Grow Your HR Community – You Belong at CAHR19
On the value of HR Community and being seen by your peers
Why get lost in a crowd when you can make genuine, lasting connections?
As the backbone of company culture, talent, and compliance, HR deserves better than to work in isolation. We love seeing thriving professional relationships formed at the California HR Conference where people uplift and support each other in their current role, in career transitions, and in personal transitions. We love seeing HR professionals realize they’re not alone – and meet new friends or form their personal board of directors. These relationships can deepen your enjoyment of CAHR19 experiences as you debrief and share a variety of takeaways together. The best part? You’ll look forward to seeing and catching up with your HR community at the next HR event.
So why attend a learning event that’s too big to facilitate genuine connections? CAHR19 provides that sweet spot of conference experience that offers both leading content and best practices with 2,700 other HR professionals, plus tons of opportunities to foster true community among your peers.
Don’t take our word for it. We gathered some stories from CAHR attendees about how they found value in networking at the California HR Conference. Learn more about the impact of HR community on past attendees, and the social experiences you’ll enjoy at CAHR19. After gaining these insights, register today and save on your (and your team’s) CAHR19 registration. Our $50 Standard Rate savings expire July 31!
I love being in HR because I get to impact the business, and develop people in their careers every day. I love giving back to the community and giving back to the HR profession. I have met some incredible HR professionals through the learning sessions and networking events at CAHR19.
My networking tips for CAHR19? Come with an open mind to learn, make a connection with someone that you didn’t know and make a personal or business impact with your knowledge by applying it.
I really enjoy meeting people at the conferences. The most meaningful for me have been with the Young Professional (YP) group. There I can meet and network with YP’s eager to grow their careers and help them out like others have helped me.
My CAHR19 networking tips? Don’t just sit quietly in the sessions then go back home or to your hotel. Talk to people. Everyone around you is there to learn, and so much more learning happens when you’re talking to one another and sharing your thoughts and experiences.
When I was a new member of the HR community, I met people at the California HR Conference that I could network with and make connections. Those connections came in very handy when I had questions or concerns, just being able to send an email or make a call were often critical to my success.
The ability to meet others with unique ideas has been amazing. The HR community that attends the conference is dynamic, eager to share ideas and best practices and very welcoming!
In addition, meeting vendors at the Expo provided resources for my employers that I could not necessarily have found on my own – for unique wellness ideas, employee events, benefits and even HRIS options.
Attending the California HR Conference helped me develop lifelong relationships that I could not have done anywhere else. I’ll always remember the year I had a suite and invited a group of people come over to play pool and just hang out. A fellow HR professional from England, who was one of the speakers at the conference came with a mutual friend. We connected immediately and today we still stay in touch.
My networking tips for CAHR19:
– Check out the PIHRA Foundation Silent Auction. Support our future HR leaders.
– Network, network, network. Exchange at least 10 business cards a day. If you are in transition, make sure you have business cards available.
I met Mike Deblieux in the early 90’s at this conference. We met having lunch at the same table in back of the exhibit hall. Over the years, we have maintained a connection and built a friendship. Mike has been a valuable resource for me over the years. I obtained my SPHR because of Mike!
My networking tips for CAHR19? Be prepared to network, make eye contact and conversation with other attendees! To make the most out of your time in the Expo, highlight vendors you are interested in meeting at the exhibit hall, and give yourself extra time for those vendors you hadn’t planned on meeting.
The California HR Conference allows me to feel more connected to the HR community as a whole, which is especially important when you work as an HR department as one.
Through the conference, I’ve made professional and personal connections that will stay with me forever. Last year I was considering new opportunities and mentioned this to a vendor that I’d never met before. He asked a few key questions about what I was looking for, and then took me around the exhibit hall introducing me to tons of other vendors who may have connections that could land me a dream job. My networking tip? Many vendors have cool events and parties in the evening that you’ll miss out on if you don’t stop and say hi to everyone at the Expo!
I always arrive early to network with other “early birds.” I never miss an opportunity at lunch to network with as many folks as I can. I might be a little different in that I typically don’t look for old friends, but look to find new ones at lunch.
