Registration Opens

Check in to get your badge and gift bag early.

Welcome Reception

Enjoy your first opportunity to connect with your fellow attendees and Lightcasters in this reception featuring drinks, appetizers, and views of the lake at sunset and at night.

Registration

Check in before the sessions begin to get your badge and gift bag, so you don’t miss a moment of insights.

Breakfast (Provided)

Enjoy a breakfast at Beverly’s, The Coeur d’Alene Resort’s top-ranked restaurant with views of the lake.

Welcome Keynote (Main Stage)

Chris Kibarian, Lightcast

Join Chris Kibarian, CEO of Lightcast, for an empowering keynote that sets the tone for the conference. Hear about the urgent challenges and opportunities in today’s labor market as we navigate technological disruption, skill shortages, and workforce transformation. Chris brings extensive experience that underscores the vital importance of cross-sector collaboration between enterprise, education, and regional leaders. Get inspired to connect, innovate, and lay the groundwork for a job market that works for everyone.

Aligning College and Career Pathways

Amanda Winters, National Governors Association
Allison Danielsen, The College Board
Paul Fain, Work Shift
John Barnshaw, Lightcast

This session explores how institutions, policymakers, and diverse stakeholders are working together to advance skilling, align college-career pathways, and better demonstrate the value of learning and education.

Cultivating Regional Talent: Leveraging Skills Analysis and Collaboration for Growth

Kate Pangallo, Indy Chamber
Ama Agyeiwaa Abrokwah, Tulsa Regional Chamber
Allen Smith, OneSpartanburg, Inc.

Unlock the secrets to attracting and growing local talent through smart skills analysis and teamwork across sectors, all geared to boost your region's economy. This dynamic session unites leaders from chambers of commerce from across the US, with each sharing their unique experience and insights, which you can apply to your area too.

Remote Work and Its Global Future

Nick Bloom, Stanford University
Layla O'Kane, Lightcast

Explore the long-term impact and evolving strategies of remote work as it reshapes the global labor landscape, with insights from the nation's leading work from home researcher on harnessing its full potential. Stanford Economics Professor Nick Bloom joins Lightcast Director of Research Layla O'Kane to discuss the key trends in remote work and what they mean for you.

Establishing Enterprise Data Standards AND Unlocking Customer Insights

Tim Johnson, Allegis Global Solutions

In this session, Tim Johnson shares how Allegis Group has established Lightcast as their enterprise partner and standard for job title, occupation skills, and labor economic data. This collaboration enables them to empower their workforce with data so that it can inform decision makers and unlock value for their customers. Hear how Lightcast Occupation Taxonomy serves as the common language between data within their organization and connects Allegis to external data for perspective and insights—and learn how your company can do the same.

Growing a Green Workforce: The Present and the Potential

Rachel Sederberg, Lightcast

The Green Economy is growing. With an increasing demand for green products, comes an increasing demand for workers who can produce, service, and sell them. To understand green jobs of the present—and the future—we must start by understanding green jobs themselves. We have to start by identifying, quantifying, and projecting what lies ahead for the green jobs that will fuel our greening economy in the United States and abroad.

How to Maximize Value and Manage Risk of AI in HR

Guru Sethupathy, FairNow

The digital economy is entering the era of AI. AI technology has the potential to dramatically improve efficiency, efficacy, and experiences in HR as long as it is deployed responsibly. What does responsible AI look like?

Lunch on your own

Take your pick of lunch at the Coeur d’Alene Resort’s restaurants or from among the great restaurants downtown, just a three-minute walk away.

Economist Panel: The Future of the Labor Market (Main Stage)

Layla O'Kane, Lightcast
Rucha Vankudre, Lightcast
Rachel Lipson, US Department of Commerce
Papia Debroy, Opportunity@Work

The labor market is evolving quickly, and it can be hard to keep up with all of the trends, especially if they seem to conflict. While remote work is making jobs more accessible, AI might be pushing people out. And, while reshoring efforts for industries like semiconductors are important to the nations’ security, it can be hard to know where investments should be made. In this talk, we will discuss the factors that are most affecting today’s labor market and how workers, learners, and employers can best prepare themselves.

Future-Proofing the Tech Workforce

Tim Herbert, CompTIA
Will Markow, Lightcast

In an age of AI-driven disruption, digital transformations, and ever-evolving cyber threats, tech workers have never been more mission critical across more industries. However, the tech workforce is one of the most rapidly evolving in the entire economy, hamstringing efforts to develop the next generation of tech workers. In this session, we will explore some of the key trends driving change in the tech workforce and dive into data that illuminate the future of tech jobs. We will also discuss practical steps that employers, educators, policymakers, and individuals can take to manage and respond to tech-driven disruption, and explore opportunities to build a more resilient, future-ready tech workforce.

