| Tuesday, November 10, 2026 | |
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| 7:45 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. | Registration Check-in & Continental Breakfast |
| 8:30 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. | Welcome + winejobs.com Update Eric Jorgensen, President & Publisher, WineBusiness |
| 8:45 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. | The Compliance Checklist: This Year's Employment Law Update |
| The annual rundown of what's shifted in employment law over the past year — and what's on the horizon. Covers wage and hour updates, leave requirements, and immigration law changes relevant to vineyard and winery staffing. Built for HR teams of any size, whether you have in-house counsel or you're the one googling it at 11pm. Speaker: Rebecca Stephens, Partner, Farella Braun & Martel |
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| 9:15 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. | The Separation Conversation: Doing Layoffs Right |
| Layoffs and downsizing have hit every corner of the industry this year, and how they're handled shapes morale long after the org chart shrinks. This session covers the full arc, from the accountability conversation leadership should have before cuts happen, to the actual delivery, to what comes after: separation resources, follow-up outreach, and treating departing employees like people rather than line items. The goal isn't to make layoffs painless. It's to make sure the people still on your team can trust you afterward. |
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| 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. | Networking Break |
| 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. | The Human Element: Responsible AI Strategies for Wine Industry HR |
| AI is already showing up in wine industry HR departments, whether or not there's a policy for it. This panel gets specific: what responsible AI use actually looks like, what it can take off your plate (repetitive admin, freeing up talent for higher-value work), and — just as important — what it can't touch. AI won't have the hard conversation with an employee, won't solve an ER issue, and won't tell you what's actually going on inside your company culture. Panelists will talk through building policy, setting guardrails, and using AI to support your people instead of replacing the parts of the job that require being human. |
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| 11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. | Holding It Together: Culture Through the Down Cycle |
| Vineyard removals, tightened budgets, and a wave of layoffs have left morale and culture strained across the industry — and HR is often the one holding it together. This session opens with a grounded look at where the industry actually stands right now, including a historical lens on past downturns: what caused them, how long they lasted, and how the industry came out the other side. From there, a practical conversation on sustaining culture and morale through prolonged uncertainty. Realistic, not doom-and-gloom — attendees should leave with something to actually use. |
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| 12:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. | Networking Luncheon |
