“What we’re hoping to achieve is an event that’s quite different to what we typically see in the events space”
This article was produced in partnership with SAP Success
SAP SuccessFactors head of marketing ANZ Rushenka Perera discusses the return of HR Connect, an annual event bringing the HR community together to tackle the ‘hot topics’ of the HR space.
After two years of running virtual events, HR Connect 2022 is returning in style – and it promises to be quite different to your regular business event.
Now back in its physical event format, Auckland attendees will be gathering on 6 September at beautiful grounds of The Glasshouse. The main theme of the event will be “Change Work for Good”, and attendees will hear from a vast array of speakers across three key areas – employee engagement, compliance and talent magnetism.
SAP head of marketing ANZ Rushenka Perera says that after two years of being unable to run in-person events, HR Connect is going to “come back with a big bang”, and will be a great opportunity for the HR community to get together, network, and hear from some thought-provoking speakers.
“What we’re hoping to achieve is an event that’s quite different to what we typically see in the events space,” Perera says.
“We’re in a beautiful location with a lot of foliage, we’re really blending in with the surroundings, and we have sponsors who are going to be attending in a market stall format. We’re really trying to get people to get together as a HR community, and we’ll have lots of opportunities for people to network and choose sessions based on what’s important to them currently.”
The Auckland event will host a number of session topics including compliance, diversity and inclusion, talent attraction and the employee experience.
Keynote speakers will include writer and economic development & education commentor Ziena Jalil, and SAP SuccessFactors group vice president for solution management David Ludlow, who will talk about designing a HR research and roadmap strategy.
Perera says that the agenda has been designed with the diversity of HR in mind, and so professionals from every side of the industry will be able to access relevant and interesting sessions.
“We recognise that HR is not homogenous, and there will be lots of people who look after different things,” Perera says.
“We wanted to ensure that we had an agenda that would appeal to everybody in terms of content.”
“Another particularly exciting session will be our keynote from Judy O’Brien, the culture, diversity and inclusion manager at New Zealand Rugby,” Perera adds.
“We announced our partnership with New Zealand Rugby about two months ago, and Judy is going to be talking about the culture that they’ve cultivated within their organisation, and the journey that they’ve been on to bring diversity and inclusion to life.”
‘HR Connect started out as an event to try and inspire our community, and it’s really grown in terms of attendees,” Perera concludes.
“We’ve found that people love to hear customer stories, so when you look at the agenda, you’ll find quite a few speakers who have come from the SAP customer base. We’ve also tried to mix that up with thought leadership speakers, and it should all come together to form a really exciting and inspiring event.”
HR Connect 2022 in Auckland will run on 6 September. To find out more and register, click here.
SAP SuccessFactors is the global provider of cloud-based Human Experience Management (HXM) software. Our HR application suite integrates onboarding, social business and collaboration tools, a learning management system (LMS), performance management, recruiting software, applicant tracking software, succession planning, talent management, and HR analytics to deliver business strategy alignment, team execution, and maximum people performance to organizations of all sizes across more than 60 industries, in over 200 countries and territories.