My networking tips for CAHR19? Make a commitment to meet a certain amount of new folks each day. Break away from the colleagues you work with and sit next to someone new, eat lunch at different tables, talk to the presenters…and don’t forget to have some fun!
Must-Attend Social Events at CAHR19
Now that you’ve learned how much value you can experience from growing your network and building relationships at the California HR Conference, get a taste of our social events offering for this year in Long Beach! Don’t forget to save $50 on your registration before July 31.
Sunday Night Comedy Show
Start off your conference experience with an evening of uproarious laughter! Our Sunday Night Comedy Show features comedian Al Madrigal, famous for his HBO specials and most recently, “Night School.” Doors open at 7:00 for games, music, and enjoyment!
 Comedy Show Sponsor |
Meet to Move
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Monday, August 26 at 6:15am – 7:00am
Lighthouse & Lake Walk
As an HR leader are you tasked to bring ‘Wellness’ to your employees and curious about best practices? Or do you just want to get in a good morning walk to jump start CAHR19 Day 1?
Join the official CAHR19 Health & Wellness partner, FitPros a workplace wellness service provider, as they lead an interactive and collaborative Wellness Walk along the waterfront. FitPros’ Wellness Specialists will depart the main entrance of the Long Beach Convention Center at 6:15am and lead attendees around the lake, to the lighthouse and back. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to network with your fellow CAHR attendees on this roundtrip 2 mile walk. You will leave feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and informed!
Oh and did we mention there is a one big giveaway, and everybody will leave with a gift!
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Lunch!
Here at CAHR19, we LOVE lunch. What you eat mid-day can greatly impact your ability to focus in the afternoon, so we source the best-tasting, balanced meals you crave after a morning of learning. Plus – the connections you make at lunch could energize and support you in your career! Fill up your plate with a delicious hot meal, and find a table to meet new connections and share insights from the day so far. Why not exchange business cards, while you’re at it?
 Monday Lunch Sponsor |
Meet to Move
Tuesday, August 27 at 6:15am – 7:00am
Yoga
We suggest BYOM (Bring Your Own Mat) but don’t be afraid to join in regardless. You’ll receive a gift for simply showing up and trying!
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Lunch!
See above. Lunch is the best, especially at CAHR19!
 Tuesday Lunch Sponsor |
Tuesday Music Show
This year at CAHR19, get excited to rock’n’roll all night – and HR every day! We’re serving you rock & pop hits at our Tuesday Night Music show with supergroup Ezra Ray Hart; three chart-topping, award-winning frontmen from Sugar Ray, Tonic, and Better Than Ezra will sing the songs they wrote that dominated radios. Doors open at 7:00pm, so feel free to come early to hang out, play ping pong or foosball with new friends, enjoy a beverage, and try on some new dance moves with DJ Noble’s tunes to set the mood for a night to remember!
 Music Show Sponsor |
CAHR19 Keynote Speakers
Learn from world-class experts and save $50 with Standard pricing before July 31!
Tuesday Keynote
LINDA A. HILL
Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School & Bestselling Author of Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading InnovationSponsored by Ultimate Software
Monday Keynote
DANIEL H. PINK
Bestselling Author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, To Sell is Human and Drive
Sponsored by GlobalUpside
$50 Savings Ends Soon!
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Invest in your yourself and your career!
Paul Butler is a Client Partner with Newleaf Training and Development, based in Valencia, CA. Paul is a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) and a Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA), having qualified with Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Prior to starting Newleaf Training and Development in 2005, he served as a Regional Finance Director for Marriott International Hotels and Hilton International Hotels. Paul also served as the Director of Finance for Hilton Honors. Paul is a very engaging facilitator, able to take the complexity of a subject and distill it into simple, memorable concepts that can be immediately applied.
Kifaya Thallam is a seasoned HR Executive with over 20 years of experience in HR, holding several key positions in Human Resources including, but not limited to Chief HR Officer, Regional Head of HR Group HR Advisor, Group HR Director, HR Consultant in Governmental & Multinational Organizations in the Middle East. Kifaya is specialized in HR Organization Design, HR Transformation and M&A, served in several industries; Telecommunications, Defense, Banking, Manufacturing & Transportation.
