Agenda

Keeping the day on track.

We’ve made sure every aspect of our time together is collaborative, purposeful and structured. With a variety of tracks to take throughout the day there’ll be no shortage of insight shared or experiences to take away.

Talks, sessions, workshops and more

Here's what's on the agenda so far

Memduh Balaban

Global Talent Attraction & Employer Branding Manager, MANN+HUMMEL

PROVOKE SESSION

Beyond Personas: Build Your Own AI Employer Brand Team.

In this session, Memduh Balaban presents a practical approach to building an AI Employer Brand Team. Instead of relying on a single chatbot, AI is used as a team of specialised experts to analyse research, challenge assumptions, test positioning and strengthen strategic decisions.

The session is based on the global development of MANN+HUMMEL’s new Employer Value Proposition and Employer Branding campaign. Through real project examples and live demonstrations, participants will see how AI supported every stage of the project, from analysing employee insights and defining the EVP to validating messaging and shaping a global employer brand.

Rather than focusing on prompting techniques, this session introduces a practical framework for integrating AI into Employer Branding, Talent Attraction and EVP development.

Participants will leave with a proven methodology, practical examples and a new perspective on using AI as a strategic thinking partner rather than a content generation tool.

Pia Lurz

CR Expert, DE&I, Riverty

EQUIP SESSION

The Inclusion Gap: What Your Employer Brand Data Isn't Telling You.

Healthy averages can hide uncomfortable truths. Working with a realistic, anonymised data set, you’ll investigate where an employer brand promise holds up - and where it doesn’t - for different groups. Together, you’ll uncover hidden patterns of exclusion, explore the trust and reputation risks they create, and rethink how inclusive employer brand messages can be built.

You’ll leave with practical questions and a simple framework for using the data you already have to pressure-test your EVP, campaigns and candidate experience. .

Maja Kvrgic Zigic and Katarina Stevanovic

Senior Employer Branding & Communications Partners, Nordeus

EQUIP SESSION

The €0 Advocacy Challenge: Build a Programme People Actually Want to Join.

What could you build if you had no budget? Maja and Katarina share the unfiltered story behind the Nordeus Brand Academy, including the mistakes, lessons and foundations that made the difference. You’ll then work through the full Prep, Find, Equip, Activate and Measure framework, tackling a shared brief alongside other attendees.

You’ll leave with the first draft of an advocacy programme you could start using on Monday - not someday.

Sarah Sturgess

Managing Director and Chair, SMRS

CREATE SESSION

Lost in Transformation: What You Say. What They Hear. What Gets Repeated.

Organisations talk about transformation through the language of innovation, productivity and future readiness. Employees hear something different: security, workload, fairness, relevance and trust.

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll put a transformation message through a live translation test, exploring what leaders say, what employees hear and what gets repeated afterwards.

Using SMRS’ Promise-Practice-Proof framework, you’ll uncover the gaps between intention and interpretation, then rebuild the message around what people actually need to hear. Leave with a more human way of communicating change and a reusable tool for the future.

Stanimira Kovacheva

Employer Branding & Organisational Culture Strategist

EQUIP SESSION

Culture Debt Lab: Find the Gaps Weakening Your Employer Brand

When the employee experience doesn’t match the employer promise, another campaign rarely fixes the problem. The real issue may sit deeper inside the organisation.

This interactive lab introduces Culture Debt, a way of understanding the hidden organisational conditions that quietly shape employer brand outcomes. Using the Culture Debt Canvas, you’ll examine the gap between promise and reality, uncover the factors sustaining it and explore its impact on attraction, engagement and retention.

Leave with a new perspective on employer branding, a practical way to start better cross functional conversations and a framework for thinking about employer brand as an organisational system.

Emily Forbes

CEO & Founder of Seenit, Unseen Group

PROVOKE SESSION

Beyond the careers site: The Psychology behind engaging candidate journeys.

Your employer brand is shaped by far more than the attraction campaign. Every assessment, communication and pre-boarding moment sends a signal about your culture, shaping how candidates feel about joining you.

This session explores the psychology behind an engaging candidate journey and challenges you to look at employer brand at every step of your recruitment process. Working with others, you'll take one principle and apply it across your own journey, uncovering practical ways to create greater continuity between what candidates are promised and how they are treated.

Galimir Engelhart & Sarah Sturgess

Global Employer Branding Lead, Just Eat - Managing Director and Chair, SMRS

EQUIP SESSION

Beyond Vanity Metrics: Putting Employer Brand ROI to the Test.

Impressions, followers, applications, awards. Most employer brand teams can prove they were busy. Far fewer can prove they spent the year on the right things.

This session will put familiar metrics under pressure and ask which ones genuinely help you make better decisions. Which numbers tell you when to stop a campaign, move budget, change direction or rethink a partnership? And which ones simply make the dashboard look busy?

Bring your own dashboard and work with others to audit what’s there, challenge what’s missing and decide what deserves to stay. You’ll leave with a shorter, sharper set of measures you’d actually bet your budget on.

