As we look ahead into 2026, the amount of internal communications and HR events you see advertised may feel a little overwhelming, but we’ve got you covered. We’ve created this list of our 14 favourite IC and HR events that we find the most valuable in terms of insights, conversations and actionable takeaways that the team brings back.
Whether your role sits in HR, employee experience, internal communications or somewhere in between, we’re confident you’ll find at least a few conferences to add to your wishlist for 2026.
Internal Communications Conference
📍 28th January at The Pendulum Hotel, Manchester, UK
The Internal Communications Conference takes place in January in Manchester, then in London in June, each with a fresh bill of speakers, topics and themes to explore during the one-day session.
Sessions throughout the day are varied, so you could have a panel of experts speaking around a key topic, followed by real-world success stories from other organisations who live and breathe the same goals as you in their workplaces.
Popular themes include reaching dispersed and remote employees, handling change and avoiding burnout, authenticity, inclusion and navigating budgets to do more with less.
Unleash America
📍 17 - 19 March at Caesars Forum, Las Vegas, NV
Returning to Vegas for 2026, UNLEASH America brings the world’s HR and business leaders together to share inspiration on reinventing HR together. This three-day HR event has an agenda filled with hundreds of hours of ideas that are shaping the future of HR, from spotlight sessions on success fireside chats and roundtables to align HR strategy with business outcomes.
Of course, it’s Las Vegas, so you can expect high energy entertainment to accompany your industry-leading insights from this impressive production of an event.
Ragan Employee Communications & Culture Conference
📍21 - 23rd April at Westin Boston Seaport, Boston, MA
Anyone working in internal comms, HR and employee experience should be looking at attending the Ragan Employee Communications & Culture Conference in Boston. With two days of two streams of content, one tailored toward communications and the other toward culture, you can switch in and out of stages as you like, depending on which talks sound the most appealing and relevant to you.
This event has such great speakers from a broad range of industries and backgrounds, including thought leadership and insights from people in the same position as you, celebrating the successes they’ve achieved in their organisations. There will be fireside chats, panel discussions about current and upcoming trends and deep dives into winning projects to inspire you to future-proof your comms strategy in an ever-changing landscape.
Retail Technology Show
📍22 - 23rd April at Excel, London
For anyone working in retail and brand, from automotive and financial services to groceries, restaurants, travel and more, the Retail Technology Show could be the event for you.
This workplace tech event is the premier destination for innovation, insight and connection in retail, to explore the future of commerce. While we’re exploring internal comms and HR events, this one really is suitable for everyone across the decision making or influencing process. Speak with over 450 solution providers and stay ahead of the curve with cutting-edge insights from some of the leading brains in the industry. Some of the 2026 talk tracks include return to growth, loyalty, customer experience and personalisation and leadership, cybersecurity and economy. Last year’s agenda featured the likes of Archie Norma, Chairman at M&S and Joe Wicks.
Gartner Digital Workplace Summit
📍27 - 28th April at InterContinental - The O2, London, UK
Keeping with the theme of workplace tech, next on the list is Gartner’s Digital Workplace Summit. When it comes to inspiration for levelling up the digital employee experience, you are in very capable hands here.
This is the only conference shaped by data-driven insights which means if you’re looking for strong data to back up your business case, this is definitely one of the key employee experience events to focus on.
HR Technologies
📍29 - 30th April at Excel, London, UK
It’s a busy April in London for HR events, which means there is more choice for you to select an event that best suits your requirements. The two-day HR Technologies UK conference is tailored to senior HR and talent professionals, with two keynote theatres and four seminar theatres where you’ll hear from your favourite brands and be able to see cutting-edge HR tech in action.
You’ll most definitely leave this event inspired with many modern ways to level up your HR function. Best of all? It’s free for HR professionals to attend!
IoIC Festival 2026
📍6 - 7 May at Warbrook House, Hampshire, UK
Every year, the Institute of Internal Communications hosts their IoIC festival in a beautiful country setting. In 2026, we’ll be heading out to the Hampshire countryside to join them for two days of unmissable insights, discussions and exploration of key themes that are defining the future of internal comms.
With a jam-packed agenda of exclusive insights, talks from leading industry experts, interactive workshops, mentoring sessions and so much more, it really is an internal comms event that’s not to be missed. An added bonus - you could earn IoIC CPD points for attending.
