EOY Staffing Industry Events 2025

In this episode, we dive into the bustling fall conference season, discussing key events from Dallas to Orlando to Vegas. Highlights include SIA Collab X, TempNet Fall Conference, Thrive Live, ASA Staffing World, and the SIA Healthcare Staffing Summit. We cover noteworthy sessions on AI, tech advancements, business strategies, leadership development, and compliance in the evolving workforce landscape. Don't miss our recommendations for must-attend sessions and insights into maximizing your conference experience.

It is conference season again, like are we back in conference season?

I know. I mean, and this is like crazy. Every time I think of conference season, it means that the end of the year is near and I feel like some are just started, like what is happening right now?

I don't know, but I know that we've got, we have a handful of conferences to get through. We've got some really good segments that I think both of us have found that I think are gonna be great for the community to tap into if they're there. But yeah, I, you know, I will say this, I, I do, I do enjoy getting to see people face to face.

Like it does, it does hit me right in the right in the soft spot, you know, it's

No, it's one of my favorite times. So as much as we're on the road, we're in planes, planes, trains, and automobiles, that joy of giving someone a hug and have it being just in front of them, I love it. I've missed it. So, so, yeah. So as much as I say I dread, dread the travel, I'm super, super excited for this year's season.

Let's, where are we going first, Jeff? What's, what's first on the list?

first on the list, we're gonna fly out to Dallas, Texas, or if you're already in Dallas, Texas, you're just, I guess, I dunno, driving across the street. But,

There's your automobile.

we have SIA collab X from September nine to is September 11th where they are doing very much like a, I mean, is it is heavy tech, heavy ai right.

Yeah, this is a big change because this used to be for anyone that had come to it before. This used to be the giggy economy, so this year, SIA did something different. They've really refocused on. Really, truly what's the future, which is that AI and tech side and how, how AI and tech really kind of impacts the staffing and workflow workforce solutions industry.

So, super excited about a lot of sessions that are gonna be there.

Very

Okay.

You know, I would say with the heavy focus on tech always, you know, if you're, if you're attending these events and you're getting, you know, you're getting excited to go and see some of these sessions, always consider obviously the environment that the tech was implemented in. And then make those considerations for your own group based on your own. Space. But let's dig into some of these sessions. First one I saw was on September 10th at 3:50 PM It was how assemble AI agents assisted with a hundred hires in a hundred days. So I felt like that was a kind of an interesting one to maybe have people stop in at. Brad Owens over at Assemble is gonna be hosting it. doing stuff with regards to like AI agentic teams, but also talking about like crafting, sourcing, scheduling, and even workflows. So whether you're in assemble or not these could be really good ideas that maybe you could bring back even into your own a TS and identify ways to improve.

I love that. And then after that, usually for the end of the day, they wrap up on that first one. The Shark Tank. And the Shark Tank is really exciting because it is a group of new technology influencers that are coming into kind of the space. They get to showcase what they're really doing and then the audience and the panel.

All get to vote. So it's like, I don't know if you've seen Shark Tank before or if you're in Canada, it's called the Lion's Den. You really get to go out there and it is such a fun, fun, fun experience, and you get to see really what's kind of emerging in our space. So I highly recommend going to see that at four 15 on the 10th.

So that will be a good one. And then we gotta really make sure that we show up in the morning because the 7:45 AM session. That's not too early. Grab your coffee, but it's AI for executives and leaders, and it's developing truly your personal skills and preparing your organization, which is led by Lauren Jones.

Lauren is amazing. If you haven't done her session, she's got some great insights, super practical, hands-on, and that is a great one to go to. I would definitely not miss that one at all.

For sure Lauren over at Leap Advisory Partners. She's got great energy at all the sessions that she does, so really good, really informative session. After that you do have another one that we'd like to call out at 10 30. In the morning it's building a fully autonomous staffing firm. I'll be honest, like it makes me nervous being in like human capital as an industry.

I don't know how we go fully autonomous, but I think it could be fascinating. It might be able to help people uncover some really innovative ways that they can be a lot more efficient at their organizations. It, it sounds fascinating.

Yeah, that's gonna be one that I think a lot of people will be attending because I mean, we're such a human first culture, especially in, in staffing and building that relationship. So we'll be, definitely one to listen to and see what is gonna come up from that.

Agreed.

