Talent Pool Forum 2026: Agenda and Project Presentations

Practical program for the talent pool forum: roles, project defenses, dialogue with leadership, feedback, and post-event actions.

The talent pool forum brings together program participants, leaders, and HR around the transition from learning to the next developmental step. It allows defending projects, aligning expectations, and agreeing on post-event practices. The forum itself does not form the pool or replace HR procedures.

At Aventura, we start such a project with the outcome of each block. First, we define solutions that are acceptable on the main stage. Then we build tracks, routes, technical script, and recording of agreements. This way the program does not turn into a series of leadership talks.

What does the talent pool forum achieve?

The forum creates a common checkpoint for the development program. Participants show progress, discuss real tasks, and get a clear next step. HR sees where the program needs a new module, managers get acquainted with projects, and participants understand the boundaries of decisions. The outcome is a set of recorded actions, not an impression from the stage.

A talent pool is broader than a single event. CIPD describes succession planning as finding and developing people for future leadership and business-critical roles. OPM includes succession planning, assessment, development, retention, and knowledge sharing in talent management. The forum supports this cycle but does not replace it.

Before developing the scenario, we ask HR to formulate one sentence: 'After the forum, each participant should...'. A workable answer ends with an observable action. For example: get feedback on the project, choose a practice, schedule a meeting with a mentor, or record a plan for refinement.

The phrase 'feel part of the company's future' is too vague for staging. It can be kept in communication, but the director's script requires a concrete result. For similar business formats, we apply the mechanics of organizing forums and seminars: each block has an entry, a participant action, and an exit.

The forum is useful in four situations:

1. A training module has ended, and participants need to apply knowledge to business tasks.
2. Project teams are ready to show interim results.
3. Management needs a substantive dialogue with the talent pool without public appointments.
4. HR wants to synchronize participant development across functions or branches.

If the task is to open vacancies for all employees, an internal job fair is more suitable. The forum works with an already selected group and its development.

Permissible Promise to Participants

Participation in the forum does not imply appointment to a position. Project defense shows thinking process, work with constraints, and interaction with the team. A person's readiness for a specific role is determined by the employer through its HR procedures. In the invitation and at the opening, this rule is stated identically, without ambiguous promises.

This boundary is important to state in the invitation, at the opening, and before feedback. Otherwise, an emotional phrase from a manager may sound like a promise of promotion. CIPD notes that the psychological contract is formed from the employer's everyday actions and statements, and from how the employee understands them.

A safe formula sounds like this: the program provides access to development, practice, and consideration for future roles subject to business needs and completion of established procedures. It does not specify a promotion timeline and does not reserve a position for the participant.

On the general stage, the following are permissible:

• expressing gratitude for completed work;
• commenting on the project content;
• inviting the project for further refinement;
• suggesting to discuss practice or mentoring;
• outlining the general timeline for next steps.

Individual HR assessment, comparative ranking of people, decision on a successor, sensitive data, and discussion about a specific vacancy go into a closed circuit. The protocol of the general part should not become a shadow HR order.

Who Participates and What Is Their Responsibility?

The forum has at least five decision owners. HR is responsible for the program framework and rules for working with participants. Managers formulate tasks and provide substantive feedback. Project owners confirm facts. The event team assembles the program and venue. The participant themselves is responsible for project preparation and questions from the commission.

We do not automatically combine the HR commission and the stage jury. If people on stage evaluate only the quality of the project, that's what it's called. If the company uses the result in HR assessment, HR describes in advance the criteria, composition of the commission, access to data, and feedback procedure.

For a large event, it is convenient to separate the program and the event organization. The program owner decides what is discussed and what result is acceptable. The event owner is responsible for the schedule and navigation. They also link registration, room operations, and technical support. Such a forum often requires a full range of conference organization services, not just hall rental and a host.

Forum Program Architecture

The program is built around the actions of the participants. The plenary part sets the general framework, while the substantive work is moved to tracks. Then teams defend their projects and discuss them with management. The route ends with a closed review with a recorded next action. Participants know in advance where they listen, where they work, and where they get decisions.

Example of a one-day architecture without a strict time schedule:

1. Start and rules. Forum goal, decision boundaries, handling questions and data.
2. Business context. Leaders explain tasks without repeating the corporate presentation.
3. Role tracks. Participants analyze management situations, a function, or a project task.
4. Project defenses. Teams present according to a unified framework and receive a decision on the work.
5. Dialogue with management. Prepared questions about priorities, barriers, and ways of participation.
6. Closed feedback. The participant receives comments and the next developmental step.
7. General finale. The company records the further process without publishing people rankings.

