The information below is from the completed 2022 event. Check back in the fall for 2023 updates.

Maine HR Convention: May 9 – 12, 2022

Maine Great Leader Series

Tuesday, May 10th, 2022 @ 7:00 am - 8:00 am

Maine Great Leader Session is FULL

Reimagination at IDEXX

Why you’ll want to attend. Each year, our Great Leader Series showcases some of the best HR talent in Maine. The last two years have triggered non-stop talk about transitions and change, and that takes the 2022 edition of this series to the doorsteps of IDEXX in Westbrook. After more than a decade as CHRO, Giovani Twigge recently stepped down from that role. During his tenure, IDEXX has doubled in size to over 9,800 employees around the globe. Gio is recognized for his highly collaborative and entrepreneurial style that encourages workforce development and policy in Maine. Gio will be joined by Chanel Lewis, their Senior Manager for Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She is quickly becoming a force for change as a people, community, and cultural evangelist. Moderated by Dave Vasconcelos, Ula Polsky, and Bud Bernstein.

What’s it all about?

This fireside chat offers an intriguing comparison of what the playing field looked like for someone starting an HR career 40 years ago and someone starting their career now.
We’ll focus on how the continuity of an organization’s value structure is impacted by a change in HR leadership.
And, we’ll consider how HR keeps its eyes on the business model and strategic direction of an organization while change is happening within that department.

Approved for SHRM credit and HRCI Business Credit.

Program Faculty: Chanel Lewis, Dave Vasconcelos, Giovani Twigge, Ula Polsky

MAINE GREAT LEADERS SERIES SPONSOR:

Maine HR Convention

Full Schedule by Day

Katie’s Corner: Reflections
This morning, I was browsing through some memories of the #MaineHRConvention in years past, and was overcome with feelings of nostalgia, energy, and PRIDE for the human resources community our event serves. Our return to the Samoset in May is a long-overdue homecoming for the HR professionals of Maine. This crowd has been through the wringer in navigating the health & safety, emotional wellbeing, and workload of their fluctuating workforce. It’s about time that we all get in a room and take one big (masked!) EXHALE together. I can’t wait to reunite with friends new and old, and produce an event worthy of this group’s time and energy. As you ramp up your plans for May – join the hold a seat list, book dinner reservations in Rockport, and wait patiently to book that coveted Samoset room – please consider the 2022 Maine HR Convention my team’s bottom-of-our-hearts THANK YOU to the people who take care of their people. We are truly in a debt of gratitude. Katie Jones Creative Director, COO The Maine HR Convention Katie@StrategicHRus.com
A Note from the Curator: 500,000. HR, Gratitude, and Hope
For our friends in the HR orbit who deal in numbers and people. (That’s all of you!) On Monday evening, the President said, “We often hear people described as ordinary Americans. There’s no such thing. There’s nothing ordinary about them. The people we lost were extraordinary.” The HR community also has been extraordinary this past year, balancing numbers so organizations survive and recognizing that analytics matter little without seeing the people behind the numbers. There are countless stories of HR leaders rising to the occasion, tending to their employees, and reaching beyond their immediate circles. So, how do you grasp 500,000? Some draw the connection to lives lost in the wars of the last century. I imagine the combined populations of Bangor (my hometown) and Portland (which I now call home). Times FIVE. That thought nudged me from a self-defensive numbness to a gentle ache – and an elixir with two-part chemistry. The first part involves gratitude for frontline employees. Nurses jabbing arms. Clerks bagging groceries. The second part of the formula is hope – that uniquely human gift. Teachers planting seeds that will blossom into ideas. Ideas that might cool the planet, cool our heated political rhetoric, and warm the way we think about work, life, and the people we love. If you haven’t seen the Mars landing – watch this 3-minute NASA clip, which is awesome and sweetly geeky at the same time. If you want a little music to inspire – watch and listen to this clip created by “From the Top”. Here’s hoping that you are in good spirits, and that if you have lost a friend or family member, that this person resides in your heart as extraordinary. Bud Bernstein Curator for Strategic HR U.S.
A Note from the Curator: HR Superpower Alert
We’ve witnessed the Maine HR community in action these past few months, and you’ve done extraordinary things, calling on your superpowers to make a difference in the lives of your employees and the continuity of your organizations. We intend to reward those efforts with an extraordinary Maine HR Convention in May; so please watch for the opening of registration next week. I’ve called on the superpowers of my Strategic HR team, a faculty scattered around the U.S., and a virtual platform in London, England called HopIn to provide you with something unique. An online experience that leaves you informed and inspired across three learning tracks, a Maine Great Leader series, six keynotes, and a journey around America to meet HR miracle workers in action. In just a few days, you’ll see what we’ve been cooking up behind the scenes. For now, here’s the start to an Emily Dickinson poem: “Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all Bud Bernstein Curator for Strategic HR U.S.