Some of 2026’s biggest HR events have come and gone—SHRM’s Annual Conference & Expo drew HR professionals from around the world to Orlando in June, and the spring circuit of SHRM Talent, UNLEASH America, and Workhuman Live has wrapped as well. But fall is the busiest season on the HR calendar, and the heaviest hitters are still ahead.
The fall lineup of national and regional HR conferences is crowded this year, and the agendas justify why. AI is moving from pilot mode into real production across HR functions, pay transparency and paid leave requirements keep expanding state by state, and employee financial stress stays high on the benefits priority list.
Registration deadlines for 2026 events are coming up quickly; check websites for cutoff dates so you don’t miss the chance to attend your top pick(s).
As event details may change, check the official website for each conference for the most accurate and up-to-date information.
Many of these events complement the payroll conferences running this fall, so teams that sit across both functions can build one coordinated travel calendar.
Interested in solutions that help HR teams move their workforces forward? Learn about the progress-oriented financial wellness platform from Chime Workplace.TM
National HR conferences
Workday Rising
October 12–15, 2026 · The Venetian Resort and Caesars Forum, Las Vegas, NV & Online
Workday Rising is the annual conference for the Workday customer community, drawing what the company reports as more than 30,000 in-person and digital attendees across HR, finance, and IT. The 2026 program is built around agentic AI in HR and finance: Attendees can expect to see Workday’s AI agents in production workflows, get early looks at the product roadmap, and hear customer case studies on hiring, workforce planning, and operations. Registration and the digital pass are at rising.workday.com.
As the Strategic Financial Wellness Partner for Workday Wellness, Chime Workplace™ will be on-site at Booth #G17. Learn more about our connected suite of financial wellness tools, available now as part of the Workday Solutions Marketplace, as well as:
Our live case-study session with First Student transportation, on workforce financial health (October 13, 4:40 pm)
Rising After Dark, our after-hours gathering at Bazaar Meat by José Andrés
A swag-tastic offer for scheduling time with us ahead of the event (by October 9)
Who should attend: CHROs, HRIS managers, and people analytics leaders at organizations running Workday or evaluating it, plus the finance and IT partners who share the platform.
Why it matters: If your HCM runs on Workday, Rising is where the next year of your platform gets previewed. Sending your HRIS lead is often the fastest way to translate the vendor’s roadmap into internal planning.
HR Technology Conference & Exposition
October 20–22, 2026 · Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, NV
The marquee event of the fall: HR Tech is the largest HR technology expo in the world, and the single most efficient place to compare HCM platforms, payroll providers, and AI-powered HR tools side by side. The 2026 program centers on the hybrid, human-plus-AI workforce, with keynotes from senior HR executives at major enterprises, and sessions covering automation, predictive analytics, and integrated workforce planning. Full-conference passes include the HR Tech Expo and the Women in HR Technology Summit, and attendees can earn SHRM, HRCI, and HRIP credits. Find pass pricing on the registration page, and details at hrtechnologyconference.com. The event hashtag is #HRTechConf.
Let's meet! Schedule time with us in advance of the event (prior to October 20) to be entered in a special prize drawing. Then stop by Booth #2519 on the show floor and get in on all the Chime Workplace™ action:
Try our signature “Cash-mo-politan” during the official pub crawl.
Play our exclusive vault game, with prizes running the entire show.
Request your seat for our invite-only executive event at the Four Seasons.
Learn about the connection between 401(k) withdrawals, rising daily costs, and savings as an employee priority during our session, How the Affordability Crisis Is Impacting Your Workforce Metrics (October 20, 1:30 pm).
Who should attend: HR leaders involved in platform selection, HRIS managers, HR technology buyers, and any HR professional whose 2027 priorities include AI, automation, or platform consolidation.
Why it matters: HR Tech is where product roadmaps get previewed and where buyers can compress months of vendor evaluation into a few days. The expo floor consistently includes 400-plus exhibitors, more than any other event in the people technology space.
