HR conferences are a great place to learn about the latest tools and listen to industry experts.
This year is projected for even more HR conferences than in 2019.
So we put together the ultimate list of human resource conferences to attend in 2020.
Table of Contents: (Note: Click on a link to scroll to a specific month)
- HR Conference Changes Due to COVID-19
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
- International HR Conferences
- Leadership Letter Template
P.S. This post will be updated as new conferences and agendas are announced.
HR Conference Changes Due to COVID-19
- ERE Recruiting Conference keeps Apr. 16-17 dates, but has turned into a virtual/digital event.
- SHRM Talent Conference & Exposition keeps Apr. 20-22 dates, but has turned into a virtual/digital event.
- STRIVE 2020 has been canceled.
- Indeed Interactive has turned into a virtual/digital event, but has yet to determine a date. Stay up-to-date here.
- UNLEASH 20′ has been canceled.
- ATD 2020 Conference will update conference details in mid April.
- LEAP Tech Talent Conference moves to Aug. 31-Sept. 2 in San Francisco, Ca.
- HR Tech Summit moved to Sept. 22-23 in Toronto.
- i4cp Next Practices Now moved to Sept. 17-20 in Scottsdale, AZ
- RecruitCon 20′ has been canceled.
- NYC TechRecruit Conference moves to Nov. 4-Nov. 6.
HR Conferences in January
Social Recruiting Strategies Conference (Jan. 28-30 in San Francisco, CA)
- Integrating Tools to Scale Your Process
- Diversity & Inclusion: Measure Your Impact
- Bridging the Gap: the Sourcer-recruiter Partnership
Employer Branding Strategies Conference (Jan. 28-30 in San Francisco, CA)
- How to Gain Employee Buy-in to Your Employer Values
- Getting to the ROI of employer branding
- Employee Engagement and Talent Assessment
Talent Sourcing Strategies Conference (Jan. 28-30 in San Francisco, CA)
- Human-to-Human: Engage Passive Candidates with Real Connections
- Creating a Facebook Ad Campaign to Attract the Right Candidates
- Personalization & Automation: the Future of Sourcing and Talent Identification
HR Conferences in February
Engage.Talent (Feb. 6 in Dallas, TX)
- Impact of Company Culture on Attracting and Retaining Top Talent
- Recruiting and Retaining Top Originators
- Hiring Digital Talent in a Competitive Market
- Recruiting and Retaining Women in Leadership Roles
- The Battle for Talent
#HIRE20 (Feb. 11-12 in San Francisco, CA)
- The future of people in recruiting
- Data, analytics, and reporting for Talent Acquisition
- Jazzing up your candidate experience
HR Conferences in March
LAX TechRecruit Conference (Mar. 5 in Los Angeles, CA)
- Bringing together top industry veterans to discuss best recruitment practices in the tech industry.
- Recruitment strategy
- Employer branding strategy
HRWest 2020 (Mar. 9 in Oakland, CA)
- Creating a Culture of Courage: The HR Silver Bullet
- Executive Roundtables
- California HR Excellence Awards
- Find Your Voice, Shape The Future
ELEVATE Conference(Mar. 12 in Chicago, IL)
- The Search for Humanity: What employers can do to drive human flourishing
- Promote continuous development as a way of life for their employees.
- The NEW Corporate Social Responsibility
- The Urgency of Purpose-Driven Leadership
- Transforming Our Workplaces: A Strategic Approach to Business with a Human Focus
SourceCon Spring 2020 (Mar. 23-25 in Seattle, WA)
- Sourcing productivity
- The anatomy of a great sourcer
- How to identify a “talented” sourcer, how to handle the sourcers in your team
- Finding passive candidates
- The secret to email recruiting success
- Structuring your sourcing team for success
HR Transform (Mar. 23-25 in Las Vegas, NV)
- GROWing the Next Generation of HR Leaders
- Analyzing Profitability of Employee Experience
- Talent Wins: A Conversation With Founder & CPO Partners
- Building an HR Organization for Tomorrow
- Next Gen People Analytics
- Is Working on Culture Getting in the Way of DE&I?
