Conference season is in full swing, the weather is warming, and the runway construction projects are booming. Which is my way of saying; I’ve been traveling a lot and sweating. But as always, I do it all for you! And this week you get to come along on a multimedia adventure with me – just a click away.

First Stop – Cornerstone Convergence. I’ve attended this event for the past five years or so, and there was a renewed sense of energy this year. There were several product announcements about Cornerstone’s big data moves, the launch of a subscription learning content product, and an accelerated client onboarding experience. One of my favorite parts of the pre-conference analyst sessions was the presentation by CTO Mark Goldin. Not only is he an incredibly thoughtful technologist, his way of articulating the technology strategy and how it supports the business strategy – and it must always support the business strategy – as well as his understanding of his people needs to execute, were refreshing. He knows he needs to be at the bleeding edge of technology before the company needs him to be there, to both guide decision making and attract and keep top talent.

While I was there, I also got to present a keynote on the evolution of employee engagement to employee experience. I’ll cover that in a following blog, and we’re excited to publish some new research on our experience model at the end of the month. But the most fun was talking with friends both old and new about employee experience on a Facebook live broadcast. Hosted by the ever-talented Laurie Ruettimann, and joined by Jeff Miller of Cornerstone and Denise Domain of Bon-Ton, hilarity and insights ensued. Hope you enjoy!

Next Stop – Benefits! With the job market improving, comp, benefits, and culture are becoming increasingly important factors in winning and keeping top talent, as well as being critical parts of the employee experience. But all too often, benefit programs are not fully optimized to meet the needs of the talent the business requires. And their impact on that talent is difficult to measure. I’ll be talking about this with Al Zink, Head of HR for Care.com, sharing our research into the ROI on benefits along with Al’s insights into making these kinds of critical decisions for your organization on June 20th – click here to join us!.

Last Stop: The Payroll lndex. Following in the footsteps of our incredibly well received Talent Acquisition and Recruitment Marketing Index report, our first Payroll Index is launching soon. The report will look at the rapidly changing payroll marketplace; identify key trends buyers need to keep in mind, and help organizations think through the potentially complex set of needs they must consider to find the right payroll match, from software solution to fully outsourced process. Believe it or not, I’ve kind of fallen in love with payroll during the writing of this report. And you can hear me wax poetic about it at this year’s HR Tech. (See how I snuck one more link in there?)

Ok, that’s enough from me for now. Travel has filled me with blog ideas so stay tuned for AI, pay equity, mindfulness, and painful HR stories overheard at the airport.