We live in a world of global networking, instant information and an increasingly blurred boundary between the real and the virtual. This new way of life is unprecedented and as such, is inevitably having an unprecedented affect on each individual human brain.

In this keynote address Baroness Greenfield will explore:

• How the human brain will adapt to whatever environment in which it is placed.
• How this will be affected by the cyber culture element of the 21st Century and what that environment will be like.How the human brain will change in parallel with this process.
• Predicting what the likely changes are likely to be – positive or negative – and how to minimise the threats they pose and harness the opportunities.
• Concluding how these findings will impact both our professional and private lives as well as every business sector in which including goods &services, insurance and risk management, the media, creativity, leadership, education and ultimately most of domestic and international policy planning.

The myth of the NHS – a beloved institution, criticism of which is treated as something akin to treason, the supposed “envy of the world” (although no credible economy has sought to replicate it), on some measurements the world’s greatest (well, largest) employer (behind only the Indian Railway Company and the Chinese Red Army).

The facts behind the myth – on any overall analysis, the performance of the NHS is poor compared to health systems in other comparable countries. The key stats are survival rates from diagnosis (not life expectancy, which is affected by a wide range of factors other than a country’s health system).

Alternative approaches to healthcare are available. We should not fall into the trap of assuming it’s either the NHS or the “American system” (although the US actually spends more government money on healthcare per capita than we do in the UK).

Will we be governed by rationality or remain wedded to the myth? The cost of following the second course is too high (in lost lives and in cash) to seriously contemplate.
 

• A case study on Who is PAUL? Our Values? (6 Senses) & ‘famille’ Culture. How is your organisation identified?
• Creating an ‘Employer Brand’, where do you start?
• How can you engage your employees? What are the simple things that work?
• Benefits (to you in terms of cost savings and retention) and (to your staff in how you reward. and recognise them) as to why they should deliver the best service? Actual results!
• Practical tips for Employer branding, some things you can take away.

• HRs Future: business Partner, change agent, world class administer?
• HR Leaders: are you right for modern business life & HR? Can you change to the new demands?
• HR Recession Proofing: role & add value?
• Employer Brand: are you a company to work for?
• Training & Development: train up & develop OR fire & hire new
• Talent Management
  • Upskilling your business
  • Perfecting & enhancing recruitment & performance management
  • Cutting edge employee engagement & rewards ideas
  • Social media, friend or foe and the role of HR
• The ultimate Q – does modern business need HR??

As a senior HR professional, how often do you get an opportunity to ask for advice and opinions from fellow HRDs - especially those with a wealth of experience? It's easy enough to get answers to technical questions perhaps from those in your environment - but what about the best ways to communicate, influence the board or handle tricky situations? What about your next career move? Operating under the Chatham House Rule, this panel is the ideal forum to share your thoughts.

The "Word from the Wise" panel session will allow delegates to ask the views of three highly experienced industry HR Practitioners with over xx years of experience between them, covering all sizes of organisations and both pubic and private sector disciplines.

Questions are welcomed on a whole range of areas from management, performance & leadership development, employee engagement and culture & organisational change ... anything, in fact, that you've wanted to discuss with fellow HRDs, but have never had the chance.
 

Charlie will cover best practices for the development of a social media strategy. He’ll talk through case studies with measurable ROI that don’t pander to the social media hype-machine and explain why focusing on social media for marketing may be the least effective approach for your business.
 

As the recession lifts many organisations are likely to be left without sufficient “Prime” candidates ready to replace planned or unplanned departures of key leaders and specialists.

Despite many companies having been succession planning for years, rather than their planning to be the cure for this problem they still seem “cursed” to keep having to look externally for new skilled staff.

This interactive discussion group will delve into succession planning, who is using it and how well it is delivering and what could be done differently to make it still relevant in our current uncertain commercial environment.

Together delegates will consider :-

• Is traditional career succession planning an anathema to the new generations of future leaders?
• Has career management migrated from the employer to employee?
• Can we still successfully calibrate future leaders if we don’t know the future?
• Has Equality legislation diluted the potential of career succession planning?
• Is it really worth the effort?
• Does HR have a role in career succession planning in future?
 

This interactive peer-to-peer discussion will explore:

• Reasons for executive disengagement on talent topics – what are the common themes?
• Key ‘talent’ topics which can be used as the ambassadors for the cause.
• Linking strategy and talent / how to impact organisational strategy through talent development.
• Sharing practical examples where executives actively participate in talent management issues e.g. succession planning , development of key executives etc.
• Solutions - transforming disengagement into engagement, experience from those in the room.

