The Power of People: Meet the 80+ Engage Boston Speakers

Engage 2018

The staffing industry is constantly evolving, but one thing remains constant: staffing is all about people. Technology, talent, innovation, leadership—they’re all driven by the power of people, the theme of Engage this year.

And what would a conference about the power of people be without an all-star line up of inspiring, informative, and insightful speakers? Across three incredible days, you’ll hear from 80+ power-house speakers and learn how to transform our industry, your business, and peoples’ lives through the power of people and technology.

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These expert speakers will cover everything from building trusted relationships and providing skilled talent, to the technologies enabling scalability and transforming the recruiting landscape. They’ll address the complex challenges facing our industry and our world today like digitization and automation, the opportunity divide, talent shortages, globalization, and diversity. 

Read up on the first round of Engage Boston 2018 speakers here, then read on below to learn about the next round of Engage Boston speakers!

Meet these marketing mavens

What does it mean to be a chief marketing officer in the staffing industry? As the role—and the industry—becomes more people-focused and data-focused, the answer to the question is constantly evolving. Bullhorn Chief Marketing Officer Gordon Burnes  has assembled a panel of CMOs who will discuss the challenges and opportunities they face around ideas like budget allocation, account-based marketing, and candidate engagement. The panel will also introduce exclusive research data that attendees can leverage to improve their 2018 marketing outcomes.

Gordon Burnes, CMO, Bullhorn

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Leslie VickreyCEO and Founder, ClearEdge Marketing 

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Kyle Power, Sr. Director, Interactive Marketing, CHG Healthcare Services

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Adam Bleibtreu, CMO, On Assignment & Creative Circle

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Meet these healthcare staffing stars

Healthcare is a red-hot, high-growth sector within staffing, but it’s also full of unique challenges. The healthcare staffing industry is one where ‘getting it right’ actually can be a matter of life or death. The talent pools are smaller, the requirements are higher, and the opportunities are highly appealing. So how can you use the power of people to overcome these challenges?

Bullhorn’s Gretchen Keefner will lead this all-star panel of healthcare staffing leaders to speak frankly about the candidate engagement challenges that keep them up at night, strategies for overcoming them, and where they see the market headed in light of potential legislative changes.

Gretchen Keefner, Managing Director, Bullhorn

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Abigail Tremble, President, Randstad Health

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Buffy White,  SVP Recruiting Strategy, Cross Country Healthcare

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Meet this skills shortage strategist

There’s no escaping the omnipresence of the skills shortage in discussions about the staffing industry. But what if this skills shortage doesn’t really exist? Cindy Pasky believes that there really isn’t a skills shortage if you know where to look. It may just be a matter of asking the right questions. Do you have inherent biases that you need to overcome? Are you nurturing a corporate and candidate culture that appeals to marginalized but qualified talent pools such as veterans, returning mothers, and the LGBT community?

Cindy will discuss how Strategic Staffing Solutions’ unique culture has helped the company attract a huge and loyal roster of consultants and how they leverage technology to make their recruiters even more human and effective at their jobs, so that you too can use the power of people to thrive as a business. 

Cindy Pasky, Founder, President, CEO, Strategic Staffing Solutions

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Meet this keynote speaker!

We’re thrilled to announce our next keynote speaker at Engage Boston 2018—Joyce Russell! Joyce Russell will be participating in a fireside chat with Bullhorn CEO, Art Papas

Few people embody the power of people in staffing like Joyce Russell. Joyce—who was named one of the 10 Most Intriguing People in Staffing by Staffing Industry Review Magazine and part of the Global Power 100: Women in Staffing list by Staffing Industry Analysts—has had an impressive career in staffing spanning 30 years.

As the most senior ranking woman in the United States’ staffing industry, Joyce Russell has channeled her passionate and strategic leadership to lead the largest business unit of  Adecco Group North America, with more than 450 branch locations, approximately 1,800 colleagues and a diverse portfolio of clients, including many of the Fortune 500.

Joyce Russell, President, Adecco Staffing US

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Meet these leaders who challenge adversity

Recent social media movements like #MeToo, #TimesUp, #OscarsSoWhite, and #NeverAgain, have embodied the power of people to fight for change. And the people at the center of those movements—or opposed to —are your candidates, your employees, and your customers. How, as leaders, do we navigate the social and cultural challenges that affect our world, our homes, and our businesses? Bullhorn’s Vinda Souza will explore these themes and more with this panel of leaders who have faced or are helping people navigate adversity including gender and racial biases, sexual harassment, economic disenfranchisement, age bias, and much more.