LinkedIn Talent Connect
September 28–30, 2026 · Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City & Virtual
Talent Connect is LinkedIn’s flagship event for talent, HR, and recruiting leaders, split into two experiences: the invitation-only Talent Connect Summit for senior leaders, and the free virtual Talent Connect Show, which airs globally September 29 and30. The 2026 program centers on leading through what LinkedIn frames as an AI inflection point, with keynotes from LinkedIn CEO Dan Shapero and astronaut Leland Melvin, plus labor market and workforce insights drawn from LinkedIn’s own platform data. Details and Show registration are at linkedintalentconnect.com.
Who should attend: Senior talent acquisition and HR leaders (Summit, by invitation), and any HR, TA, or recruiting professional who wants the main-stage content virtually (Show, free).
Why it matters: No other event pairs its content with the hiring data LinkedIn sits on. For HR leaders navigating AI’s effect on hiring and skills, the Show is one of the highest-value free options on the fall calendar.
Gartner HR Symposium/XpoTM
October 26–28, 2026 · Orlando, FL
The Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo is the research firm’s flagship gathering for CHROs and HR executive teams, focused on talent strategy, HR effectiveness, and the future of work. The format leans on Gartner analyst sessions, peer roundtables, and one-on-one analyst meetings alongside a solution-provider expo—a different value proposition from the practitioner-heavy or expo-heavy events on this list. Gartner also runs regional editions in London (October 6–8) and Sydney, Australia (November 16–17). Details and registration are at gartner.com.
Who should attend: CHROs, heads of HR, and senior HR leaders responsible for talent strategy, organizational design, and HR technology decisions—particularly at organizations that already use Gartner research.
Why it matters: Symposium is built for the executive layer of the profession. If the question on your desk is strategy (operating model, AI governance, workforce planning) rather than tooling, this is the fall event aimed most directly at it.
ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit
November 9–11, 2026 · Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine, San Diego, CA
ERE Media’s fall summit gathers talent acquisition leaders, employer branding experts, sourcing professionals, and HR technology innovators for a practitioner-led program on AI-powered hiring and recruiting operations. The 2026 edition adds speaker office hours—presenters head to an “Ask Me Anything” lounge after their sessions—along with in-person and virtual pass options. Details are at ererecruitingconference.com.
Who should attend: TA leaders and recruiting operations professionals who want depth and speaker access in a hotel-scale setting (and crowd) rather than a convention center.
Why it matters: Experts available after their sessions make it worthwhile for teams with a specific problem to solve.
BLUEPRINT for I&D Conference
November 15–18, 2026 · Nashville, TN
BLUEPRINT for I&D is the inaugural conference from the SHRM Center for Inclusion and Diversity, the research-driven evolution of the CEO Action for Inclusion & Diversity that SHRM announced in June 2026. The three-day program spans topics related to disability and neurodiversity, religious accommodation, gender and women’s advancement, caregivers, veterans, global inclusion, belonging, civility, and AI. Expect an explicit focus on the legal and regulatory landscape employers are navigating, and on connecting inclusion decisions to outcomes leadership cares about. Details are at conference.shrm.org/blueprint.
Who should attend: HR leaders and inclusion and diversity specialists responsible for inclusion strategy, employment counsel partners, and leaders who need strategies that hold up under today’s legal scrutiny.
Why it matters: The regulatory ground under workplace inclusion programs has shifted quickly, and this is SHRM’s first national convening built specifically for that environment; it leans practical, legally grounded, and outcome-focused rather than aspirational.
SHRM state conferences
Some of the most actionable HR sessions of the year happen at SHRM state conferences. State-level events typically run one to four days and cover employment law changes, leave programs, and agency interpretations specific to that state—plus they’re where peer relationships with HR professionals at neighboring employers tend to form.
Conferences in Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Tennessee, and Kansas have already taken place, but there are still several states running events through October.
SHRM maintains a running directory of state conferences worth checking as additional dates are confirmed.
The events below are listed chronologically.
