The T3 series delivers you all things HR and Talent technology. This post won’t be highlighting an individual piece of HR tech, but instead introduce you to two brand new HR Technology conferences in the U.S. that will both be taking place this Spring, 2016 – PeopleTech and HR Tech Fest.

Of course, the granddaddy of all HR Tech Conferences is The HR Technology Conference that takes place in the fall, this year in Chicago, but traditionally in Las Vegas.  It’s one of my favorite conferences of the year, but I love that we are able to give HR and Talent Pros and Leaders a couple of other options that might be more cost effective and closer to home!

PeopleTech Conference – Dallas, TX April 13-14th

PeopleTech is a conference designed for HR and Talent Acquisition Leaders who are exploring and interested in all things related to the technology within the HR industry. The sessions are a combination of industry experts, HR Pros, and vendor driven content. Here’s a flavor of some of the sessions:

• Current Trends in Human Capital Metrics/Analytics – Taking it to the Next Level
• Getting to the Finish Line in New Software Implementation: An Exercise in Effective Change Management
• Designing for the Workforce of Tomorrow
• Building a Magnetic Culture: How to Attract & Retain Top Talent
• And of course, my session! HR Pros Buyers Guide to HR Tech!

For those who are really looking to invest in new HR technology and upgrading your tech in the next year or so, you will get some great insight from others who are currently going through implementations and beyond. Many of the sessions are lead by HR leaders who have recently gone through this process.

These sessions are definitely more specific and directed to HR and Talent Acquisition specifically, unlike many HR conferences where they’re the sessions are heavily centered on soft-skills and management.  It’s great that PeopleTech decided to hold their conference in Dallas since HR Leaders have so few options for really good content down south!

HR Tech Fest – Washington D.C. April 20-22nd

HR Tech Fest is an organization that I first came into contact with when I spoke at their conference in Sydney, Australia late last year.  HR Tech Fest is unique in that they don’t “sell” any of their sessions to vendors.  It’s a fairly common practice in today’s conference scene where a vendor will pay to ‘sponsor’ a session, and get to put their own client into that slot. What it turns out to be normally is an hour commercial for their project, unwittingly being sold by their client who is paying for their software. Brilliant strategy really (to make money), but many times it makes for poor content.

So, all the sessions at HR Tech Fest are either delivered by actual HR and Talent Leaders, who were chosen regardless of the tech they use, and by industry thought leaders. What I found at HR Tech Fest in Sydney was that this dynamic really opened up the audience and the interaction between audience and presenters was very high, in and outside of the sessions.

Here’s a flavor of some of the sessions at HR Tech Fest:

• HR of the Future: Where is Technology taking us?
• Navigating Organizational Evolution with Talent Analytics (delivered by SVP of Hulu)
• Digital Gondola: Career Development Ride (delivered by HR executive at Google)
• Open Source Comes to HR (delivered by the VP of Talent at Hootsuite)
• I’ll be hosting a session track and be a part of an HR Tech expert panel

While this is a new HR Tech conference in the U.S., the Eventful Group has put on these conferences in other countries for years, and they really know what they’re doing.  I also love that they decided to offer this on the East Coast, where so much HR Tech innovation comes out of, but rarely is a conference held in this area.