes.

Leading Well: The Inner Work of Sustainable Leadership

Presenter: Jacquelyn Wieland

In a world that glorifies performance but ignores personal preservation, this masterclass takes HR leaders beyond resilience and straight into renewal.

You’ll explore what it really means to lead well—not just lead effectively. Because the truth is, wellness isn’t a luxury for leaders. It’s a strategic necessity. Especially for those who carry the emotional labor of teams, the weight of policy decisions, and the unspoken expectations of always being “on.”

Through an unapologetically real lens, this session will guide attendees through the critical link between mindset, self-talk, boundaries, and internal leadership congruence—while directly connecting these to performance, retention, communication, and cultural influence.

Attendees will walk away clearer, lighter, and more grounded—not just with tools for their team, but for the leader behind their own title.

Learning Objectives:

  • Audit their internal leadership operating system (mindset, self-talk, beliefs) to identify misalignment and energy leaks.
  • Set wellness-aligned boundaries that protect clarity, connection, and capacity.
  • Examine the unspoken narratives shaping their leadership impact—and rewrite what no longer serves.
  • Integrate the 5 Dimensions of Wellness for Leaders (financial, professional, personal, physical, spiritual) into a congruent leadership rhythm.
  • Establish a Leadership Renewal Plan—a repeatable 5-minute daily practice to stay clear, calm, and connected.

2025 Employment Law Checkup: AI, EEOC, and the Evolving Landscape

Presenter: Bryan Holbrook

This interactive master class is designed to empower HR professionals and legal teams in the fast-changing employment law landscape of 2025. Attendees are encouraged to bring their most pressing questions and unique challenges to the table. The session will feature facilitated discussions focused on the latest legal developments impacting the workplace. This master class will provide clarity on Artificial Intelligence legal updates and how new technologies influence recruitment and personnel decisions, guidance on evolving EEOC standards, examine Executive Branch developments that may affect compliance strategies, and explore emerging case law. With Q&A segments woven throughout, attendees will walk away with confidence in their understanding of the legal landscape and prepared to navigate upcoming challenges with expert support.

Learning Objectives:

  • Analyze the latest legal developments from the EEOC and the Executive Branch to adjust your organization’s compliance strategies proactively.
  • Evaluate the legal implications of using Artificial Intelligence in recruitment, hiring, and other personnel decisions.
  • Apply new insights from recent employment law cases and court developments to guide their organizations' HR policies confidently.
  • Identify and address specific compliance challenges within their organizations through interactive, facilitated discussions with a legal expert.
  • Develop a clear understanding of the evolving legal landscape to manage risk and make informed decisions confidently.