The 2026 SIOP Annual Conference

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I-O psychologists convened for SIOP’s 41^st Annual Conference from April 29 through May 2, 2026. This year marked SIOP’s third visit to New Orleans, and took place in the newly renovated Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The conference was attended by 4,400 I-O academics, practitioners, and students from around the world. A total of 1,071 presentations, consisting of 588 posters (55% of the presentations) and 483 nonposters (i.e., symposia, special sessions, panel discussion, master tutorials, IGNITE! Sessions, debates, or alternative sessions representing 45% of the presentations), filled a very varied program. The conference began with an opening plenary session highlighting award winners and the new class of Fellows (see the online 2026 SIOP Salutes brochure for more information). SIOP President Scott Tannenbaum gave his presidential address, which provided 10 tips for remaining effective and energized throughout one’s career and practical strategies to implement them. Some examples include recognizing the power of questions, improving listening skills, learning to adapt, ongoing learning, working with patience and grace, and approaching work with curiosity, enthusiasm, and empathy (Tannenbaum, 2026).

The Welcome Reception after the opening plenary included displays of the 10 top-rated posters, based on the numerical ratings provided by peer reviewers. A list of these posters can be found in Table 1. The Program Committee sponsors three conference awards in addition to the top posters: John C. Flanagan Award for Best Student Presentation at the SIOP Conference, the SIOP Best International Paper Award, and the SIOP Best Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) Research Award. Recipients of these awards are selected from submissions to the peer-reviewed portion of the program. The Program Committee identifies candidates for these awards (based on the numerical ratings and the eligibility criteria posted online). Separate committees review the proposals and come to a consensus on the winners.

Table 1

The 2026 SIOP Top 10 Posters, Selected Based on Numerical Ratings From Peer Reviewers, in Alphabetical Order by Author

APA citation

Cavanagh, T. M., Kiersch, C., O’Brien, A. (2026, April 30 – May 2). Validating generative AI for scoring open-ended training assessments [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Kim, S. C., Li, J., Fan, J. (2026, April 30 – May 2). Measuring performance-based emotional intelligence through an AI chatbot [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Liu, Y., Zhou, L., Xing, Y., & Zhu, Y. (2026, April 30 – May 2). The divergent effects of reality shock on newcomer socialization [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Maladkar, R. M., Jackson, A. T., Loveless, J. P., Hultz, H. & Alaniz, E. (2026, April 30 – May 2). Cross-validating the mindfulness skill scale [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.

Owens, T.L. (2026, April 30 – May 2). Racial and performance dynamics in informal managerial feedback [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Pitcher, B. D., White, J. C., Blachly, B. D., Huey, L., Behrend, T. S., (2026, April 30 – May 2). AI feedback aids skill acquisition by reducing anxiety depending on goal orientation [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Qin, G., Agnihotri, N., Huang Y. & Huang, X. (2026, April 30 – May 2). Human versus AI rater: Evaluation of open-ended situational judgment test responses [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Yoo, S., & Kim, S. (2026, April 30–May 2). Re-evaluation of work engagement: The mediating role of work demands [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Zhou, Y. (2026, Apr 30-May 2). When vision should wait: Why team failure turns vision communication into distrust [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States

Zhu, X., Campion, E. D., Ptashnik, T., Campion, M. A. & Alonso, A. (2026, April 30–May 2). The influence of remote work enabling HRM practices on organizational outcomes [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

The John C. Flanagan Award for Best Student Presentation at the SIOP Conference is named after John Flanagan, a now deceased SIOP Member, who created the critical incidents method, founded the American Institutes for Research, and led the Project TALENT study (see Cucina & Bowling, 2016 for more information). The award was created to recognize the best SIOP poster that had a doctoral student author. This year’s Flanagan Award recipient was Siqi He, a doctoral student in management at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. Her study (“How Employees Respond to Daily Restrictions in Remote Work Intensity”) used a diary methodology and found that when employees were restricted from remote work, their cognitive engagement was lower, which undermined their work productivity on that day. The findings were stronger for employees who were high on psychological reactance (He et al., 2026).

