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AGENDA

Explore the agenda for the 2027 edition

Discover the ideas, insights and industry leaders shaping the future of Employer Branding. Join us in Lisbon and be part of the conversation!


More speakers coming soon!

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Culturgest

Check-In Opening

Main stage

Opening Ceremony

Employer Branding Conference 2027

The Road to the Conference – opening the day and setting the scene for what lies ahead:

Real Purpose. Real Cases. Real People.

Main stage

Talk

How GenAI is Transforming Employer Branding

GenAI is changing how candidates evaluate your employer brand.

Richard Mosley will be joined by two leading global employers to discuss how they have risen to this challenge and how you need to adapt your employer branding to stay on top of this ongoing transformation.

Speaker

Irmgard Naudin ten Cate

Global Talent Attraction & Acquisition & Onboarding Leader
EY

Irmgard Naudin ten Cate is Global Talent Attraction & Acquisition Leader at EY, where she is responsible for the firm’s global talent acquisition strategy, including how EY sources, attracts and hires talent across markets worldwide.

With more than 20 years of recruiting experience, she has led talent attraction and acquisition across EMEIA and now works at global level, with particular expertise in recruitment transformation, employer branding, AI and recruiting technology, early careers and candidate experience.

Speaker

Ted Meulenkamp

Director Global Employer Brand
Mondelez International

Ted Meulenkamp is Director Global Employer Brand & Attraction at Mondelēz International.

With extensive experience across Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding, he has led global employer brand and EVP programmes at organisations including Roche, Santander and Mondelēz.

His work focuses on building data-driven employer brands, translating global strategies into locally relevant experiences, and creating stronger connections between organisations and talent across markets worldwide.

Moderator

Richard Mosley

Managing Partner
C-YourCulture

I have over 20 years experience in brand and HR consulting, working with many of the world’s leading organizations from Gucci to the United Nations.

My personal passion is to explore and promote the potential of employer brand management to help organisations attract, retain and get the very best from the talent they need to meet their business goals.

My current goal is to help to integrate and amplify the power of culture to drive a stronger sense of identity and belonging within organizations coming to terms with the many new challenges and opportunities emerging in the world of work.

I also have a strong interest in exploring how best to optimize the emerging influence of GenAI platforms on employer brand reputation, supporting many leading players (from EY to Microsoft) monitor and adapt their employer brand content and employee advocacy to ensure they are fairly and positively represented on these new sources of influence.

Specialties: Employer brand research, development, activation and management. Culture insight and change. Leadership behaviours. Employee engagement. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

Main Stage

Keynote speaker

Employer Branding 2.0:
What Got Us Here Won't Get Us There

Nimai Swaroop will share his experience, key insights and takeaways of future proofing your employer brand having led this for organisations such as Shell, RBS, The British Army, Philip Morris and Coca Cola HBC.

Speaker

Nimai Swaroop

Global Head of Employer Branding
Coca-Cola HBC

A driven individual with strong interpersonal and communication skills.

MBA with global experience having worked across Oil & Gas, Energy, Financial Services, Defence and FMCG.

Extensive experience in Talent Acquisition, Employer Branding, Culture and Transformation.

I have led large global transformational programs managing diverse international teams.

I thrive under pressure and consider myself as an energetic, creative and innovative leader.

Speaker

Ricardo Castelo Gomes

Conference Director
Employer Branding Conference

A passion for project management sparked during his academic journey led Ricardo Gomes to co-found YouthDream at just 17 years old, instilling in him a drive to transform ambitious ideas into high-impact solutions.

Today, as Business Director at Talent Portugal, Ricardo oversees three core pillars of the organisation: Great Employers, the Employer Branding Conference, and Executive Training. In this role, he drives strategic planning, business development, and team leadership across all fronts.

Partnering with over 500 leading employers across the country, Ricardo is a frequent speaker and key figure at career summits and university events throughout Portugal. Guided by the belief that early talent engagement should be human-centric, strategic, and impactful, he bridges the gap between top-tier organisations and the workforce of tomorrow.

Main stage

Keynote speaker

When Culture Drives Performance:
Leadership Lessons from BPI

João Pedro Oliveira e Costa on going all in on people, the role of leaders in building strong cultures and why culture matters to business success.

Speaker

João Oliveira e Costa

CEO
BPI

João Pedro Oliveira e Costa is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Banco BPI and a Member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors.

