Bayview Yards, Ottawa, ON
Registration and Networking
Introduction from the Chair -
The Leadership Question We Cannot Avoid Anymore
Welcome remarks by the chair and an introduction to the day. A grounding welcome that frames the day's central question: what does it actually take to lead people well in 2026? A candid opening on trust, burnout, accountability, courage, and the widening gap between organizational messaging and employee reality.
Heidi Hauver, Former Chief People Officer and Leadership and Culture Mentor
Why People Leave. Why People Stay: What Great Places to Work Understand About Trust, Leadership & Loyalty
Forget engagement scores and employer branding slogans. This opening conversation explores the real reasons employees disengage, stay silent, or walk away and what leaders are doing differently to create cultures people genuinely want to belong to. Kicking off the day with a candid CEO conversation focused on leadership behaviour, organisational trust, and the emotional reality of work.
Aligning People, Purpose & Performance in Uncertain Times
Culture is no longer a ‘soft’ conversation. It is directly tied to retention, resilience, innovation, and organisational trust. This session explores how leaders across Ottawa’s public sector, healthcare, technology, education, and civic institutions are building cultures that can withstand fatigue, rapid change, and growing employee expectations
Morning Coffee and Networking Break
Time to refuel and continue networking!
Recognition as a Leadership Skill and Why Employees Feel Invisible, Even in People-First Cultures
Most organizations believe they recognize employees well. Most employees disagree. This session explores the growing disconnect between leadership intention and employee experience and why meaningful recognition has become one a predictors of retention, engagement, and wellbeing
Pause, Breathe, Reconnect
A guided stretch and nervous-system reset session designed to combat conference fatigue and model sustainable leadership in practice
Benefits That Actually Matter: Rethinking Wellbeing, Flexibility & Employee Value Beyond Salary
Today’s workforce expects more than compensation. Employees are increasingly evaluating employers based on wellbeing support, flexibility, psychological safety, caregiving support, and quality of leadership This conversation explores what employees genuinely value and how organizations are redesigning total rewards to reflect a more human-centered workplace
Networking Lunch Break
It is time for lunch - and you have earned it.
Technology to Support Workplace Efficiency without Replacing People
AI is rapidly changing recruitment, workforce planning, learning and employee experience. But trust, judgment, empathy, and ethical leadership remain profoundly human responsibilities. This session explores how organizations can responsibly integrate AI while protecting culture, inclusion, and human connection
Designing Workplaces Where Different Minds Can Thrive
What Employees Need Now: Beyond Policy Statements
Employees no longer judge organizations solely on diversity commitments. They judge them on whether people feel safe, respected, heard, and able to succeed.
This session explores how organisations move from performative DEI efforts toward cultures of genuine belonging and accountability
Afternoon Networking Break
Time to refuel and continue networking!
Choose ONE issue and join an employer-only roundtable to discuss strategies, challenges and opportunities*
Pause, Move, Reconnect
A guided stretch and nervous-system reset session designed to combat conference fatigue and model sustainable leadership in practice
Leading the Fragmented Workforce
Culture, Identity & Connection Across Hybrid, Frontline & Multigenerational Teams. Today’s organizations are increasingly fragmented: remote and onsite, unionised and non-unionised, Gen Z and late-career employees, digital-first and relationship-driven. How do leaders create cohesion without forcing sameness?
This closing conversation explores how modern organizations can build shared identity, trust, and resilience across increasingly complex workforce realities
What Today Told Us About the Future of Leadership
Key insights, emerging themes, and final reflections from the day
Heidi Hauver, Former Chief People Officer and Leadership and Culture Mentor
* Note: These are employer-only discussion groups and providers will not be permitted to register or attend these sessions
Program subject to change *Provisional Date