Not all blocks have to take place in one hall. The main stage is suitable for context and general rules. Sections are needed for substantive work. Small rooms are useful for individual feedback. The online cabinet stores materials, questions, and statuses after the event.

The number of tracks depends on the group composition and venue. We do not divide people just for parallelism. Each stream must have its own task, facilitator, and a way to bring conclusions back into the overall program.

How to structure project defense?

The defense assesses the quality of work on the task. All teams need the same framework. It includes the problem, verified facts, constraints, and the proposed solution. The team separately names risks, a request to management, and the next step. The commission sees the criteria and solution options in advance, so it discusses the content according to common rules.

OPM defines action learning as an approach in which individuals and teams develop and present solutions to real organizational problems. Therefore, it's better to link the learning project to a real task owner. They confirm the facts and can continue the work after the forum.

The defense passport can be assembled from seven fields:

1. What problem does the team solve and for whom?
2. Which facts have already been verified?
3. What constraints cannot be ignored?
4. What does the team propose?
5. How will the hypothesis be tested?
6. What resource or decision is needed from the owner?
7. What will the team do after the forum?

The commission also has a single sheet. We suggest assessing the connection to the task, fact verification, feasibility, risk management, clarity of request, and quality of answers. The company sets the weight of the criteria. Scores don't have to appear on the screen.

The decision after the presentation should be clearer than applause. Practical options: accept for further development, return for revision, assign hypothesis testing, or stop the work with an explanation. Detailed mechanics for preparing the presentation can be taken from the article on corporate project demo day, but at the forum, the result also includes the participant's next step.

The defense is rehearsed not for a memorized speech. The team checks the duration, visibility of materials, transitions between participants, demonstration, and answers to difficult questions. The project owner confirms the factual data before the presentation.

How to give a participant confidential feedback?

Individual feedback is separated from the awards ceremony and the general finale. The participant must understand who is speaking, on what basis, and what will happen next. A development conversation should not become a public comparison of people. For this, HR chooses a private channel, the composition of experts, and the form of recording agreements in advance.

The feedback working card contains four fields:

• observed action or response of the participant;
• a strength in the context of the task;
• an area for practice without diagnosing personality;
• the next step, owner, and date of contact.

The phrase "you lack leadership" is too general. It's more useful to name the situation: "When asked about risks, the team listed barriers but did not assign an owner for the decision." Then the participant understands which action to practice.

Feedback can be delivered in a short private meeting, in the participant's office, or through HR after consolidating comments. The channel depends on the company's personnel policy. The forum scenario only specifies the moment of delivery, privacy, and the expected status.

A mentor helps the participant analyze the comments and transfer them into practice. The mentor should not answer on behalf of the reservist during the defense. For a separate mentoring track, the program corporate Mentor Day will be useful.

Open conversation with management

A dialogue with management works when questions are collected, grouped, and allowed for open discussion. The manager knows the topics but does not read prepared answers. The moderator maintains the boundary between general principles and individual personnel decisions. A sensitive question gets a specific addressee instead of a random answer from the stage.

We collect questions before the forum and keep a channel for the audience. This way, recurring themes, sensitive wording, and questions that need a separate answer become visible. Selection does not mean removing inconvenient topics. It helps direct the question to the right owner and avoid disclosing personal data.

The program may include three levels of conversation:

1. Strategy. Which tasks and roles will be important for the company.
2. Practice. Where reservists can gain experience through projects, rotations, or temporary leadership.
3. Process. How status is reviewed, who provides feedback, and where to go after the forum.

OPM cites rotation as an option for developmental practice. In a Russian company, HR and lawyers determine the permissible form of temporary practice. From the stage, one can announce the principle and process, but cannot appoint a person without the due procedure.

If there is no answer yet, the manager names the owner and the deadline for response. The protocol includes a card: question, responsible person, next step, and channel for the answer. This is more honest than a hasty promise.

Branches, hybrid, and accessibility

A remote participant should get an equivalent experience, not just a streaming link. They need a way to ask questions, present a project, see materials, and receive feedback. For branches, time zones, connectivity, equipment, and local coordinators are checked in advance. Security policies and access to final materials must be the same.

Hybrid event is useful when some executives or teams cannot attend in person. For voting, group work, presentations, and material sharing, separate scenarios and tests are needed for on-site and remote participants.