The SIOP Best International Paper Award winner was Artemii Udovenko, who is a doctoral student in management at University of Memphis’s Fogelman College of Business and Economics. His poster (“When Understanding Isn’t Enough: Accent Bias and the Competence Penalty in Hiring”) examined the relationship between accent strength and language background on hiring evaluations in recorded interviews. He found that applicants with a foreign accent (especially those who had moderate accent level) were evaluated lower, even after controlling for how comprehensible they were (Udovenko, 2026).

This year’s SIOP Best Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) Research Award winners were Lindsay Dhanani (an associate professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University), David Arena Jr. (an associate professor of Management at the University of Texas at Arlington), and Matthew LaPalme (a research strategist at Amazon). Their poster, “Controllability as a Barrier to Deontic Responses on Behalf of LGBT Employees,” examined the affective and behavioral outcomes of misconceptions surrounding the perceived controllability of sexual orientation and gender identity. They found, across two recall studies, that perceptions of controllability were associated with lower empathy toward targets of workplace mistreatment and lower anger toward perpetrators of such mistreatment. Further, these deontic responses led to a lower likelihood of intervention against mistreatment targeted toward these communities.

Three full days of conference programing began on Thursday morning. Based on informal feedback, attendees were very happy with the conference programming. Formal feedback will be through the 2026 SIOP Annual Conference Survey, which was being administered at the time this report was written.

This year’s conference included Content Area Theme Tracks, which were experimental sets of curated sessions. The Program Committee selected sets of highly rated nonposter sessions, based on numerical ratings from peer reviewers, content area fit, and session type, and scheduled these sessions back-to-back on the same day in the same room. Four Content Area Theme Tracks were featured each day. At the end of the day, a joint poster session was held featuring the top 5 to 10 posters from each content area.

The 10 most popular sessions (measured by the number of registrants who added the session to their Whova agenda) are listed in Table 2. Other conference-related events included the SIOP’s Got Talent Show, Networking for Introverts, and the closing reception. Selected official photographs from the conference can be found in Figure 1.

Table 2

The 10 Most Popular 2026 SIOP Sessions, as Measured by Attendee’s Whova Agenda Additions (in Descending Order of Whova Agenda Additions)

APA citation
Oelbaum, Y. (Chair), Hatem, A., Rosch, Z. I., Le Sante, D. R., & Nesbitt, C. K. (2026, April 30–May 2). Proactive people analytics: Proactive people analytics solutions: Addressing tomorrow’s problems today [IGNITE] Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Waclawski, J. (Moderator), Adler, S., Church, A.H., Rogelberg, S.G. & Seaton, G. (2026, April 30–May 2). Rethinking talent management: Challenging conventional assumptions. [Panel]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans LA, United States
Sullivan, T.S., & Hulett, A.L. (Co-Chairs), Carter, N.T., Elliott, J.P., Fink, A.A., Howes, S.S., Nesbitt, C.K. (Panelists) (2026, April 30–May 2). Hot takes, hot wings: A spicy conversation with I-O psychology’s thought leaders [Alternative Session]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Adler, S., Nelson, M., Smith, A., Festa, R. Heaton, L., Islam, S., & Ward, J. (2026, April 30–May 2). Binge-worthy leadership development: Leveraging the leadership lessons of popular media [Alternative session]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 41st Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Lambert, D. D. (Chair), Abraham, J. D., Cucina, J. M., Hough, L. M., Sackett, P. R., Solomonson, A., & Tippins, N. T. (22026, April 30–May 2026). Cognitive ability in personnel selection: What is its place today? [Panel Discussion]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Kriek, H., Kinney, T., Mondragon, N., MacIver, R., van Aggelen, J., & Sherman, R. (2026, April 30–May 2). Generative AI and the future of assessment: From mitigating cheating to embracing innovation [Panel]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Church, A. H., Schmidt, G., Chakrabarti, M., Gibby, R. E., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Sahm, J.V. (2026, April 30–May 2). The great AI debate: Where AI fits—and where it doesn’t [Debate]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Buseman, R., Pachmann, E., Sa, M., Voyles, E., & Wooderson, L. (2026, April 30–May 2). How to leverage employee listening data to effectively drive change [Alternative Session: Case studies & interactive Q&A]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Lam, S. (Chair), Almeida, K. (Panelist), Hartley, J. (Panelist), Stevenson, A. (Panelist), & Thornton, J. (Panelist). (2026, April 30–May 2). Data is the beginning of wisdom, not the end: People analytics requires soft skills [Panel]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA., United States.
DeNunzio, M. M. (Chair), Agnello, P., Aqwa, J., Bartkoski, T. J., Caylor, J., Oelbaum, Y., & Yusko, K. P. (2026, April 30–May 2). Beyond utility: Advancing ROI in talent assessment practices [Panel]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

