Hear from thought leader Kevin Oakes, author of the bestselling book Culture Renovation®, as he offers his predictions for the year ahead and outlines the challenges (and opportunities) HR leaders face. You'll also gain insight into what to expect from i4cp in 2026 from our new CEO, Terry Waters.

Join John Deere’s Chief People Officer, Felecia Pryor, for an engaging address that weaves together John Deere’s rich history of innovation and vision for the future. Hear how Deere’s collaboration with OpenAI is helping employees build fluency in artificial intelligence and discover practical steps for championing AI adoption and professional growth across the organization.

Angela will talk about how the most effective HR leaders are great coaches and how it’s an essential role for unlocking the highest potential from leaders, teams and organizations. She’ll provide insight into the key mindsets and skills that differentiate coaching, and why they are critical for HR professionals building future-ready organizations with growing human-agentic workforces. Illuminated with stories and examples from her decade with Accenture, as a CHRO and in working with a wide array of clients, Angela will share lessons learned from triumphs and tribulations through the lens of coach.

A future-ready organization needs a future-ready culture, but many companies aren't set up to embrace disruptive change. Further, only 15% of culture change efforts succeed. In this session, you'll get the latest research and insight on the key actions that help build and maintain cultures that will outperform competitors, and hear how real companies have put these actions... into action.

Northwestern Mutual and i4cp have been close partners throughout their culture journey, and conference attendees will get a behind-the-scenes look at how they are putting Culture Renovation into practice.

The company's chief people officer and head of talent, in a conversation with i4cp’s Marshall Bergmann, will share:

• Why Northwestern Mutual determined its culture needed renovation
• How they are applying the Culture Renovation® blueprint (opens in a new tab) in a modern enterprise
• The progress they’ve seen so far
• What comes next as they continue evolving their organization

You won’t want to miss this rare deep dive into a large-scale change powered by research, leadership alignment, and practical next practices.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, successful mergers and acquisitions aren't just about financial deals or strategic fit—they’re about people. Behind every transition are individuals navigating uncertainty, adapting to new cultures, and redefining their roles.

This keynote explores the human side of M&A: how we lead people through change with empathy, clarity, and intention. We’ll discuss the key principles of effective change management, the common emotional and operational challenges teams face, and the strategies that help people—not just companies—thrive through transformation.

Whether you’re a business leader guiding a company through change, a manager supporting your team, or team member involved in transformation, this session will offer practical insights and real-world examples to help you face change with resilience and confidence.

We're celebrating our 13th year in partnership with Best Buddies International. In this short session, you'll hear about Best Buddies' mission to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. An estimated 81% of adults (18+) with developmental disabilities do not have a paid job in the community, yet i4cp's research shows that these people represent an untapped talent pool who can contribute to the workforce in a myriad of ways.

CEO succession is the board’s most pressing risk—and the CHRO’s greatest opportunity. Drawing on unique CES research this session will describe the practices that distinguish successful transitions from costly failures. We will discuss how CHROs can elevate their influence and shape the future of organizational leadership.

Strengthening enterprise continuity through strategic talent foresight, disciplined succession plans, and a CHRO/ CEO/ Board partnership built for agility and success.

In this session, senior leaders will explore how Human Resources serves as a strategic catalyst in building a future ready, agile enterprise—one equipped with disciplined, transparent, and forward looking succession plans for mission critical roles. Participants will learn how the CHRO partners with the CEO and Board to shape a robust leadership pipeline, ensure business continuity, and embed a culture that anticipates change rather than reacts to it. Through a focus on strategic talent insights and governance alignment, this session highlights what it takes to steward an organization’s most important transitions with confidence, clarity, and long term vision.