Embracing AI in Education and the Workforce: Navigating Opportunities and Challenges

Lynn Letukas, Intuit
Melissa Hortman, Microsoft

As the world rapidly advances into the digital age, the expanding usage and increasing integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across all industries and organizations presents unprecedented opportunities and challenges. This session explores the (1) urgent need for higher education to transform and effectively respond to evolving technologies, (2) the promise and possibilities of AI-driven education operations and academics, and (3) the need for future skills and workforce agility.

Work and Talent Strategies in the Age of AI and Perpetual Disruption

Al Adamsen, PAFOW

As regional and global events accelerate the pace and degree of change, how do individuals, teams, groups, and organizations adapt with confidence and wisdom? While we are certainly in new times -- leaders and experienced professionals included -- we can still learn from insights of the past. There are also dynamics we'll have to investigate anew, with fresh eyes, and, like our relationships to our workplaces, we'll have to reinvent. This presentation will share insights from ongoing research on the Future of Work, as well as introduce new ideas that'll help leaders, workers, HR professionals, and technologists build agile organizations, organizations that can quickly adapt to current or imminent changes. Of course, such changes now stem from the ever-increasing adoption of artificial intelligence, robotic automation, and other digital enablers. To these, let's ensure we're ready to respond proactively, purposefully, and with noble intent on behalf of all stakeholders, especially us humans.

Connecting Classroom and Career: Advancing Success Through Skill Alignment

Rucha Vankudre, Lightcast

If a degree program doesn’t prepare graduates for careers related to their major, then something fundamental has gone wrong. A clearer understanding about which skills and majors make smooth transitions from school to work can enable better decisions about how to prepare students for the labor market and position education institutions for future success. In this session, we will share results from our latest research paper analyzing the difference between the skills taught at education institutions and the skills requested by employers. We will show how results vary by major and geography, and most importantly, demonstrate the impact of skill alignment on student labor market outcomes.

The Three Channels of Workforce Information: An Integrated Framework for Workforce Listening

Richard Rosenow, One Model

Listening is a key skill for HR professionals. They need to listen actively and attentively to the workforce and collect data about their needs. Listening shows respect, attention, and interest, and it helps HR learn from the workforce. Listening programs can use surveys and people analytics to listen at scale. People analytics can also analyze workforce systems data and integrate it into a listening framework.

Coffee Break and Networking

Connect and caffeinate with the diverse roster of attendees from across higher education, enterprise businesses, and government.

How Generative AI Is Transforming Work (Main Stage)

Ashwin Acharya, Accenture

Dive into the world of generative AI and discover how it's changing the way we work, from automating tasks to generating new business solutions.

Dinner on your own

Explore Coeur d’Alene’s many dining options solo or make plans with your fellow attendees for dinner.

Breakfast (Provided)

Enjoy a breakfast at Beverly’s, The Coeur d’Alene Resort’s top-ranked restaurant with views of the lake.

Are We AI-Ready? (Main Stage)

Michelle Weise, author of Long Life Learning

Generative AI has just begun to make its mark on the world. Tomorrow’s workplace will require workers with a hybrid of human skills and tech skills—intellectual dexterity mixed with technical expertise. Dr. Michelle Weise dispels the fear-mongering myth that AI and automation will replace people and points instead to the opportunities ahead to upskill, retool and outskill workers for an increasingly turbulent future of work.

Achieving Workforce Equity: A Use Case Study

Candice Dixon, NPower

Join us for a deep dive into a real-world example of how workforce equity was successfully achieved through strategic initiatives and how these strategies can be replicated in your organization. Candice Dixon, Coalition Development Director at NPower, shares how her organization is working to increase the number of women of color working in tech roles.

Skilling and the Workforce

Paul Fain, Work Shift
Lynn Letukas, Intuit

The Job is among the leading newsletters focused on the interconnection of education, skilling, and the workforce. This session features Paul Fain, Founder and Managing Editor of The Job, in discussion with Lynn Letukas of Intuit as they talk about what this future means for educators and employers. Gain leading insights from the future of work and what you may have missed over the prior months.

Developing Google Career Certificates Through a Data-First Approach

Hunter Cook, Google
Matt Miller, Lightcast

75% of US jobs paying over $35,000 per year require a bachelor’s degree or higher, but only 37% of people have one, leaving good jobs out of reach for 80M Americans. To help bridge that gap, Google created the Google Career Certificates program to provide job seekers with access to more than 2.4M+ in-demand jobs in fields including cybersecurity, data analytics, project management, and more. Program graduates are able to connect with 150+ top employers who are committed to considering Google Career Certificate graduates for entry-level jobs.

To help develop these hands-on certificates, Google turns to Lightcast to guide the program development and implementation.
- What do job openings look like for this field, and are there additional job pathways that learners can gain access to by acquiring certain skills?
- What’s the demand like for the 200+ skills we teach learners, both presently and in the future, and what skill sets would make learners most competitive for today’s jobs, while maximizing their earning potential?
- How can we deploy the program with ecosystem partners to minimize local skills gaps?