Before being appointed CEO in November 2020, he was responsible for the Retail and Business Banking divisions and a member of BPI’s Executive Committee.

With 35 years of experience within the BPI Group, now part of the CaixaBank Group, he led the Private Banking division and later the Bank’s Investment Centers, roles he held until 2014.

He also served as a Non-Executive Director at Allianz Portugal Insurance Company and BPI (Suisse) Management Company until December 2020. He began his professional career in the financial sector, in asset management, within the BCP Group.

He holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. In 2024, he was awarded the Career Award by Católica-Lisbon. In 2025, he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universidade da Beira Interior.

Speaker

Maria Falcão

Human Resources VP
Director of Innovation, People and Culture
BPI

Innovation and people transformation leader with extensive experience at the intersection of business strategy, technology, talent and organisational change.

Currently Director of Innovation, People and Culture at Banco BPI, focused on shaping the culture, and the future of work.

Previously, held leadership positions in consulting and entrepreneurship, including Talent & Organisation Director at Accenture and CEO of Harpoon.jobs, a talent technology company.

My experience spans AI-enabled HR transformation, talent strategy, leadership development, organisational culture and the design of innovative approaches from recruitment to talent management.

Alongside the corporate career, I’m a lecturer at ISCTE, teaching leadership and the application of generative AI to business and human resources.

Moderator

Claudia Tattanelli

Founder & CEO
C-YourCulture

Claudia Tattanelli is a recognized pioneer in employer branding, with over 25 years of experience supporting global organizations in shaping culture and people strategies that translate ambition into everyday ways of working.

She is also the Chairwoman of the global think tank Future Talent Council, as well as a frequent international keynote speaker and a lecturer on employer branding, culture, and employee experience.

Main Stage

Case Study

Currys Case Study

7 years of continued commitment to EB internally and externally through the employee experience.

Speaker

Mark Horley

CCO and Co-Founder
Tonic

I don’t just advise on employer branding, I create it.

Over the last decade or so, I’ve built 100’s of EVPs and employer brands.

Employer brands that engage, endure, and drive change for organisations as diverse as the British Army, Flutter, IHG, EY, Currys and beyond.

This is not just a campaign.

Every employer brand I create is rooted in intelligence, tested with real people, and designed to shift reputation, attract talent, and endure inside the culture.

It’s why our work has become some of the most awarded in the sector, not because it looks good, but because it works and delivers business value.

Speaker

Barry Grainger

Senior Employer Brand & Talent Attraction
Currys

I have a wealth of experience in consumer brand and marketing across multiple industries, having worked with leading companies such as Lloyds Bank, LV, and Sky. My first foray into recruitment marketing came a decade ago as Head of Digital at Page Group. In 2019, I joined IHG Hotels & Resorts, where I spearheaded the refresh and launch of a new Employer Brand, a new careers website, and the company’s initial steps into social media.

Since December 2023, I have been driving talent attraction at Currys, where I launched the award-winning Currys Employer Brand and elevated the company’s careers social media presence to new heights.

Breakout room

Case Study

Beyond Search:
Employer Branding in the Age of AI

As AI-powered search and large language models reshape how candidates discover employers, organizations need to rethink how their employer brand is found online.

This session explores the rise of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), emerging best practices for improving AI visibility, and the growing importance of owned assets such as career sites and employer brand content.

We'll also discuss how Employer Branding, Talent Acquisition, PR, and Digital Marketing teams can work together to strengthen digital discoverability, and share how BCG is measuring employer brand visibility across AI platforms to help shape content and recruitment marketing strategies.

Speaker

Modiara Kamps

Head of Employer Branding and Events - EMESA
BCG

Your brand is who you are. Whether we talk about employer branding, leadership, or personal branding, it all starts with identity.

I help leaders, recruiters, and employer branding professionals create business impact by aligning identity, behaviour, and story through data, AI, and human connection.

By day, I lead Employer Branding for EMESA at Boston Consulting Group. Previously, I developed employer brand and recruitment marketing strategies for Amazon across EMEA.

Beyond my role, I’m passionate about advancing the employer branding profession through speaking, community building, and knowledge sharing.

Through Employer Brand Rebels and industry collaborations, I help practitioners move beyond surface-level branding toward meaningful impact.

I believe sustainable impact starts with self-leadership.

As a practitioner, speaker, and community builder, I explore how identity, behaviour, and story shape brands, leaders, and careers.

