The design language for UNLEASH — where the true differentiator isn't technology, it's humanity. Positioning HR not as a reactionary force, but as the code writers of the future workplace.
Most companies aren't behind on AI. They're behind on redesigning work.
Marc Coleman, Founder & CEO
TaglineRepurposing Humanity in the Age of Machines
AudienceFortune 500 CHROs, CTOs & Leadership Teams
BeliefReinvention is a Team Sport
01 — Manifesto
Repurposing humanity in the age of machines
In a world shaped by algorithms, AI, automation, and constant digital evolution, the true differentiator isn't technology — it's humanity.
Repurposing Humanity flips the script. It challenges HR leaders to re-engineer the workplace not around systems, but around people, purpose, and potential.
It demands that leadership teams ask a harder question: as machines take on more of the work, what is the uniquely human contribution we're designing for? The answer isn't efficiency — it's judgement, creativity, empathy, and courage.
The Duality
Humanity as strength. Machines as infrastructure. The tension between the two is where UNLEASH lives — helping leaders design organisations where both work harder together.
The Structural Truth
We don't have an AI revolution. We have an organisational design crisis. AI isn't breaking work — it's exposing how fragile our operating models already were.
The Promise
UNLEASH doesn't just inform — it equips leadership teams to make better decisions. Not content consumption. Decision intelligence for the future of work.
02 — The UNLEASH Voice
How we frame the conversation
These are the defining positions that separate UNLEASH from every other voice in the HR and Future of Work space. They should inform every keynote introduction, every social post, every sales conversation.
Every leader has the same data. The ones who win make different decisions. UNLEASH is where those decisions get made.
Opening / Positioning
AI won't replace leaders. But leaders who don't redesign systems will replace themselves.
AI & Leadership
The future of work is not remote vs office. It's trust vs control.
Flexibility & Culture
AI exposes weak culture faster than it creates productivity.
Culture & Technology
Most companies aren't behind on AI. They're behind on redesigning work.
Organisational Design
Reskilling without redeployment is theatre.
Skills & Execution
The next competitive advantage is not automation. It's organisational clarity.
Strategy
Prediction is dead. Preparedness is the new planning.
Workforce Planning
United States
Optimising for velocity. Flatten, automate, accelerate.
Speed → Scale → ROI
Europe
Optimising for legitimacy. Govern, integrate, stabilise.
Trust → Governance → Ethics
Asia
Optimising for integration. Infrastructure first, ideology second.
Infrastructure → Integration → Scale
The real competition isn't who builds the fastest model. It's who builds the most trusted system.
Marc Coleman — The UNLEASH Position
03 — Narrative Threads
Four narrative threads of UNLEASH
Each thread connects the macro-narrative to specific decisions that CHROs, CTOs, and leadership teams face. These aren't topics — they're lenses through which every session, conversation, and piece of content should be framed.
Thread 01
HR as System Architects
Positioning HR as builders of the frameworks that allow people and machines to thrive — not just maintainers of policy. The CHRO as organisational engineer, not administrator.
What systems are you building that will outlast this technology cycle?
Thread 02
AI × EI (Emotional Intelligence)
Balancing automation with emotional intelligence — the real competitive advantage in a tech-driven world. Where machines optimise, humans connect.
How do you scale empathy when you're also scaling AI?
Thread 03
The New Skill Stack
Skills are now the bottleneck to strategy. The half-life of skills is collapsing — yet most organisations still plan like it's static. This is no longer a learning issue. It's an execution constraint.
Which human capabilities become more valuable as AI matures?
Thread 04
The Ethics Engine
How HR can embed fairness, transparency, and inclusion into every algorithm and decision. The governance layer that turns technology into trusted infrastructure.
Who codes the culture? Who safeguards the values?
04 — Decision-Led Programming
From content to decision intelligence
UNLEASH exists to help senior leaders leave with clearer priorities, stronger confidence, and better decisions.
Not every session must force a decision. Every session must contribute to leadership decision-making somewhere in the delegate journey.
