The HR Leadership Forum upcoming events

Leadership Development by Design: Building Programs That Strengthen Your Leadership Pipeline (Friday, October 02, 2026)

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Leadership Development by Design: Building Programs That Strengthen Your Leadership Pipeline

Developing stronger leaders is a priority for many organizations, but effective leadership development requires more than selecting a program, assessment, or curriculum. HR leaders must make intentional choices about what the organization needs, who to develop, which capabilities matter most, and how development will translate into stronger performance and a healthier leadership pipeline.

Led by Meghan Collins, Principal at Malbay Strategic Consulting, this interactive session will provide senior HR leaders with a practical framework for designing or strengthening leadership development approaches that fit their organization’s needs and resources.

Participants will explore how to identify the organizational or talent need leadership development should address, determine who should be developed and toward what, define the capabilities that matter most, decide when assessments and other evidence add value, and match development needs with the right approaches. Using real-world examples, including a leadership readiness program developed in response to broader organizational and talent challenges, Meghan will show how these choices can come together in practice. Guided reflection and peer discussion will help participants consider where their own efforts are working—and where value may be getting lost.

Learning Outcomes:

Identify the organizational or talent need a leadership development effort should address.
Distinguish among performance, potential, and readiness when making talent decisions.
Define leadership capabilities that reflect organizational strategy and context.
Evaluate when assessment, feedback, and other evidence can improve development decisions.
Connect development to meaningful work, individual growth, and organizational performance.

Key Takeaways:

A practical framework for designing or evaluating leadership development efforts.
Guidance for making intentional choices about participants, capabilities, assessment, and development methods.
Common pitfalls that can undermine leadership development—and ways to address them.
A real-world example of how one organization translated a talent and leadership challenge into an integrated readiness approach.
Questions participants can use to strengthen leadership development in their own organizations.

Speaker:

Meghan Collins is Principal at Malbay Strategic Consulting, where she helps executives translate complex strategic and organizational needs into clearer direction, stronger organizations, and better leadership decisions. An organizational strategist and leadership coach with deep OD expertise, her work spans organizational design, leadership readiness, talent planning, coaching, and strategy implementation.

Timeline

8:00am - 8:45am - Registration + Breakfast + Networking

8:45am - 9:00am - Interactive Team Building Activity

9:00am - 10:30am - Program

HRLF Career Accelerator – Your Career, Accelerated! (Virtual Event) (Tuesday, October 27, 2026)

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 13:30:00 GMT

This is a complimentary event for HR practitioners.

Looking to make your next career move, explore new opportunities, or strengthen your professional brand? The HRLF Career Accelerator is a high-impact, 60-minute virtual session designed just for HR professionals like you.

Join a dynamic community of peers to learn practical career skills, share experiences, and expand your network—all from wherever you are. Whether you’re actively in transition or simply exploring possibilities, this session gives you the tools, insights, and connections to move your HR career forward with confidence and momentum.

Why Attend:

Boost your career-ready skills and personal brand
Learn from and connect with peers navigating similar journeys
Access actionable strategies to accelerate your next career step
Feel supported, connected, and inspired in a thriving HR community

Your career doesn’t wait—why should you? Join us and accelerate your next move!

Resilience by Design: Engineering an Employee Lifecycle Where People Thrive (Friday, November 06, 2026)

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 13:00:00 GMT

What if the key to a resilient workforce isn't asking employees to be more resilient, but designing an organization that enables people to thrive?

In today's environment of constant change, disruption, and increasing complexity, organizations cannot rely on individual resilience alone. Culture, leadership, talent practices, and the employee experience all shape an organization's capacity to help people grow, adapt, and perform at their best.

For CHROs, this creates a critical opportunity: to step back and examine the entire employee lifecycle and ask whether the systems, practices, and culture are creating the conditions for people to thrive, or unintentionally creating barriers to growth, engagement, and resilience.

In this interactive session, HR leaders will take a systemic look at the employee lifecycle; from attraction and onboarding through development, leadership, retention, and transition—to identify where organizations can intentionally design for resilience, growth, and organizational health.

Key Focus Areas

Talent Acquisition & Onboarding: Discover how to identify candidates with the capacity to navigate change and uncertainty, and orient new hires to the relationships, resources, and tools they need to fully tap their capacity for resilience.

Employee Development: Learn targeted strategies for helping your workforce cultivate a “purpose hierarchy” and develop the skills and mindset necessary to adapt, grow, and perform through change.