HR Conferences in April
ERE Recruiting Conference (Apr. 16-17, Virtual/Online Event)
- Recruiting for changing a workplace dynamic
- Acquiring next-gen talent
- Recruitment artificial intelligence best practices
- Creating an employee-advocacy program
- Creative sourcing strategies and techniques
- Data-driven talent acquisition
- Best practices for attracting diverse talent
- Total salary transparency and employer branding
SHRM Talent Conference & Exposition (Apr. 20-22, Virtual/Online Event)
- Retention Through Engagement: How to Attract and Retain Top Talent to Create an Engaged Workforce
- The Blind Audition: Tackling Ageism in Your Recruiting and Promotion Practices
- Making Your Story Stand Out: How to Write Better Job Posts
- It’s Time to Google-Proof Your Recruitment Marketing
- Integrating Inclusive Hiring & Promotion Practices for Talent Management
- Next Generation HR Leadership: Recruiting, Managing & Retaining 5 Generations
STRIVE 2020 (Event has been canceled due to COVID-19)
- Campus Recruiting at Scale: Increasing College Hires by 3X with High-Tech Solutions
- Using Integrations to Power Recruiting Insights
- Tips for Tech Adoption: How We Led Change Management
- Centralizing Campus Recruiting in a Decentralized Company
HR Conferences in May
URx Foward (May 7-8, Virtual/Online Event)
- Automation: A Recruiting Teams Best Friend
- Creating a culture of inclusive recruiting in your talent program
- Workshop: #Hacking Your Diversity Recruitment Strategy Through Strategic Thinking
- Employer Branding sessions
- Recruiting sessions
- Development sessions
Indeed Interactive (Date TBD, Virtual/Online Event)
- The Better World of Work
- Solving the hiring challenges of the present, and the future
- Connect with your peers in the talent acquisition industry
Unleash America (Event has been canceled due to COVID-19)
- Future employment models
- Overcoming unconscious bias through tech
- Blueprints for a better tech stack
- Bridging HR and marketing
- Untapped talent pools
- Rebooting employer brand
ATD 2020 (Event has been canceled due to COVID-19)
- Create a Powerful Measurement and Reporting Strategy With Talent Development Reporting Principles
- Deploying AI chatbots for learning
- The link between team performance and emotional intelligence
- Unlocking employee engagement
- Creating a culture of feedback
- Putting the “I” in Inclusion
HR Conferences in June
Jobg8 Summit 2020 (Event has been canceled due to COVID-19)
- Agenda TBA
Recruiting Daily HRTX Virtual (Jun. 25, Virtual/Online Event)
- How to Collaborate with Hiring Managers & NOT get Fired
- Being the Best Candidate Advocate (Whisperer)
- Employer Brand & Employee Storytelling in a Post-COVID World
- Sourcing in 2020: A Whole New Playbook
HR Conferences in July
Social Recruiting Strategies Conference (Jul. 28-30, Virtual/Online Event)
- Integrating Tools to Scale Your Process
- Diversity & Inclusion: Measure Your Impact
- Bridging the Gap: the Sourcer-recruiter Partnership
Employer Branding Strategies Conference (Jul. 28-30, Virtual/Online Event)
- How to Gain Employee Buy-in to Your Employer Values
- Getting to the ROI of employer branding
- Employee Engagement and Talent Assessment
HR Conferences in August
ASHHRA20′ Annual Conference (Aug. 24-25, Virtual/Online Event)
- Details TBA
HR Florida Conference & Expo (Aug. 30-Sept.2 in Kissimmee and Online)
- Details TBA
HR Conferences in September
LEAP Tech Talent (Sept.1-2 in San Francisco, CA)
- Scaling company culture and developing HR team to become business-critical strategic partners.
- Strategies for retaining employees.
- Driving bottom-line business benefits through unconventional approaches.
- Redefining employee engagement
Talent Acquisition Evolution Conference (Sept. 2 in Cincinnati, OH)
- Agenda TBA
#TheCandEs Virtual Conference: Rebooting Recruiting and Hiring (Sept. 16-17, Virtual/Online Event)
- Scenario planning to help prioritize what companies do next in recruiting.
- Recruiting and hiring processes (post-COVID)
- Recruiting technologies (post-COVID)
i4cp Next Practices Now 2020 (Sept. 17-20 in Scottsdale, AZ)
- Value Creation through HR
- The Journey to HR 3.0
- Employing People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
- Building a People-First Culture
HR Tech Summit (Sept. 22-23 in Toronto)
- Enabling a Human-Focused Approach to HR Through Automation
- Leveraging Technology to Increase Employee Engagement
- Leveraging Technology to Create a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace
- Attracting Millennials & Gen Zs in a Tech-Savvy World
HR Conferences in October
Strategic Talent Acquisition Conference (Oct. 5-6, Virtual/Online Event)
- Finding new or previously overlooked sources of talent
- Identifying and removing unnecessary roadblocks in your TA technology and processes
- Exploring new techniques and technologies to generate recruiting insights
- Revamp and re-prioritize your talent pipeline strategy to find more high-quality candidates
TAtech Live How AI Drives Authentic Diversity (Oct. 13, Virtual/Online Event)
- How Companies Are Winning Big Right Now
- Strategic Guidelines for Diversity
- Defining Diversity: Authentic vs Compliant
- When AI Can’t Help You
- Easily Avoidable Mistakes Most Are Making
Recruiting Trends & Talent Tech (Oct. 13-16 in Las Vegas, NV)
- Learn innovative recruiting strategies
- How technology is being used to transform the way talent is sourced, hired and brought into their organization
- Best practices and proven strategies to enhance your candidate experience
HR Technology Conference & Exposition (Oct. 27-30 in Las Vegas, NV)
- Agenda TBA
HR Conferences in November
Talent42 2020 (Nov. 9-10, Virtual/Online Event)
- Perfect storm of data
- Tech recruiting for the upside down
- Technical recruiting workshop
- Scaling recruiting to support high growth tech hiring
Digital Summit on AI & Machine Learning in Talent Acquisition (Nov. 17, Virtual/Online Event)
- What does digital transformation really mean – what does it look like in practice?
