Session Descriptions
Thursday, October 9, 2025
General Session – Evolve Your Leadership in 3 – Andre Young
This high-energy, interactive, culture-changing training is focused on Management and Employees enhancing Leadership Skills, Personal Leadership, Work Culture, and Work/Life Harmony for themselves, their team, and the organization.
5 Points of Your Day! – Everyone has 24 hours in a day… Leaders use theirs differently! Learn the 5 Points to live the life of your dreams, professionally and Personally! Get Your Triangle Right – Learn your Vision Professionally, Personally, and What to Do About It! Evolve in EVERY role you get to play. Lastly, learn how to make and take some GUILT-Free Time for yourself! Construction Talk – Learn “The Bully Words” destroying your Professional & personal Leadership… and what to replace them with!
Session 1 - Every Day Can Be Payday: The Evolution of Earned Wage Access – Matt Sammons, Rapid
What if employees could access their wages the moment they earn them without waiting for payday? Join us for a dynamic and insightful session that explores Earned Wage Access (EWA), one of the fastest-growing trends in workforce financial wellness. This is transforming how employers think about payroll, benefits, and employee well-being. The growing demand for the mechanics and models of EWA (employer-funded vs. provider-funded), regulatory considerations and compliance insights, Real-world case studies showing measurable impact on retention, morale, and productivity, and best practices for evaluating and implementing EWA programs. Whether you're an HR leader, payroll professional, or benefits strategist, this session will equip you with the knowledge you need to understand the EWA landscape and how it fits into the future of compensation. Walk away with practical guidance, industry insights, and a forward-thinking perspective on why flexible pay access is becoming a must-have benefit for today’s workforce.
Session 2 - Accuracy to Security: Best Practices in Employment & Wage Verifications
– Dave Meinert, Thomas & Company
No matter your role—HR leader, compliance manager, or Payroll pro—this session is your opportunity to revolutionize how you approach employment and wage verifications. Discover how to simplify complex processes, fortify data security, and deliver flawless results with confidence. We’ll equip you with the latest tools, proven workflows, and unmatched strategies to transform your verifications into a competitive advantage.
1. The Role of the Verification Process
2. Securing Sensitive Employee Data
3. Compliance and Legal Considerations
4. Building Trust Through Transparency
Session 3 – 5 Key Strategies for Future-Proofing Payroll – Teresa Smith, UKG
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, building and keeping trust in payroll has become an essential part of organizational success. For Payroll professionals, building trust is a critical aspect of their role, directly affecting the overall morale and efficiency of the workforce. Because trust affects how employees perceive the fairness and reliability of the employer, payroll professionals must be consistently thinking and planning for the future. To do this, payroll professionals should approach their role not just as a function of HR or finance, but as a vital part of the organization’s culture and employee experience.
With key trends shaping the future of payroll, a multifaceted approach is needed to prioritize trust-building, create a positive work environment, and ensure employee satisfaction. Future-proofing payroll involves leveraging advanced technology, adapting to changing work dynamics, and ensuring compliance, all while prioritizing the employee experience. Effectively planning for the future will enable payroll professionals to focus on more strategic aspects of their role, drive growth and innovation for the business, and set the organization up for success. We will explore the importance of cultivating trust through transparent and reliant payroll practices. You will learn five key strategies to build trust and prepare your payroll operations for success.
Session 4 - Mitigation of Overpaid Employment Taxes – Adam Beck, Equifax
This session will begin with an overview of current state unemployment tax rate trends, including solvency for state UI trust funds, changes to the taxable wage bases and FUTA credit reductions.
Additionally, we will focus on how employers can prevent overpaying state and federal employment taxes through a combination of due diligence and special tax rating strategies and elections. Topics will include: Out-of-state wage credits, Multi-state SUI Sourcing, Mid-year wage base carryovers, Voluntary Contributions, and Joint Account elections.
Session 5 – Latest Updates & Trends in Child Support – Samuel Keck, Office of Child Support Services
In this session, we will cover all the different ways the employer community and the child support community interact and communicate (IWO, VOE, NMSN, Terminations, Payments). Also covered will be the different electronic resources for employers developed by the OCSS to make communication easier between child support agencies and employers.
Friday, October 10, 2025
Session 6: AI in Payroll? How to Make it Work for your Team – Tien Ryan, ADP
AI and Generative AI (GenAI) are revolutionizing HCM. Since the launch of GenAI, some organizations are rapidly adopting technology, while others are taking a more measured approach. The payroll sector follows a similar pattern. In this discussion, we will explore how AI is currently being utilized in payroll and how Generative AI can further transform the field, ultimately positioning payroll at the forefront of organizational growth and success.
Session 7: Legal Panel on Hot Topics in Employment Law – Randi Winter, Spencer Fane LLP; Scott Blake, Felhaber Larson and Brian Rochel, Kitzer Rochel
This session consists of a legal panel with three attorneys from three different firms. We will include questions that we receive from our participants prior to the conference along with the following topics:
- FLSA Legal Update (OT changes, Audits, etc.)
- MN Pay Statement Requirements
- Employee Misclassification
Session 8: Payroll Analytics – Kevin Valuet,Consultant
Payroll analytics is just one of many components of business analytics. Businesses complete analytic processes with an organization-wide focus to help understand overall operations. Business leaders also understand the need to focus on results within individual departments, including compensation, benefits, finance, and payroll. Given the payroll department can handle up to 70% of an organization’s expenditures, payroll analytics is a critical component of complete business analytics. In this session you will learn the Six Steps of Payroll Analytics, the Role of Data in Analytics, Good Data, Bad Data and Analytics and Payroll Processes.
Session 9: Multi-State Employment Tax Compliance for the Modern Workforce – Tom LeClair, BDO
In this session, Tom will focus on state/local withholding tax and unemployment tax considerations for mobile/flex/remote workers, including policy/procedure best practices and employer risk, mitigations, etc.
Session 10: Minnesota and IRS Income Tax Withholding Updates – Patrick Smith, MN Department of Revenue and Alan Gregerson, Consultant
In this session, you will hear updates from Minnesota Income Tax and Withholding and the IRS.
General Session: Seize Your Opportunity – Move Beyond Burnout – Jasmine Brett Stringer
It’s no secret that today’s workforce is stressed out and stretched thin, while employee engagement, retention, and satisfaction are at an all-time low. But checking out isn’t the answer – life is just too short to spend each day doing something that does not bring you joy. In the middle of all difficulty lies opportunity. It’s time to recharge, re-energize, and Seize Your Opportunity. In this program, audiences will discover effective ways to bounce back from daily challenges and stress in a constructive manner that promotes positive growth, empowering them to break free from survival mode and rediscover the joy in their work. Audiences are Inspired To:- Promote healthy engagement with challenges at work- Discover specific methods to avoid burnout, find comfort, and release weighty feelings- Rediscover the joy in their work and career- Respond to stress in a healthy way that allows for goals to be achieved at minimal psychological and physical costs
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