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- Your 2025 Workforce Conference Cheat Sheet Is Here - Issue #4
Your 2025 Workforce Conference Cheat Sheet Is Here - Issue #4
Inside: Must-attend 2025 conferences and a roadmap for responsible AI in higher ed.
⬇️ Inside this issue:
The workforce dev conferences to attend in 2025
‘How higher ed can adopt AI responsibly’ by Ben Roome
Industry Insider: Meet Tomas Mindlin
INTERESTING READS
🗣️ Self-advocacy is a core skill, not a character flaw—especially in a world that rewards visibility.
▶️ A new platform is using AI and video resumes to connect overlooked talent with better-fit roles.
🎖️ Digital badges are booming, but inconsistent design is a blind spot holding back recognition and trust.
EVENTS
Conferences to have on your 2025 radar
Whether you’re designing policy, building tech, leading HR, or rethinking education pathways, one thing’s clear: 2025 is packed with conferences you’ll actually want to attend. These events aren’t just slide decks and name tags—they’re where the future of work, learning, and credentials gets debated, demoed, and decided.
We’ve rounded up the best of the bunch—from skills-first recruiting and LER interoperability to the wild world of AI-powered talent development:
Badge Summit
📍 Boulder, CO | 📅 July 21–23, 2025
Who should go: Educators, workforce leaders, credentialing innovators, and anyone building or implementing digital credential systems.
Why it matters: Badge Summit is ground zero for conversations around digital badges, microcredentials, and learner agency. It’s where theory meets implementation—and where you’ll find the people shaping the future of verified skills.
💰 Registration: $449 In-Person; Virtual $100.
ATD 2025 International Conference & Expo
📍 Washington, DC | 📅 May 18–21, 2025
Who should go: L&D leaders, corporate training execs, and anyone in the business of upskilling humans.
Why it matters: The Super Bowl of talent development. You’ll leave with a notebook full of ideas and a contacts list full of people who get it.
💰 Registration: Ranges from $1,595–$2,795
1EdTech Learning Impact
📍 Indianapolis, IN | 📅 June 2–5, 2025
Who should go: Edtech builders, state leaders, and LER nerds (with love).
Why it matters: This is where interoperability, digital credentials, and open standards actually get built. If you want your tech to talk to other tech, start here.
💰 Registration: Not yet listed
NACE Conference + Expo
📍 Philadelphia, PA | 📅 June 9–11, 2025
Who should go: Career services teams, employer engagement pros, and corporate recruiters who care about equity.
Why it matters: It’s the handshake between higher ed and hiring. Expect fresh takes on career readiness, inclusive pipelines, and how to turn skills-first talk into action.
💰 Registration: Starts at $250 (virtual) and $1,299 (in-person)
JFF Horizons 2025: Dare to Be Brave
📍 New Orleans, LA | 📅 June 10–11, 2025
Who should go: Change agents across policy, workforce, philanthropy, and education.
Why it matters: It’s not a conference—it’s a movement. This is where bold ideas around economic mobility, skills equity, and work redesign take center stage.
💰 Registration: $1,350–$1,500
CCSSO NCSA 2025
📍 Denver, CO | 📅 June 23–25, 2025
Who should go: State education leaders, assessment experts, and K–12 changemakers.
Why it matters: If you want to embed skills thinking earlier in the pipeline (hint: we do), this is your front row seat.
💰 Registration: $1,099–$1,249
SHRM25 Annual Conference
📍 San Diego, CA | 📅 June 2025
Who should go: HR leaders, people ops pros, and execs building skills-forward cultures.
Why it matters: The world’s largest HR conference isn’t just about compliance and benefits—it’s where the people-side of futureproofing happens.
💰 Registration: $2,295–$2,995
CEWD Workforce Development Summit
📍 Washington, DC | 📅 November 18–20, 2025
Who should go: Utility workforce strategists, state coalitions, and talent pipeline architects.
Why it matters: CEWD is pioneering cross-sector models for inclusive workforce development. This is where energy, equity, and employment intersect.
💰 Registration: Not yet listed
NEW TOOL
Ever explain the same process for the 12th time in a week?
Whether you're onboarding new staff, documenting workflows, or fielding yet another “how do I…?” message, written instructions just aren’t cutting it. And recording a training video? That’s a whole thing.
You spend all that time showing someone how to do it... only to end up doing it again. And again.
Enter Guidde. It’s like your most patient, well-spoken teammate in video form—powered by AI.
✅ Create step-by-step video guides in under 5 minutes
✅ Auto-generate voiceovers, captions, and visuals—no editing required
✅ Answer questions before they hit your inbox with a self-serve help library
✅ Scale onboarding without draining your team
Guidde isn’t just a time-saver—it’s a skills accelerator. When knowledge transfer is visual, interactive, and on-demand, your people learn faster and retain more.
Why waste hours explaining when you can show it once and scale it forever?
TECHNOLOGY
How Higher Ed Can (Actually) Adopt AI Responsibly
When I first started consulting with higher ed organizations about AI adoption, I thought the biggest hurdle would be the tech itself. I was wrong.
