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People 1st MENA

Join our team at LACE as Headline Partners on May 8 in Dubai for People 1st 2025, an essential gathering for HR, talent, reward, L&D and global mobility leaders. This event is about embracing a People 1st approach amidst a rapidly changing workplace. Industry peers and thought leaders will come together to share insights and strategies to attract, engage, develop and retain top talent.

We’ll be running three sessions during this one day conference, covering:

Rethinking the People function: Optimising your operating model to transform the workforce.

This session will signal a more strategic conversation around workforce transformation, which we believe will better engage a senior HR audience and align with the broader themes of change and impact.

Elevating Payroll to a strategic advantage

In an increasingly complex global landscape, payroll is no longer just a back-office function — it’s a critical enabler of business continuity, employee trust and strategic growth.

This session will explore how leading organisations are redefining payroll operations to ensure resilience, accuracy, and agility across borders. From fostering knowledge-sharing among in-country teams to unlocking global consistency and compliance, we’ll discuss how to future-proof your payroll strategy.

We’ll also examine the evolving role of payroll providers — moving beyond transactional support to become true strategic partners, driving efficiency and empowering HR leaders with the insights they need to lead.

Digital optimisation and where to start with AI

This session will explore how organisations can approach digital optimisation and begin harnessing the power of AI to enhance efficiency and employee experience. This discussion will cover the key success factors for a smooth transition to the cloud, as well as practical ways to leverage digital tools and AI effectively. We’ll examine the importance of data readiness, the types of business challenges AI can help solve, and broader considerations when introducing AI into the organisation. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to accelerate your journey, this roundtable will offer valuable insights on how to take the first steps towards AI adoption.

When is it?

Date: Thursday 8th May 2025

Time: 9:00 am

Location: Dubai, UAE

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Meet the speakers:
Client Executive Director

James brings over 20 years’ experience working in technology enabled HR transformation and change programmes spanning numerous industry sectors including financial services, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and the public sector.

Client Executive Director

Kat has over 10 years’ of consulting experience working with global organisations across a range of industries; architecting and delivering complex HR Transformation and People Experience programmes. Kat has a passion for People Experience and believes it is critical to put people at the heart of how HR operates and delivers services to its customers. She has a ‘Big Four’ heritage and likes to lead with a pragmatic and innovative approach – connecting the dots between technology, process and people.

Client Executive Director

Before Sian joined LACE as an Executive Director in May 2022, she worked at Accenture and IBM and has held a number of senior client-side programme director roles at large global organisations. Sian has delivery execution experience across the full HR scope and lifecycle from strategy and design through to delivery, adoption and business case realisation. Sian’s passions are the upfront definition and structuring of the approach to transformation, including all the critical ‘readiness’ work to ensure a Tx journey is successful AND how to build an engaged, collaborative and productive team (with an innovation and FUN factor!).

Client Executive Director

ith an extensive background in Consulting, Simon has delivered significant Payroll software implementation programmes within multiple clients whilst also helping businesses maximise their existing Payroll set-up. As well as Payroll, Simon has extensive experience in Retail, leading and delivering complex transformational change projects, realising benefits, minimising costs and helping businesses to succeed

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