Breakout room

Case Study

People+Passion:
From internal storytelling to a multi-market employer branding campaign

How do you turn flexibility from an employer promise into something people can actually see and relate to?

At Zühlke, we started with a simple idea: let our colleagues show what flexibility means in their everyday lives and how it enables them to pursue their passions beyond work.

What began as an internal video series evolved into People + Passion – The Best of Both Worlds, a multi-market Employer Branding campaign built around authentic employee stories.

In this session, we'll take you behind the scenes of this journey, sharing how we transformed real experiences into a creative campaign platform, connected employee storytelling with our employer value proposition and brought the campaign to life across different markets and channels.

We'll also explore the results, lessons learned and practical takeaways from a campaign that generated over 2 million impressions and 1.7 million video views, demonstrating how authentic storytelling can bring an employer brand to life while keeping its people at the heart of the story.

Speaker

Sunčica Ilić

Employer Branding Lead
Zühlke Group

Sunčica Ilić is an Employer Branding Lead at Zühlke Group, with over 11 years of experience in marketing and communications.

She leads global Employer Branding initiatives across multiple markets, combining strategic planning, creative storytelling and data-driven campaigns to strengthen employer attractiveness and connect with talent communities.

Passionate about bringing company culture to life through authentic employee experiences, Sunčica works closely with colleagues across different countries to develop campaigns that showcase the people behind the brand.

She particularly enjoys turning creative ideas into meaningful projects that connect people, inspire communities and make Employer Branding more human.

Coffee break & meeting points

Breakout room

Case study

Work as a Refuge:
What Employers Need to Know About Employee Engagement in an Age of Uncertainty and AI Transformation

In a world shaped by economic pressure, rapid technological change and evolving workforce expectations, Pluxee's latest global research sheds new light on how employees view work and their relationship with their employer.

The findings challenge long-held assumptions about engagement and loyalty, revealing why work has become a source of stability in uncertain times and how AI is reshaping employee expectations.

Join us to explore what these shifts mean for employers and discover practical strategies to strengthen engagement, loyalty and workforce resilience in the age of AI.

Speaker

Carine Vitu

Human Resources VP
Europe, Middle East, Asia & Africa
Pluxee

Carine Vitu is VP Human Resources for the EMEAA region at Pluxee, leading people and talent strategies across a diverse international footprint.

She brings extensive experience in fostering high-performing teams, supporting business transformation, and building inclusive workplace cultures.

In her role, she partners closely with leadership teams to drive organizational growth and employee engagement across the region.

Breakout room

Case Study

Opening Capital Markets to People:
Building Expertise Inside and Beyond the Exchange

In Kazakhstan, the pool of capital markets professionals remains limited, financial literacy levels are still developing, and relatively few young people view the stock exchange as a potential career path.

Through KASE Academy, we set out to change that reality by creating a sustainable pipeline of talent for both the exchange and the broader financial market ecosystem.

In just over a year, the initiative has gained international recognition, with the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS) featuring KASE Academy as a case study.

Internally, our employees progress through a structured development journey, from onboarding and professional certification to becoming trainers, speakers, and recognized market experts.

Each quarter, more learning and development programs are designed and delivered by our own people, strengthening a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing across the organization.

Externally, these same professionals help build the next generation of market participants. In 2026 alone, more than 2,000 learners completed KASE Academy programs.

We established partnerships with more than ten universities and brought KASE Academy’s expertise to audiences from Almaty to Glasgow and Kuala Lumpur through guest lectures, academic partnerships, and international knowledge-sharing initiatives.

We launched a podcast that attracted more than 1,000 subscribers in its first season and generated close to one million organic views across TikTok and YouTube.

To move beyond education and create meaningful market engagement, we expanded and reimagined existing initiatives, including the national retail investor competition, a student case championship, and a stock exchange simulator.

These platforms help transform learners into active market participants by providing practical experience, industry exposure, and a direct connection to the investment ecosystem.

This session will showcase the people behind these achievements and explain how investing in expertise, both within our organization and across the broader community, has become one of the most powerful drivers of our employer brand and market impact.

Because ultimately, sustainable markets are not built by technology, regulation, or capital alone. They are built by people. And creating those people has become one of KASE’s most important contributions to the future of Kazakhstan’s capital market.