W3C recommends asking participants about their accessibility requirements in advance, and checking the venue, materials, and digital environment. For a forum, this means:

• an accessible route from the entrance to the hall, stage, and restrooms;
• seating with a clear view without isolating the participant;
• microphones for questions from the audience;
• accessible electronic materials;
• subtitles or text alternatives for video;
• sharing slides in advance;
• a private way to communicate special requirements.

A participant does not have to publicly disclose their diagnosis. The coordinator receives only the data necessary for organizing the event. The personal data operator determines the recipients and retention period.

A single portal or a form with different paths is useful for participant registration. We cover this aspect in detail in our article on participant registration for events.

What to prepare before the technical rehearsal?

Before the rehearsal, the script, materials, and role assignments should be ready. The team also approves routes and backup solutions. On site, the program execution is checked: entrances and microphones, screens and communication between rooms, timing, and actions in case of failure. The content of staffing decisions has already been agreed with the program owners by this point.

The minimum package includes:

1. Episode-by-episode script with responsible persons.
2. List of speakers, committees, and replacements.
3. Defense passports and file versions.
4. Layout of rooms, registration, and accessible routes.
5. Plan for switching between in-person and remote participants.
6. Rules for photos, videos, and publication of materials.
7. Safety plan and contacts of responsible persons.
8. Backup for microphone, screen, communication, or speaker failure.

HSE advises aligning the detail of the safety plan with the scale and risk of the event and using risk assessment. For an internal forum, you still need a responsible person, a notification procedure, evacuation routes, and actions in case of deteriorating health. These decisions are made by the venue and the company jointly with specialized services.

We conduct a technical run-through of transitions between the main hall, sections, and defenses. A useful format is described in the article about technical rehearsal of the event. During the run-through, participants are not evaluated and their projects are not rewritten at the last moment.

Filming and photography require a separate regulation. Article 152.1 of the Civil Code regulates the use of a citizen's image, and the personal data law separates the processing and dissemination of data. Consent forms and the legal basis are checked by a lawyer and the person responsible for personal data. The event team follows the approved rules: marks zones, communicates restrictions to the photographer, and verifies signatures before publication.

Forum budget and brief

The budget is most strongly influenced by the number of streams, duration, and venue. Broadcast and materials are calculated separately: four parallel defenses will require more moderators, coordinators, and equipment than a program in a single hall. The composition of participants also affects registration, navigation, and the volume of work with materials.

For an initial estimate, answers to ten questions are needed:

1. How many participants, managers, mentors, and guests are expected?
2. How many cities and time zones are connecting?
3. What should a participant receive after the forum?
4. How many projects and parallel streams are planned?
5. Who makes the decision on the project and who provides feedback to the person?
6. What data cannot be shown in the hall, recording, and materials?
7. Is broadcast, recording, or only closed viewing needed?
8. What accessibility requirements are already known?
9. What premises and equipment does the company have?
10. Who approves the program, personnel formulations, and content publication?

After the brief, we assemble the program architecture and technical specification. Then we check the venue, routes, team composition, and reserve. The entire organization can be managed as a business event with a separate program owner from HR.

We do not name a universal cost before these answers. The most significant factors often become the number of halls, broadcast complexity, content preparation, and the work of several teams in one schedule.

Next Step After the Forum

The forum ends only after the agreements are handed over to the owners. Every project, question, and developmental step must have a status. HR determines the personnel process, the task owner decides the project's fate, and the participant gets a clear channel for continuation. The general protocol and individual data are separated by access level at the same time.

A unified registry can include:

• topic or project;
• type of decision;
• owner of the response;
• next step;
• status date;
• access level;
• link to approved materials.

Not all fields are available to all participants. The general summary tells what happened with the program as a whole. Individual comments and personnel data remain in a closed loop.

After a period set by the company, HR returns to the decisions. A project can move to verification, a participant to practice or mentoring, a question to a separate owner. If there is no continuation, this also needs to be communicated with a reason within the permitted scope.

We continue the practice of organizing business events, moderation, and venue work in Aventura's Telegram channel. The link will open in a new tab.

Sources

• CIPD: Succession planning factsheet
• CIPD: The psychological contract
• U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Talent Management
• U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Career Development
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: Making Events Accessible
• Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 152.1: Protection of a Citizen's Image
• Federal Law No. 152-FZ, Article 3: Concepts of Processing and Dissemination
• Federal Law No. 152-FZ, Article 9: Consent to the Processing of Personal Data
• Federal Law No. 152-FZ, Article 10.1: Dissemination of Personal Data
• HSE: Event safety - Getting started