The Foundation for Human Resources Development will be holding its annual HR conference entitled ‘HR & Technology: Driving Business Value’, with a strong line up of speakers, including IBM, Linkedin and CIPD.

The number of delegates registered for this year’s event has already hit the 400 mark. In addition, 24 local exhibitors will be showcasing their products and services.

In the past, HR’s relationship with technology has often been troubled. Today, especially with the advent of cloud computing and big data, technology is adding agility, flexibility, analytics and a whole set of new tools to HR.

Such tools bring a better understanding of the current state within an organisation, enabling one to intervene in a more conversant manner and in the process anticipating issues that might arise at the workplace.

IBM Europe’s chief HR officer Gary Kildare will be opening this year’s event with a speech on the future of work. A number of interactive workshops and a multi-sector panel session will follow. The event will be concluded with a keynote by Tiffany Poeppelman from Linkedin, who will consider the intersections of learning and technology.

If HR wants to continue playing a critical role in helping businesses anticipate and manage organisational change, it must have technology at its core. Because of efficiencies, cost savings and employee expectations, the usage of technology in HR has become too business critical to ignore.

The conference is being held on October 20 at the Hilton conference centre. Registration can be done online by visiting http://fhrd.org/2017conf . For more information, e-mail conferences@fhrd.org or call 2131 3550.