Many firms don’t have clear guidelines and policies in place for employee use of social media, and many of those who do have restrictive policies that limit your employees ability to interact online. For all firms getting a policy in place is important, but of much more importance is the cultural change in a business for it to take advantage of the opportunities that social can offer.

• Why you need to interact with the media at all.
• How to make your point and use an interview situation effectively.
• The questions you must always ask the journalist before agreeing to be interviewed.
• Focusing your language for the audience – how the digital age has changed the way you must communicate.
• The differences between live and recorded situations.
• How to wind up an interview effectively, under pressure, without looking silly.

• The holy trinity of things you must say at the beginning of every presentation.
• What an audience responds well to.
• How to read the room.
• How to construct a focused narrative.
• How to handle questions.
• Body language, eye contact and movement.

Conflict is an inevitable part of life. Most of us wish that wasn’t so. But I have learnt through hard experience that conflict can be immensely creative. Doctor and Psychoanalyst, M. Esther Harding said,

“Conflict is the beginning of consciousness”.

If we can learn so much from it, why then do we often experience it as destructive? How can we make conflict work for, rather than against, us? In this lecture I’ll suggest the answer to that question concerns awareness and attitude. I’ll explore the potential and pitfalls of conflict. I’ll illustrate how our understanding of human perception needs to change if conflict is to become creative. I’ll argue that excellence in a competitive environment can be fully achieved only when compassion is central to our approach to conflict.

This session is rooted in personal and professional experience. I’ll use illustrations from my work with individuals and groups living with the legacy of violent conflict in different parts of the world. I’ll show how the dynamics writ large in these stories can shed light on our own, usually less dramatic, conflicts. I’ll engage your imagination with visual images that will challenge your understanding of human perception. I’ll raise questions that I hope will open up your awareness and encourage you to explore further. I aim to make my lecture an enjoyable, thought-provoking experience that will help you deal better with conflict wherever it arises.

In his conference session "From Purpose and Passion to Prestige and Profit" reputational strategist, author and keynote speaker Steven Loepfe takes his audience on a “mission intangible”. He shares value-creating strategies for building today’s No. 1 intangible asset from within: Your corporate reputation.

"From Purpose and Passion to Prestige and Profit“ – The four secrets of creating reputational value from within.

The session will specifically look at:

• The “why?”: Why every organization is better off to start with “why”…
• The “who?”: How passionate leaders inspire teams to get stuff done…
• The “how?”: How you do your thing is how you build your reputation…
• The “what?”: What you tell and what you sell is what comes last…

The overall theme of Steven Loepfe’s session is based on findings from over 2'500 strategic projects for more than 300 clients, many of them market leaders in their industry. A „No theory - all practice“ interactive workshop and session.
 

• Make all experiences serve their ultimate purpose.
• Create the life and business they really want by the way they think.
• Discover some fresh perspective to the meaning of their individual lives.
• Understand and utilise the power of the spoken word.

Dominic Holland is an author, actor and stand-up comedian. He has been performing on the circuit for over ten years and has appeared on many television programmes including: Have I got News For You, The Royal Variety Show, The Clive James Show, Clive Anderson Now, The Stand Up Show, The Des O'Connor Show, The Brian Conley Show and Bring Me The Head Of Light Entertainment.

Dominic has performed four highly acclaimed sell out "One Man Shows" at The Edinburgh Festival, winning the Perrier Best Newcomer Award in 1993 and a Perrier Nomination at the 1996 Fringe.

Dominic’s BBC Radio 4 show ‘The Small World of Dominic Holland’ was broadcast in August 2000, it featured as one of the most popular comedy shows with the listeners of that station. The show was a stand-up series of six half hours of comedy which Dominic wrote and performed.

As a writer, Dominic has written for many other performers including Bob Monkhouse and Clive Anderson.

• What talent management is for.
• Why it is critical to business success.
• Why recruitment doesn't work.
• Why systems come last not first.
• How to really differentiate talent.
• Real development.
• Talent trials and tribulations.
• Critical success factors.
• Why it works.

• How the workforce was engaged, motivated and inspired to create their future history.
• How change programmes were introduced embedding change and evolution into the company philosophy.
• How the organisation capability was developed to ensure competitiveness to meet future challenges.
• What was measured in terms of results and what has been the success.
• What is now the blueprint for the future….