Speaker

Makhabbat Yermekbayeva

Chief People Officer
Kazakhstan Stock Exchange

Makhabbat Yermekbayeva, PhD, is Managing Director and Chief People Officer at the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), with nearly 20 years of experience across the energy, financial, automotive, and other sectors. She oversees five functions within KASE Group: human resources, PR and communications, procurement, KASE Academy, and corporate support services.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from KIMEP University, a master’s degree, and a PhD in Human Resource Management from the Kazakh-British Technical University. Her career includes roles at the KAZENERGY Association and the Unified Personnel Development Centre of KazMunayGas.

Makhabbat led KASE’s HR function from 2016 to 2020 and returned in 2025 as Managing Director and Chief People Officer. Her work focuses on organizational transformation, talent and leadership development, and aligning people strategy with the exchange’s business priorities and broader capital market mission.

Breakout room

Case Study

When the Market Turns:
Keeping Your Employer Brand Alive

Launching an EVP gets the applause. Keeping it alive when the market turns is another story.

Markets move in cycles, and for many companies the current phase is a more challenging one. Companies hire less or hire differently.

Priorities shift, and investment follows. The employer brand doesn’t stop when hiring slows down. Inside and outside the company, it simply has a different job to do.

After building one EVP across several brands and entities and launching it with large-scale campaigns, we went through exactly that shift.

This session is an honest look at how we adapted: the choices we made, what we learned along the way, and practical takeaways for any employer brand team working in a changing market.

Speaker

Fabrice Drukman

Group Employer Branding Manager
Proximus Group

Fabrice Drukman is Group Employer Brand Manager at Proximus Group, the Belgian telecommunications group. He leads employer brand strategy and activation across the group’s brands and entities in Belgium, as well as its Global Competence Centers in Serbia, India and Portugal.

With more than 20 years of experience in recruitment, communication and HR, he focuses on keeping the employer brand relevant across very different audiences, markets and business cycles.

His expertise spans EVP strategy, recruitment marketing, employee storytelling and candidate experience. He works across the full talent journey, from attraction and careers content to onboarding.

His motto: show, don’t tell.

Breakout room

Case Study

The Art of being everywhere: scaling global stories with a small team

Every WTW market has its own voice.

Every WTW colleague has a story worth telling. But when your team is small and your footprint is global, being everywhere isn't an option.

This session explores how collaboration, a network of local insiders and AI help us find, shape and share authentic stories from around the world, without losing the human touch that makes them matter.

Speaker

Sofia Santos

Global Employer Branding lead
WTW

A storyteller at heart and a strategist by experience, Sofia has spent over 20 years connecting brands with people and turning challenges into stories that resonate.

From journalism and communications to digital marketing and employer branding, her career has been anything but a straight line.

Today, as Global Employer Branding Lead at WTW, she brings together creativity, data and a healthy dose of pragmatism to build an employer brand that goes beyond looking good and speaks to candidates worldwide.

Sofia believes employer branding isn’t about telling people how great a company is. It’s about giving them genuine reasons to believe it.

Breakout room

Case Study

Employer Branding at IKEA Portugal:
A new strategy, built together

In this session, we will share IKEA Portugal’s new strategic approach to Employer Branding and the journey taken to build it.

We will demonstrate how collaboration between People, Communication, and Marketing helped develop a more consistent and relevant value proposition for current and future co-workers.

Speaker

Joana Cambas

Country Recruitment & Sourcing Manager
IKEA

Joana Cambas is currently responsible for Recruitment & Sourcing at IKEA Portugal. Since late 2017, her mission has been to define the strategy and support the company’s various business units on talent-related matters, including Recruitment, Employer Branding, Onboarding, and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion.

Holding a degree in Social and Organisational Psychology from ISCTE, she began her professional career at HR consulting firms such as Galileu, Boyden, and Neves de Almeida. She later worked for seven years at Jason Associates, where she served as Manager of Talent Attraction & Assessments.

Her career has been built at the intersection of talent, attraction, recruitment, and organisational culture, with a strong focus on creating candidate and employee experiences that are coherent, inclusive, and aligned with IKEA’s value proposition.

Speaker

Sara Samssudin

Country Communication Manager
IKEA

Sara Samssudin is currently responsible for Communications at IKEA Portugal. Throughout her career at IKEA, she has worked across various People & Culture domains, including Leadership & Competence, Talent & Succession, and Diversity & Inclusion, prior to transitioning into Communications.

