Main Event & Exhibition: 1 & 2 September 2026
HRSE KSA Awards: 1 September 2026
Conference and Expo Day One - AT (Arabian Time, GMT+03:00)
Beyond small talk. Into real connection.
Connects is a meaningful icebreaker and energiser designed to break down barriers and create genuine connections between participants. Moving beyond traditional small talk, the activity encourages people to discover shared interests, experiences and perspectives, helping them see their colleagues in a new light.
Through a series of engaging interactions, participants uncover stories and common ground that might not naturally emerge in the workplace. These connections create a stronger sense of understanding and appreciation, while helping teams recognise the different perspectives and experiences within the room.
- Sherif El Tahan - Senior Consultant, Biz Group
The more we automate HR, the more human HR must become. Organisations have never owned more HR technology, yet only one in four turn it into business value. The reason is simple: we digitise the process instead of removing the pain.
This session presents the HUMAN loop, a practical five-step methodology for building an HR automation strategy that pays back in business terms: faster services, stronger engagement, and measurable gains in productivity and retention. It comes from a leader who speaks both languages, technology and people, in a career that began in IT and grew into senior HR leadership engaging boards and NRC committees.
You will leave with a compass, not a checklist: a five-step methodology you can apply immediately, a one-page scorecard that turns diagnosis into a roadmap, KPIs that measure what employees feel as well as what processes cost, and three moves that need no budget at all.
- Hashim Ghamri - Director - Centre of Excellence, El-Seif Engineering Contracting
- Andrew Timming - Professor of Organisational Behaviour | Associate CIPD, Mohammed bin Salman College and Timming Psychometrics
- Dr. Abrar Rizq - Director - Executive Program in Human Resources Management, King Abdulaziz University
- George Hanna - Regional Director, CIPD
- Mohammed Aiyad Al Harbi - Head of Talent Development, Saudi Iron and Steel Company (HADEED)
Manager readiness, not AI adoption, is the real gap
Most organisations have strategy and tools. What's missing is the manager layer that turns them into results.
Management has evolved, and most managers haven't caught up
The role has moved from Boss to Process Manager to People Manager. The next step is the Supermanager, a leader who orchestrates human and AI capability rather than administrative coordination.
There's a maturity ladder for AI, and few managers know where they sit on it
From using AI as a personal assistant, to deploying AI agents, to running multiple agents together, to orchestrating them across a team. A simple way to diagnose an organisation's starting point.
Curiosity beats control
The managers who succeed create a culture where "what if" is safe to ask, not one where they hold all the answers.
This is a leadership development problem, not a training problem
A single workshop can't shift how someone leads. Developing leaders who can guide teams through AI change takes structured development over time, with real-world application between sessions, not a one-off event.
- Matthew Wilkins - Director - Learning Technology, Biz Group
- Syed Azharudin - Director of Learning & Organisational Development, AJEX Logistics - A Partner of DHL eCommerce
In today’s hyper-growth economies and rapidly evolving regional markets, rapid recruitment and culture initiatives mean very little if burnout and presenteeism quietly drain your best people out the back door. While HR leaders invest heavily in performance frameworks and AI hiring tools, an unseen friction point continues to erode productivity: top talent silently carrying the weight of stress, family pressures, and complex psychosocial demands across diverse, multinational workforces. Legacy EAPs repeatedly fail in competitive global markets because they lack clinical depth, speed, and cross-cultural competence.
This session bridges the critical gap between peak performance culture and long-term talent retention for enterprise employers. Herman Le Grange explores how forward-thinking multinational organisations are upgrading workforce wellbeing from a passive, tick-box benefit into an active retention strategy. Attendees will learn how localised, evidence-based psychosocial care de-escalates crisis, restores human performance, and keeps high-value employees engaged, resilient, and committed for the long haul.
- Herman Le Grange - Director: Global Solutions, Lyra Health
- Abdullah Alghamdi - Founder, Global Excellence
- Ahmed Khan - Senior Vice President, Classera
- Bandar Al-Safeer - Columnist and Human Resources Expert, HR Expert
- Reem AlJizawi - Founder & CEO, COREACH
- Nourah Bin Qassem - Founder, RootCo