More than 20,000 attendees showed up in-person to SHRM’s national conference held in San Diego from June 29 through July 2. As attendees bustled from mainstage keynotes and fireside chats to the expo floor to breakout sessions, HR Brew chatted with some to get their take on the conference.
What brought attendees to SHRM? Several attendees interviewed by HR Brew said this year marked their first time at a SHRM conference. Many of those said they were there in part to keep up with their certifications (attendees can earn recertification credits while at the conference), while others were interested in networking and meeting with current and prospective vendors.
HR pros cited interest in getting insights to stay on the pulse of major shifts for the HR world. For example, Ellie Ledesma, senior manager of people at insurance comparison firm The Zebra, who attended with other members of her company’s HR team, said she wanted to stay up to date with AI.
“I wanted to make sure that we’ve got a pulse on the industry, any things that are changing…[and] that what we’re looking at, what we’re focused on, is aligned with what others are actually looking at and focusing on,” Ledesma said.
Compliance was another common focus for HR pros.
“I really wanted to do a little research and recon on some I-9 components that have shifted since COVID,” Daina Parker, an interim HR and IT VP for a large healthcare system in Delaware, told HR Brew. Parker said she was looking at vendors who are specifically focused on I-9 compliance and background checks, as well as tech companies offering AI agents that can conduct auditing services.
Favorite sessions. Beyond AI and compliance, the sessions that HR pros highlighted included those focused on leadership and company culture.
Monique Chehadé, a human resources manager at Pacific Fertility Center, mentioned one session titled “Work as We Know it is Broken,” hosted by Michael Puck, HR innovation fellow at the Workforce Institute at UKG: ”He made a lot of sense about: It’s not just about pay and benefits. Employees care a lot more about being seen, and what are their aspirations, and how employers should be thinking about that,” she said.
Dispatches from the expo floor. With more than 500 vendors present, HR pros could spend hours getting immersed on SHRM’s expo floor. Some highlights that HR pros shared included puppies at the PetPartners’ booth and a surprise photo op with Paul Lieberstein, who played beleaguered HR pro Toby Flenderson on The Office, at Paycom’s booth.
One vendor type sparking particular interest was pet insurance providers, as mentioned by several HR pros. Vendors included Nationwide’s pet insurance offering and Spot Pet Insurance.
“I’m keeping my eye open for some pet insurance vendors…That’s always a topic in our organization,” said Jeff Hubach, an HR supervisor at the Platte River Power Authority in Colorado.
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“It’s something we’ve been asked about a bunch,” Hannah Walker, a senior people operations generalist, also from The Zebra, said of pet insurance. “We’re looking at student loan programming [too], different things to kind of give a more well-rounded benefits and perk offering to our employees.”
And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the swag was also a big highlight. Vendors handed out goodies ranging from cell phone power banks to stuffed animals of their mascots.
“Next time I’m gonna bring an extra suitcase, I’m gonna pack less clothes, because I’m an over-packer, and…there’s so many things,” Diana Sanchez-Vega, founder and CEO of Sanchez-Vega Communications, career coach and bilingual staff trainer, said of the sheer amount of freebies available.
Biggest pros. When asked what they liked most at the conference, many attendees cited their ability to network, the location, and having ample opportunities for learning.
The HR pros from The Zebra noted it was beneficial that multiple people from their team could attend different sessions and debrief with one another later.
“The variety of learning that we can do, and the fact that there are three of us here to kind of divide and conquer, [is the biggest pro],” Rachel Bilardi, a people business partner at The Zebra, said. “We got the online access as well, so that we can continue to learn after the event itself, which is really great.”
Biggest cons. As for the biggest negative, the most common response was the sheer size of the event. The San Diego Convention Center, where the conference was held, spans more than 2.6 million square feet, and getting from one session to the next could take longer than time between breaks allowed, some HR pros said, while others noted that it could get overwhelming at times.
“I missed the [session] that I put on my schedule first this morning that I really was excited [about], because I didn’t realize there’s a whole other side to the convention center, so I didn’t give enough time, and it got full,” Chehadé said, but noted that she was able to get into the session next door with no problem.
Interviewees who attended last year’s conference, however, said they had an easier time navigating than previous years: “Last year in Chicago, it was a lot bigger. So I love [that] it’s been really easy to maneuver around,” Brianna Gonzalez, an HR generalist at Ventura Transfer Company, said.
Meanwhile, Parker said she was “honestly a little disappointed” that she wasn’t seeing as much content programming, nor vendors, focused on agentic AI.
“SHRM’s been really pushing AI certifications and conversations around it, and to not see it heavily represented on the floor does seem a little counterintuitive to what they’ve been drumming up,” she said.