Agenda

Leadership needs a rethink. While many organizations talk about purpose and empathy, are they actually practising it? In this keynote, best-selling author Dan Pontefract draws on his six books and two decades of leadership research to explore what it takes to lead with meaning: aligning personal and organizational purpose, practising empathy as a daily discipline, and rethinking the leadership traits needed for our future workforce. Expect actionable strategies you can use Monday morning to cultivate these crucial skills and inspire your teams to achieve extraordinary results.

The panel discussion will provide valuable insights for organizations seeking to align their talent development strategies with the national visions and contribute to the country’s long-term success.

• What are the specific goals of Oman Vision 2040 that talent development can directly influence?
• What specific talent development strategies can organizations implement to support the national visions?
• How can organizations create a culture that supports continuous learning and innovation and measure the impact of their talent development programs?

This session explores how strategic use of technology can significantly boost employee engagement and improve retention rates. Discover innovative digital tools and platforms that foster better communication, facilitate personalized development, streamline feedback processes, and create a more connected and supportive work environment. Learn to leverage tech to build a workforce that feels valued, motivated, and committed.

Survival in today's rapidly evolving world demands constant adaptation, agility, and continuous learning. This session explores how Talent Development must move beyond traditional boundaries to proactively identify future skills, leverage AI, and build robust alliances. Discover how to cultivate a "skills-first" mindset and foster a continuous learning culture, ensuring your organization and workforce are resilient and future-ready.

As Middle Eastern organizations increasingly expect clear evidence of training impact, ROI measurement has become essential. This panel brings experts from Oman and Saudi Arabia discuss why measurement matters, how it was conducted, the challenges they faced, and the results achieved. Through real cases and practical insights, the session highlights how effective ROI practices improve decision-making, strengthen accountability, and enhance learning effectiveness.

• Understand the ROI Journey: Why measuring impact matters and how organizations can apply a structured approach to demonstrate real value.
• Learn from Regional Case Studies: Practical insights on methods used, challenges encountered, and how experts overcame them.
• Apply Data for Improvement: How presenting ROI results to leadership drives better decisions, continuous enhancement, and stronger organizational performance

An in-depth session providing you with actionable strategies, practical frameworks, and best practices for building an ecosystem of continuous learning within organizations. This session will explore how organizations can move beyond isolated training initiatives to design integrated learning ecosystems that support workforce agility, capability development, and long-term organizational resilience, particularly in the context of the evolving future of work.

This panel explores the practical aspects of establishing an agile learning ecosystem, including the tools, technologies, and processes required to support continuous skill development and rapid adaptation.

Panelists will discuss:

• What does a “learning ecosystem” mean in today’s workplace?
• What are the core technologies that enable a learning ecosystem?
• How do you create a culture that embraces continuous learning?

Discover how AI is revolutionizing learning and development, enabling personalized experiences that drive engagement and accelerate skill development. This keynote explores the transformative potential of AI in L&D and provides insights into how to harness its power to create more effective and meaningful learning.

What does it take to build a leadership culture in one of the world's most demanding environments — a globally ranked research university where talent is highly specialized; expectations are exceptionally high, and the stakes could not be greater? In this session, Raymond Coderre, Director of Learning, Talent & Organizational Development at KAUST, shares how his team is redefining what leadership development looks like inside a high- performance scientific institution. Drawing on his experience at Harvard, MIT's Broad Institute, and now KAUST, Raymond will explore the shift from traditional training to adaptive, data-informed, human-centered leadership development — and what organizations across sectors can learn from this model. Expect actionable insights on building leadership capability at scale, designing learning ecosystems that stick, and cultivating the next generation of leaders in an era of rapid change. Key takeaways:

• How to design leadership development for high-performance, knowledge-intensive environments
• Lessons from building cohort-based leadership programs that create lasting behavioral change

Practical frameworks for using data and UX principles to make L&D more relevant and impactful

This panel discussion will delve into practical strategies for building bridges across these differences, leveraging the unique strengths of each generation and embracing cultural diversity as a catalyst for innovation and growth. Attendees will gain actionable insights into creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their best work.

• How can we foster understanding and collaboration across generations through targeted communication strategies?
• In what ways can we harness the power of diverse perspectives to drive innovation and creative problem-solving within teams?
• What steps can we take to establish equitable opportunities by identifying and eliminating systemic barriers to ensure fairness for all employees?
• How can we cultivate inclusive leadership skills that champion diversity, promote empathy, and challenge biases within the organization?

This presentation outlines PDO's strategic approach to capability development, strengthening Omani talent pipelines for long-term organizational sustainability and competitiveness. Attendees will learn how PDO achieves its human capital goals by focusing on:

• Systematically Strengthening the Omani Talent Pipeline:
  Cultivating a skilled national workforce through targeted programs and academies.
• Futureproofing the Workforce Through Agile Learning:
  Developing adaptive leadership and continuously upskilling in digital competencies (e.g., AI, data analytics).
• Driving Performance and Operational Excellence:
  Fostering a high- performance learning culture aligned with strategic business objectives.

Ready to move beyond surveys to truly inspire your employees? This practical session will provide five actionable strategies to build and maintain high levels of employee engagement. You'll gain insights into fostering psychological safety, empowering autonomy, providing meaningful recognition, and connecting individual purposes to organizational goals.

Data-driven decision making is essential for optimizing HR and learning functions. This session will explore how organizations are using talent analytics to make informed decisions that enhance HR effectiveness.

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Harness data insights to optimize HR processes and outcomes.
• Implement HR analytics tools to support strategic, evidence-based decision making. verse perspectives to drive innovation and creative problem-solving within teams?
• Leverage data to align with broader business goals, ensuring organizational performance.

Organisations are already investing in upskilling and reskilling. Yet learning alone is no longer enough. As AI accelerates change, and skills become obsolete faster than ever, the real competitive advantage lies in building organisational capability: the ability of people, teams and leaders to continuously adapt, collaborate and execute in a changing environment. Drawing on international transformation and leadership experience across industries, this keynote challenges conventional thinking about workforce development and explores what distinguishes organisations that successfully translate learning into measurable business impact. Participants will discover approaches to identifying future-critical capabilities, securing leadership commitment, and creating capability- building ecosystems that evolve alongside business strategy. Combining global perspectives with practical relevance for GCC organisations, the session will offer fresh ideas and actionable insights to help Managers, HR, Talent and Learning leaders

Attracting talent is just the beginning. This closing session synthesizes conference insights, reframing L&D's imperative: to build cultures where talent thrives, not just survives. Discover how developing purpose-driven leaders and embedding continuous skill development into daily work can transform talent scarcity into strategic engagement. L&D's role is to architect ecosystems that elevate talent from within, driving measurable impact for national visions and competitive advantage.