SHRM New York State Annual Conference
September 28–30, 2026 · Buffalo, NY
New York’s statewide conference draws practitioners from across a state with its own dense compliance stack: paid family leave, pay transparency, and New York City’s AI-hiring rules among them. Registration tiers are posted on the SHRM New York State site.
SHRM Georgia Conference & Expo
September 30–October 2, 2026 · Savannah, GA
The Georgia state conference brings HR professionals from across the Southeast to Savannah for three days of education and exhibitor programming.
Arkansas SHRM HR Conference & Expo
October 14–16, 2026 · Hot Springs, AR
Arkansas’s statewide event closes out the fall state calendar with a compact, cost-efficient program in Hot Springs.
International HR conferences
For HR teams with global workforces—or global ambitions—the fall calendar includes several strong options beyond the U.S. circuit.
Gartner HR Symposium/XpoTM London
October 6–8, 2026 · ExCeL London, London, UK
The European edition of Gartner’s HR Symposium brings the same analyst-led format to London three weeks ahead of Orlando, making it the natural pick for CHROs and HR executives based in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa. Details are at gartner.com.
UNLEASH World
October 20–22, 2026 · Paris Convention Centre, Paris, France
UNLEASH World is the global gathering for HR leaders and the HR technology ecosystem, aimed at senior decision-makers from large enterprises. The 2026 agenda is organized around work reinvention and redesign, covering "people strategy, technology, operating models, AI, skills, reward and data," with executive summits and a large expo alongside the main program. It runs the same week as HR Tech, so globally distributed teams often split coverage between Las Vegas and Paris. Details are at unleash.ai.
Who should attend: CHROs, CPOs, and senior HR leaders at multinational organizations, plus global HR technology buyers who want the European market in one room.
CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition
November 4–5, 2026 · Manchester Central, Manchester, UK
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s annual conference is the flagship event for the people profession in the UK, with four content streams covering the Employment Rights Act, digital transformation, workforce capability, and AI implementation, plus more than 130 exhibitors and a free exhibition-ticket option. Details are at cipd.org.
Who should attend: HR leaders with UK employees, U.S. teams expanding into the UK or Europe, and people professionals tracking the UK’s employment law overhaul.
How to make the most of an HR conference
Registration and travel are the easy part. Most of the return on a conference comes from intentional planning for what happens before, during, and after the event—the same discipline applies whether you’re headed to a 25,000-person expo or a one-day state event.
Make the business case to your manager
Before you can pack your bags, most practitioners need leadership to green-light the trip, especially if travel is involved. Build a quick case around three angles:
Name two or three agenda sessions that map directly to your team’s current priorities
Point to the networking value of being in a room full of HR leaders navigating the same challenges
Commit to a post-conference debrief—a short summary, a vendor comparison, or one process improvement you’ll bring back.
Framing the ask as an investment with a defined output makes it easier for your manager to say yes.
Before the conference
• Build a plan tied to your team’s actual priorities. Start with the two or three open problems on your desk (an HCM migration, a new state leave program, an AI policy, a retention push) and use those to filter the agenda.
• Pre-select sessions the week the agenda drops and flag a backup for each time slot, so you have an option if a room fills up.
• Identify the vendors you want to speak to before you arrive, and book meetings in advance rather than relying on the expo floor. The most focused vendor conversations happen in scheduled 20-minute sessions, not rushed on the way to lunch.
• Set two or three specific learning goals. “Understand how peers are governing AI in hiring before our Q1 policy review” is a usable goal; “learn about AI” is not.
• If you’re sending a team, divide and conquer. Assign sessions by role, and plan a short end-of-day debrief so everyone benefits from everyone else’s sessions.
During the conference
• Stick to the plan, but leave room for serendipity. Block one or two open windows each day for hallway conversations and follow-up vendor meetings—practitioners consistently report that some of their best takeaways come from unplanned conversations between sessions (in addition to those prebooked meetings).
• Take notes in a format you’ll actually revisit: a shared document organized by topic, with action items captured separately so they don’t get buried.