More than just understanding the tools and their function, preparing higher education orgs is about developing culture.
Working with institutions like the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) and Augustana College has shown me firsthand: adopting AI responsibly is not about plugging in shiny new software. It is about aligning technology with your mission, your people, and your values and building the muscle to adapt as the landscape shifts.
Two Different Organizations, One Big Lesson
At TCSG, a system focused on workforce development, it is critically important to prepare students for an AI empowered workforce. In workshops with administrators, staff, and faculty, we constantly returned to one principle: listen carefully.
Each time I participate in these meetings I am reminded of the critical importance of stakeholder input as these materials are developed. Every college has different cultures, needs, and levels of readiness. A one-size-fits-all solution will not work.
At Augustana College, a liberal arts institution, the approach was different but the core challenge was the same. I worked with their AI Task Force to help develop a values statement and procurement guidelines. Every meeting centered on one question: How do we use AI in ways that improve lives, not just operations? Their emphasis on inclusion, ethics, and stakeholder voice made a lasting impression.
Both experiences drove home a truth: successful AI adoption depends on culture and capacity. Culture is about the commitments you make to build a better reality. Capacity is about the practices you put in place to realize those commitments.
A Strategic Framework for AI in Higher Ed
So what does it actually take to do this right? Based on the Office of Education Technology's January 2025 Report "Navigating Artificial Intelligence in Postsecondary Education: Building Capacity for the Road Ahead," here is the model I now recommend to any institution stepping into the AI frontier:
1.Set transparent AI governance policies
Develop clear, accessible rules for AI use (especially in high impact areas like admissions and enrollment)
Train administrators, faculty, and staff
Be open with your community about how AI is being used and how it is being assessed
2. Build robust infrastructure
Tailor professional development by role
Create clear adoption guidelines for new tools
Invest in centers of excellence to offer ongoing support
3. Implement rigorous testing and evaluation
Vet tools for fairness, bias mitigation, and educational value
Make continuous improvement part of your culture, not an afterthought
4. Forge strategic partnerships
Work with nonprofits, employers, and peer institutions
Keep educators and learners involved at every stage, not just as “end users”
5. Evolve Curriculum and Programs
Regularly review offerings against an AI-influenced job market
Build flexible pathways that balance technical and human skills
Lessons from the Field
At TCSG, I saw the advantage of aligning AI strategy with workforce needs.
At Augustana, I saw the power of leading with values and how that made every decision stronger.
Different institutions. Different missions. Same north star: use AI to elevate people, not just processes.
AI offers higher education unprecedented opportunities. But hype alone will not get us there.
It takes listening. It takes structure. It takes leadership rooted in purpose.
The future belongs to institutions that build both the culture and capacity to navigate what is next with intention, care, and real world wisdom.
 | Written by:Ben Roome, Ph.D., |
HR TOOLS
⚠️ Your Workforce Deserves Better Tools, And So Do You
Still juggling five different platforms just to manage one team? It’s time to streamline.
ConnectTeam is your all-in-one command center for deskless teams—like Slack, Rippling, and CultureAmp had a baby… that actually runs on mobile.
If you're building a skills-first workforce, ConnectTeam helps you deliver training, structure, and motivation without the HR chaos. Here’s what you get:
✅ Mobile-first onboarding and training that actually sticks
✅ Recognition and rewards that boost morale and retention
✅ Centralized document uploads and smart employee timelines
✅ Automated time-off tracking and built-in incentives
Fewer headaches. More engaged employees. And way less time buried in admin.
VOCABULARY
Learner agency
noun
The ability of individuals to take control of their own learning journey—making choices about what, how, when, and where they learn, and using tools and data to actively shape their education and career pathways. In a digital credentials ecosystem, learner agency is supported by access, ownership, and interoperability.
🧐 Thania’s translation: “It’s the ‘main character energy’ of education. Learner agency means you're not just going with the flow—you’re steering the boat. You pick the skills, set the pace, and own your receipts.”
☕ Robert’s take: “Agency is fundamental to equity. When learners have control over their data, choices, and pathways, we shift from a one-size-fits-all model to a personalized, purpose-driven system. It’s not just a feature—it’s a philosophy.”
Improve your skill-based hiring vocabulary at Learn & Work Ecosystem Library. Search by topic | glossary.
INDUSTRY INSIDER
Meet Tomas Mindlin
Tomas is an Industrial Engineer and the innovative Founder & CEO of Proof of Knowledge (POK). Previously, he co-founded and served as COO of the Wabi Ecosystem, a global B2B2C venture developed with The Coca-Cola Company, scaling operations across 24 countries with 1,600+ employees before its integration into The Coca-Cola System in 2023.
Top skills: Fun fact: I can connect you with: Ask me about: |
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JOB OPPORTUNITIES
🔔 Open Roles
Career Coordinator, Career Services @ Southeastern Oklahoma State University - Durant, OK
Principal Product Marketing Manager, L&B @ Skillsoft - Remote
Public Sector Growth Lead @ Code for America - San Francisco, CA
Vice President of Accreditation Relations @ Higher Learning Commission - Chicago, IL (Hybrid)
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