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CONARH 2026 (52ª edição ABRH)

Tuesday, 18 August 2026 São Paulo Expo Add to calendar
3 days (Aug 18–20) · 6 content spaces across a 43,000 m² floor · ~40,000 participants · in-person, São Paulo Expo paid tickets (congress passes + free expo areas)

“Brasil Global: o futuro da gestão é humano”

What happened

The 52nd CONARH turned São Paulo Expo into a 'Cidade do RH' on August 18–20: ~40,000 participants, 120+ speakers, ~320 exhibitors. AI was the word that crossed virtually every conversation — recruiting, payroll, employee experience — while the counter-message was that the more technology advances, the more the debate returns to what will keep depending on people. The edition debuted the Arena IA, the first-ever Arena Agro (people management in agribusiness) and the Festival do Trabalho, closing with Richard Barrett's first CONARH talk on Brazilian culture as a competitive advantage.

Why it was on the radar

The largest HR gathering in Latin America — over 120 speakers and 100+ talks across six content stages. A key stage to bring self-management and the Semco story to the Brazilian corporate audience.

The Semco³ angle

The largest HR gathering in Latin America and the definitive read on where Brazilian people-management is heading — this year explicitly framed around “the future of management is human.” Mine the human-vs-AI tension and the “future of work” positioning as the exact wedge for self-management, trust and decentralization narratives with CHRO-level buyers.

Who was on stage4
Leyla Nascimento
President, ABRH Brasil
Raphael Bozza
CHRO, iFood
“AI evolution and culture; launched “Código Aberto, o jeito iFood de trabalhar””
Marcello Porto
LG Lugar de Gente
“AI agents cutting HR operational effort by up to 70%”
Letícia Lara Rodrigues
CEO, Tree Consultoria
“Launched leadership guide “LIDERA-IN””
How the programme runs4
Main congress
Theme “Brasil Global: o futuro da gestão é humano” — leadership, culture, diversity, health, benefits, future of work.
RH Tech
First-time dedicated AI-in-HR space: live tool demos, company cases, expert debates; 50+ startups, 8 finalists.
CONARH Agro
New space for agribusiness-specific HR challenges.
FESTRA (Festival do Trabalho)
Competencies, career, creativity, wellness, professional relationships.
What\u2019s being argued4

The live tensions on stage — the questions worth walking in with a view on.

From “what could AI do?” to demonstrating concrete HR automation — and what that leaves for humans.
Human vs. technological value: automation shifts HR from operating systems to strategic judgment.
Which competencies stay irreplaceably human — judgment, creativity, trust.
Dissolving boundaries as benefits/payroll/time-tracking vendors converge into one stack.
Numbers to carry into the room4
~40,000 participants · 120+ speakers · 320 exhibitors.
52nd edition, 43,000 m² venue.
AI agents cited at up to 70% reduction in operational HR effort.
63 projects competed in the Prêmio Ser Humano; 50+ startups in RH Tech competition.
Official site ↗
Fresh science on these themes3

Recent papers from the Research Radar (top universities, last weeks) — evidence to carry into the room.

When Is It Fairer to Allocate Resources for Training to Lower Performing Versus Higher Performing Employees?

Journal of Accounting Research — The University of Texas at Austin, Emory University

Managers splitting scarce training budgets face a fairness trap that depends on context, not on the allocation itself. In an interactive experiment, employees judged the same decision by the prevailing norm: where egalitarian norms dominated, as when people had little control over their tasks, lower performers treated training as their due and reacted badly when it went to top performers, while meritocratic norms reversed the reaction. For consultants: before advising where development money goes, read which fairness norm the environment has installed, because task autonomy shifts the norm itself.

Can Nonprofits Gain an Advantage in Employee Retention Through Management Practices? A Comparative Lens for Managing Nonprofit Versus for‐Profit Employees

Personnel Psychology — Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Florida

Nonprofits may hold a structural retention edge over for-profits, but only when they install employee-centered management practices: benefits, participation and training. Across four studies, including archival Statistics Canada survey data, nonprofit employees rated their organizations more positively than for-profit employees did when the organization implemented more of these practices, consistent with the theory that mission-driven settings convert them into firm-specific attachment. For consultants: participation and training are not generic retention levers; their pull depends on the kind of organization that hosts them, so calibrate the retention playbook to sector before copying it across clients.

Odd One Out: A Configural Perspective on Team Mental Models

Small Group Research — Erasmus University Rotterdam, Film Independent

Cognitive isolation, where one team member holds a task mental model dissimilar from everyone else's, undermined performance in a study of 79 student teams running a business simulation, but only when member epistemic motivation was low. Average alignment can mask a single outlier whose divergent understanding drags results. For consultants: when diagnosing a struggling self-managed team, look for the odd one out in how members understand the task, not just overall agreement.

Listen before you go3

Shows from our directory that live on this event's themes — with weekly episode briefs.

Leadermorphosis

Lisa Gill

The Happy Manifesto

Henry Stewart

Management 3.0 — Happiness at Work

Management 3.0

Related reads4

Prep from the archive — articles on the themes this event lives in.

AI Is Coming for Your Org Chart, Not Just Your Jobs

AI is set to reshape headcount and management structure at least as much as individual roles. The firms that win will pair targete…

AI Future Of Work

AI Is Eating Entry-Level Work. Rebuild the On-Ramps

AI is hollowing out the first rung of the career ladder, and the damage is landing on early-career workers. Firms that want a futu…

AI Future Of Work

AI Is Eating the First Rung of the Ladder. Redesign Work to Learn

AI is hollowing out entry-level work where people learn the basics. Firms that deliberately re-bundle workflows so juniors still p…

AI Future Of Work

AI Is Erasing Entry-Level Work. Build a New On-Ramp

AI is hollowing out the first rung of the career ladder, where novices used to learn by doing. Firms that do not redesign work and…

AI Future Of Work
Sources
mundorh.com.br ↗abrhsp.org.br ↗