Engage Employee Summit
📍20 - 21 May at Evolution Battersea, London, UK
A showstopper of an internal comms and HR event, the Engage Employee Summit returns to Evolution in London for 2026.
The number one employee engagement conference, this event drives us forward in understanding trends that impact internal comms, HR and employee experience. Themes include remote and hybrid work, a focus on employee wellbeing, the integration of AI and automation and continuous learning and upskilling. They also have a strong emphasis on DEI, technology-driven feedback, employee centric tech and a lot more.
CIPD Festival of Work
📍10 - 11 June at Excel, London, UK
One of the biggest HR events in the calendar is the CIPD Festival of Work. In 2025, their headline artists included Sports Broadcaster Alex Scott MBE, Taskmaster’s Alex Horne and Broadcaster & Entrepreneur Jamie Laing, to name a few. We’re very excited to hear who is announced for 2026!
Throughout this two-day HR conference, you’ll be immersed in inspiration, hear from industry experts and gain access to dedicated areas to delve deeper into key themes with interactive activities. This is in addition to a high-energy line-up of speakers to energise your approach to work with the help of modern tech and collaboration.
Internal Communications Conference
📍 25th June in Central London (venue tbc!)
The second instalment of the Internal Communications Conference will take place in London in June. Similarly to the January event, it will be a brand new lineup of speakers from across the world of internal comms. In 2025, comms leaders from the likes of River Island, Costa Coffee and Just Eat shared their insights, success stories and actionable takeaways for attendees from their lessons learned.
The theme of this event is future-ready internal comms, empowering leadership, inclusion and results across a multi-generational workforce. This one-day conference always has a great agenda with varied session formats and lots of opportunities to follow up with speakers after their talks and to meet event sponsors between sessions.
Intranet Reloaded
📍29 - 30 June at Maritim proArte Hotel, Berlin, Germany
One for the Europe-based teams, Intranet Reloaded Berlin is the leading digital workplace event in the region, filled with inspiring talks, networking opportunities and real-word success stories. This event is running alongside the Internal Communications Summit Europe and the Employee Engagement Summit Europe so you can bring your colleagues, attend different sessions and feed back to each other afterwards.
We had a great time at the event last year, met wonderful people and had a lot of truly interesting conversations. We are very much looking forward to returning and would love to see you there!
Unleash World
📍20 - 22 October at Paris Convention Centre, Paris, France
The UNLEASH World expo is full of interactivity, excitement, connection, discovery and entertainment. Plus, it’s in Paris! This internal comms and HR event is where those shaping the future of work and technology come together to network, do business and share ideas.
With an agenda full of thought leaders and industry experts, this is a fantastic event to discover new ideas, solutions and technology to improve employee experience. They even have a ‘justify my trip’ section on their website to help you get it signed off by the powers that be!
CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition
📍4 - 5 November at Manchester Central, Manchester, UK
Another CIPD event to add to the list is CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition. Returning to Manchester for 2026, we’re expecting an action-packed agenda of conference speakers, panels and deep dives into real life success stories on the insight stages. From employee experience to practical solutions and more, there really is something for your wider team here, beyond just the HR team’s benefit.
In recent years, we’ve taken to the stage to talk all things employee engagement through modern tech with Pizza Express and communicating through change with Ascot Lloyd. We’re very excited to announce our speaker for 2026 as this event approaches!
Ragan Future of Communications Conference
📍11 - 13 November at Hyatt Regency, Austin, TX
Where big ideas and bold communications meet, Ragan’s Future of Communications Conference is leading the way in empowering comms teams to unlock the power of AI and prove comms ROI with data that executives will trust.
Returning to Austin, Texas in 2026, the Future of Communications Conference is set to be an exploration of what’s next in the comms world through keynotes, panels, case studies and hands-on workshops. You’ll gain insight into what’s working now, what’s coming fast and how to prepare for whatever happens next.
Details on the 2026 event are yet to be released but you can see more about the 2025 event here.
Which internal comms and HR events will we see you at?
We hope that this list has given you some food for thought of which HR events, internal comms conferences and employee experience expos would be the most beneficial to you and your organisations goals for 2026.
Our team will be in attendance at all of these events so let us know which ones you’re attending and we’d love to have a chat about your situation and what you’re hoping to get out of 2026.
Stay in the know about which special guest speakers we’ll be bringing to these events, deep-diving into their challenges and the impact they’ve had on their business. Subscribe to Comms Corner to stay informed about all of the fun things ahead in 2026.
