More than 85 talent marketing leaders from the world’s top brands gathered in Atlanta for the Talent Marketing Practitioner Summit — two days packed with candid conversations, powerful takeaways, and peer insights.
Hosted by the Talent Marketing Board, the conference was exclusively for recruitment marketing and employer brand leaders at large brands where our members dug into what it takes to talent marketing at scale in 2025.
Here’s a look at the moments that mattered most and why our community continues to provide value for our members.
Strategic Leadership Panels
The agenda was built entirely by and for talent marketing leaders, creating a space for honest dialogue on what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next. Panel discussions tackled the biggest strategic challenges on the minds of recruitment marketing and employer brand teams today.
Getting talent marketing a seat at the table
ADT Senior Manager of Recruitment Marketing Kayla Branham, Encompass Health Director of Talent Marketing and Attraction Heidi Chapeau, and GE Aerospace Global Employment Brand Leader Kara Welch explored how to position their function to ensure continued investment and gain a seat at the table.
Finding your inner cheerleader for talent marketing work
Fidelity Investments VP of Enterprise Talent Marketing Mary Schofield, MassMutual Employer Brand Communications Consultant Francesca McCaffrey, and Equinix Director of Employer Brand Shalina Patel shared how they combat feelings of professional depletion and flip their perspective to find their inner cheerleader.
Confidential Case Studies on Top Challenges
Members shared how they’re solving critical issues — from overhauling career sites to building employee storytelling campaigns.
Caterpillar Global Employment Brand & Marketing Director, Jenn Spantak shared the work that went into building an award-winning employee storytelling campaign.
Hilton Senior Manager of Recruitment Marketing, Diversity Recruiting, & Employer Brand Ciara Salg described the always-on approach leveraging programmatic, SEM, and paid and organic social media to create a consistent presence regardless of time zone.
Lockheed Martin Innovation & Technology Communications Manager and GenAI Lead Rowan Toffoli shared how she creates custom GPTs for specialized communications and brand marketing projects.
U.S. Bank Head of Talent Attraction & Experience, Keri La Ra, walked us through how her team marries the science of talent attraction with the art of authentic messaging in their advocacy program.
Citizens Vice President of Employer Brand Marketing Allie Amenta Year-In-Review exercise, originally created to inform leaders, recruiters, and other stakeholders about the ongoing value her team provides.
AbbVie Associate Director of Employer Brand and Recruitment Marketing Shavonne Thomas explored her ongoing journey to put the “value” in “employee value proposition.”
Spectrum Talent Attraction Marketing Manager, Samantha Schuch shared how to create and roll out a playbook for consistent tracking to determine what recruitment sources drive the best ROI for the business.
Zillow Senior Talent Marketing Specialist Amy Lynes walked through how Zillow’s Talent Brand & Attraction team leveraged their internal learning platform to educate and enable the Talent Acquisition team.
H&R Block Senior Project Manager for Recruitment Marketing Lucia Roith delved into the collaborative journey of bringing H&R Block’s new career site to life.
Ace Hardware Director of Talent Acquisition Stef Nikitas gave an insider’s view of their “Ace Way of Hiring” project, an all-encompassing resource that details the hiring process from start to finish.
Practitioner-Led Workshops on Key Topics
Talent marketing leaders broke into smaller groups to share ideas and solve challenges. Some of the most popular sessions included:
- Reimagining inclusive talent attraction – led by Wandie Toledo at T. Rowe Price
- AI in action: What’s working, what’s not, and what’s next – led by Rowan Toffoli at Lockheed Martin
- How much should talent brand align with corporate brand? – led by Kirsten Kowalyk and Marissa Fezzey at Rocket
- Rethinking the impact of workplace awards on your employer brand – led by Niki Ferrans at Assurant
- Maximizing the value of talent communities – led by Kelli Easley at Chick-fil-A
- Building talent marketing’s role as a strategic partner – led by Kayla Branham at ADT
- The journey to a career site refresh – led by Jaclyn Rumler at The Wendy’s Company
- Talent marketing for internal mobility – led by Lindsay Lee at Flex
- Overcoming bureaucratic hurdles in complex organizations – led by Philip Kelley at GE Aerospace
The workshop format created space for practical, immediately usable solutions.
Peer Advisory Roundtables
Attendees engaged in peer-to-peer discussions on their top challenges and topics. Unlike the pre-set agendas, this format allowed our members to build the agenda “on the fly,” making the topics both uniquely timely and relevant.
Some of the top challenges benchmarked included:
- Favorite tech vs. least favorite tech
- Pay transparency
- Employee advocacy and curating employee-generated content
- Talent marketing and B2B companies
- Supporting talent marketing in hiring slowdowns/freezes/tariff era
- Addressing quality of hire
- Talent communities and how they’re structured
A Community That Gets It
The energy in the room made it clear: this is a space where talent marketing leaders don’t have to explain why their work matters. Everyone gets it.
“Wow. Just wow. I’ve been in talent acquisition for over 20 years, and this was hands-down the most valuable summit I’ve ever attended. Every conversation felt intentional and relevant.”
Chrystal Moore, Pinterest
“There’s something special about being in a room with 90+ people who not only care deeply about our field, but are also eager to share ideas, learn what’s worked, and help each other win.”
Ella Claire Nicholson, Synovus
Join Your Peers Leading Talent Marketing
If you lead talent marketing or employer brand at a large brand, this is your space. The Talent Marketing Practitioner Summit is just one part of a year-round peer community built to solve real-time challenges in leading brand talent marketing.
