agenda at a glance October 22-24, 2025 | Austin TX

This is your chance to step away from the usual hierarchy and have real, honest conversations with other senior leaders who get it. In this small-group session (yes, that means no direct reports… and no boss), we’ll dig into the challenges that keep you up at night—from supporting franchisees and leading high-performing teams to aligning strategy with growth goals. Come ready to share, listen, and leave with fresh ideas you can actually use.

• Structured agenda with flexibility to dig deeper into the topics that matter most to you
• Combination of roundtable discussion, hands-on exercises, and networking
• Practical action steps you can start implementing in your organization immediately

Let’s talk about the stuff that doesn’t make it into the boardroom slides. Culture clashes, burnout, retention struggles—this session is your space to dive into the real human challenges behind franchise success. Join fellow HR and People leaders for an open, honest conversation about what’s working, what’s not, and how we can support the people who power our systems.

• Structured agenda with flexibility to dig deeper into the topics that matter most to you
• Combination of roundtable discussion, hands-on exercises, and networking
• Practical action steps you can start implementing in your organization immediately

What happens when you shift your field team’s role from auditors and trainers to strategic business partners? At Hand & Stone, that transformation delivered measurable results. The visionaries behind this success story, Julie Hauser-Blanner and Kit Roveda, will walk you step-by-step through how they orchestrated operational shifts, training models, and a leadership mindset that redefined their franchisee support structure. You’ll learn how aligning span of control, investing in the right talent, and setting clear expectations elevated Hand & Stone’s field support into a true business partnership, ultimately strengthening franchisee relationships and improving performance across the system—and how you can, too.

Franchise success requires the right system, the right technology, and the right people to work in harmony, and when it does, your operations team is a triple threat that can take your franchise to the next level. In this session, you’ll learn how to bring all three together. 

1. Drive operational excellence by developing efficient systems that ensure consistency, eliminate waste, and promote high standards every day
2. Integrate technology that does more than just simply work—it sharpens your competitive edge, improves operations, and enhances customer experiences 
3. Embrace accountability by fostering a results-driven culture rooted in clarity and personal responsibility, starting with setting clear expectations, using transparent metrics, and establishing feedback loops.

• How Nurse Next Door connects culture to business results through a bold, people-first approach, anchored in leadership behaviors, feedback, and trust.
• The KPIs that matter most when you’re measuring more than engagement- team member experience, business growth and leadership.
• How Nurse Next Door has built systems that turn values into action: from recognition and communication frameworks to leadership development and real-time feedback.
• Practical ways to scale a people-first culture across corporate teams and franchises, without losing authenticity or clarity.

New franchisees have very different needs than mature ones, which means operations teams need to tailor a support model that meets each franchisee where they are. We’ll break down the stages of the franchisee lifecycle and identify strategies for developing a support model that matches each stage. In this working session, you’ll break out into roundtables based on your sector to map a “support journey” for franchisees at three key lifecycle stages: onboarding, growth, and plateau/turnaround.

Key Takeaways:

• Solid understanding of the unique support needs at the different stages of the franchisee lifecycle
• Practical strategies that work for your sector: what onboarding should like for services vs food vs home services brands
• A map you can take home and implement to enhance support for your franchisees wherever they are in their franchise journey

Multi-unit ownership is a smart way to expand your franchise system, but it does require specialized systems and support to ensure that successful single-unit owners can maintain success across two, three, or more locations, and franchisees joining your system with plans to open multiple locations have a solid foundation for success in place. Learn what multi-unit owners need from field support teams, and how leadership teams can arm franchisees and business coaches with the skills and tools they need to succeed.

Frontline employees see it all… customer frustrations, operational roadblocks, and the everyday moments that define your brand. These employees are the direct link between your business and its customers, yet their insights often go unheard at the corporate level. In this session, we’ll explore the real-world wisdom frontline teams bring to the table and how HR and corporate leaders can better listen, learn, and act on their perspectives to improve operations, employee experience, organizational culture, and customer satisfaction.

Discover how to bridge the gap between frontline realities and corporate strategy by leveraging employee feedback, fostering a culture of trust, and implementing changes that drive both engagement and business success. You’ll leave with actionable strategies to amplify frontline voices, improve communication between teams, and create a stronger, more human-centric organization.

Key takeaways:

• How to capture and apply frontline insights to improve business outcomes.
• Strategies to strengthen the connection between corporate teams and customer-facing employees.
• Best practices for building trust and engagement with frontline teams to reduce turnover and enhance performance.