ATD Houston upcoming events

General Meeting: Your Story, Your Influence (August 11, 2026)

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 22:30:00 GMT

Your Story, Your Influence is an interactive leadership workshop designed to help participants recognize the power of storytelling as a tool for influence, connection, and impact in the workplace. Through real-world examples, guided reflection, and peer exchange, attendees learn how to transform personal experiences into compelling leadership stories. .

Learner Objectives:

Explain why storytelling improves message retention and influence.
Demonstrate how storytelling builds empathy and trust, enabling deeper connection
Apply storytelling techniques to communicate ideas more persuasively.

ATD Capability Model – Impacting Organizational Capability

To learn more about this model see: https://tdcapability.org/#/

Shanta Eaden is the CEO and founder of Leader’s Edge Consulting. We are a strategic partner for your organization's critical transformations in HR Systems, Strategic Programs, Business Operations, and Culture. Shanta is a dynamic leader known for her people-first approach to driving organizational change. With over 25 years of experience, she excels in integrating people, processes, and technology to achieve transformative results. Shanta’s expertise spans multiple sectors, where she has successfully led multinational teams through complex acquisition integrations, strategic program/project management, culture transformation, and leadership development initiatives.

Shanta established Leader’s Edge Consulting during a time when organizations were seeking workplace culture and operational transformations, and the war for talent was heightened. As an enterprise change leader, Shanta has a proven track record of partnering with clients to develop their DEIB strategy and multi-year roadmap integrated into organizational culture, creating and maturing global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), and building Project Management Offices to drive business strategy & organizational alignment. Her ability to bridge the gap between strategy and execution has made her a trusted partner in driving meaningful change within organizations.

She’s also a sought-after speaker, panelist, facilitator, and moderator. Committed to shaping culture and fostering inclusion, Shanta’s vision is to create spaces where every individual feels valued, empowered, and able to contribute to their fullest potential. Her passion for mentorship and community engagement extends beyond her professional life, demonstrating her dedication to uplifting others both within organizations and in society at large.

Shanta holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, Certified Change Practitioner (PROSCI ™), a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Texas Southern University, and an MBA with concentrations in Management and Human Resources from LeTourneau University. Awarded Houston’s 50 Most Influential Woman, Board Chair, Genesys Works Houston and Board Member, Genesys Works National.

Webinar: Human Capabilities in Today’s Workplace (August 20, 2026)

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Organizations everywhere are struggling with the emotional complexity of today’s work environment. Burnout, conflict, disengagement, and cognitive overload keep rising, and despite our best efforts as learning professionals, the problems not only persist… they’re accelerating.

What if the issue isn’t that we need more or better skills, tools, or training? What if these solutions don’t actually address the deeper human problem underneath? What if our entire approach is built on a mindset that cannot meet the deeper human challenges we face, and maybe never could?

As learning professionals, we sit at the leverage point for real solutions. But to use that leverage, we must confront an uncomfortable truth: we are building our organizations to minimize humanity – the very humanity we now need to navigate complexity, emotion, conflict, and uncertainty.

This session invites you to rethink the paradigm we use to understand organizations, learning, capabilities, and how humans actually work. By the end of this session, you should be able to:

Differentiate skills from human capabilities and identify the deeper capacities required to address our human challenges with confidence and natural gracefulness.
Recognize how organizations can become developmental ecosystems and understand the unique role learning professionals play in cultivating human capability at scale.
Explain the business case for investing in human capability, including how deeper human capacities lead to meta-level organizational efficiency, reduced conflict, better collaboration, and more adaptive, innovative organizations.
Embracing a new mindset will allow us to elevate our organizations and leverage learning for extraordinary organizational results, and even for societal change. Because when humans rise, organizations rise.