• Why use Social Media?
• What to avoid / pitfalls of Social Media
• Should H.R. embrace Social Media or seek to ban it from the workplace?
• Who are thos companies successfully using Social Media (how and why).
• What investment is needed to successfully use Social Media.

• Social Media: revolution or fad.

• Has HR changed much during our career.
• Does HR as a profession have ethics?
• Do HR rules help an organisation or hinder it?
• Does the primal survival instinct of HR replace positive human interactions and relationships?
• HR is it a gunslinger or a sheriff.
• If HR had never existed would anyone have noticed?
• Is HR like a box of chocolates (you never know what you are going to get until you bit it).
• Is the future direction of HR about Strategy or Character.

• What type of learning can be transferred into the workplace and how do you do it?
• How do you measure its effectiveness and success?
• What tools are out there that can be used in order to transfer learning?
• Sharing success stories and experience around the group of ‘Learning and Knowledge Transfers’.

• The 10 things that deceive you into thinking you have a poor memory and what you can do about them
• How to supercharge your powers of recall to an astonishing level in less than 5 minutes.
• The simple secret to never having the embarrassment of forgetting someone’s name EVER again.

• Learn about the phenomenon called "group mind" and how it affects problem-solving skills of group members.
• See the "Zig/Zag" process, a four step problem-solving model that will increase the efficiency with which groups tackle and resolve important issues.
• Learn about the "Positive Deviance" approach to bringing out the best in virtually every group you lead.
• Discover a definition of success that brings clarity and ease to the situation

• How can the use Social Networking help your current organisation, instead of just helping find our next one?
• Which applications are the most productive, and how can we use them?
• How do you create a culture where people are willing to share and to work together to improve your business?
• How much “open” is a good thing?
• Where is the line where employees’ use of Social Networking go from productive to time-wasting?

• Identify personal examples of persistent problems that you want to solve.
• Appreciate why we do not influence others very successfully, and see and hear examples from some great Influencers.
• Understand why people behave in the way they do – and how we can help people change.
• Learn about the 6 sources of influence that together create a complete and compelling strategy for influencing change.
• Apply the skills and principles to some real influence problems.

• The practice, ethics and procedure of giving evidence.
• Your part in the ‘Persuasive Story’- the power of Script Theory .
• Understanding and using the rules of evidence to win your case.
• Cross examination techniques – law, content and organisation – recognising the traps and neutralising cross examination.

• Direct examination – open and closed questioning.
• How to cross examine – ‘Putting your Case’.
• Prior inconsistent statements.
• Impeachment.

• Create the behaviour shift to prioritise ‘leadership’ and how to do it well.
• Develop a vision of what true team work means compared to ‘silo team’ working.
• Support senior teams access more of their potential.
• Understand the need for ‘collective endeavour’.

• What are the factors that encourage a positive culture?
• How do you ensure that staff issues and concerns are effectively addressed?
• What is the role of leadership?
• How might we measure and monitor a positive culture?
• How can HR add value to the process?

• Starting up a Employment Value Preposition: how to start generating engagement with your best employees right now, and translate that engagement into a broader culture that drives organisational action and attracts talent to the organisation?
• Compensation and benefits are highly sensitive items to communicate to employees and candidates. Nevertheless, they foster transparency and trust. So, how should a company position those items in the employer brand preposition, without compromising privacy and competitiveness?
• Which function should be accountable to develop and deliver an employer brand strategy? Marketing or HR? Perhaps both (where the customer and the employee brands are fully aligned)?
• What's the single, most important factor in a company's employer brand preposition to attract and retain Millennials (aka Generation Y: born between 1978-1995)? What do they value the most?
• How can a employer be attractive, and at the same time foster a strong sense of belonging with Virtual Teams?
• What's the impact of the Social Media channels in the reputation of an employer brand. How to take advantage of it, and avoid pitfalls.

• “To be” organisations.
• Do I recognise them because they look like me?
• Succession planning – art or science?
• “Talent hoggers” and disinterested or jealous managers.
• Judging the right level of stretch.
• Do the stars feel they are the future?

• Why change workplace pensions?
• What is changing
• The role of (NEST)
• Impact on employers
• Milestones towards scheme launch/OED

• Engagement vs. satisfaction.
• Seeing the wood for the trees, finding the right survey partner.
• Setting-up a global survey (10.000 people in over 70 sites).
• Okay we have the results, so what next? - the follow up & action planning phase.
• Learn from our experience - lessons & tips for global companies.
• The next steps: "Engagement Survey 2012".
• Integrating engagement as a permanent part of your "People" focus.