Workhuman Live 2025

Celebrating Ten Years of Human Connection

Up against a year of uncertainty, HR professionals gathered at Workhuman^® Live in Denver to focus on elevating their organization’s resilience and productivity, their own personal growth, strategic clarity, organizational design, and visionary leadership.

But this wasn’t just any year – it marked 10 years of Workhuman Live. Over the last decade, we’ve built a community shaped by you, the attendee. Keep reading for a recap of our favorite week of the year and keep the HR goodness alive by joining us next year in sunny Orlando!

Center Stage: Clarity, Agility, and a Heart for Leadership

The mainstage came to life with keynote speakers like Trevor Noah, Adam Grant, and other industry trailblazers who shared fresh, thought-provoking takes on leadership, workplace culture, and what it means to be human at work.

We also heard from Workhuman customers BP and Cisco on the main stage. Kelly Jones and Kerry Dryburgh shared a powerful conversation on how to lead HR teams and organizations through continuous uncertainty, reminding us that leadership requires more than vision. It demands clarity, agility, and heart. They also reminded us that employee recognition isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a game-changing strategy that’s driving results in engagement, retention, and inclusion.

Takeaways from 60+ Sessions: Rise up, Build up, Lift up, and Step up

This year’s content centered around four immersive tracks – with breakouts and workshops designed to help attendees rise above the noise and approach their work with greater purpose.

• Rise Up focused on personal growth and strategic clarity.
• Build Up explored organizational resilience and high-performing cultures rooted in trust and recognition.
• Lift Up emphasized equity, community insight, and the broader role of HR as a steward of humanity.
• Step Up challenged leaders to innovate boldly at the intersection of people and technology.

Across 60+ sessions, speakers and HR practitioners shared actionable strategies for leading through uncertainty, amplifying empathy with AI, and elevating culture as a true business driver.

Some standout moments included: Hamza Khan reminding us that hope without action is merely a wish, but when combined with action, it becomes a blueprint for a better tomorrow. And, Erin Meyer, who offered powerful insights into the role of culture in international collaboration, showing how a nuanced understanding of cultural dynamics can determine whether global teams thrive or falter.

Now Live: First-Ever Council for Chief People Officers

Workhuman and The Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute also launched something pretty exciting: the very first Chief People Officer Council. It’s a one-of-a-kind group bringing together forward-thinking CPOs to help raise the bar for HR and its role in driving real business results. This Council is all about giving people leaders a bigger seat at the table and showing just how much impact they can have at the top levels of an organization. You can learn more about it here.

The Future of Recognition: A Live View of Workplace Culture 

One of the standout moments from this year’s event was the launch of Workhuman Topics™—a brand-new feature in the Human Intelligence™ suite. It’s a smart, AI-powered way to turn everyday recognition into a real-time snapshot of what’s happening in your company culture. Whether it’s inclusion, innovation, or leadership behaviors, Topics shows how those priorities are actually coming to life across teams, without anyone having to fill out forms or take on extra work.

With Human Intelligence, you have the tools to truly understand your people—who’s driving impact, how teams are collaborating, and where extra support might be needed. It’s recognition with real insight.

Workhuman Central: Energy, Ideas & Gratitude

Workhuman Central is recognition in motion: where ideas spark action, connections flourish, and the energy is contagious. It’s more than a space; it’s the pulse of the conference, mirroring the key content tracks with interactive activations created just for this conference.

And, we also let loose. We mingled, drank coffee, danced, and even got massages (in no particular order). The connection-building was nonstop, the conversations were deep, and when the DJ dropped the beat after Trevor Noah, we danced hard, turning the night into a celebration of connection. A dance circle formed in the middle, proving that Workhuman Live isn’t just about providing a forum to share ideas, it also brings the fun!

Looking Ahead: Sunny Orlando, here we come!

From fresh perspectives to lasting relationships, we hope every attendee left Workhuman Live 2025 feeling grounded, energized, and elevated.  

We had a blast in Colorado. Now it’s time to turn up the heat – and turn down the price – for Workhuman Live 2026 in Orlando, Florida. Join us April 27-30, 2026, at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center. Secure your early bird rate today.