ATD Capability Model – Performance Improvement, Learning Technologies

To learn more about this model see: https://tdcapability.org/#/

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jay Clancy, founder and President of Syleris, is leading a movement to redefine how humans and organizations learn. With more than 30 years of global, cross industry experience as a business leader, organizational consultant, and university professor, Jay works at the systemic level to build learning ecosystems that transform how organizations operate, relate, and grow so that people and performance rise together. Jay’s work centers on a core insight: organizations don’t achieve extraordinary outcomes by pushing harder on results; they achieve extraordinary outcomes by elevating the humans who create them. He specializes in helping leaders navigate complex, human spaces and co creating cultures that amplify capability and realize human potential. Known for his engaging presence, insightful models, and ability to make deep ideas accessible, Jay integrates multidisciplinary research, deep rooted experience, and practical philosophy to advance a new paradigm for organizational and societal transformation.

Workshop: Strategic Learning Architect - Driving Performance in the Age of AI (August 27, 2026)

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:00:00 GMT

The ground is shifting for talent development. For decades, our value was often measured by the volume of content we could create. Today, AI can generate outlines, scripts, and assessments in seconds. This transition is not about replacement; it is the partner we need to finally move from being order-takers for training requests to becoming strategic leaders who drive measurable business results.

In this two-hour interactive virtual workshop, we will explore how to evolve from a content creator into a Strategic Learning Architect. You will learn to use your professional judgment as the ultimate filter, ensuring AI acts as an accelerator for quality rather than just a generator of generic content. By narrowing our focus to high-impact activities, we will practice moving away from tactical production toward solving real business problems.

Key Takeaways

The Three Pillars of Modern TD: Learn to reorganize your work around Enablement, Curation, and Governance to move from pushing content to facilitating high-value learning experiences.
Strategic Problem Diagnosis: Practice shifting conversations with leaders from training requests to identifying "strategic anchors” trying every initiative to a top-level company priority.
The Human-AI-Human Framework: Master a non-negotiable process where human expertise provides the strategic direction and the final quality pass to ensure nuance and accuracy.
Strategic Thinking in Prompting: Engage in hands-on activities to use prompting as a tool for organizational diagnosis and skills gap analysis rather than just generating text.

Speaker Bio

Debbie Richards is an AI strategy consultant and the president of Creative Interactive Ideas. As a long-standing leader within the Association for Talent Development (ATD) community, she has served as the president emeritus for the ATD Houston chapter. She frequently leverages her deep expertise to support ATD chapters and members globally as an ATD facilitator, where she leads specialized workshops on applying AI in Learning & Development.

Debbie is the author of the TD at Work issue, "Become a Strategic Learning Architect With AI," and her work focuses on helping TD professionals move beyond tactical content creation to become strategic business partners. She is a regular speaker at international conferences, championing AI literacy and the "human-AI-human" framework to ensure technology acts as a powerful accelerator for performance and business results.

ATD Houston 2026 Talent Development Conference and Expo Registration (September 17, 2026)

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Stop reacting to market disruptions and start outrunning them. The ATD Houston 2026 Annual Conference gives you the blueprint to build a resilient workforce that thrives under pressure. Whether you lead an enterprise team, design instructional content, or manage talent systems, this event delivers practical strategies you can use immediately.

The Conference Experience

You will start the day with an exclusive morning workshop led by Marc Effron, one of the top authorities in talent management. He will share direct, data-driven approaches to building high-performing talent.

In the afternoon, the concurrent sessions move away from traditional, siloed topics into a progressive workforce lifecycle model. You can customize your learning track across three distinct phases:

READY (Assessment & Strategic Alignment): Discover how to map your current business needs and accurately forecast the skills your organization requires next.

BUILD (Design & Accelerated Deployment): Learn production methods to create quality learning programs and roll them out quickly to your teams.

MAINTAIN (Sustainability & Operational Excellence): Find out how to measure business outcomes, scale your efforts, and ensure long-term performance.

Between sessions, you can visit the expo to test new tools and connect with peers during dedicated networking blocks. You will walk away with new community connections and a clear plan to protect your organization against future disruptions.

Bring your team! Contact presidentemeritus@tdhouston.org for special team discount for 4+ people from the same organization.