Then kind of following that one right after is one that I think everyone should really, truly go and listen to.

So also on September 11th, which is at 1130, which is red flags and gray areas navigating legal compliance and ethical issues in an AI world. So as much as I think we wanna put blindfolds on and not listen in on this, I think this is probably the one that we probably wanna listen to the most as.

There is a lot of legal folks that will be in there that will be really be driving this from a panel perspective around what are really the concerns that we need to look at from ai. So I think that's gonna be a good one for everyone to attend.

For sure. And now listen, there's plenty of other sessions that are in there. These are the ones that we, that we thought were pretty

I.

especially on the back of the reporting and stuff that's been done through the all things staffing space with the current these tend to resonate really strongly with a lot of the, trending elements there. So as we now leave collab X, we depart Dallas. Texas and we head over to Park City, Utah, I believe for temp net

Ooh,

So that's

true. It's gonna be, the leaves will be changing, so that's gonna be a nice spot to be in September.

For sure. So September 17th through the 19th, is that temp net fall conference. Their theme, I'm gonna say, you know, as I looked at their agenda, it's a, it's a, a little less tech dense and a little bit more business strategy, which I think is actually a, a pretty good balance to have in the space.

I think it's something that's needed right now, and especially coming off of kind of collab X, where it's all AI and tech and coming into this space, that's gonna be great. And I know that kicks off. There was one that we were looking at September 18th at 8:30 AM Tom Herb, who is amazing and just a leader within this industry.

He is opening up with unlocking your potential, how to leverage four mindsets for staffing success. So I think that'll be great to really kind of learn what are those four mindsets and what do we need to learn. Tom is excellent at this and hope to have him here on the podcast later on as well, which will be great.

For sure, and then the next day, on September 19th at 9:00 AM we've got Kim Henderson is doing a driving growth by selling statement of work. You know, Kim has been in this industry for a long time. She's a legend. She really knows her stuff and really, you know, provides really good insights into ways that we could think about doing sales a bit differently.

So that should be a fantastic session as well.

Kim is also doing another one. I don't even know if Kim's getting any type of break, so hopefully they give her water, coffee or something in between, but immediately following her nine o'clock session, she's doing a 10 45. And it is gonna be the power of differentiation. Nice. I got that. I nailed it this time.

That's good. I always have troubles with that word. I don't know why, but it is the power of differentiation. gaining client share, and adding value. So Kim does that day in day out. So this will be a great session to kind of catch her back to back.

That one really like resonated with me when I saw it just because, you know, with technology sometimes you could end up in this area where it blurs the lines of the brands. So I think, you know, having someone in the industry that's really calling attention to differentiation and making sure that you've got good brand. Borders, I think is gonna be really powerful in the future.

I love how that word comes just natural for you. Differentiation. There we go. There we go.

Well, now that we've wrapped up the temp net fall conference we are gonna leave Park City, Utah, and we are gonna head over to the other side of the country, into Orlando, Florida. And that

We're going. That's true. So we're kicking off in sunny Orlando at the Gaylord, which will be great. And that kicks off first with Thrive Live. And this is something that's very dear to my heart being a part of it for the last two years, and excited to be a part for number three this next year. But Thrive Live kicks off on the Sunday, October 5th.

We have some amazing keynote speakers, which is gonna be great. And you guys, this is not just for women as much as Thrive is all about women in leadership and rising up and building your confidence and we chat through imposter syndrome and all that fun stuff. This is also for all allies. So. I know Jeff, you've attended before.

We encourage guys to come out, like be there, listen, be a part of it. We're all big huggers, so we will give you hugs and support one another. So this is exciting. That takes place on the Sunday to the Monday, 

so coming off of Thrive live, which will be wrapping up on that Monday, we go directly into staffing world and it is kicking off with a keynote, which is Katie Lud Key, who is. multiple gold medal winner for swimming.

And she's gonna be amazing to hear for all of us. And then that really kind of kicks off staffing world and then leads us into some of the sessions that I know we're excited about on the Tuesday.

And look, there are a lot of

I.

The one thing I'll say with regards to staffing world is a SA usually puts together quite a wide. Breadth of like topics that you can cover. So really make sure that you, you know, look at this agenda ahead of time. You've got all of your breakout sessions, you also have your knowledge hubs, and so you can get either those one hour segments or those 10 minute segments but they will feed you an awful lot of information that is quite diverse across the entire organization. I do have a session this year as well. It's not a, a breakout session, but it is a knowledge hub. it is on October 7th at 10:30 AM it's called brand neglect, and really what this boils down to is the potential losses that people have. When they go through and do a merger and acquisition, but then don't consider the value of the brand that they just purchased.

