As we look ahead to 2026, we are excited to share an important evolution in how UWEBC organizes and delivers value to our members. For years, our practice areas—Customer Service, Human Resources, Marketing, Supply Chain, and Technology—have served as the backbone of our programming. They have helped us build strong communities of learning. But the world of business has changed rapidly, and the evidence is unmistakable: the challenges facing today’s organizations increasingly span across traditional functional lines.
Both leading research and insights from our member community tell a consistent story. Across industries, professions are becoming more specialized—from AI engineering to people analytics to digital marketing to supply chain resilience. Yet at the same time, organizations face growing pressure to integrate those specialized capabilities in order to deliver the seamless customer experiences, resilient operations, data-driven decisions, and employee enablement that today’s market demands. Academic studies, industry associations, and consulting research all point to this dual reality: deeper expertise within functions, and a rising need to “ensemble” those specialties across the enterprise to compete in a digital-first economy.
Our members have confirmed this trend through surveys, learning sessions, and hundreds of conversations. The issues keeping them up at night rarely fit neatly into a single discipline. Workforce challenges intersect with technology investments. Customer experience is shaped as much by data and operations as by marketing. Supply chain resilience now requires collaboration across procurement, manufacturing, finance, risk, and IT.
To better support our members in this new environment, UWEBC is moving from traditional practice areas to a more flexible and holistic structure built around four broader Focus Areas: Customer Experience and Marketing; Supply Chain and Manufacturing; Technology, Data & AI; and People.
Why the Change?
Our new Focus Areas reflect what the research and our members are telling us: organizations need integrated thinking, cross-functional learning, and strategic perspectives that connect people, processes, technology, customers, and strategy—not siloed content.
This shift enables us to:
- Bring together broader, more strategic themes
- Encourage cross-functional learning and collaboration
- Draw connections between topics that previously sat in separate buckets
- Stay aligned with current business priorities while remaining nimble as those priorities evolve
By structuring our programming around these Focus Areas, we’re able to deliver content and community that feel more integrated, more relevant, and more reflective of how your organizations actually work today.
We look forward to partnering with you in this next chapter and helping you and your teams build the capabilities—and the connections—needed to thrive in this era of specialization and integration.
What are these new focus areas?
Beginning in January 2026, all UWEBC events and resources will be organized within one of four new focus areas:
- Customer Experience and Marketing: Explore customer journeys, insights, brand, engagement, and the strategies that drive customer-centered growth. Includes events on Customer Service, Marketing, Customer Experience, Contact Centers, Product Management, and Lead Generation and Sales. Some of the topics we’ll be covering in the beginning of the year include The Rise of Generative Search in a Post-SEO Era, Unified Revenue Strategy, and Driving Growth through Service.
- Supply Chain and Manufacturing: Cover logistics, planning, production, innovation, and operational excellence. Includes events on Supply Chain, Procurement, Logistics & Distribution, Manufacturing, Sales & Ops Planning, and Trade Compliance. Topics covered in events coming in the new year include Supply Chain Analytics, S&OP Cross-Functional Collaboration, and Supply Chain Career Development.
- Technology, Data & AI: Bring together digital transformation, data strategy, cybersecurity, AI adoption, and emerging technologies. Includes events on Technology, Data and Analytics, AI, Agile, Cybersecurity, and Immersion Labs around Agentic AI, Citizen Coding, and more. Topics we’ll be covering in upcoming events in this area include The Human Side of Data and AI Literacy, Agentic and Collaborative AI, Real-Time and Predictive Intelligence, and AI at Scale.
- People: Focus on talent, leadership, culture, and the evolving employee experience. Includes events centered on Human Resources, Leadership and Change Management, and Talent & Learning. Some topics may include building a future-ready, AI-literate workforce; strengthening human capabilities like empathy and creativity; developing agile, resilient leaders; improving transparency in change communication; equipping mid-level leaders to drive transformation; advancing skills-based talent strategies; and personalizing learning to accelerate upskilling.
You will begin seeing these focus areas across our event calendar, website, newsletters, and communications as we move into the new year.
Introducing Practice Directors in Residence
As part of this shift, we are also welcoming additional experienced talent that will help shape and elevate our programming. Our new Practice Directors in Residence will be experts in specific fields who partner with our team to:
- Curate and guide learning events
- Provide insight on emerging trends
- Strengthen connections between member organizations
- Help ensure that programming remains practical, relevant, and grounded in real-world application
You will be hearing more about them soon, and we are thrilled about the expertise they will bring to our community.
What’s Ahead in 2026
Thanks to your input through our annual topic survey, we are already building a robust lineup for next year. Here are just a few of the topics that have bubbled to the top:
- Change Leadership
- Communicating Change with Transparency
- Strengthening Human Capabilities
- Skills-Based Talent Strategy
- The Human Side of Data and AI Literacy
- AI at Scale
- Digital Transformation in Manufacturing
This shift to Focus Areas marks an exciting next chapter for UWEBC. Our mission remains the same. We help you learn from each other, navigate change, and succeed together. The way we do that is evolving to better reflect the complexity and opportunity of the business landscape today.
We look forward to entering 2026 with you!