A psychologist by background with a specialization in Educational Psychology and Vocational Guidance, she began her professional journey in social intervention and learning & development within vulnerable communities in Greater Lisbon. She later worked in HR consultancy across Portugal and Mozambique.

Her path has been defined by connecting people, culture, talent, and communication – disciplines she brings together today in her Employer Branding work and in reflecting on how organizations build meaningful experiences and value propositions for both current and prospective co-workers.

Breakout room

Open talk

Rewiring Recruitment Strategy:
Combining Agentic AI, Automation, and Human Capability

As AI shifts from basic automation to autonomous agentic workflows, the candidate experience - and the employer brand it defines - hangs in the balance.

This panel explores how talent leaders can strategically orchestrate agentic AI, process automation, and human capability to scale hiring operations without sacrificing authenticity or trust.

Host

Ray Culver

Global Managing Director
TALiNT Partners

Ray Culver serves as the Global Managing Director at TALiNT Partners, driving strategic initiatives and executive community engagement across the global talent and HR ecosystems.

Drawing on senior leadership experience at Randstad NA and ManpowerGroup, he regularly convenes C-suite executives and talent leaders across North America, EMEA, and APAC to address macro workforce trends.

His expertise centers on total talent ecosystem design and the integration of transformational recruiting technologies like agentic AI and workflow automation.

As a global speaker and facilitator, Ray equips leaders with actionable frameworks and peer networks to build resilient, tech-enabled talent organizations.

Beyond TALiNT Partners, he is actively involved with multiple non-profit organizations throughout Southern California and serves as a strategic advisor and investor to tech startups across the US and Europe.

Breakout room

Open talk

One Brand, Many Realities:
Connecting Employer Brand, Consumer Brand and Employee Experience

As the boundaries between Employer Brand and Consumer Brand become increasingly blurred, how can organisations create a consistent and authentic brand experience?

This panel explores the connection between Marketing, Employer Branding, Talent Acquisition and Employee Experience, and the challenges of aligning a global brand promise with the realities experienced by employees and candidates across different markets.

Host

Danny Stacy

Founding Board Member
People Brand Collective

Danny Stacy is an Employer Branding and Talent Acquisition professional with over 20 years of experience.

Having worked with organisations including LinkedIn and Indeed, he is currently Head of Customer Success at TMP Worldwide UK.

He brings extensive experience in employer brand strategy, talent attraction and employee experience.

Breakout room

Open talk

.

To be announced

Host

Steve Ward

Founder & Host
EB CLub

I’m known as an Insights driven Employer Brand & Talent Attraction Strategist, leading strategic projects and EVP development into localisation, all over the world.

Over the past 15 years I have built a reputation as one of the leading strategic outcomes driven Employer Branding leaders, firstly as a development of CloudNine, then in-house; and for the past 7 years for Universum and Blackbridge, building EVPs, Brand Strategies, Localisation, Creative Content & Marketing routes; as well as targeted Marketing Campaigns to talent.

A regular speaker and voice both in UK and globally, I am a networker, a people person, a big listener and always a keen sharer of ideas, insights, combined with instinct.

As founder & host of The Employer Branding Club, I bring together in-house professionals from around Europe and the world to share ideas, tackle the latest challenges and geek out as a community.

Main stage

Podcast

AI's Impact on Your Brand
The Chad & Cheese Podcast

To be announced

Guest

Phillip Lane

Partner - People & Culture
Miles Advisory

I work with CFOs, CPOs, CEOs, PE operating partners and transformation leaders to align people with strategy – building cultures that are structured, credible and scalable.

My work focuses on high-impact areas:
• Vision & clarity – focusing on the benefits of your end goal, and adding an employee lens to that
• Leadership alignment – ensuring the story told at the top is lived and understood throughout the business.
• Manager engagement – equipping the line to drive clarity, trust and execution.
• Employee belief – making sure people understand the vision, their role in it and why it matters.

I’ve worked with global brands, ambitious scale-ups and PE-backed firms, helping leadership teams:
– Take on new organisations – even pre-joining
– Build cultural infrastructure that scales
– Accelerate value creation post-deal
– Strengthen cultural signals ahead of exit
– Align people behind transformation & strategy

Boutique by design, with a small supporting cast, I offer the strategic rigour of the big firms with the focus and pace of a specialist partner. My goal isn’t to hand you theory – it’s to leave you with clear alignment, visible momentum and measurable impact.