I'm gonna share some insights with people there and you know, hopefully for those that are using m and as to leverage your brand up and get more growth, you'll have greater opportunity to make sure that you're taking advantage of as much of that brand as possible that you just purchased.

That is gonna be awesome, and I think everyone should definitely go and see that one first thing, 10:30 AM on October 7th, and then following yours. I like the session and one of, there's many sessions, but the one that kind of stood out to me was leading in volatile times, building trust, accountability, and adaptability, which kind of goes with our highly adaptive theme here, and that is run by s.

Seth Stein, CEO of East Ridge Workforce Management. I think this is gonna be a great session that we'll be able to dive into. And really quickly, when you are looking at this, there is some other sessions, but there's multiple different tracks that you actually can follow when you're at staffing world. So if you wanna look at the, the client side, the customer side, the sales side, the AI side, if you choose that a SA does a really good job of laying out, here's the actual sessions that you should be attending.

Agreed. So next that, that session that you just shared was at 1130 on October 7th. Then at two 15 on October 7th, there is also building a strong sales culture, leveraging artificial intelligence to enhanced human skills. That's actually gonna be hosted by Butler Street.

You've got Erica Bance and Joey Framp. And so they really, you know, jumped on AI quite early when it became available to everyone to do training. So they would be really the authorities in the space to be able to give you that information and insight. Definitely a session worth looking into.

Totally agree. And then following that one, one thing that brought that kind of jumped out to me was the empowering internal champions of Skilling for Success. I think this is gonna be a good one. This is with Kelly McCree CEO of Hamilton, Riker, Kathy Canfield, SVP, over at Employee Bridge.

Jennifer Cross from Adecco and John Rafini is gonna be the facilitator. He is the VP of professional development over at HealthTrust, and I think that's gonna be a great session and something different that we don't generally always bring into the mix here.

Agreed. After that you've got at 4 45 winning relationships and elevating sales leadership. This has got a really great group as well. You've got Casey 

j Cox, who is the sales and leadership coach of winning the relationship. You've got Brett Kavanaugh over at Temp Work Software, Michelle Chen over at Adecco, and also Greg. Pier over at Randstad. And so I think this is gonna be a really good session for people to attend.

Really understanding how to win relationships and, and really moving that ball when it comes to the sales initiatives.

I love that, and I think wrapping up the Tuesday and going into our Wednesday morning. So once again, be ready. Nice and early for nine 30 is one that is very dear to me. It's our people are our product Building a Culture First Strategy. This is going to be with Aaron Grossman, CEO of Talent Lodge, Chris Goden, CEO of Newberry Partners, and April Hanson, CEO of Barton and Associates.

And I think this is gonna be great because culture I think really truly establishes an organization no matter what industry you're in. So this is gonna be a good one.

Agreed. After that we've got 1145 excellence in execution. How top staffing firms drive consistently, remarkable experiences. And let's be honest, that's what we're all here to do, is to create really good experiences with everyone that we work with. This has got for speakers here, we've got Eric, Greg from Clearly Rated and Erica Woods from Apex Systems. So they're gonna bring their wealth of knowledge to the space and tell you how you can be more remarkable with the people that you work with.

And then to wrap it all up, it is actually going to be a session that I am doing with Fernando Rodriguez Villa from Adept id, and he's asked me to kind of join him. And really what we're gonna kind of bring it home with is, is your AI working? And it's a guide to measuring AI performance. We're excited to bring you lots about what do you need to do with your data?

How do we make sure you have the right AI tools in place? What are our magical models in order to report on this? And then really be able to allow folks to be able to deliver the results and see those. So excited to bring it home. That's Wednesday, October 8th at two 15 to three 15, right before the final closing keynote.

Awesome, awesome. So you've got a little bit of a delay between the A SA staffing world and then coming into the SIA Healthcare Staffing Summit. So you'll have time to go home and change over your clothes and do what you have to do, repack your suitcases,

Halloween, Halloween, Jeff

So

in between.

it. So November 5th to November 7th, you're gonna be at Red Rocks in Vegas.

to attend the SIA Healthcare Staffing Summit. What do you think the overarching trend is with them this year in terms of the sessions that they have?