• Treat the expo floor like research, not shopping. Know what you’re trying to learn from each vendor—pricing model, implementation timeline, integrations, customer references in your industry.
• Collect peer contacts intentionally. A short conversation followed by a LinkedIn connection within 24 hours converts far better than a stream of badges quickly scanned and forgotten.
• Attend at least one session outside your immediate scope. An HR generalist who understands people analytics or payroll operations well enough to ask the right questions has a meaningful advantage.
After the conference
• Debrief within a week: three things you learned, two things to action, one thing to bring back to the team. Share it with your manager.
• Convert takeaways into work—specific projects, owners, and deadlines—within the first month.
• Follow up with vendors you actually want to evaluate the week you return, not when you eventually clear your inbox.
• Apply for recertification credits promptly. Many of the events on this list offer SHRM and HRCI credits, and submitting while attendance is fresh is far easier than reconstructing it months later.
How to choose the right HR conferences for your team
The 2026 HR calendar has more to offer than any single team can attend, and the fall events alone could absorb an entire year’s budget. A few principles tend to hold up:
Anchor the year around one flagship.
For most HR teams that’s SHRM Annual, the most complete general-HR education available; for technology-heavy teams it may be HR Tech or their platform’s user conference. The anchor sets the benchmark for what your team should know going into the following year.
Add one state event close to home.
State conferences cover the local employment-law details that national events can only summarize, at a fraction of the cost, and most teams have at least one within driving distance.
Reserve a seat at one technology event.
Whether it’s HR Tech, Workday Rising, or another vendor conference, HR leaders involved in platform decisions benefit from seeing the market side by side at least once a year.
Use virtual options to extend access.
The free LinkedIn Talent Connect Show, digital passes at Workday Rising, and virtual tiers at many events let the broader team stay current while senior staff travel.
Build the calendar against the regulatory year, not the conference year.
State conferences are most valuable when scheduled around known legislative effective dates, open enrollment, and year-end planning.
2026 HR conferences that already took place
The notable events below ran earlier this fall. Keep an eye out for 2027 dates to get a jump on informing next year's training budget.
RecFest USA
September 23–24, 2026 · The Fairgrounds, Nashville, TN
RecFest USA is a festival-style talent acquisition event, set outdoors with multiple live stages, more than 80 speakers, and partner showcases across two days. The format is deliberately unlike a convention center: casual, community-driven, and built for practitioners rather than buyers. Content covers talent acquisition strategy, sourcing, automation, AI, and employer branding. Details are at recfest.com/usa.
Who should attend: Recruiters, sourcers, employer brand professionals, and TA leaders who want practitioner education and peer connection in a low-cost, high-energy format.
Why it matters: Opened the fall calendar and costs a fraction of the convention-center circuit. Content comes from people doing the work rather than selling, with likely the highest ratio of practitioner sessions to vendor pitches this season.
SHRM Colorado State Conference
September 9–11, 2026 · Dillon, CO
Colorado’s statewide SHRM conference lands in the mountains this year, with a program aimed at practitioners navigating one of the country’s most active state legislatures on pay transparency, paid leave, and AI-in-employment rules.
HR Tennessee Conference and Exposition
September 13–16, 2026 · Knoxville, TN
Themed “The Future of HR: Reimagining Work, Culture & Leadership,” the 2026 HR Tennessee Conference runs four days in Knoxville with group discounts for teams of five or more. Registration details are on the SHRM Tennessee site.
Kansas SHRM State Conference
September 16–18, 2026 · Manhattan, KS
Running under an “HR Soul Train” theme, the Kansas state conference packs education and high-energy networking into three days in Manhattan, Kansas.
Key opportunities to connect
Chime Workplace™ attends and sponsors events across the HR and payroll calendar. Up next, catch us at:
Workday Rising
October 12-15, 2026 in Las Vegas
HR Tech
October 20-22 in Las Vegas
Curious how Chime Workplace’s suite of connected financial-health tools fits into your benefits stack? Explore our platform before meeting us at the next event.
