Welcome to 2026, which already looks like another year of incredible change for talent acquisition.

In my last ERE Weekly of 2025, I hinted that we’ve got big plans for the next ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit. Today I can finally share the details.

We are bringing RIS to Atlanta on May 5-6.

It’s been a long time since we’ve run an event in Atlanta, and honestly, it’s overdue. Few cities have a stronger talent acquisition community, and Atlanta is home to so many who’ve helped shape ERE and SourceCon over the years, members of our community like Brian Fink, Jim Stroud, Ronnie Bratcher, Shally Steckerl, Michael Glenn, and so many others.

If you’ve attended RIS before, you know this event has always been different: practitioner-led and focused on real work, not on selling hype. In 2026, we’re leaning even harder into what makes the Summit special: connection, conversation, and practical learning you can actually use.

What’s new for 2026

Office hours with speakers

One of the most common things I hear at our events is, “The most valuable conversations happen in the halls outside the sessions.”

This year, we built those conversations into the core of RIS.

After they present, speakers will head to our Ask Me Anything Lounge for public office hours. Bring your toughest challenge. Ask the follow-up you didn’t get to ask. Pressure-test an idea before you roll it out. The best part of a great session is often the conversation that follows.

Conversation and Community, by Design

The ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit is built around meaningful connection. Whether you’re a long-time TA leader or newer to the profession, RIS is designed to help you meet peers, share experiences, and build relationships that last well beyond the event.

Vendor experiences that actually help

Our sponsors are here to engage, not just exhibit. We redesigned the 2026 show floor to encourage real interaction, including hands-on demos and problem-solving conversations. You’ll meet the people behind the technology and walk away with solutions, not just swag.

Team Retreats

If you’re bringing a remote HR or TA team, RIS is the perfect chance to get face time. Teams can arrive early to host a pre-Summit working session, book private meeting space during the event, or stay afterward to debrief and apply what they’ve learned together.

Early registration: First 25 offer

To kick things off, we’re offering a special registration price for our first 25 attendees.

If you are one of the first to secure your spot at RIS, you will get a special price of just $799, first-come, first-served. Once they’re gone, pricing goes up.

Register now to claim one of the first 25 tickets.

If you care about where talent acquisition is headed and want to be part of the conversations shaping what comes next, I’d love to see you in Atlanta this May.

More details on speakers and the agenda are coming soon.

— David

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Featured Story

Recruiters Say They Want Adaptable Talent. Why Do Their Processes Filter It Out?

Recruiters say they want adaptable talent, yet ATS filters and screening criteria still reward linear careers and exact keyword matches, which selects for yesterday’s skills and screens out people who thrive in change. Trond Arne Undheim argues for simple shifts such as treating nonlinear careers as signals of learning agility so teams can hire for a world built on uncertainty. (ERE)

More Recruiting Insights

Anatomy of an ‘AI-first’ HR org. HRE’s piece outlines what an “AI-first” HR org looks like at IBM: CHRO-led strategy, tight HR-IT partnership, and investment in AI fluency, governance, and change management to move from pilots to scaled use. The initIal rollout of the plan was not well-received, before the IBM team turned it around, with a sharp rebound in the NPS score and AI now handling 94% of HR requests. (HR Executive)

LinkedIn’s War Against Bot Scrapers Ramps Up as AI Gets Smarter. LinkedIn has always been protective of their data, and lately they’ve been stepping up enforcement actions against scrapers. (Bloomberg Law)

PwC Global Workforce Survey. PwC’s 2025 Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey finds AI optimism outweighs anxiety, yet daily use remains limited. Fifty-four percent of workers used AI in the past year, but only 14% use generative AI tools every day, suggesting big headroom for adoption if leaders build trust, provide support, and clarify how work will change. (PwC)

Job Applicant Fraud Is Rising. This Startup Is Using AI To Stop It. We’re going to be hearing a lot about application fraud in 2026, and there is a whole new crop of startups founded to combat the problem, such as Attesto and Tofu, which just announced a $5 million seed round. (Forbes)

How Zillow uses AI in their Talent Acquisition Process. I first met Roz Harris years ago when she presented at Talent42, and she’s one of the sharpest minds in TA. This article dives into how her team at Zillow rolled out six new recruiter and candidate AI tools, including an interview scheduler that cut coordination from more than a week to about 30 minutes. (HR Brew)

Conferences

ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit

Atlanta, GA
May 5-6, 2025

The ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit is a practitioner-led event built for talent acquisition leaders who want real answers, not hype. Join us for practical sessions, meaningful peer connection, and live “Ask Me Anything” office hours with our speakers.

If you care about where recruiting is headed and want ideas you can put to work immediately, you belong in this room.

(ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit)

Webinars

Closing the Loop: Why Feedback Is Your Secret Weapon in Hiring

January 20, 2026 | 2:00 PM EST | 1 Hour

Rob Lopez, VP of Talent at Thumbtack, will share how structured feedback between recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates strengthens pipelines, boosts brand perception, and turns rejections into future hires. Expect practical tactics for coaching managers, giving legally safe candidate feedback, and capturing qualitative insights so teams actually close the loop. (ERE)