At the end of 2017, HR Tech World rebranded as UNLEASH – an exciting new look for an organisation already disrupting the polite world of HR events. Fast forward a few months and I am en route to attend UNLEASH London. When I was choosing my sessions in the build up to the event, trying to decide across more than a dozen tracks was no mean feat. But what struck me looking at the packed agenda is that disruption and transformation appear to be the new normal. Is there no more status quo in the world of work?
Jonas Kjellberg, author, investor and co-creator of Skype kicks things off with a keynote looking at disruption as a positive and actually wants to help ‘f**k up things’ for corporate organisations! Nick Holley of the CRF and Dan Simpson of Siemens then host a session on ‘Disrupt or Die’ whilst the start-up stage showcases new market entrants looking to shake things up with their new solutions and technology.
Across the board there are sessions on digital transformation. And the proliferation of sessions on AI tells us the bots are coming and work as we know it is going to change forever. Then less obviously perhaps, but still demonstrating a definite sea change, there is a whole track dedicated to wellbeing and engagement. That’s disruption in itself, as that just would not have happened just a few a years ago.
This isn’t pie in the sky stuff coming from gurus and experts either. It’s stories from the front line of organisations like Lloyds Bank, L’Oreal, Telefonica, Fujitsu and Nationwide,
And in a bid to get beyond the hype, the latest Fosway research conducted in partnership with UNLEASH will explore ‘The Truth about Digital HR, Technology and Transformation’ in David Wilson’s session on day one. We’re looking forward to sharing data from 600+ HR leaders on the realities of the change facing organisations today. You can check out the headlines here and the new series of reports will be available shortly.
I’ll be reflecting on the different sessions I attend with write ups afterwards and advise you to tune into some of the following bloggers, track chairs and speakers across the two days:
- Faye Holland covering the start-up competition
- Andrew Spence chairing Going Digital and HRSS tracks
- David Green speaking on Ethic, Trust and People Analytics
- Dorothy Dalton, Gareth Jones, Barry Flack and Bill Boorman all blogging and contributing their inimitable insights and opinions
- And stay tuned to the UNLEASH news site for a ton of videos, write ups and other great content
I’m keen to know your thoughts either before or after the event too; is disruption the new normal in your organisation? Or is transformation all just talk?
Learning as I go... 