What does employee experience look like through the eyes of a CIO? In this Fireside Chat with Nathalie D’Hers, Microsoft’s CVP of Employee Experience, i4cp’s VP of Research Lorrie Lykins asks Nathalie about her journey from leading Microsoft’s global IT organization for over a decade to now building an integrated Employee Experience function alongside her HR business partners in the era of AI. The conversation provides a practical look at the future of the HR-Tech collaboration, from how HR and IT naturally align to where they still struggle; while exploring how trust, empathy, data, and design come together to build employee experiences that are scalable, personal, and human.

i4cp research shows that organizations advancing their skills-based talent practices outperform peers in readiness, engagement, productivity, and profitability, so why do so many companies struggle with managing skills in reality? Don't miss this innovative session which explores the latest study on the talent practices that turn organizations into skills-oriented, future-ready powerhouses.

Specifically, senior i4cp research analyst Tom Stone and Judy Albers, director of research enablement at i4cp, will highlight the study’s Three-Level Skills Maturity Model, a comprehensive framework designed to help leaders assess where their organizations stand—and prioritize the next steps that lead to measurable impact.

Tom and Judy will showcase i4cp’s new GPT that gives you immediate recommendations and guidance based on your inputs, saving you countless hours and consulting dollars.

In this session, Gabrielle will share learnings from the multi-year One FedEx journey. This organizational transformation brought FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Services and other FedEx operating companies’ corporate functions into a single company, Federal Express Corporation, in June 2024. In addition to supporting the business needs, the HR function itself was consolidated from 7 previously separate US companies and 6 global regions into one, newly structured HR organization while at the same time producing harmonized HR policies, tools and resources for the newly merged company.

Connect with other attendees to discuss and debate key takeaways from today's session.

Join a powerful, closed-door session exclusively for CHROs and CPOs—a forum dedicated to exploring the most critical topics shaping the future of work, from agentic AI’s impact on the workforce to new approaches in organizational agility and talent strategy.

• Interactive brainstorming and peer discussions
• Direct access to i4cp’s Chief Research Officer and senior analysts
• Collaboration with participants from i4cp’s regional CHRO Forums and CHRO Board

The forum will also include a CHRO-exclusive cocktail hour for additional networking opportunities.

View more details.

Saddle up for Gears & Grit: i4cp’s Future Frontier Party, where steampunk style meets Old West spirit at the Fairmont’s Copper Canyon. Join fellow attendees for dinner, drinks, and hands-on fun as we explore future-ready ideas together. Whether you wear shorts, a dress, or your best steampunk look, you’ll be right at home.

Participate in the 13th i4cp/Best Buddies Friendship Walk, in support of inclusion and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It’s a great opportunity to stretch your legs, soak in a beautiful Arizona sunrise, and learn more about Best Buddies. RSVP here. (opens in a new tab)

Enjoy breakfast with your peers and get ready for the day's events. If you haven't already checked in to receive your badge, registration also opens at 7:30am.

i4cp's research has uncovered a formula for building and sustaining a future-ready organization. In this must-attend session, i4cp's chief research officer Kevin Martin dives into that equation with data, case studies, and more, while highlighting the key business and talent trends he and his team of analysts are observing.

In this fireside chat, Ana White will show how culture becomes the multiplier that enables people and AI agents to elevate performance together. She’ll outline a practical, future focused sequence many HR organizations are using: enabling transformation, developing future ready talent, strengthening culture, and optimizing HR delivery. Through real world examples, she’ll show how skill based training, cohort learning, and AI enabled coaching help leaders build confidence and durable habits with emerging tools.

In this keynote, Michael Ehret will share Walmart’s people-centered approach to workforce evolution across more than 2 million associates serving hundreds of millions of customers worldwide. He will outline how a people-led, tech-powered strategy is reshaping roles, embedding AI into everyday workflows, and creating new pathways for growth and mobility.

From frontline operations to enterprise teams, AI is being applied in practical, role-specific ways that elevate decision-making, simplify complexity, and strengthen performance. At the same time, Walmart continues to invest in upskilling and leadership capability to ensure associates grow alongside the technology that supports them.

Attendees will gain actionable insights on leading transformation at scale, strengthening culture through change, and building organizations where technology elevates human skills and business outcomes.

