2025 Strategic Leadership Conference

Thursday, October 16
Dewey Gottwald Center | 2301 W. Leigh St. | Richmond

 

Are you ready to be inspired? Join us on Thursday, October 16 at the Gottwald Center for the 16th Annual Strategic Leadership Conference. The conference offers a day of innovative speakers, networking, and both SHRM and HRCI recertification credit opportunities – especially those hard to earn business credits. We pride ourselves on bringing speakers to you who are at the forefront of national change in human resources.

Our 2025 Strategic Leadership Conference theme is Charting a Leadership Course: Adapting, Innovating, and Empowering HR. The theme underscores the need for leaders to adapt to modern challenges, drive innovation, and empower HR as a strategic partner. And it highlights the evolving role of leadership in navigating complex environments while prioritizing people-centric approaches to achieve organizational success.

This conference will provide you the tools you need to envision and build the successful future of your team and organization. Topics were selected to help optimize your efforts, positioning you to thrive professionally and personally.

Get ready to be inspired, share success stories, and network with other HR leaders, business partners, and industry experts!

CONFERENCE AGENDA  SPEAKER BIOS  CONFERENCE SPONSORS REGISTER NOW

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Speakers and Sessions

Steering HR Forward: Charting a Course for Meaningful Leadership

In today’s rapidly evolving HR landscape, effective leadership is not just about adapting to change—it’s about driving meaningful impact. Success in human resources goes beyond policies and procedures; it is about empowering people, fostering innovation, and leading with purpose. This keynote will inspire HR professionals to redefine success, build intentional relationships, and develop influence that extends beyond a title.

Learning Objectives

• Adapt to Change and Drive Purposeful Growth – Learn how to navigate the ever-changing HR landscape by embracing adaptability, aligning your career with purpose, and ensuring sustained personal and professional development.
• Innovate with Intention to Transform HR Leadership – Discover how to bring creativity and forward-thinking solutions to HR by leveraging the principles in "Drive with Purpose," fostering innovation that enhances workplace culture and employee engagement.
• Empower Others to Lead and Make an Impact – True leadership is about lifting others. Learn strategies to empower colleagues and employees, develop a service-oriented mindset, and create a legacy of impactful leadership in the HR industry.

The HR profession is evolving, and those who lead with purpose will shape the future of work. This keynote will provide the tools to transform careers from success to significance, creating a legacy of leadership, empowerment, and positive change. Buckle Up and Get Ready to Drive With Purpose!

Positioning HR as a Strategic AI Partner: Navigating Readiness and Risk

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape business operations and workforce expectations, HR leaders must play a pivotal role not only in adapting people strategies—but in guiding enterprise-wide AI readiness. This session explores how HR can evolve from policy implementers to strategic advisors, helping their organizations assess readiness, define ethical AI use, and align adoption with business goals.

Participants will examine the intersection of AI, business strategy, and organizational culture—addressing the implications for the workforce, business leaders and overall competitive positioning. We’ll also explore the role of HR in enabling human-machine teaming, driving AI experimentation and ensuring responsible innovation.

Whether you're assessing your company’s AI maturity or building an enterprise-wide approach to emerging technologies, this session offers a roadmap for HR leaders to drive business value through informed, human-centered AI strategy.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify how emerging AI capabilities impact enterprise strategy, workforce evolution, and operational performance.
• Evaluate HR’s role in shaping organizational AI policies, governance structures, and ethical risk management.
• Apply strategic frameworks for HR to influence cross-functional decision-making, drive innovation, and support long-term business resilience.
  

Forecast for the Future of HR in 2026

This dynamic panel discussion brings together seasoned HR leaders from diverse industries to explore the evolving landscape of human resources in 2026. Panelists will share insights on how HR is transforming into a strategic powerhouse—driving business outcomes, shaping organizational culture, and leveraging technology and data to enhance workforce agility. Attendees will gain a forward-looking perspective on the competencies, mindsets, and innovations that will define successful HR leadership in the years ahead.

Navigating Change with Confidence

Change is a constant in HR—whether it's shifting workplace dynamics, unexpected organizational challenges, or evolving policies. So how do you navigate the uncertainty with confidence and resilience, even in the "messy middle"?

In this interactive one-hour workshop, you’ll gain practical strategies to assess change effectively, anchor on what matters most, and implement actionable steps that help you not only adapt but thrive during periods of transition.

Learning Objectives

• Reflect on previous change scenarios to identify patterns and strengths that can serve as proof and benchmarks when facing new changes.
• Leverage four strategies to navigate ambiguity and change with greater clarity and focus that lead to higher productivity.
• Implement a three-step approach to make sound decisions during high-pressure periods.
• Adopt stress management techniques to maintain overall well-being.

Join us for this insightful session and walk away with the confidence to lead through change with purpose and impact.

Radical Humility: Be a Badass Leader AND a Good Human

With the world changing faster than ever before, increasing business competition, rapid technological change, and an incredibly diverse generation entering the workforce, a new, elevated style of leadership is required. This modern form of leadership is called leading with Radical Humility; a more human-centered approach that views humility as a key strength to achieving goals in today's complex world.

Radical Humility unlocks exactly how to deliver stellar business results with teams looking to mitigate burnout, overwhelm, exhaustion, resistance, and high turnover while promoting productivity, engagement, innovation, and creativity. In this timely, highly actionable, and interactive keynote, Urs helps audience members implement his deeply researched and battle-tested Radical Humility framework that is grounded in his career in the leadership trenches as a UN peacekeeper, business executive, veteran executive coach, ultra-endurance champion, and widely published professor growing leaders on four continents.

Audience members will leave this presentation inspired by moving leadership stories and with a hands-on, concrete, and easy-to-use Radical Humility toolkit they can immediately implement to create a high-performance culture that is “tough on results and tender on people”.

Learning Objectives:

• Master the three-pillared Radical Humility Framework to drive engagement and productivity.
• Turn failures into growth by normalizing mistakes as an opportunity for growth and fostering fearless innovation.
• Build trust through vulnerability by leading with authenticity and openness.
• Learn how to drive high-performance team engagement by applying compassion while upholding the highest productivity standards.
• Learn how to build a fearless team by championing a culture of psychological safety, including an easy-to-implement exercise that you can try at your next team meeting.

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Registration

 

*Includes a one-year Professional Local membership to Richmond SHRM
Student members pay $35 and Non-member students pay $50 (includes a one-year Student membership).

Groups of 5 or more are eligible for a 10% discount. Contact Townley Goldsmith-Ray at tgoldsmith-ray@richmondshrm.org for more information.

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Testimonials

"Every year I look forward to the Strategic Leadership Conference because I know it's going to be a day filled with great speakers and plenty of opportunity to network with other HR professionals."

"I love how diverse and knowledgeable the speakers at the Strategic Leadership Conference are and I always look forward to attending."

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Sponsorship Opportunities

For information about 2025 Conference sponsorship opportunities, contact Townley Goldsmith-Ray at TGoldsmith-Ray@RichmondSHRM.org.