 

Figure 1. Photographs from the 2026 SIOP Annual Conference (Courtesy of SIOP Staff). (a) 2026 SIOP Conference Chair, Jack Kennedy (right), (b) 2026 SIOP Program Chair Trio Jeffrey Cucina, Vipanchi Mishra, and Joe Allen, (c) a packed SIOP session, (d) and (e) poster presentations, and (f) the passing of gavel representing the change in the SIOP presidency from Scott Tannenbaum to Richard Landers.

 

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The conference concluded with a closing plenary session and reception, featuring a local New Orleans jazz band and Louisiana cuisine. This year marked the return of the closing plenary that highlighted selected SIOP Award winners and an address by 2026–2027 SIOP President, Richard Landers. In his speech he emphasized the current challenges facing the field of I‑O psychology, including artificial intelligence‑driven workforce disruptions, threats to funding and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and the overall impacts on the discipline. He reaffirmed SIOP’s science–practice mission and goals of advancing research and practice and supporting education and development. He also described SIOP’s recent restructuring efforts that support initiatives aimed at promoting member value, visibility, and vitality. More information about Richard Lander’s speech can be found in this issue of TIP

The closing plenary also included the official passing of the SIOP gavel from the outgoing president, Scott Tannebaum, to the incoming president, Richard Landers. The passing of the gavel represents the official change in SIOP’s leadership (including the SIOP presidency, Executive Board, and Committee volunteers).

Next year’s conference will be held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, MD from April 15–17, 2027. SIOP was previously at this venue in 2019, just before the pandemic. Some of you may be wondering, where is National Harbor, MD? Is it the same as the Inner Harbor in Baltimore? As shown in the map in Figure 2, National Harbor is in the metropolitan Washington area rather than near Baltimore. It is south of the District of Columbia, just outside the beltway, near the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge. The area is relatively new and has several hotels, restaurants, shops, and even a Ferris wheel. Planning for the 2027 SIOP Annual Conference was kicked off by the new Program Chair, Vipanchi Mishra, while the 2026 conference was taking place in New Orleans. As usual, the call for proposals is scheduled for release in August with a submission deadline in October.

Figure 2: Map showing the location of National Harbor, MD in relation to the greater metropolitan Washington area. © OpenStreetMap; this map is available under the Open Database License (see openstreetmap.org/copyright).

 

References

Cucina, J.M., & Bowling, N.A. (2016). John C. Flanagan’s contributions within and beyond I-O psychology. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 53(3), 100-112.

Dhanani, L. Y., Arena, D. F. Jr., & LaPalme, M. L. (2026, April 30 – May 2). Controllability as a barrier to deontic responses on behalf of LGBT employees [Poster]. Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

He, S., Nahrgang, J. D., & Colbert, A. E. (2026, April 30 – May 2). How employees respond to daily restrictions in remote work intensity [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Landers, R.N. (2026). United by Values, Strengthened by Differences. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 64(1).

Udovenko, A. (2026., April 30 – May 2). When understanding isn’t enough: Accent bias and the competence penalty in hiring [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Tannenbaum, S. (2026). Ten tips for thriving at work: An I-O psychology perspective. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ten-tips-thriving-work-i-o-psychology-perspective-scott-tannenbaum-kt4ve/