In addition to her work Kifaya is an active speaker in HR Conferences in the Middle East & Europe (Dubai, Belgium, Spain, Budapest, Jordan) delivered several lectures and workshops on Organization Design, Talent Management & Performance Management. Kifaya holds several degrees; BSc, MSc, MBA & MA in addition to other several professional certifications in HR (CIPD, CAHRI, CPHR, CPD,BPS) completed her certification in Organization Design from USC. Kifaya is currently based in UAE-Dubai. 
Ben Mones is CEO and Co-Founder of Fama. Fama (fama.io) is an AI-based solution that helps companies limit the incidence of sexual harassment in the workplace, and similar, crippling issues such as abusive behavior and insider threats. They do this by applying machine learning to publicly available online information and internal HR data. Fama’s mission is to create a more productive and welcoming workplace, while ensuring that businesses are not exposed to unnecessary risk. Based in Los Angeles, Fama’s cloud-based software solutions are deployed globally, with enterprise customers in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia.
Ramona Agrela serves as the associate chancellor and chief human resources executive for the University of California, Irvine. She is the senior university official responsible for all human resources administration and operations and sits on the Chancellor’s Cabinet at campus and the CEO’s Cabinet for UCI Health. Ramona is a dynamic human resource professional with extensive, award-winning experience across multiple disciplines including labor relations, compensation/classification, executive compensation, employee relations, HRIS systems, and organizational development. She has been successful in implementing human resource programs in support of business strategies that motivate, retain, engage, and attract valuable employees. Through strong faculty, staff and student relationships across the organization, she has built successful partnerships that have helped launch many innovative human resource programs.
With a passion for helping organizational leaders achieve their strategic goals through progressive talent management strategies, Ramona truly believes that HR’s role is to empower people to drive a culture of innovation, learning and service. 
As Senior Director of Advisory Services at SocialChorus, Gregg develops and delivers a suite of strategic services that support communications professionals with the guidance to plan, create, publish and measure their communications. These experiences build trust with communications professionals and business leaders, drive employees to take action, and create winning company cultures.
Gregg brings 20 years of experience ranging from customer experience and employee experience strategy, content creation, technology implementations, and data-driven marketing and communications. Over this time, he has worked with brands like GE, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Target, Verizon, OWN, Sony Pictures, NBCUniversal, Johnson & Johnson, HSN, Ann Taylor & LOFT, Nike, and Reebok.
Gregg is passionate about helping HR and Internal Communications professionals innovate and activate employees through powerful branded content, communications and engagement. When not helping customers to define strategies that deliver desired outcomes, Gregg spends a good amount of time as an employee experience thought leader, writing articles for multiple blogs and publishers like Forbes, speaking at conferences. He also enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters, working out, and relaxing on the beach.
As a talent executive, leadership coach, and organizational consultant, Tina Robinson empowers humans to love what they do, educates leaders on how to encourage and inspire this passion, and equips organizations with the structures, systems, and practices that support radical engagement.
Tina solves humans-at-work challenges. Outcomes include:
* Learning design, development, and delivery: Practical and engaging leadership development programs that result in positive measurable behavior change and mindset shifts.
* Executive coaching: Leaders with tighter focus on critical business results, renewed engagement, strengthened workplace relationships, and improved communication with stakeholders up, down, across, and outside the organization.
* HR strategy: Alignment of people initiatives with organizational priorities to exceed business and financial objectives through harnessed human potential – enabled by systems and measured by data. The new HR is HUMAN RELEVANCE.
* Program stewardship: Complex global programs with clear measurable objectives and clockwork communication cadences, supported by engaged coalitions, that accomplish their purpose.
* Workforce technology strategy: Value-driven business cases that secure financial investment and executive championing, guide implementation, and support ROI measurement of HRIS, from talent and learning management to applicant tracking systems.
