From Tuesday to Thursday, June 3 to 5, we held our annual client conference, The Works, right here in Bloomington, Minn. Over those three days we had the opportunity to connect with our staffing community, and facilitate connections among our valued clients and partners.
Embracing Our New Venue
This year the conference moved to the JW Marriott, a needed change to help accommodate the growth of the event. The move was so essential, because it truly helped facilitate an expansion of our content sessions. In fact, this year’s Works doubled the number of breakout sessions we were able to host. Across nearly two dozen sessions over both days, topics ranged from the importance of AI and how to prepare for it, to creative ways for staffing firms to maximize their gross margins and everything in between.
Let’s take a look at the days’ events and what makes The Works such an essential experience for us and an enriching forum for our clients.
Tuesday, June 3
Though the majority of our conference takes place on Wednesday and Thursday, each year the first evening serves as a reception of our guests and a chance to reconnect with our clients and team members from around the country.
This year was a particularly special reception, because we were able to host our attendees at our new offices in Bloomington.
Giving our clients a chance to see the basecamp of our operations and meet our team on their turf was especially rewarding for us. The event featured multiple stations set up around the office where attendees could gather with members of specific teams and see how the sausage/software (sauftware?) is made. It was a high-energy environment and the enthusiasm around the office was infectious.
The event also included a happy hour within our building that gave our clients, sponsors, and our team a chance to network and connect (and in many cases reconnect). Overall, we couldn’t think of a better way to kick off The Works.
Wednesday, June 4
Wednesday represented the first day in our new venue, the JW Marriott in Bloomington.
The day began with a presentation in the main ballroom, with opening remarks from our President, Brett Cavanagh.
In his speech, Brett touched on the importance of community, collaboration, and resilience. It’s no secret that many in the staffing industry are struggling right now; yet there are also those that are continuing to grow in spite of challenging market conditions.
The Works is about bringing the staffing industry together, and learning from each other to find new avenues for growth; whether that means unlocking potential in TempWorks software itself, or gaining insights from colleagues and experts in the industry to uncover those opportunities.
During his presentation, Brett evoked the conference’s keynote speaker, former Penn State football captain Lee Rubin, and his message of teamworkd and resilience. Lee’s address later in the day captivated the audience on the topic of the 5 Components of Successful Teams.
The main session also saw a closer look at TempWorks product updates, highlighting major enhancements driven by customer feedback and industry analysis. We touched on continued improvements to Beyond Dashboards, platform-wide navigation updates, and a complete redesign of WebCenter, all aimed at creating a faster, smarter, and more intuitive user experience.
Many conversations at the conference surrounded emerging technologies and the promise they hold for the staffing industry. At TempWorks, those same themes are shaping the continued evolution of our platform—from new AI-powered features and automattion to expanded integrations and ongoing investment in mobile tools.
The message was clear—the innovation isn’t slowing down.
Thursday, June 5
On both Wednesday and Thursday, The Works delivered content that spoke directly to the real opportunities and challenges our clients navigate every day.
The Works is a showcase for TempWorks’ technology, and to that end, continuously throughout the conference we host Demo Labs, an opportunity for clients to sit down one-on-one with our product experts and talk through specific use cases. Demo Labs not only give our team the ability to help clients maximize the software to fit their unique business, but also sparks new ideas for future enhancements and features that bring even more value to our users.
In addition to showcasing our technology, The Works fosters collaboration around the unique challenges our clients navigate. Each day, we host roundtable sessions where clients engage in discussions with peers from across the industry, sharing insights, learning from one another, and strengthening connections within the staffing community.
The Works Wraps With Survivor-Themed Trivia Showdown
The final event of the day on Thursday was the annual TempWorks Game Show, a Survivor-themed trivia experience that put our attendees’ knowledge of all the information gained at The Works to the test.
Putting the Books Down
While The Works is built around education and engaging content, it’s equally vital to TempWorks as an avenue for networking and client appreciation.
Beyond the happy hour the first night (sponsored by Experian), we held a dinner and bowling event (sponsored by rapid!) and a go kart and ax throwing event the final night (hosted by Timerack).
These events not only provided a deserved showcase for our sponsors, but gave our guests an opportunity to unwind and connect with each other in a much more casual setting. While the content sessions are the main course of The Works, these social events are the dessert, and really make the conference such a special event for us.
Connecting, Collaborating, and Growing at The Works
While The Works is focused on showing appreciation for and educating our clients, it also offers a chance to connect, listen, and collaborate. The conference fosters a dialogue that enables us to help clients enhance efficiency, attract top talent, and achieve sustained growth. It also provides valuable insights to discover new ways to improve the product experience, ensuring our software adapts to their evolving needs.
From our conversations, it’s evident that investments in our foundational technology, AI, and mobile capabilities align closely with what our clients require to remain competitive and thrive in today’s market.
Even more importantly, we saw the strength of this industry and the loyalty of our clients firsthand. The staffing community flourishes through shared knowledge and transparency, driving collective progress even during challenging markets. The partnerships we cultivate demonstrate a strong commitment to mutual success, a relationship we take great pride in supporting.
The Works enhances the value of our products through dedicated service, but the insights and inspiration we receive in return are invaluable. We look forward to continuing this journey together at future events!