Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo 2026: the sessions we're excited about, and where to find ChartHop

Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo starts Monday at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin in Orlando, October 26 to 28. It's three days, nearly 300 sessions, and more than 60 solution providers, built for CHROs and the people who run HR with them.

Fresh off HR Tech last week, here's our read on the theme, the sessions we'd make time for, and where to find us.

The theme: productivity isn't the prize

This year's theme is Power New Possibilities: Lead the Transformation of Work, and the opening keynote sets the tone with its title: Productivity Isn't the Prize. Gartner's argument is that AI is delivering real productivity gains, but those gains don't reliably turn into lower costs or better results on their own. The organizations pulling ahead are the ones that redesign work around what AI makes possible, then point the capacity they free up at growth.

That matches what we're hearing. Most leadership teams have AI pilots running. Far fewer can answer the questions that come next: which teams actually got capacity back, what should that capacity go toward, and what does the org look like once agents are doing part of the work?

Those are organizational questions, and they need a live picture of the organization to answer. That's the thread we'll be following in Orlando, and it shaped the picks below.

Sessions we’re excited about

Keynotes

Gartner Opening Keynote: Productivity Isn't the Prize. Expanding What's Possible for Your Organization
CV Viverito, Sr Director Analyst, and Arj Bagga, VP Analyst, Gartner
Monday, October 26, 9:30 a.m.
Gartner will lay out why productivity gains alone aren't translating into business results, and what redesigning work looks like when they do.

Guest Keynote: Beyond Achievement. Building a Legacy That Opens Doors for Others
Misty Copeland, former Principal Dancer, American Ballet Theatre
Tuesday, October 27, 9:00 a.m.
A fireside chat on leadership, resilience and making room for the people coming up behind you. A good way to start day two.

Guest Keynote: Leading with Levity. The Competitive Advantage of Humor
Naomi Bagdonas, Lecturer in Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Wednesday, October 28, 9:00 a.m.
The case that humor is a leadership skill, with research behind it.

Workforce planning

Signature Series: Top CHRO Trends & Priorities Shaping 2027
Mark Whittle, VP Analyst, Gartner
Monday, October 26, 11:00 a.m.
Gartner's annual survey of hundreds of CHROs. Useful for checking your own 2027 priorities against your peers' before planning season closes.

Find Your AI-Labor Ratio: Balancing Workforce and Technology Costs
Jonathan Jackson, Director Analyst, Gartner
Monday, October 26, 11:00 a.m.
Runs at the same time as the session above, so pick one. This one is for anyone whose CFO assumes AI ROI shows up as headcount reduction and wants a better model for the trade-off.

CHRO Circle Roundtable: Strategic Workforce Planning in Midsized Organizations (CHRO Circle members)
Monday, October 26, 2:30 p.m.
A peer discussion built specifically for mid-sized companies, which is where most of our customers live.

Organization design and work redesign

How to Reimagine Any Workflow and Team for AI
Kabeh Vaziri, Managing Vice President, Gartner
Monday, October 26, 1:30 p.m.
The building blocks of work redesign, with frameworks you can take back and apply to a real team.

Roundtable: Should AI Agents Be in My Organization Chart?
Caroline Hewings, Sr Director Analyst, Gartner
Tuesday, October 27, 4:00 p.m.
The question we get asked more every month. If agents are taking on tasks and working alongside people, where do they sit, who's accountable for them, and what do they get to see?

AI Has Unleashed Work Chaos: How to Get Through the "Messy Middle" of Your Organization's AI Journey
Rebecca Lane, Sr Principal Analyst, Gartner
Wednesday, October 28, 3:30 p.m.
The messy middle is when AI has freed up capacity but the organization hasn't decided what to do with it. Most companies we talk to are somewhere in it right now.

People data, analytics and AI in HR

Demystifying AI-Ready Data: The HR Foundation for AI Success
Chris Hester, Sr Director Analyst, Gartner
Monday, October 26, 2:30 p.m.
Data quality and AI-readiness aren't the same thing. This session covers what AI actually needs from your workforce data before it can be trusted with anything that matters.

What Boards Will Ask About the Workforce: Trends & Predictions
Anna Krasniewska, Group Vice President, Gartner
Tuesday, October 27, 10:30 a.m.
The workforce questions boards are asking now and will ask next. If your board deck still takes two weeks to pull together, this is a preview of what's coming.

Ask the Analyst: Dashboards Are Dead!?! The Evolution of Analytics and What Comes Next
Tim Pasto, Director Analyst, Gartner
Tuesday, October 27, 10:30 a.m. (repeats Wednesday, 1:30 p.m.)
Clashes with the boards session, but it repeats on Wednesday. The argument is that the manager self-service dashboard has had its day and people will simply ask questions instead. We agree, and we'll be showing what that looks like at the booth.

Come see us: Booth 220

You'll find ChartHop at Booth 220 in the HR Xpo. Stop by for a live demo, bring your planning or AI questions, or just say hello between sessions.

Want a set time? Book a meeting with our team →

Here's what we'll be showing:

• A living model of your organization. HRIS, ATS, payroll, finance and CRM data, including Workday, SAP and ADP, connected in one place. Nothing to rip out.
• People and Finance on the same plan. Model a reorg, a hiring plan or a reduction and see cost, span and capacity before anything is announced.
• Answers instead of dashboards. Ask ChartHop answers questions about your organization in plain language, and managers get their own answers without seeing anyone's pay.
• AI agents with guardrails. Agents work inside the same permissions as the people using them. Changes need approval, and every action is logged.

About ChartHop

ChartHop is the organizational intelligence company. We connect your people and business data into a living model of your organization, so you can see what's changing, plan what's next and act on it. More than 350 companies, including Airbnb, Headspace, Sweetgreen and 1Password, use ChartHop to run their organizations with the full picture.

Not going to Orlando? Book a demo → and we'll walk you through it anyway.

See you at Booth 220.