Your guide to Uplift 2026

"Change doesn't just happen — it's led."

That’s the idea behind this year’s Uplift theme: “Agents of Change”. It names the role you’re already playing.

You don’t need to be told that AI is changing how work gets done. You’re already building the strategy. The harder part is making calls on structure, skills, and culture before you have full clarity on where this is headed.

Uplift is designed for you to listen and absorb, but more importantly, to work. To workshop ideas with us and with your peers.

The programming, the research, the conversations in the hallway — all of it will be more useful if you show up with specific questions and real challenges you want to dig into.

This guide will help you come prepared and make the most of your time.

Make a plan.

Review the full session schedule and make your Day 1 and Day 2 session picks now. Seats are limited, but there will be a standby line with good chances for getting in.

Know who you want to meet.

Before you arrive, pull up the attendee list in the Uplift app and identify two or three people you want to spend time with. Most attendees are C-suite or VP-level. The informal conversations are part of the program — treat them that way.

Come with a point of view.

Before you arrive, spend 20 minutes with one idea each speaker is known for — a talk, an interview, an article, whatever's easiest to find. The goal isn't familiarity. It's showing up with something specific to agree with, push back on, or test against what you hear in the room.

Bring something concrete to work through.

Think about a decision you need to make or a hypothesis you want to stress-test by the end of Day 2 — about the platform, a research finding, a people strategy you're building the case for. The event is staffed to help you work through it, and it's richer when something real is at stake.

Divide and conquer.

If you're attending with teammates, plan who's covering which concurrent sessions in advance. Split across parallel programming intentionally, then plan a debrief. You'll cover twice the ground.

Take notes with an action bias.

Bring the notebook you get at registration in your swag kit everywhere you go. Instead of just capturing what you hear, flag specific ideas about how you'll apply what you learn. For each session, identify one thing you'll do differently.

Don't treat transitions as downtime.

The 30 minutes between sessions are where a lot of the best conversations happen. Grab a beverage at one of the stations with someone you met in a workshop and ask a follow-up question about something you're grappling with.

Explore everything — and scan your badge when you do.

The Platform Experience, demos, and activation spaces are worth building into your schedule, not treating as background. Badge scans track what you engage with, and that data gets shared back to you after the event with analysis and recommended next steps. The more you opt in, the more useful the follow-through.

Debrief after each day.

If you're at Uplift with your team, set aside an hour each evening to go through the day's actionable takeaways. If you're the sole attendee from your org, protect some time to organize your thinking while it's still fresh — your team will get more out of the debrief if you do. When recap emails, session analyses, and other materials come your way after the event, pass them along. They're most useful when the people who couldn't be in the room get them too.

Share what's shaping your thinking.

Post candid photos, pointed questions, and real-time reflections on Instagram and LinkedIn as the event unfolds. Tag your own team and @BetterUp and use #Uplift2026. The best content from events like this isn't always a polished recap, it's what surfaces in the moment right after a session when you're still thinking.

1. Break out of your standard track.

Anchor your schedule in the sessions most relevant to your role and organization, then pick one that gets you out of your comfort zone. The most useful thinking at Uplift tends to come from unexpected directions.

2. Visit the Platform Experience.

Reserve a time to stop by during the event or walk in when it works for you. Group orientation sessions are available to book, or come on your own and explore at your own pace. Bring a specific question about your organization — implementation, scale, performance measurement — and have the real conversation there.

3. Show up to Day 2 with a specific hypothesis.

The programming moves from frame to application. It lands differently if you arrive with something you want to pressure-test.

Follow through on your Day 2 commitments.

You came with specific questions and hypotheses. Before the week is out, share what you learned with the people who need to hear it. The leaders who get the most out of events like this are the ones who make the debrief and action plan a priority, not an afterthought.

Keep checking back.

Recordings from keynotes and select sessions will be available approximately one week after Uplift — follow BetterUp on LinkedIn to get notified when they're released. New content will keep rolling out for at least a month after the event: recaps, research summaries, and practical frameworks from sessions. If you divide and conquer with teammates, it's also a good source for what you missed.

Look for the research report.

A full report based on the keynote research will be published approximately one month after Uplift. It will go deeper on the findings presented on stage and give you a citable, shareable resource to bring back to your leadership team.