So, you have decided to attend your first SIOP annual conference, congratulations! Regardless of your background or experience, attending SIOP’s annual conference for the first time can feel overwhelming, a bit like attending your first day of grad school. SIOP’s annual conference truly is a diverse event that attracts a wide variety of attendees with different interests, goals, and priorities. Specifically for practitioners, maximizing your time can often be the make-or-break between being self-funded or successfully making the business case for why your employer should sponsor your attendance. It is for this reason that we, on the Professional Practice Committee, sought to create a practical guide for current or future practitioners headed to their first SIOP annual conference.
Tip #1: Understand What SIOP’s Annual Conference Is…and What It Is Not
First, a reality check: SIOP’s annual conference is not your typical HR industry conference. It is not vendor heavy; most of the speakers have not written books or given speeches in front of audiences of thousands (although some of them certainly have!). The annual conference sits at the intersection of science and practice, and it leans heavily toward evidence, theory, and methodological rigor. Rather than every session feeling like a polished TED talk that focuses on providing the “right answers,” you should expect sessions to feel more like a community-oriented discussion where multiple data sources and points of views will be discussed and deliberated. This is one of the best parts of the annual conference, and understanding this from the get-go will help to set expectations for what you can get out of your attendance.
Tip #2: Master the Art of Practitioner Agenda Building
As a practitioner, not all sessions are necessarily going to be the right fit, and that is okay. As we already mentioned, this is an extremely diverse conference, and strategically building your agenda is one of the most important things you can do to maximize your value. Here are some factors that you should consider.
- Focus on attending sessions that will provide insights and takeaways relevant to your area of practice.
- To do this, when building your agenda, we recommend searching for sessions that are tagged as “mostly relevant for practitioners” or “relevant for both academics and practitioners.” Looking at the speaker list and their affiliations can also be a helpful indicator to ensure that the session will include perspectives from other practitioners.
- Take advantage of the parts of the agenda built with you in mind. Every year, the SIOP annual conference includes various events and sessions aimed specifically for practitioners. These can be great resources, especially for first-time practitioner attendees. Here are some sessions to consider.
| Session title | Description | Attendance details |
| “So, Are You a Workplace Therapist?”: Marketing I-O to Organizations | I-O psychology plays a vital role in improving workplace outcomes, yet the field remains underrecognized in much of the business world. This alternative session explores how I-O practitioners can better communicate the value of the field to organizational leaders. This session highlights real-world strategies, challenges, and lessons learned in marketing I-O within organizations. The session will provide practical guidance for both practitioners and students seeking to increase the visibility and influence of I-O psychology in their work contexts. | Thursday at 10:30am |
| Telling Your Story: Translating and Communicating I-O Skills | I-O psychology professionals and students must overcome a translation barrier between the technical language of SIOP competencies (e.g., psychometrics, job analysis) and the NACE career readiness competencies (e.g., communication, leadership) often used by employers. This panel of academics and practitioners will engage in a lively discussion on how to translate I-O expertise to bridge the gap, ensuring graduates and early career folks are marketable, able to advance through generative AI screening processes, and be recognized for their valuable talent. | Thursday at 10:30am |
| From Graduate School to Practice: Navigating the Early Years as an I-O Professional | This panel aims to examine the career transition from graduate school to the workplace, focusing on the critical period between securing a role in the field and establishing one’s professional identity. Authors bring together a group of panelists who will discuss their experiences in building relationships, establishing credibility, and overcoming challenges unique to I-O psychologists. The aim of this session is to help early-career I-O practitioners transition from graduate training to their careers by equipping attendees with strategies for navigating workplace dynamics and self-advocacy. | Thursday at 4:00pm |
| Selling I-O Without Selling Out: A Vital Skill for All Practitioners | I-O psychology delivers extraordinary value to organizations; however, its ROI can be unclear to organizational stakeholders. The panel will focus on the roles external and internal I-Os and salespeople play in communicating the value of I-O. Attendees will leave with concrete suggestions on how to “sell I-O” without selling out. | Friday at 8:00am |
| Career Best Practice Sharing & Coffee Meetup | Join experienced practitioners to learn about their best practices in areas like employee listening, AI, performance management, leadership development, and analytics. Come prepared with a specific issue you’d like to discuss or simply ask questions to learn more about how those companies manage these topics, make decisions, and benchmark. | Friday at 8:00am |