Morning Workshop: Building Great Talent Managers: The 4+2 Model

Description: There’s not a secret to growing better talent faster, there’s a process. In this 3-hour highly interactive and practical workshop, you’ll learn about and assess your organization’s talent production line – the disciplined process for producing talent. You’ll learn where most organizations go wrong and how the best thrive. You’ll also become a better talent-building HR leader with the 4+2 Model. This model from Marc Effron’s Talent Management Institute at the University of North Carolina details what differentiates the best talent-builders in HR. You’ll leave with a focused action plan for optimizing how your organization (and you) build better talent faster.

Marc Effron, President, The Talent Strategy Group

As one of the world’s top advisors on human resources and talent management, Marc helps the world's premier companies, NGO’s, foundations and governments to elevate the quality and impact of their talent. He leads transformational HR projects globally in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to consumer products to technology.

Marc co-authored the Harvard Business Review Publishing best-selling book One Page Talent Management, often called the “talent management bible.” His most recent book, 8 Steps to High Performance, also from Harvard, is quickly reaching best-seller status. He has written more than 50 articles on HR and talent topics.

Marc conducts original research on key HR topics each year including recent reports on High Potential Development, The State of Performance and Potential and the Who Are We report about the HR profession.

Marc co-founded the Talent Management Institute at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School in 2011. It’s the world’s most popular executive education program on talent with more than 7,000 graduates and taught at locations around the globe.

His prior experience includes roles as VP Talent Management for Avon Products, Global Leadership Consulting Head for Aon Hewitt, SVP Leadership Development for Bank of America and a Congressional Staff Assistant.

Marc has been published in or heard on Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Financial Times, the BBC, Bloomberg Radio, Inc., New York Post, and some of the world’s most popular podcasts.

Marc earned a M.B.A. from the Yale University School of Management and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington.

What to Expect

Come ready to participate, learn, listen and network!
A light breakfast, hot lunch, and snacks will be included throughout the day. If you have dietary restrictions, please email
Wear comfortable clothing whether it is jeans or business - we want you to just be you!
Ample onsite parking will be provided without cost.

APTD/CPTD Certification

This program is eligible for 5 APTD and CPTD recertification points from the ATD Certification Institute. The amount indicated is the maximum number of recertification points a participant can receive for this program.

Visit https://www.td.org/ci-recertification for more details about the APTD and CPTD recertification policies

Event Registration and Cancellation Policy: Event Registration and Cancellation Policy: ATD Houston has implemented Event Registration and Cancellation Policy for its paid events. Event registration fees should be paid online by credit/debit card at the time of registration. If you must pay at the event by check or debit/credit card, please contact the Chapter Administrator, at admin@tdhouston.org for approval prior to registering. If you need to cancel your registration, please contact feedback@tdhouston.org. All cancellations are subject to a $15.00 administrative fee. No refund will be given for cancellations made less than 48 hours prior to the event. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact ATD Houston.

General Meeting: Curing the HR Hangover (October 20, 2026)

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 22:30:00 GMT

HR professionals have been carrying the weight of every people decision in the organization — and the hangover is real. This session flips the script. When HR stops trying to be in every room and starts empowering the entire organization to own the employee experience, that's when HR becomes what it was always meant to be: a strategic business driver. This talk integrates ROI fluency, the IMPACT Model, and CEO-level communication to help HR professionals step out of the transactional fog and into transformational leadership — as true business stakeholders.

Learner Objectives:

HR Is a Shared Sport: Discover how to build a culture of shared ownership over the employee experience — so HR can finally stop being the only one playing defense and start calling the plays.
Speak CEO. Drive ROI.: Learn the financial language that gets HR a permanent seat at the strategy table — and how to tie every HR initiative to a measurable business outcome that makes the C-Suite lean in.
Deploy the IMPACT Model: Walk away with a practical six-step framework — Integrate, Measure, Partner, Align, Create, Transform — to shift HR from reactive to revenue-generating in any size organization.

ATD Capability Model – Managing Learning Programs and Integrated Talent Management

To learn more about this model see: https://tdcapability.org/#/

Reanette Etzler is not your typical HR speaker. She is a PHR-certified HR strategist, John Maxwell Executive Director, keynote speaker, and executive coach with over 30 years of experience across retail, restaurant, nonprofit, private, and public sector industries.