50-year CEO Bob Chapman and Chief People Officer Rhonda Spencer will share how they partnered to transform Barry-Wehmiller’s culture while driving 16% revenue growth and 14% share growth, compounded since 1987.

Barry-Wehmiller is a growth platform and value-added operator redefining success in business by demonstrating how human and economic vibrancy work in harmony. With a portfolio spanning industrial and packaging automation, professional services, and life sciences technology, BW combines disciplined operations, people-centric leadership, and purpose-driven growth with a permanent capital mindset to create lasting value for all stakeholders. Recognized globally for pioneering a model of leadership that empowers leaders to perform with excellence while caring for others, BW has grown into a $3.6 billion organization with more than 12,000 team members united by a shared mission of building a better world through business. To learn more, visit barrywehmiller.com.

Conference participants will receive a copy of Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family, the revised and expanded edition of Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia’s best-selling book which chronicles Barry-Wehmiller’s journey in creating new expectations of business, released October 2025.

In this panel, hear from experts and former practitioners representing different regions of the world as they dissect local trends they're seeing and the implications for global leaders and organizations. The panel will focus on the future of work, the rise of agentic AI, and how such themes are manifesting in APAC, EMEA, and other markets.

Lunch isn't just lunch at an i4cp event! Since we don't allow HR vendors or consultants to attend, each table is jam-packed with people you'll want to meet. Further, we'll reserve some tables for specific topics or functions so you can connect with others who have similar interests or responsibilities.

Today, "where we work" is constantly debated. Akamai's Flexbase strategy proves that location is secondary to leadership. Productivity isn’t defined by a desk in an office; it’s defined by effective people leadership and a commitment to culture, community, and connection.

In this fireside chat, Anthony will dive into the heart of why Akamai’s workplace flexibility succeeds. The hybrid, flexible model (termed “Flexbase”), allows for work on/off site for over 95% of its employees. Launched in May 2022, this program allows employees the autonomy to decide where they work best – from their homes, a traditional office space, or a blend of both. Join us to learn how they are doing things differently, and leading differently, to ensure their teams remain high-performing, connected, and supported, regardless of geography.

In 2020, Zillow made a bold strategic decision: go distributed-first and unlock access to the best talent anywhere. Six years in, that model drives tangible business results and has redefined how a growing business can operate. In this session, Zillow shares the lessons learned and the challenges still to solve.

In intelligence work, disruption isn't occasional—it's the baseline. Through two decades at CIA, I learned that when external chaos and internal change collide, one thing keeps teams intact: the felt experience of mattering to each other. I'll share the specific leadership moves and cultural practices that made mattering real, even in high-stakes uncertainty, and how it shaped the culture at CIA.

Chip Conley is one of the world's leading experts on intergenerational collaboration in the workplace based upon his role as the "modern elder" to the founders of Airbnb, a Boomer in the land of Millennials. He wrote about this in his bestselling book "Wisdom@Work" and, subsequently, created the world's first midlife wisdom school, the Modern Elder Academy (MEA), with campuses in Santa Fe, NM and Baja, Mexico. In an era in which knowledge is increasingly commoditized due to artificial intelligence, is it possible that human wisdom is what's valuable? Just like knowledge management practices became popularized soon after management theorist Peter Drucker coined the term "knowledge workers," Chip believes that "wisdom workers" (of all ages) are starting to create wisdom management practices in the most successful companies. He will be in conversation with Dr. John Boudreau about the value of having five generations in the workplace for the first time.

Connect with other attendees to discuss and debate key takeaways from today's session.

Join us for the star-studded i4cp 2026 Awards Ceremony, where we’ll celebrate HR excellence Hollywood style, with red carpet moments, sparkling champagne, and coveted awards. Dress to impress if you like—we look forward to seeing you in your most glamorous style.

Following the Red Carpet Arrival from 5:00 - 5:30 PM, don’t miss i4cp’s Award Ceremony (starting at 5:30 PM) where we hand out several prestigious honors to individuals and organizations that are driving real change. During the ceremony we’ll announce the winners of our Next Practice Awards, and recognize recipients of our High-Performance Award and Member of the Year Award, among others. See last year's winners.