Retention & Culture: Identify structural ways to address toxic elements and organizational barriers that can undermine resilience, while creating an environment that supports engagement, performance, and long-term success.

The PUSH Framework: Utilize a prescriptive model to systematically assess and strengthen resilience across your organization’s existing talent practices.

The CHRO Takeaway

Leave with a systemic lens for evaluating your employee lifecycle and organizational culture along with a practical approach for identifying where you can redesign the employee experience to foster greater resilience, adaptability, growth, and performance.

Because thriving isn't an employee benefit. It's an organizational outcome, and CHROs have the opportunity to design the conditions that make it possible.

Speaker: Stacy Cook, Principal at Perception Learning

Stacy is a dynamic speaker, trainer, and organizational development consultant who currently serves as a Principal at Perception Learning. With over 4,000 hours of classroom training experience, she specializes in helping individuals and organizations close challenging soft skills gaps through customized programs in leadership development, resilience, and performance management. Her diverse professional background includes leading the Learning and Development Center of Excellence at FMP Consulting, serving as a Program Manager for a Department of Defense Task Force in Baghdad, and working as a trainer and performance coach for The Alexander Company. A recognized thought leader who has presented at major events such as the ATD International Conference and the SHRM Annual Conference, Stacy focuses on delivering practical value and immediately applicable tools to her audiences. She holds an MA in Adult Learning and Leadership from Teachers College of Columbia University.

Event Details:

8:00am - 8:45am - Registration + Breakfast + Networking

8:45am - 9:00am - Interactive Team Building Activity

9:00am - 10:30am - Program

HRLF's Federal Contracting Forum (Virtual Event) (Thursday, November 19, 2026)

Thu, 19 Nov 2026 14:00:00 GMT

This is a complimentary event for HR practitioners.

Come ready to engage!

Please join with your camera on and be prepared to actively participate and contribute your perspective. This is an interactive discussion designed for peer conversation and sharing.

HRLF’s Federal Contracting Forum is a dedicated peer network for HR practitioners operating in the federal contracting space. This forum brings together HR leaders to share insights, discuss challenges, and explore best practices unique to the complexities of federal contracting.

Members engage in meaningful dialogue on topics such as compliance, workforce planning, talent acquisition, retention strategies, and organizational development—all within the context of federal regulations and contracting requirements. Through interactive discussions, collaborative problem-solving, and peer-to-peer networking, participants gain practical strategies to drive HR excellence in their organizations.

Whether sharing lessons learned, exploring innovative approaches, or building relationships with fellow HR professionals, the Federal Contracting Forum provides a trusted space to connect, collaborate, and stay ahead in the ever-evolving federal contracting environment.

HRLF's Nonprofit HR Forum (Virtual Event) (Thursday, November 19, 2026)

Thu, 19 Nov 2026 16:00:00 GMT

This is a complimentary event for HR practitioners.

Come ready to engage!

Please join with your camera on and be prepared to actively participate and contribute your perspective. This is an interactive discussion designed for peer conversation and sharing.

HRLF’s Nonprofit Forum is a peer network for HR professionals working in the nonprofit sector. This forum provides a collaborative space for HR leaders to share experiences, exchange best practices, and discuss challenges unique to nonprofit organizations.

Participants explore key topics such as talent acquisition and retention, workforce planning, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, and compliance—all within the context of mission-driven organizations. Through interactive discussions, peer sharing, and networking, members gain practical insights and strategies to strengthen their HR impact and support organizational success.

The Nonprofit HR Forum fosters meaningful connections among HR practitioners, offering a trusted environment for collaboration, learning, and advancing the effectiveness of HR in the nonprofit sector.

HRLF's Executive Skills Accelerator: Build Trust Across the Enterprise (Friday, December 04, 2026)

Fri, 04 Dec 2026 13:00:00 GMT

This event is exclusively for HR practitioners.

HRLF's Executive Skills Accelerator: Master Influence, Presence & Impact

Build Trust Across the Enterprise

December 4, 2026 | 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM

Forge strong executive relationships that accelerate results.

Identify, engage, and manage critical stakeholders effectively
Navigate conflicts and competing priorities with ease
Takeaway: Strengthen collaboration and gain support for your strategic initiatives.

Timeline

8:00 am - 8:30 am - Registration + Breakfast + Networking

8:30 am - 10:30 am - Program