We all have our own moon shot, our big bold dream waiting to become reality. We each deserve to love what we do, to be radically engaged, and to have the opportunities and support to experience this love. 
Adam Markel is a CEO, Best Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, and Business Mentor. Adam has spent the past 10 years training hundreds of thousands of people all across the United States, Southeast Asia, Canada, Europe and Australia on how to PIVOT to living a life of purpose, passion and freedom. Known as one of the most charismatic speakers you’ll ever see, Adam Markel has reinvented what it means to be a heart-centered and inspiring leader. He’s admired for his refreshing and inspiring impact on entrepreneurs, creative thinkers and leaders worldwide. Adam is also the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of PIVOT: The Art and Science of Reinventing Your Career and Life.
A Recognized Expert in the integration of business and personal transformation, Adam has been interviewed by: Fox News, Newsday, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal and more. Prior to his work with New Peaks, Adam spent two years teaching junior high school English, founded a successful commercial real estate investment firm and went to law school — where he passed the New York State, New Jersey State and Federal Court bars. After law school Adam founded a multimillion-dollar law firm specializing in finance, commercial and employment litigation. Over the course of his 17-year practice, Adam represented over 1,000 matters with hundreds of clients including Citibank, Wachovia and HSBC.
Melissa Anzman is the CEO and Founder of bettHR. Since 2004, Melissa has been establishing employee focused communication solutions across global organizations, including establishing and leading Employee Communications and HR departments at several highly regarded organizations. Her work has been implemented at organizations big and small across various industries including automotive, non-profit, healthcare, financial services, publishing, aerospace, retail, and more.
Melissa’s approach to delivering impact-based HR solutions, starts with understanding the metrics behind HR-activities, ensuring the HR strategic business partners are leading the organization from the front, and creating meaningful relationships between employees and their company. Her work has been featured in places such as Business Insider, Amex OPEN Forum, and the Huffington Post. Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications and a master’s degree in Business Administration (HR Management), from the University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Shirley Davis, CSP, is an accomplished corporate executive, global workforce management expert, a certified leadership coach, and a master of reinvention. She works with leaders at all levels and has worked in more than 30 countries on 5 continents and delivers more than 80 speeches a year. She brings a high-energy, high-content and high-value message to audiences all around the world. With over 20 years of business experience in a variety of senior and executive leadership roles with Fortune 100 companies, Dr. Davis’ expertise lies in providing solutions and strategies for achieving leadership excellence and in building high performance and inclusive workplace cultures where all talent can thrive. Most recently, she worked at the world’s largest HR membership association, the Society for Human Resource Management as Vice President of Global Diversity and Inclusion and Workplace Strategies.
Dr. Davis has also been a featured expert on NBC’s The Today Show, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, USA Today, HR Magazine, Profiles in Diversity Journal, CNN.com, and Inclusion Magazine. She is the author of, “Reinvent Yourself: Strategies for Achieving Success in Every Area of Your Life,” and “The Seat: How to Get Invited to the Table When You are Over-Performing and Undervalued.”
Michael Patterson, Ed.D. is a principal and author at Core Strengths, a global talent development company pioneering relationship intelligence as a utility for leaders. Using data created by the company’s strengths-based, psychological assessment, Dr. Patterson and his colleagues have created a cloud-based portal that puts relationship intelligence to work in daily meetings, conversations, and presentations, allowing leaders to bring out the best in their talent and drive results.
In addition to his work with the Core Strengths team, Dr. Patterson is a frequent conference and keynote speaker and the co-author of the highly acclaimed book, Have a Nice Conflict: How to Find Success and Satisfaction in the Most Unlikely Places. He also teaches in the doctoral program at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology and in the Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology program at Vanguard University. Dr. Patterson holds degrees from Wheaton College (IL), Troy University, Biola University, and Pepperdine University. He began his career as an active-duty Army officer and later served in the California Army National Guard. After completing his military service, Dr. Patterson had a successful, 20-year career at TAP and Takeda Pharmaceuticals where he held a variety of sales, marketing, training, and leadership development roles. Dr. Patterson now resides in Temecula, CA.
