Lisa Blanton Selected as Austin SHRM 2026 Breakout Speaker
The AAG founder’s session will explore how intentional humanity, curiosity, and care can help leaders build trust.
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The AAG founder’s session will explore how intentional humanity, curiosity, and care can help leaders build trust.
AUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, July 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Lisa Blanton, founder and CEO of Austin Alliance Group (AAG), will take the stage as a breakout speaker at Austin SHRM’s 2026 Annual Conference. AAG will also join the conference as a Platinum sponsor, supporting one of Central Texas’ key gatherings for HR professionals, workplace leaders, and business owners.
The conference will take place August 6–7, 2026, at the AT&T Hotel & Conference Center in Austin. This year’s theme, “Think Like a Human: Perspective, Powers, Progress,” centers on a question many HR leaders are facing now: how to balance business strategy with a more human understanding of what teams need.
Austin SHRM’s annual conference gives HR professionals a place to learn, connect, and share ideas across the Austin and Central Texas business community. The event is designed for HR professionals across industries, whether they’re leading a department, supporting a small team, studying for certification, or looking for a better way to approach the issues showing up in their workplace.
This year’s program includes a “Denim and Diamonds” Welcome Reception, a SHRM Certification Boot Camp, keynote sessions, breakout sessions, Expo Tours, raffle prizes, and networking opportunities.
Blanton will speak alongside a strong lineup of keynote and breakout speakers, including Bruce Waller and Aric Bostick, along with breakout presenters covering leadership, workplace culture, legal updates, HR practice, and the future of people work. The agenda reflects the range of issues HR teams are managing right now: communication breakdowns, trust issues, employee relations concerns, retention pressure, and helping leaders lead better.
Blanton’s breakout session, “Let’s Bring the L-Word Back into the Workplace (and No, I Don’t Mean Layoffs),” will take place August 7 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Lavaca Room at Rowling Hall. The interactive session invites HR professionals to reconsider a word many leaders avoid in business settings: love.
For Blanton, the concept of love is not tied to sentimentality. In the session, love is defined as intentional humanity, curiosity, and care. Participants will explore how those behaviors can strengthen engagement and retention while helping reduce people-related risk before issues escalate.
The session will also look at how leadership behavior affects psychological safety, employee relations, turnover, and trust. Through guided reflection and hands-on practice, attendees will learn how to help leaders shift difficult conversations away from judgment and toward curiosity.
Blanton brings more than 30 years of executive leadership experience to the topic. Over her career, she has served as a Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Human Resources Officer across entrepreneurial and multi-site organizations. She now leads Austin Alliance Group, an Austin-based firm supporting organizations with fractional HR, payroll, bookkeeping, leadership development, team building, and business strategy.
Through AAG, Blanton helps business owners and HR teams handle the people issues that impact daily work, from compliance and employee relations to leadership behavior and team dynamics. In addition to her work with AAG clients, Blanton serves as Texas SHRM Co-Director of Certification, where she helps support the education and credentialing of HR professionals.
For Austin Alliance Group, the conference is a fitting place to show up as both sponsor and speaker. AAG has built its work around helping organizations make better people decisions, support leaders, and create healthier teams. Austin SHRM gives the firm another way to support that work across the wider HR community.
Lisa Blanton
Austin Alliance Group
+1 512-835-1343
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