- What’s the straight answer – will AI empower humans or replace them?
- How does using AI differ for hourly/high volume vs. salaried/professional hiring?
- Where does AI and the different tools it powers fit into the recruiting life cycle?
- How do you build a great vendor partnership that pays off in better recruiting outcomes?
Tech Recruit Dueling Sourcers (Nov. 17, Virtual/Online Event)
- There is more than one way to source for talent. In this show, sourcers will show you how they strategize and execute a sourcing plan.
- Duelers include: Steve Levy, Dean Da Costa, Jeremy Roberts, Stacey Broadwell
2020 CandE Awards Virtual Conference (Nov. 18-19, Virtual/Online Event)
- Recognizing top companies for candidate experience excellence
- HR/Recruiting Technology
- Screening & Interviewing
- Multi-Year CandE Winner Panel
HR Conferences in December
Reinvent Recruiting In a Virtual World [Free] (Dec. 2, Virtual/Online Event)
- New strategies on how to attract and recruit talent.
- The shift to remote/digital recruiting and how to adjust.
Recruiting Trends You Need to Know For 2021 (Dec. 8, Webinar)
- A conversation with Matt Alder from the Recruiting Future podcast, Talent Board President Kevin Grossman, and XOR CEO Aida Fazylova about their research into what trends recruiters should be preparing for next year.
I AM HR (Dec. 8-10, Virtual/Online Event)
- AI and Automation Essenitals
- Supporting Global Diversity & Inclusion
- Putting Together Virtual Recruiting Events
- Avoiding Hiring Bias in AI
- Delivering Dynamic Career Site Experiences
Harnessing AI in Hiring: What You Need To Know (Dec. 10, Webinar)
- Hazards of using AI without rigorous oversight.
- Benefits AI offers talent acquisition leaders and their candidates.
- Standards for using AI in hiring to maximize benefit and eliminate risk.
Back to Basics, High-Performance Recruitment Marketing (Dec. 15, Webinar)
- Explore various recruitment marketing models and the fundamentals of how they work.
- Pay-per-click, pay-per-apply, job ad networks, programmatic, and employer branding campaigns.
Hiring for Potential Elevates Inclusion (Dec. 16, Webinar)
- How talent acquisition professionals and leaders can have confidence that their recruiting technology is not creating bias
- Why companies should focus on hiring for both skills and potential
- Why companies should pursue DE&I policies in hiring
International HR Conferences
If you’re looking for HR conference outside of the U.S. check out Hung Lee’s Recruiting Brainfood Big List of Events. It’s an awesome spreadsheet he puts together every year. Countries included (other than the US) are UK, Spain, South Africa, Denmark, Singapore, Germany, Netherlands, Barcelona.
Need Sign-off From Leadership
Here’s a template you can use for a letter to leadership to justify attending any HR conference. Just fill-in the bracketed words with your specific conference details:
Hello [Decision Maker],
Re: Request to Attend [HR Conference]
I’d like to request your approval to attend [HR conference], [date] in [city]. It’s the best opportunity this year to network with and learn from HR, TA, and recruiting leaders and peers.
I plan on spending my time identifying solutions and best practices to help drive the following initiatives:
- [add project or initiative]
- [add project or initiative]
- [add project or initiative]
- This [HR Conference] is packed with [x] days of learning, including:
[List at least 5 things you plan to learn about]
Here’s the approximate cost breakdown:
Airfare: $ XX
Transportation: $ XX
Hotel: $ XX
Conference registration: $ XX
Training/Certification Fee: $ XX
Total: $ XXX
I am confident that my time at [name of HR Conference] will help us drive better productivity and results for the team to meet our recruiting and hiring goals this year.
I’d like to register before prices increase. Thank you for your consideration.
Best,
[Name]
Why I wrote this
HR conferences are a great way to network with peers and learn about new recruiting strategies that are working for others.