She has sat at negotiating tables, advised C-suite executives, navigated organizational landmines that would make most HR professionals update their LinkedIn profile on the spot, and come out the other side with a strategic framework that actually works. She founded The Strategic HR Coach with one mission: move HR from transactional to transformational — and from the back office to the boardroom. Reanette has led HR strategy, union negotiations, executive coaching, and organizational transformation across industries ranging from farm credit and franchise operations to government and nonprofit leadership.

Her breadth of experience means she has seen every version of the HR Hangover — and she knows exactly how to cure it. Her sessions are known for real audience engagement, practical tools attendees can use the moment they walk out the door, and the kind of honest, sometimes uncomfortable truths that HR and CEOs have needed to hear for a long time. She will bring the laughs. She will bring the data. And she will bring every person in that room one step closer to becoming the strategic business partner their organization actually needs. "HR is everyone's role — someone just forgot to tell the C-suite."

General Meeting: Leading the Emotional Side of Change (November 10, 2026)

Tue, 10 Nov 2026 23:30:00 GMT

Leading the Emotional Side of Change: How to convert resistance into progress

Everyone understands the need for change. We just don’t like to be changed. When we’re deeply connected to our ways, being asked to do things differently triggers frustration, anxiety, and even grief. In today’s environment of constant disruption, plans and policies aren’t enough—leaders need to know what to do when emotions run high. This interactive, research-backed session equips HR professionals and people leaders with practical techniques to meet resistance with skill.

Learner Objectives:

Recognize the emotional signals beneath resistance — and understand what they're really telling you.
Practice three hands-on techniques for responding to pushback in the moment.
Leave with a concrete plan for applying your insights at your workplace.

ATD Capability Model – Managing Learning Programs and Integrated Talent Management

To learn more about this model see: https://tdcapability.org/#/

Marek Rudak is an emotional intelligence expert who has designed workshops for premier organizations such as NASA, Fidelity, and Rice University. He is certified in the EQ-i 2.0® & EQ 360® assessments that help his clients quickly understand what they need to do specifically to improve their leadership skills and effectiveness.

Marek is also certified in Red Team Coaching, a revolutionary set of tools first developed by the military and intelligence agencies, then evolved to help business executives thrive in complexity and make better decisions by ensuring emotions are an asset, not a liability. Marek graduated in the top 10% of his class at West Point and became a Ranger in the 82nd Airborne Division, where he deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon separating from the Army, he joined ExxonMobil, where he worked on global, multi-billion-dollar projects for ten years.

As an executive coach, Marek accumulated over 5,000 hours coaching C-suite leaders and their teams at multiple Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, non-profits, and government agencies.

Judith Walton is a leadership coach and organizational development consultant who helps leaders navigate the emotional side of change—especially when the stakes are high and the path forward isn’t clear. With over 20 years of experience at NASA, she built and supported teams operating in complex, high-pressure environments where clarity had to emerge in real time.

She specializes in helping leaders work the stretch between “we don’t know yet” and “now we do,” equipping them to stay grounded in moments of resistance, surface what’s really driving pushback, and move teams toward shared ownership and progress.

Judith’s approach blends emotional intelligence, practical tools, and real-world application—giving leaders not just insight, but something they can use immediately when emotions run high and decisions matter most.

ATD Houston upcoming events

General Meeting: Your Story, Your Influence (August 11, 2026)

Webinar: Human Capabilities in Today’s Workplace (August 20, 2026)

Human Capabilities in Today’s Workplace: Why Our Current Approach Isn’t Working, and What a New Paradigm Makes Possible

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Workshop: Strategic Learning Architect - Driving Performance in the Age of AI (August 27, 2026)

ATD Houston 2026 Talent Development Conference and Expo Registration (September 17, 2026)

General Meeting: Curing the HR Hangover (October 20, 2026)

General Meeting: Leading the Emotional Side of Change (November 10, 2026)