Session clashes, Hangar debates, hands-on Labs and a peer-only Leaders Forum – a practical guide to two days at Rebel in Toronto
Human resources (HR) professionals heading to HRFest Canada 2026 face a scheduling challenge most conferences never pose: five stages, no single plenary room and more sessions than anyone can attend - and that’s a positive thing.
The festival runs Nov. 10 and 11, 2026, at Rebel in Toronto, with more than 120 speakers and more than 60 hours of programming, according to organizers.
Four stages are open to all attendees, as outlined in HRD Canada's breakdown of the HRFest Canada 2026 stages. The fifth, the Leaders Forum, requires a separate ticket and is reserved for chief human resources officers (CHROs) and other senior people leaders.
Erin Kuzz, founding partner at Sherrard Kuzz LLP in Toronto, attended in 2025. "It just brought a very different energy to the event than I think I've ever seen in any other similar event," she says.
Anchor your HRFest Canada day at The Hangar
The Hangar is the main stage, billed by organizers as "the heartbeat of HRFest." It hosts keynote panels, live debates and podcast recordings on artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, legal risk and wellbeing.
Kuzz sits on its Risk Radar panel, which covers the employment law decisions that weigh most on HR leaders. "It's not about the single biggest change, it's about keeping up with the almost weekly small changes," she says.
Attendees who want their own compliance questions answered can head to The Vault's live legal question-and-answer session, where the line between speaker and audience is deliberately blurred.
When sessions clash, pick the room that produces something
When sessions overlap, The Lab offers a tiebreaker. Its smaller workshops each produce a named artifact – a template, checklist, plan or draft. There you’ll find "tools you can use on Monday, not just slides to file away." Because capacity is limited, it pays to arrive early.
Kalifa Oliver, senior director of technology, people and legal analytics at Lowe's, leads the Lab session "From Surveys to Storytelling: Making People Analytics Land with the C-Suite."
"It's big on storytelling with data, but storytelling with data specifically to executives," she says.
Oliver also moderates a panel on AI implementation. "One of the questions I will be asking is the idea of: 'We could, but should we do this thing?'" she says.
Mid-career professionals can turn to The Loft, with sessions on promotion strategy, budget conversations with chief financial officers and live career coaching.
Inside the Leaders Forum
The Leaders Forum is capped at 300 attendees and runs off-the-record. It lets executives step in and out without losing the thread, and its ticket includes full festival access. HRD Canada's look at the HR Leaders forum peer format explains how the room works.
On Nov. 11, Shawn Gibson, CHRO at Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont., will share lessons from Info-Tech's human resources information system (HRIS) overhaul across six countries. "I really look forward to those candid, one-on-one conversations with peers," he says.
Helen Ashton, vice-president of people, culture and customer experience at Grand & Toy in Toronto, is a panellist on a rewards audit session and values the room's candour.
"It gives you an opportunity to be a little bit more vulnerable and say, 'Hey, we rolled out this program,' or 'We've tried this new thing,' or 'This is the stance on AI we took' – and it backfired," she says.
Don't skip the moments between sessions
ADP Canada is sponsoring the VIP Lunch and a Coffee Barista station. "Some of the best conversations happen in informal settings," says Heather Haslam, vice-president of marketing at ADP Canada in Toronto.
IA Financial Group returns after attending in 2025 as an observer, this time as sponsor of the content lounge. "We attended the event last year just to see what the event was about," says Jessica Rodrigues, national director for client services at IA Financial Group in Toronto.
Ashton's pitch to undecided leaders is brief: "You have so much to gain and absolutely nothing to lose."
HRFest 2026 runs Nov. 10 and 11, 2026, at Rebel in Toronto.