| Practitioner Needs Workshop: Cocreating SIOP Support for Practitioners | Have ideas for how SIOP can better support practitioners? Join our interactive working session, Practitioner Needs Workshop: Cocreating SIOP Support for Practitioners, to tell us what support and resources you need to stay and thrive. | Friday at 4:00pm |
| Career Benchmarking Event | A one-time, small group mentoring session where you’ll learn how I-O practitioners navigated personal and professional crossroads to shape their careers. This event offers insights into making job changes, exploring new directions, and navigating career transitions. Small group discussions will be facilitated by practitioners with diverse career experiences. | Friday at 4:00pm |
| Practitioner Reception | If your goal is to see how I-O lives and breathes in the “real world,” this is your home base. Celebrate the work we do and the people who do it. Meet a mentor or peer who is navigating similar challenges, all while enjoying food and surprise giveaways. | Friday at 5:30pm |
| Problem Solving Across Industries as an I-O Practitioner | I-O psychologists span diverse industries yet share a common educational foundation. This session shows how practitioners can adapt core skills to tackle similar challenges across sectors. In breakout groups, attendees from fields like the military, healthcare, government, and technology will explore cross-industry problem solving. The goal is to highlight shared competencies, debunk role misconceptions, and empower I-O professionals to lead and thrive across contexts through influence, expertise, and strategic impact. | Saturday at 12:30pm |
*Note: Sessions specific to the 2026 SIOP Annual Conference. Always check the Whova conference app for the most up-to-date information on attendance details, as they are subject to change.
- Build flexibility into your agenda. As you are building your agenda, you will quickly find that you may have interest in multiple sessions occurring during the same timeslot. It is perfectly okay to add multiple sessions to your agenda and feel it out as you go. If you start at one session and it turns out not to be what you were expecting (maybe not relevant enough to practice, for example), feel free to leave and jump into one of those other sessions instead.
- It is also important to keep in mind as a first-time attendee that the annual conference can be an overwhelming experience. Keep your well-being in mind as you plan your agenda by intentionally scheduling in breaks. Make sure to check in with yourself throughout the conference and prioritize taking additional breaks as needed.
Tip #3: Learn All You Can From Veteran Attendees
One of the most helpful things you can do to prepare for your first SIOP conference is to seek advice from practitioner attendees who have gone and learned valuable lessons. To help make this easier, we have collated some of the best advice collected from practitioners in our own professional networks. Here is what they had to say:
- Master networking: Networking was by far the most common topic of advice from veteran practitioner attendees. They wanted newcomer practitioners to not underestimate how important networking is to the SIOP conference experience and recommended that people not only leverage the receptions but also the actual conference sessions as networking opportunities. It is a lot easier to strike up a conversation with someone after you both attended the same session; already you know that you have a common interest and an immediate topic to discuss (e.g., “what did you think of X research finding?”). Attendees should also leverage the Whova app to network and connect with others who may have a similar background (e.g., alumni of the same program) or shared interests.
- Help bridge the scientist–practitioner gap: Sometimes practitioners feel like they are less valued or less important within the broader SIOP community. But practitioners bring something incredibly valuable to the conference—lived experience. If something does not feel practical or grounded in reality, feel free to ask questions. And even if you learn something that is not immediately applicable to your daily work, it may still help to refine how you think about a problem or challenge an assumption you may have previously held.
- Do not lose momentum! It is easy to let the postconference exhaustion get to you, but it is important to digest learnings and information while it is still fresh. Within a week of the conference, try to write a summary or key takeaways and ideas, and maybe even schedule a meeting with your teammates to share insights and discuss how it might be applicable to your work. And do not forget to follow up with the connections you made through networking.
(*Bonus tip* A few veteran attendees also suggested that newcomers bring comfortable shoes and multiple layers, as the conference often involves a LOT of walking, and room temperatures can often vary widely regardless of outdoor temperatures.)
Closing Thoughts
Your first SIOP annual conference as a practitioner might feel overwhelming, intellectually challenging, and occasionally uncomfortable, and that is okay. It means you are engaging with the field and taking in ideas while still wrestling with real-world complexity.
To make your first conference a success, you only need curiosity, humility, and a willingness to engage with different points of view. Welcome to the SIOP annual conference. We hope you will join us for many years to come!
Appendix
Although this guide is specifically aimed at practitioners, we also wanted to take a moment to highlight additional resources relevant to all newcomers to the SIOP annual conference.
Volume
63
Number
4
Author
Caitlynn Sendra & Tiffany Hiscock
Topic
2026 Annual Conference