Join us as we deep dive into "the why" and "the how" behind the development of the Google Career Certificates program and the implications for your organization and today’s workforce gap.

Integrating People Analytics: Establishing an Embedded People Analytics Business Partner Function at Nike

Peter Rumsey, Nike

Explore Nike's use case and journey in creating a people analytics business partner function. Discussion will include function aspiration, strategic choices made, and evolution over time. Understand the tools, partnerships, philosophy, and projects that have helped the team expand services beyond traditional people analytics and reporting.

A Disturbance in the Force: People Analytics and the Balance of Power

Amit Mohindra, People Analytics Success

People analytics leaders and teams upset the balance of power in Human Resources and the broader organization in multiple ways. People analytics leaders on the HR leadership team bring evidence-based points of view, threatening the status quo. The people analytics team's omniscience with respect to people data ("Knowledge is power” ) unsettles traditional HR leaders who prefer things not to change. “Getting by" is no longer an option as people analytics shines a light on hitherto murky people data, ineffective HR processes, and talent outcomes.

Data-driven strategic talent and technology decisions create winners and losers in terms of roles and resources. A potentially rivalrous relationship develops with Finance on strategic workforce planning, with IT on HR technology, and potentially other corporate functions. People Analytics leaders, especially those who are their organization’s first people analytics leader, and the HR leaders that hire them need to be aware of all the ways in which the balance of power is disturbed. Without this appreciation, people analytics leaders may be perceived negatively, severely inhibiting their ability to drive change and progress. They need to resist the typical temptation of quantitatively oriented people to shy away from “organizational politics” and lean into the emergent power structure in which they are a key player. Similarly, CHROs need to be smart about harnessing the power of people analytics and managing the new dynamics within the HR organization.

Empowering Local Workforces with Data and Partnerships

Walter Simmons, Employ Prince George's

Discover how to leverage Lightcast's rich data sets to make informed decisions and develop impactful partnerships to support your local workforce. Learn best practices, see real-world examples, and get actionable insights from Walter Simmons, whose organization's work in Prince George's County, Maryland, is creating more opportunity for workers and employers alike.

Navigating SAP’s Skills Transformation Journey

Alex Ionita, SAP
Mark Crofton, SAP

Join us to discover how SAP is leveraging skills to drive business transformation. Learn how we empower employees to upskill and reskill, and enhance the hire-to-retire processes through a skills-based approach.

Effective Career Readiness Ecosystems

Jeremy Podany, The Career Leadership Collective

The Career Leadership Collective has provided consulting and research on the topic of college and university career ecosystems for the last seven years and will be sharing best practices gleaned from interacting with hundreds of institutions about the urgent and important needs of a career readiness ecosystem today. This session will provide practical takeaways for attendees on how to consider tweaking or reimagining their career ecosystem to bolster student success, ROI, and overall career outcomes. 

Holistic Approaches to Understanding ROI

Barry May, Alabama Community College System

This session explores how you can leverage labor market information to better understand the value of a degree, academic program offerings, and the economic impact of your institution on your community.

Lunch on your own

Take your pick of lunch at the Coeur d’Alene Resort’s restaurants or from among the great restaurants downtown, just a three-minute walk away.

State Leadership Panel: How States Are Rethinking Workforce Development from Skills to Technology (Main Stage)

Fran Valentine, Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, State of Indiana
Ryan Hundt, MichiganWorks!
Wendi Secrist, Idaho Workforce Development Council
Katie Crofoot, REACH, Executive Office of the Governor (Florida)
Chris Laney, Lightcast

Get the inside scoop on how states are shaking up workforce development—from upgrading skills training to embracing new tech—to build a future-ready labor force. Join leaders from Florida, Michigan, Indiana, and Idaho as they share their strategies and how you can apply their learnings to your region.

Embedding Skills in Degrees

Tim Herbert, CompTIA
Dean Kahler, University of Idaho
Michael Lorenz, Purdue University Global
Rachel Otto, Lightcast

This session explores the continuing significance of degrees and how recent skilling efforts embedded in the curriculum can help drive change on campus and positive outcomes for students.

Preparing the Workforce of Tomorrow Today: DEI and Challenges Facing Higher Education

Rose Martinez, Bellwether College Consortium at Alamo Colleges District
Alexandria Wright
Michelle Rodriguez, Lightcast

This panel will focus on preparing a diverse and inclusive workforce for the future today, touching upon skilling, workforce preparation and inclusion, and access to promote mobility. We'll highlight the work of minority-serving institutions, particularly Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges, and HBCUs.

