In Episode 5, Deb and I follow the money through the HR conference ecosystem — Transform, UNLEASH, SHRM, ATD, the whole alphabet soup — and ask a question that turns out to be more interesting than it should have to be: when the future of work gets defined on a stage, who paid for that stage, and what do they need the future to look like?

We also get into why HR keeps being handed finance’s ruler and told to measure things that don’t have length, what IO psychology has to do with any of this, and why the most valuable thing at any conference has nothing to do with the speakers.

There are also Yeti coolers and Monopoly.

We film these live, make a few minor edits. Today’s episode includes a few pieces of the chatter after we thought we were done but kept hanging out for twenty minutes.

As always, the rails are optional.Quick note: when I referenced YETI I had VC on the brain, but they were bought by PE (which creates the same dynamics, sometimes even more aggressive, so my point still stands) but wanted to call that out.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit railsoptional.substack.com