2024 HR Conference: Call for Speakers Now Open!

MRA – The Management Association invites innovative thought leaders to be a speaker at our 2024 HR Conference, where you can share your expertise and experience with our members and community of human resource professionals. This conference provides attendees with insights on the latest HR trends and tangible takeaways that they can implement right away.

Conference Date & Location:

• Wednesday, May 8, 2024 – Brookfield Conference Center, Brookfield, WI & Virtual

Conference Theme: To HR & Beyond

Get ready to blast off into the future of Human Resources. Join us as we explore the ever-growing universe of HR at MRA’s 2024 HR Conference: To HR and Beyond! We are excited to bring you sessions that will hone your HR skills and open your minds to the limitless potential ahead. Don't miss out on this opportunity to hear from experts, network with peers, and discover practical strategies to help drive your organization forward. The countdown to launch has begun so secure your seat to MRA’s HR Conference today!

Audience:

MRA anticipates an audience of approximately 500-600 HR professionals with breakout room attendance between 200-400 people. HR professionals of all levels and areas of focus, including employee relations, HR generalists, recruiting, organizational development, training and development, and benefits attend the conference. They work for organizations large and small, in all sectors, including manufacturing, health care, retail, government, and education.

Important Dates: (additional details below)

• Thursday, Jan. 19 – Call for speakers open.
• Thursday, Feb. 1 – Conference registration opens.
• Friday, Feb. 16 – Call for speakers closes. Submissions due.
• Monday, Feb. 19 – Speaker selection begins.
• Friday, Feb. 29 – Speakers notified.
• Friday, Mar. 8 – Speaker deliverables due.
• Monday, Apr. 29 – Final slide deck and/or handouts due.
• Wednesday, May 8 – HR Conference (Brookfield, WI & Virtual)

Each session is 45 minutes in length, comprised of a 40-minute presentation and 5 minutes of Q&A.

• Six (6) sessions available

All presentations will be done in-person and accommodation for virtual presentations will only be made in case of unforeseen circumstances.

Topics below are of interest, but this list is not exhaustive. Don’t see your topic listed? Please submit your topic for consideration.

• HR Compliance
• HR Strategy
  • Aligning HR objectives and goals to firm goals.
  • How to implement new ideas and change. Real-life examples.
• Transitioning the Baby Boomer workforce
  • Smoothing the transition process
  • Knowledge transfer
  • Exploring alternate roles for potential retirees
  • How to manage a seemingly never-ending glide path
• Artificial Intelligence
  • *If you select AI as a topic, please narrow your focus into one or two bite-sized topics – No general overview AI sessions will be considered.
• How Does HR get and keep a seat at the table?
• What do CEO's want from HR professionals.
• Modern-day workplace norms.
  • In a hybrid world, who determines what your workplace environment and culture looks and feels like? How do we teach the new workforce how to exist in a workplace that they’ve only known virtually?
• Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging
• Workplace Investigations
• Pay transparency
• FMLA confusion
• Generational differences and engaging everyone in the workplace
• Mental health/total well-being
• Managing and minimizing burnout
• The ever-evolving role of managers and HR’s role in helping managers
• Succession planning & developing in-house talent
• Helping managers to own the recruiting process and employee experience
• Benefits – Captives and other creative options
• Staff development and retention
• Improving culture and engagement
• Leader & management development
• How to support front-line management effectively
• Topic of your choice/suggestion

Proposal Guidelines and Tips:

MRA accepts proposals with the following expectations:

• Speakers demonstrate exceptional, authentic expertise around proposed content.
• Sessions are educational in nature and not used for self-promotion or as a sales pitch.
• Topics are bold, challenging, and forward-thinking.
• Sessions presenting detailed steps and actionable takeaways from lived-experience will be highly considered.
• An understanding of who conference attendees are and how your content will be consumed.

MRA prides itself on providing attendees with tangible ideas and compelling resources that they can take back to their workplace and readily implement. Be authentic and vulnerable and don't be afraid to speak of failure as well as success. Speakers are encouraged to dig deep to provide an engaging, inspiring, and fun delivery of the session. MRA conference attendees represent organizational and personal diversity, and we value diversity in our speakers. Speakers are encouraged to highlight diversity in your session where applicable, such as providing examples that reflect various cultural perspectives, ensuring statistics and demographics show an awareness of diversity, and presenting topics from unique and different angles. Keep in mind that knowledge sharing is the focus of all sessions, and sales pitches disguised as education will reflect poorly to conference organizers and attendees and will result in lost opportunities.

Selection Process:

All proposals received on or before Friday, February 16 will be reviewed by the 2024 MRA HR Conference planning group. Selection will be determined on which proposals are geared toward HR professionals and best align with the conference theme and topics outlined above. Selected presenters will be notified by Friday, February 29.

Speaker Responsibilities:

To ensure that MRA has ample time to prepare materials and go through the continuing education approval process, selected presenters will be required to meet the following submission dates:

• Friday, March 8 – Speaker headshot, bio, final session title, final session description (3-5 sentences), 2-3 learning objectives.
• Monday, April 29 – Final slide deck presentation and/or handouts. These will also be provided to attendees as downloadable resources.

Failure to submit this information in the appropriate timeframe may result in removal from the agenda.

Speaker Benefits:

Conference speakers are offered the following accommodations:

• (1) Complimentary, nontransferable conference registration.
• Speaker/organization recognition as “Conference Supporters.”
• Opportunity to demonstrate expertise, knowledge, and experience, as well as to network with conference attendees.