Next-Level Business Attraction: Leveraging AI-Powered Business Intelligence

Marlena Bandurski, Greater Des Moines Partnership
Garth Wadsworth, Elevate Rapid City
Steve Jast, Lightcast

Unlock the secrets to attracting top-tier businesses to your region through innovative strategies, cutting-edge technologies, and multi-sector collaborations. This session will provide you with the toolkit to elevate your business attraction game to the next level.

Putting Skills Data to Work: Extracting Meaning and Unlocking Value

Simon Haines, Simply Get Results
Gordon Ritchie, Skill Collective
Oli Meager, Skill Collective

Skills are the foundation of workforce transformation, but they aren’t enough on their own: to reach your team’s full potential, you need to tie skills data directly to the business of your business. We’ll discuss why and how this combination can work for individuals and whole organizations. Experts who have created data-driven, skills-powered organizations join us at this panel to discuss what works, what doesn’t, the value of good data, and how to drive meaningful decisions that connect to your purpose.

The Future Labor Crisis: Who Will Keep the Country Fed, Protected, and Cared for? (Main Stage)

Ron Hetrick, Lightcast

The struggle we’re facing in the labor market right now isn’t simply that there aren’t enough workers to fill all the open job postings; instead, the larger—and more pressing—issue is the looming lack of people to do the very jobs that keep our country running. In this keynote session, Lightcast Sr. Economist Ron Hetrick will explore the current labor issues and how we got here, as well as the coming crisis in food supply, housing industries, community welfare, and healthcare. How will the US fill the jobs that not only keep our economy running but also are critical to our survival? Ron will share solutions for employers, educators, and communities that can help keep our demographic drought from turning into a dust bowl, with Lightcast’s data playing a key role in your success.

Free time

Discover the beauty of Coeur d’Alene, catch up on email, or set up a meeting with that person you met earlier at Connect—the choice is yours.

Boarding Begins

Join us on cruise boats as we prepare to enjoy an evening of lake views and fine dining.

Lightcast Connect 2023 Boat Cruise and Dinner

Take a leisurely boat cruise across Lake Coeur d’Alene, which brings you to dinner at the lovely Hagadone Event Center across the water. Boats will return to the resort starting at 8:00.

Breakfast (Provided)

Enjoy a breakfast at Beverly’s, The Coeur d’Alene Resort’s top-ranked restaurant with views of the lake.

How the Market Is Looking Toward 2024 (Main Stage)

Bill Pelster, The Josh Bersin Company
Sacha Litman, BCG

In this session, Sacha Litman and Bill Pelster will have an inspiring discussion about problems they are seeing and how their clients are evolving for the future with skills-based hiring, training, artificial intelligence, and more. As the global analytics lead for the Education & Employment practice at Boston Consulting Group, Sacha sits in a position that gives him a unique view of the intersection between higher education, business, and community leaders with a particular emphasis on educator and employer partnerships. Similarly, Bill’s role as the co-founder of the Josh Bersin Academy and decades of experience in professional services have given him rare insights into the challenges faced by a variety of companies.

Fireside Chat: Casting Light on Skills

Mark Hanson, Lightcast
Joel Simon, Lightcast

Nobody can fully understand a job without understanding the skills it requires—meaning a skills-based approach is crucial for everyone at every level of the labor market across education, communities, and business. Learn more about the DNA of everything Lightcast does in this session with Lightcast's skills subject matter experts.

Career Insights for Learner Success: From Access to Mobility

John Barnshaw, Lightcast
Daphne Dor-Ner, Lightcast

This session explores how labor market information can help institutions of higher education advance strategic priorities across the student lifecycle from enrollment to alumni.

How to Use People Analytics for Strategic Workforce Planning

Gary Russo, Providence

In this session, you will learn how Providence, a leading health care organization, uses data and analytics to forecast and address its talent needs for the next five years. You will discover how they align their workforce planning with their business strategy, how they cope with the uncertainty of long-term planning, and how they communicate and act on the gaps they identify.

A New Operating Model for People Analytics in the Age of Generative AI

Cole Napper, Orgnostic

In this presentation, Cole will discuss how people analytics teams should be proactively redesigning, redeploying, and innovating how they operate due to the advent of generative AI -- and how to best partner with the rest of HR. HR Teams who make this transition the quickest will be the biggest winners, and will pay for themselves multiple times over. Who's ready for the future of people analytics?

The Future of Lightcast: A Preview of Our New Products (Main Stage)

Gresham Schlect, Lightcast

This last session of the conference looks forward, with Lightcast CTO Gresham Schlect giving attendees an inside look at what’s next for Lightcast. Attendees will get the first glimpse of what they can expect to see from Lightcast in 2023 and 2024— and what it will mean for their organization.

Close (Main Stage)

Chris Kibarian, Lightcast

We'll close with a few final thoughts from Lightcast CEO Chris Kibarian, highlighting some of the learnings and insights from this year’s Connect conference.