And of course there will be an afterparty! Dress up or dress down, whatever your preference may be, and see you there!

Join us for more fun at our Hollywood-style Awards Afterparty, where we further celebrate our award winners and each other with food, drinks, and entertainment. It’s a great way to cap off the i4cp conference in glamorous style.

Kick off the final day of the conference with your peers, where you'll hopefully make connections that last for years.

Equality in America is under siege. Corporations and universities are abandoning the DEI programs they previously championed. The tools Americans have relied on to advance fairness are facing relentless political and legal assault. How do we build a more just nation when the old playbook is no longer viable?

In this talk, Kenji Yoshino, founder of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law, candidly unpacks where DEI went wrong and offers a roadmap to rebuild equality for a new era. Drawing on his legal expertise and extensive experience advising leaders in corporate America, academia, and the nonprofit sector, Yoshino presents tangible strategies to put the nation back on a more inclusive path. These include fostering free speech and dissent, reclaiming the concept of merit, and welcoming groups that have felt neglected by DEI. Together, these ideas form an urgently needed blueprint to ensure the work of equality can overcome backlash and emerge stronger on the other side.

Adapted from the themes of his most recent book, How Equality Wins, this talk offers a bracing critique and a hopeful path forward for anyone committed to creating a fairer society.

Following Kenji Yoshino's session, connect with your peers to discuss how your Impact & Belonging efforts have changed over the last year, and what the future of inclusion will look like at your organization.

As organizations navigate increasing complexity across talent, culture, and market expectations, inclusion-focused work can no longer operate as a siloed initiative.

This session explores the evolution of this work through the lens of Impact & Equity — a practice designed as an integrated operating approach that sits at the intersection of internal culture and external work.

Drawing from firsthand experience building this model, the conversation will examine how Impact & Equity can function as an organizational capability that shapes how teams operate, collaborate, and create value.

The session features two complementary leadership perspectives:

• An enterprise leadership lens focused on strategy, organizational alignment, and operating model design
• A practitioner perspective focused on how inclusive thinking shows up in real teams, real work, and client outcomes

Together, the speakers will share practical insight into the structural shifts, tradeoffs, and learning curves involved in evolving this work inside a large organization.

When NRG acquired Vivint in 2023, our workforce more than doubled overnight—jumping from 6,000 to over 15,000 employees. But with this expansion came a challenge: integrating two vastly different workplace cultures. The corporate, structured environment of NRG met the dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit of Vivint, creating a unique crossroads that tested our adaptability and leadership.

Mergers and acquisitions often spark uncertainty, and this transition was no exception. Combining teams, redefining roles, and fostering a unified culture required deliberate effort—but the payoff was extraordinary. Through collaboration and commitment, our employees embraced the journey, shaping a bigger, better NRG in the process.

As Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Navigating cultural integration isn’t just important—it’s essential for long-term success. The challenges, breakthroughs, and triumphs of merging two large companies have forged a stronger, more versatile organization ready for the future."

Bestselling author, leading sociologist and economist Juliet Schor makes the case for a four-day work week, persuasively showing how this model can address major challenges defining the future of work, such as burnout, AI and the climate crisis, and how employees, companies, and governments can work together to make it a reality. This conversation has become especially urgent in light of the changes AI is bringing to the workplace. Rather than cope with employees' anxiety and even resistance to AI, the four day week creates security and openness to change.

Four Days a Week is the first large-scale study of this trend. Juliet Schor―an expert who has researched and written about work for more than four decades, beginning with her New York Times bestseller The Overworked American in 1992―shares her pioneering analysis of the benefits of a shorter work week, how companies can achieve them through effective work reorganization, why the concept has taken so long to emerge and gain acceptance, and why doing so will help a company’s employees and its bottom line. Her book, upon which this session is based, is a blueprint for implementing a change that once seemed radical, but is now within reach.

Kevin Oakes will wrap up the conference with closing remarks and an actionable send-off for every individual in the room.