No dashboard, or prefer not to share yours? We’ll have sample versions ready to tear apart instead.

Valeria Shvak and Kyla Brinkley

Global Executive Thought Leadership & Social Media, Real Chemistry

COACH SESSION

Personal Brand & Content Coaching

You'll receive tailored advice to help sharpen your positioning, plan more useful content and find a more confident and authentic way to show up online. Leave with clear next steps tailored to your own role, goals and challenges.

Places will be limited and available to book through the event app.

Martyna Prus

Employer Branding Manager, CD PROJEKT RED

SHOWCASE SESSION

Beyond Campaigns: Building an Employer Brand Content Ecosystem.

Individual campaigns can only go so far. A strong employer brand needs a connected content ecosystem that brings together business priorities, candidate needs, employee voices, channels and measurable outcomes.

Martyna will share how her small in-house team approaches long-form storytelling, employee advocacy, cross-functional collaboration, and data-informed planning.

Working through real employer brand scenarios, you'll explore how to respond when business priorities shift, new data challenges your assumptions, audience sentiment changes, or unexpected situations require you to rethink your content strategy.

Leave with practical ideas for building a more connected content ecosystem and making confident decisions without losing sight of the long-term goal.

Lauren Hodgeson

People Brand + Belonging Leader, Qualtrics

CREATE SESSION

Supercharge Your Brand with Surprise and Delight Moments for Your Talent Community.

In the world's best luxury hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants, unforgettable service relies on "unreasonable hospitality"—the art of creating unexpected, deeply human moments. But how do we bring that magic into our workplaces?

In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore how to use experience science and "surprise and delight" to turn candidates and employees into brand champions. Lauren will share how they operationalised this at Qualtrics—from executives pushing Treat Trolleys and fulfilling employee requests through the Dream Team, to shipping surprise swag to priority talent communities.

You’ll roll up your sleeves and leave with three specific, high-impact moments in your employee experience and talent communities where you can incorporate surprise and delight to supercharge your employer branding.

Valeria Shvak and Kyla Brinkley

Global Executive Thought Leadership & Social Media, Real Chemistry

CREATE SESSION

Personal Branding & LinkedIn Glow Up

Join us for this interactive Glow Up workshop where you'll explore how personal branding connects with employer brand, what makes an effective digital presence, the value of omni-channel personal branding and how to build a simple content strategy that feels authentic, useful and sustainable.

Expect practical LinkedIn guidance, tips for creating quality content consistently and a guided exercise to help shape your own personal content plan. Leave with clearer positioning, sharper ideas and next steps you can put into action straight away.

SHOWCASE

We share real client stories, case studies, proven impact and explore what's working in the real world.

You'll step inside the strategies that are working right now. Hear directly from brands and leaders who have tackled real employer brand challenges - what they did, what worked, and what they'd do differently. You can expect honest case studies, measurable outcomes, and practical learnings you can apply immediately.

PROVOKE

We explore bold ideas and new perspectives as we discuss and debate future thinking, A space to challenge the status quo and explore what's next.

From bold ideas and emerging trends to open debate and creative provocations, these sessions are designed to spark new perspectives and stretch your thinking. Come to question, contribute and reframe.

EQUIP

We discuss the various tools, skills and capabilities necessary to build practical frameworks, business cases, measurement and touchpoints.

Designed for practitioners who want to sharpen their approach, you'll focus on the 'how' - from building compelling business cases and mapping candidate touchpoints to measuring impact and proving value. You can expect practical frameworks, structured thinking and usable outputs.

CREATE

We encourage hands-on, actionable sessions, involving workshops and co-creation opportunities.

Roll up your sleeves and get involved. These interactive workshops are built around doing, not just listening. It's all about co-creating ideas, solving challenges and leaving with something tangible. Whether you're developing messaging, journeys or concepts, you'll leave with work in progress.

COACH

We're all about fast, focused expert support and one-to-one advice at speed.

Book your speed coaching session with employer brand and talent experts. Bring your challenge - whether it's EVP clarity, stakeholder buy-in, measurement gaps or campaign ideas and receive immediate, practical advice tailored to you. Short, high-impact conversations designed to unlock progress quickly.

Feeling inspired?

If you like the sound of how the day's shaping up, we'd love you to join us in Madrid.

The structure of the event.

Keynotes to set the tone

Fresh perspectives from inside and outside the world of employer branding.

Morning

Workshops and practical learning sessions

Hands on, useful and built around real challenges.

Midday

Breakout collaboration sessions

Smaller groups, open conversations and shared problem-solving.

Afternoon

A relaxed gathering

Time to connect, continue the conversation and wind down together.

Evening

Where it's happening.

The event will be held at Green Patio, in the heart of Madrid. It's a restored industrial space designed for creative, collaborative gatherings.

It combines flexible workshop areas, open networking spaces and natural, sustainable design, making it the perfect fit for what we want to create.

View Green Patio website