Louis Song, Co-Founder, Proven Recruiting

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Megan McCann, CEO and Founder, McCann Partners

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Bill Peppler, COO, Kavaliro

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Diane Johnson Flynn, CEO and Co-Founder, ReBoot Accel

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Vinda Souza, VP Marketing Communications, Bullhorn

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Meet these global thinkers

What does “Think locally, act globally” mean in an era of Brexit, data protection regulations, financial oversight, trade tariffs, and a continuously shifting political landscape?  This panel of global staffing and recruitment leaders led by Bullhorn’s David Stott will provide their thoughts on how to navigate and grow a business in a rapidly evolving and oftentimes counter-intuitive economic climate. 

Janette Marx, Global COO, Airswift

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Chris Hartman, Global Development Officer, Allegis

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Yvette Cleland, CEO, Clinical Professionals

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David Stott, VP, Enterprise International, Bullhorn

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Meet this vocational training pioneer

The talent shortage is the top cited challenge for staffing firms.  But much of the complaints levied against the perpetual “skills gap” are actually complaints against the limitations of obvious talent pools. When one looks beyond the obvious—and towards retraining and vocational education opportunities—a whole new world of skilled labor emerges. Richard Wahlquist—a staffing leader and expert with his finger on the pulse of national legislation affecting the staffing industry—will elucidate the tremendous potential of vocational training in a lively fireside chat.

Richard Wahlquist, President and CEO, American Staffing Association

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Meet these M&A masterminds

How do you plan to grow your business? Organically or through acquisitions? Will you build or to buy? It was the subject of Bullhorn CEO Art Papas’ Keynote speech at Engage 2017, and the questions are even more pertinent now. With private equity companies taking a keen interest in the staffing industry, an influx of funding, cheap debt, and a plethora of intelligence to be leveraged through “acqui-hiring,” now is an incredible time to build your business through M&A. Bullhorn’s Ryan Murphy will lead a panel consisting of storied staffing leaders and PE experts to shed light on the opportunities inherent to staffing M&A.

Timothy Billings, Partner, Quad-C Management

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Greg Netland, Founder and Principal, The Netland Group

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Brian Waller, Chief Strategy Officer and Founding Partner, Vaco

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Ryan Murphy, Global Head of Enterprise, Bullhorn

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Meet these Bullhorn experts

In addition to these sessions about the people, ideas, and technologies powering the staffing industry, Engage Boston will be jam-packed with speakers who will help you harness the power of Bullhorn and the Bullhorn Ecosystem. On Wednesday, June 13th, these speakers—a mix of industry leaders who use Bullhorn and Bullhorn developers and experts—will cover tips, advice, product updates, and more.

Gina ChisholmDirector, Marketing and Technology, KellyMitchell Group—More Placements, More Money: Maximizing Your Efficiency with Bullhorn

Justin ThomasonRegional Director of Recruiting, Matrix—Scaling with Bullhorn

Jason Smith, VP, Enterprise Americas, Bullhorn—Change Management and Organizational Evolution

Rob WaddellSVP and CIO, Principal—FOMO: Making the Most of the Bullhorn Ecosystem

Jeff NeumannSenior Director, Product Marketing, Bullhorn AND Mitesh Ashar, VP, Technical Product Management, Bullhorn—The Novo Experience

Ed HolmesSVP, Workforce and Revenue Cloud, Bullhorn AND Kendra CatoSenior Manager, Enterprise Research and Strategy, Bullhorn—Evolution of the Middle Office: Vision, Roadmap, and Strategy

Shaun WeiseManaging Director, Global Accounts, Bullhorn AND Lee ElkinsonCEO, Snelling AND Rob LowryEVP, Apex Systems—C-levels and the CRM

Gary Cook, President and CEO Pacific Companies Inc. and Matt Dichter, Senior Account Executive, Bullhorn—Healthcare Best Practices: A Case Study

The Bullhorn Development team: Adam Crowe, John Sullivan, Brian Kimball, Nathan Dickerson, Amrutha Rajiv, Joshua Godi, Charles Barnes, Beth Carretto, Keith Goff, Jay Pennington


These 50+ speakers at Engage Boston will help inspire, influence, and reshape the way you think about the staffing industry and the power of people. And there are still more speakers to come! Subscribe to the blog to ensure that you get all the latest and greatest Engage updates.

Register for Engage Boston 2018


More about Engage

Discover how to more effectively engage talent, leadership, and the future of staffing at Engage, the leading staffing and recruiting conference in North America. Over three full days, recruitment leaders and practitioners will come together for unparalleled industry insights and tactical Bullhorn product training. With more than 1,000 attendees, Engage is the best event to make new connections and learn from the brightest minds in the field but is still intimate enough that you’ll see some of your favorite staffing friends. Register now.

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