Dive Brief:
- SHRM HR-X Live! will replace SHRM’s annual conference next year, according to an announcement from the association.
- The “credentialing academy” will sort attendees into four “dimensions” that SHRM said most contribute to stronger business growth: talent optimization, organizational impact, functional acceleration and market discernment. Attendees will then follow a specific track through the program and earn a “SHRM HR-X Credential” at the end.
- The move is the latest pivot for SHRM, which drew mixed reactions when it announced it would change its Inclusion conference to “SHRM Blueprint” in 2025.
Dive Insight:
The first SHRM HR-X Live! conference will take place June 27-30, 2027, in Chicago.
SHRM will use its “HR Excellence (HR-X) framework” to evaluate event registrants based on their job functions, decision-making areas and levels, SHRM explained. It will then assign them a “dimension,” which will determine how they move through the program.
In addition to their dimension pathways, attendees will have time for elective experiences, including sessions on topics pertinent to all HR professionals and networking events, Eddie Burke, director of media affairs at SHRM, told HR Dive.
“At SHRM HR-X Live!, connection isn’t left to chance,” SHRM said on its website. “Your dimension and level place you alongside HR professionals confronting similar challenges and making decisions at a comparable level, and working toward the same capabilities. That turns networking from an exchange of business cards into something more valuable: a cohort.”
SHRM’s annual conference each summer is a major event that regularly attracts tens of thousands of attendees and features former presidents and A-list celebrities as speakers.
SHRM described its credentialed sessions as the “biggest departure” from previous conferences, with attendees participating in an interactive capstone lab to demonstrate learning “in a human + AI environment” and gaining a playbook of tools and strategies.
The pivot comes amid an effort to create renewed focus on the relevance of the HR profession following several years of disruption; in June, president and CEO of SHRM Johnny Taylor described HR as verging on extinction in the age of artificial intelligence. The organization also has changed its stance on diversity, equity and inclusion work since 2024, when it dropped “equity” from its policy platform to focus on “inclusion.” In 2025, it renamed its Inclusion conference to “Blueprint,” although the November conference has now had “for Inclusion and Diversity” added to its name for 2026.