If you’re scaling, transforming, or preparing for exit – or investing in companies that are – I can help make sure the culture is ready to deliver on the ambition.

Podcast host

Chad Sowash

Co-Founder & Co-Host
The Chad & Cheese Podcast

For over a two decades, Chad Sowash has been a leader and key architect in the development of hundreds of successful programs and partnerships.

Chad has chosen to focus his energy on making a difference in veteran hiring, workforce, economic, business and technology development within the recruitment and staffing industry.

Sowash brings 20 years of military experience, including combat service, experience as a drill sergeant and more than 15 years in leadership positions where he led, managed and motivated groups ranging from five to more than 200 individuals.

In addition to his military service, Sowash draws upon extensive recruitment industry expertise. He worked for Online Career Center, the precursor to Monster.com, and spent ten years as Vice President with DirectEmployers Association. There he led and managed the development of the first complete National Labor Exchange in the U.S. and testified before Congress on behalf of veterans and hiring companies.

Chad is also known as a pioneer who has worked in the industry since before Monster was known as Monster.com.

He owns a keen ability to understand competitive intelligence and next-generation technology allowing him to see and connect the proverbial “dots”, thus creating fresh vision with a clear path to execution for Fortune 500 companies across the globe.

Chad has inspired thousands through various speaking engagements focused on military hiring, digital strategy, workforce, education and economic development. In addition, Chad has been showcased on NBC Nightly News, CNN American Morning, and NPR Weekend Edition while also being quoted in several publications throughout the world.

The wide range of Chad’s abilities combined with a solid track record of executive-level success has cemented his position as a leader in the recruitment and staffing industry.

Chad’s top three defining factors are strong leadership, strategic vision, and the ability to execute.

Breakout room

Best practices

.

To be announced

More sessions and speakers coming soon...

Lunch

Culturgest

Check-In Opening

Workshop

Masterclass

Are You Misreading Your Best People?
Intercultural Communication and Employer Branding

Your employer brand may promise purpose, diversity, and belonging - but everyday communication decides whether employees actually experience it.

In culturally diverse teams, the same behavior can mean very different things.
1. Silence can mean disengagement or respect.
2. Directness can signal confidence or disrespect.
3. Speaking up can look like leadership or overstepping.

The risk is not simply misunderstanding. It is what happens next.

We make judgments about who is confident, capable, collaborative, professional, and ready to lead. And sometimes, what we think is a performance issue is actually a cultural difference we have misread.

That can shape who gets heard, who is seen as leadership material, who is seen as a proud brand ambassador, who feels safe speaking up, and ultimately who feels they belong.

In this interactive masterclass, participants will explore how high and low-context communication shape four everyday workplace experiences: feedback, trust, hierarchy and participation.

Working in small groups, participants will unpack a realistic intercultural workplace challenge, identify where meaning is being lost, and practise a simple approach: Pause. Decode. Adapt.

You will learn to:
- Pause before interpreting behavior through your own cultural lens;
- Decode how high and low-context communication shape feedback, trust, hierarchy and participation;
- Adapt your communication so different styles can succeed without sacrificing clarity or accountability.

Participants will leave with a practical lens they can immediately use with managers, teams and employees to reduce avoidable misunderstanding and create a more inclusive employee experience.

Because if diversity is part of your employer brand, representation is not enough.

The goal is simple: People need to experience a workplace where difference works.

Speaker

Karin Krobath

Co-founder and partner
Identifire

Dr. Karin Krobath is co-founder and partner of identifire®, Austria’s first agency for Employer Branding and Corporate Culture, where for the past 20 years she has turned brands into movements and employees into ambassadors – 500 projects and 150 clients later, she’s just getting started.

Trained as a geographer, Karin has always looked beyond borders for perspective.

Through Next Africa, her platform for intercontinental innovation experiences, she takes leaders and teams on learning journeys to Nairobi and Kigali – proof that Europe still has plenty to learn from Africa’s digital pioneers.

Her social engagement runs just as deep: 25 years on the board of Light for the World, six of them as chair, working for inclusion and equity far beyond the boardroom.

Her guiding motto – feel the fear and do it anyway – is what led her to leave a career in finance and co-found identifire, back when “employer branding” wasn’t even a term in Austria yet. More about her work at identifire.at.