Yeah. Some of the big things that we're seeing is what, I mean, healthcare has been a talk. For everyone, but I know they're really focusing on both the MNA landscape. I know they're kicking off with that, but a lot of different, what are the insights that we're seeing emerging across the board? So there is some AI focused sessions.

But I think we're gonna see a lot of breakout sessions that are gonna be everything from like your allied health to your locums, to your travel nurse. So I think that we see that all the way throughout. I know there was some notable ones that we called out that I think will be interesting for, for everyone in, I know the first one, I know I mentioned m and a already, but kicking off on the sixth at 1145, there is a session with Brian Wallens, 

with SIA. Steve Garbin, managing director at the Bra Group and Greg Palmer, who is CEO and Chairman over at Supplemental and they're doing consolidation ahead, mergers and acquisitions and evolving healthcare landscape. And I truly, truly believe that we're actually gonna see a lot more m and a activity within this space.

We already have been seeing it, and I think there's more to come, so I'm excited for that one.

That's awesome. And then at 2:00 PM you've got the future

Okay.

revolution in healthcare staffing. And this has got a pretty big group. You've got Kevin Chen over at SIA. You've got Brandon Atkinson over at Carere, Anthony Cantonese over at IA Healthcare. You've got Justin Lambert at Nomad Healthcare and also Amanda Maxon over at Trusted Health.

So they're gonna bring a lot of their insights and information into that space. Talking to you about, you know, basically platform development, emerging technologies and how it can better support the healthcare staffing community.

Exactly. Well, I'm excited for that too because after that one at three o'clock on the same day, we've got Brian Wallens again. He's gonna be busy during this SIA, but so we've got Brian, we've got Jason Lander from ia, and we have Jason Nyad from Bullhorn both to good friends of mine.

But they are doing integrating AI and tech. Real world applications in healthcare staffing. I think this is going to be a great one. All three of them are truly at the forefront of what is evolving in technology. So this is going to be a great session for kind of everyone to see where we're actually going with things.

Awesome. Now we're in November 7th, we're on the next day, 10:30 AM You've got a session beyond the dashboard operationalizing data to drive sales performance. And so in here you've got a really good tight group. You've got Kirsten Buck from SIA. You've got. Jen SKO over at Floyd Lee Locums, and you also have Mike Cleland over at Charter Path. they're gonna bring all of their experience to the table to talk to you about how you can be looking at your dashboards and your data differently. You know, with all the changes that are taking place, we really need to start reassessing the metrics and the KPIs that are being counted, and I'm sure that's gonna be a part of what they're talking about too.

I think that's great. And then kind of closing out that day on the seventh. Well, one that we thought was gonna be really good, which is at 1130, and this is really going to apply to your small to mid-size healthcare firms that are looking to grow. But this one is about achieving breakthrough growth in the new reality of healthcare staffing.

There's a lot of small. Companies that are coming up and they wanna take it to that next level. So this is with Barry from SIA to Tony Nfo, CEO of ProLink, and then Liz Tonkin, who is the president and CEO of at MedPro. So this is gonna be a great one of, I, I know them. They're gonna do a lot of different like strategies and what are the best practices and how can you really take your actual firm to that next level.

So excited to bring it home with that there.

Awesome. And then the last one that we have on the list here is as group. They've got their fall meeting coming up November 11th to the 14th. It's gonna be in Atlanta, Georgia. At the time of this recording, they don't have their agenda released just yet, but certainly stay tuned and, and keep an eye out for it as group usually does a really good job of like.

Making sure it serves their community with the information and insights that they need. And especially around this time of year, you know, annual planning is really important. Getting as much information and insight in as possible is really important. So I think taking advantage of some, all any of these conferences is probably a really good idea for anyone that's in the space.

I think that's excellent. I definitely recommend checking out the agendas. I mean, we shared with you guys what we think are the ones that we would be the most interested in, but obviously to each their own. So go through every single conference agenda, see what appeals to you, and we cannot wait to hear your feedback and what you think about each of the sessions and where things are going.

Amazing, amazing. Listen, I'm glad we're able to do this quick roundup for everyone so that they know what they're stepping into for the conferences. And I can't wait for our next episode.

I love it. Thanks everyone. Enjoy conference season.