UNLEASH America 2025 Preview with Jackye Clayton

In this special episode, Jackye Clayton joins Bill Banham to preview UNLEASH America 2025, an event she describes as offering key solutions to the most pressing workplace challenges.

UNLEASH AMERICA Conference & Exhibition, one of the fastest-growing HR event in the world, is a place where global HR Leaders come to do business and discover inspirational stories that change ways organizations think about HR and innovation.

Jackye's passion for improving work experiences shines through as she shares her excitement for this Las Vegas conference happening May 6-8 at Caesars Palace. "What keeps me up at night really is the state of the world of work," she explains. "We all need jobs, we're all trying to make a living, we all want to take care of our family, and so I really want it to not suck." This refreshingly honest perspective frames her anticipation for the event's three major focus areas.

First, the conference tackles AI in HR - examining both its promise and pitfalls. Jackye highlights Dr. Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who will address algorithmic bias and preventing inequality in AI strategies. Second, human-centered leadership takes center stage, ensuring "that the technology serves humanity, not that we are serving the technology." Finally, inclusive talent strategies return to prominence with panels like "DEI at a Crossroads" featuring representatives from Alcon and the Canadian Olympic Committee. Additional highlights include a panel on redefining talent acquisition with remote work, featuring Active, Atlassian, and Toshiba.

The massive UNLEASH expo hall will showcase cutting-edge HR technologies and innovative startups that represent "the future of HR and talent acquisition." If you're attending Unleash America, Jackye invites you to connect with her there—she's eager to meet fellow HR professionals passionate about transforming the world of work. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the HR Chat Show
• 0:55 Introducing Jackie Clayton
• 1:51 All About Unleash America
• 5:35 Must-See Speakers and Panels
• 8:10 Episode Wrap-Up

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Jackie Clayton. Welcome back to the HR Chat Show. How are you today?

Speaker 3: 0:30

You know what I'm doing? Great, I'm in my office, couldn't be better. Got my iced coffee. It's going to be a great day.

Speaker 2: 0:37

Wonderful. It's lovely to have you back on the show. For those folks who perhaps haven't heard our previous conversation here, why don't you take a minute or two and reintroduce yourself? Tell them what you're passionate about, what you get up for in the morning, what gets you up in the morning. Tell us more about you.

Speaker 3: 0:55

I. Okay, I will tell you more about me. It's sometimes that can be hard. I change my interest, change. What keeps me up at night really is the state of the world of work. We all need jobs, we're all trying to make a living, we all want to take care of our family, and so I really want it to not suck, and I think HR plays a huge part of it, and the technology to help those HR professionals are another big part of it, and so I like all of that. It is the HR tech ecosystem, and what I'm doing now is really looking at these tools to try to determine how can we find products that are solving the real problems that are going on in AI. That's what I think I spend most of my time doing now. I created a consultancy called People Puzzles so that we can find the right people in the right place with the right tools at the right time. So here we go.

Speaker 4: 1:55

Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at HRGazettecom. And now back to the show.

Speaker 2: 2:11

Okay, so here we go. Indeed, jackie, and I just want to add that I had the absolute pleasure and honor of hanging out with Jackie for over about a week in the UK, of hanging out with Jackie for over about a week in the UK towards the end of last year, in Liverpool, in Manchester and in that, there, london, and it was wonderful to to get to know you better, jackie, and to get to know your husband, todd, as well. We had some good times. Jackie's really cool. Everybody. That's, that's what I want to say. Okay, so now we are gonna chat about the main focus of today's conversation, which is, uh, the unleash america, uh, which is coming up pretty soon. As we record this, you are going to be there as a representative of the hl gazette. Thank you very, very much. I we we really appreciate that and you're just going to take a bit of the HL Gazette. Thank you very very much.

Speaker 2: 3:04

We really appreciate that, and you're just going to take a bit of time now with me, if you don't mind, to share what the event's about, what makes it unique, what speakers you're hoping to check out, what technology partners you're hoping to see there and anything else you'd like to add really. So, in terms of Unle, unleash america, what is it and where is it and what, what types of folk go along to to that event?

Speaker 3: 3:33

Unleash America this year is really focused. It's like the International Festival of HR, right. It positions itself as the event that keeps me up at night is going to be solved here at Unleash. It's going to be my first time, but I am excited because I'm glad to see AI in HR. I know that everyone is getting a little bit sick of that, but we have to take a look at the promise and pitfalls of AI, so I'm excited about that. They're also looking at human-centered leadership, trying to make sure that the technology serves humanity, not that we are serving the technology. And then we see something else coming back which I'm excited to see, which is that inclusive talent strategies.

Speaker 3: 4:32

So many organizations in the States have been stepping away from DEIB or EID or EDI whichever acronym that you want but I'm glad to see that Unleash is bringing that back, and so I'm excited to be able to see the intersections of how those go together, namely with Dr Joy Boulamwini. Now, that's really hard to say. They actually are the founder of Algorithmic Justice League and I don't know if you remember a couple of years ago was slated as bringing the understanding of AI and the bias there, breaking it down, while at Google Not sure if anybody was there during that timeframe, but really I've been following Joy and seeing how they've been able to look at AI and really try to make sure that you're not perpetuating inequality with your AI strategies, and so I'm really, really excited to see Dr Joy. There's also a panel with some pretty fancy people at it. It's got Active Atlassian and Toshiba. They're going to be talking about redefining talent acquisition with remote work and how AI plays into that, and I think everybody needs to know how that part's going on.

Speaker 3: 5:59

And then there is a DEI panel that is DEI at a crossroads. That's really looking at how we can do that and, interestingly enough, the people on the panel is from Alcon and the Canadian Olympic Committee, right, so they're going to talk about how they can have meaningful dei and it's it's really interesting, because how are you gonna not have dei and be part of the olympics, right? Like that's the whole point of bringing everyone together and putting all this together. So I'm really excited about the opportunity to go out there in ve. The conference is going to be May 6th through May 8th, and so those are the things I'm most excited about. And then, of course, it's at Caesar is a huge expo. So I'm really excited about getting over, getting the chance to network and getting to see all of the new tools there in the expo hall. It's always a blast to be able to see that and the startup, all the startups, because that's kind of cool, because that's going to be the future of HR and talent acquisition, so I'm really excited to be there.

Speaker 5: 7:10

Hi, this is Chris Buehrling, host of the People in Performance podcast. Each episode features conversations Bill Bannum and I have with leaders and consultants about ways they've inspired colleagues to thrive. Past People and Performance Podcast guests are from such brands as NASA, ibm, rolls-royce and McKinsey Co. You can find us on your podcast Player of Choice.

Speaker 2: 7:40

Amazing, that's fantastic. Thank you very much, jackie. Anything else you want to add and say to our listeners before we wrap up this special shorts preview episode today?

Speaker 3: 7:51

No, but if you see me, please walk up and say hi. I'm really excited to get to see you and I want to connect with as many people as possible, so I will see you there.

Speaker 2: 8:01

Excellent, and we'll add Jackie's LinkedIn profile to the show notes so you can click there and connect with Jackie and then sort out a meeting, hopefully in person at the event. Jackie Clayton, you're so awesome. Thank you very much for being my guest today.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Thank you very much for being my guest today. You are Thank you, remember, for what's new in the world of work. Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HRGazettecom.