Speaker

Abdur Rehman Ahmad

Talent & EDI Consultant
University of Saskatchewan

Abdur Rehman Ahmad is a Talent, Leadership and EDI Consultant at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, where he supports leaders and teams to build more inclusive, psychologically safe and high-performing workplaces.

Originally from Pakistan and now based in Saskatoon on Treaty Six Territory, Abdur brings international experience across community health, inclusive development, organizational development, leadership and EDI. His work across Pakistan, Europe and Canada has shaped a deep interest in how culture influences communication, trust, belonging and the employee experience.

Abdur is a facilitator and culture-builder who believes meaningful learning should be practical, human and never boring. He uses humour, stories and real workplace challenges to help people question assumptions, navigate difference and lead with greater intention.

Abdur’s WHY is to help create healthy, anti-racist workplace ecosystems that are diverse, inclusive, safe and genuinely enjoyable places where people feel inspired, fulfilled and empowered to make a positive impact in Saskatchewan and around the world.

Workshop

Masterclass

The Heart of branding:
Building brand cultures

In this workshop, we’ll be talking about building brand cultures.

On part is on how to find the soul and unique spirit of your culture: the heart of branding. And the other part about bringing culture alive and power it in HR, comms, leadership and operations, in ways that touch hearts: the art of branding.

Ton will be sharing their ‘Clubgeist values-driven development’ model, that was developed based on 25 years of talking to people about what inspires them in their employer.

This model delivers a picture of your current culture and is both a great tool in culture- and organisational development as in positioning in (labor) markets.

Speaker

Ton Rodenburg

Strategy Director
Clubgeist

Ton Rodenburg is a brand and culture strategist passionate about unlocking the unique energy of organizations – the Clubgeist – as he calls it.

Founder of the creative agency Clubgeist in 2019, he brings over 30 years of experience in employer branding (formerly @ARA and @Randstad) working with hundreds of clients building their employer brand.

His 15-person agency helps clients define their organizational identity, create compelling communication, build cultures and communities, empower leaders, and foster brand advocacy.

A former chairman of Recruiters United, co-author of Merkcultuur (Brandculture, 2016), and manager of the 50,000-member LinkedIn group Employer Branding; Ton is a sought-after speaker and teacher at employer branding workshops and conferences.

Beyond his professional life, he is an art lover, collector, family man, friend, reader, and DIY enthusiast.

Workshop

Masterclass

Stay Sharp

An interactive masterclass on employer branding, culture, and design thinking. We all look for answers. But the sharpest ideas often start somewhere else: in how we look at the question.

Through questions and surprising reveals, this masterclass challenges the obvious and opens up new ways of thinking about talent, culture, and storytelling. You’ll discover how a shift in perspective can lead to sharper insights, stronger stories, and better decisions.

After this masterclass, you won’t just have more answers. You’ll be sharper. That’s a promise.

Speaker

Ken Callebaut

Creative Director People
Brigada

I’m a maker at heart. I like figuring out how things work, why they don’t, and how they could work better.

My background/passion is in tech, engineering, and electromechanics. These days, I’m a Creative Director. Weird jump? Maybe on paper. For me, not really.

Because whether you’re building a machine, shaping a campaign, fixing a process, or finding the right words for an idea, the job is basically the same: understand the problem, connect the dots, and make something that works.

That technical brain never really switched off. It helps me look at brands, formats, messaging, PR, workflows, and ideas as systems. Some need tightening. Some need a spark. Some need to be taken apart completely and rebuilt.

In short: I like the space between logic and creativity. That’s usually where the answer starts.

Coffee Break

Speaker

To be announced

Speaker

To be announced

Workshop

Masterclass

World of Work in 2027:
From Trends to Practice

The world of work keeps evolving, and so should we.

In this session, participants will explore the key trends from 2027 Top Employers Institute research and see how they play out in practice.

Speaker

Massimo Begelle

Head of Southern Eastern Europe and the Middle East
Top Employers

A graduate of Ca’ Foscari University with a Master’s in HR Management, Massimo has twenty years of international experience in the HR sector.

He is currently Head of Southern Eastern Europe and the Middle East at Top Employers Institute.

A passionate advocate for sharing HR best practices to improve business processes and employee wellbeing, he speaks Italian, English and Spanish.

Outside work, he is a football fan and loves reading, especially crime and historical novels.

Workshop

Masterclass

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To be announced

Speaker

To be announced

Speaker

To be announced