The UNLEASH Test
"What decision does this help someone make by Monday morning?" If the answer is "none" or "it's just interesting," it doesn't ship. Interesting is the enemy of useful.
Decision Enabler
Equips leaders to act. Provides the evidence, framework, or playbook needed to move a specific decision forward with confidence.
Decision Clarifier
Sharpens thinking. Helps leaders reframe trade-offs, understand risk, or see a problem from a new angle before committing.
Decision Catalyst
Challenges assumptions. Disrupts current framing and opens new decision pathways that weren't previously considered.
Five Journey Pillars
01
Operating Model Readiness
02
Workforce & Skills Intelligence
03
AI & Automation Governance
04
Reward, Pay & Fairness
05
Data, Trust & People Infra
Decision Timing
Decide Now
Urgent. The session equips leaders to act immediately.
Decide Next
Approaching. The session builds readiness for action.
Decide Later
Horizon. The session establishes awareness and framing.
Reframe
The session challenges how leaders currently think about the decision.
01
Frame the Decision
Not "learn about AI" but "decide whether to deploy AI agents in your recruitment workflow by Q3." Every piece of content starts with the decision it serves.
02
Map the Stakeholders
Who sits in the decision room? The CHRO, the CTO, the CFO? What does each need to hear? Programme the content for the table, not just the individual.
03
Deliver the Intelligence
Market data, peer benchmarks, vendor analysis, risk assessment. Not opinions — intelligence. The kind of briefing a Fortune 500 leadership team would pay for.
05 — Differentiation
Why UNLEASH, not them
These frames should inform every competitive conversation — in sales, marketing, and editorial positioning. This is the language that elevates UNLEASH above the field.
Others say
UNLEASH says
"Most trend reports describe symptoms. We focus on structural constraints."
Others say
UNLEASH says
"Others talk about 'talent remix.' We talk about execution bottlenecks."
Others say
UNLEASH says
"Gartner tracks trends. We pressure for decisions."
The Line
We're moving from content to decision infrastructure. The future of leadership isn't about knowing more. It's about deciding faster — and deciding better.
06 — Colour System
Signal & silver
The palette is built on tension: the precision of code against the warmth of human possibility. Signal Cyan is our signature — electric, sharp, future-facing. It demands attention like a cursor on a dark terminal, waiting for the next decision.
Signal Cyan
#00E5CC
Primary accent. Headlines, CTAs, wayfinding, data highlights. The human signal in the machine.
Code Silver
#B8C0CC
Secondary system colour. Navigation, labels, metadata, technical UI. The polished precision layer.
Deep Black
#0A0A0C
Primary background. Creates depth, focus, and the gravity that senior leaders expect.
Human White
#F0EDE8
Warm, not clinical. Body text on dark, hero text. Feels organic and intentional.
Usage Principle
Signal Cyan is earned, not given. Use it for moments of decision and clarity — never as decoration. When everything is highlighted, nothing is. Code Silver carries the system-level information: navigation, metadata, timestamps, labels. Together they create the feel of an intelligence platform, not a conference website.
07 — Typography
Three voices, one language
Typography carries the UNLEASH duality in every line — humanity and machines, warmth and precision. Proxima Nova is the brand backbone — confident, modern, trusted. The mono speaks in machine logic. The serif speaks with editorial authority and emotional weight.
Every organisation has a human code — a set of values, behaviours, and beliefs embedded in its systems. UNLEASH helps leadership teams read that code, debug it, and rewrite it for a world where AI is the baseline and humanity is the edge.
Proxima Nova is the workhorse — it handles 80% of all communications. Instrument Serif is reserved for editorial provocation and emotional impact: keynote titles, CEO quotes, manifesto moments. JetBrains Mono is the system layer: labels, decision tags, data annotations, navigation. The hierarchy itself tells the UNLEASH story — human warmth meets machine precision.
08 — Visual Language
Where data meets humanity
The visual identity lives in the collision between digital precision and human expression. Immersive installations, data-as-art, and physical spaces that make the invisible visible.
Digital Immersion
Particle fields, data cascades, projection mapping. Environments where attendees feel they've stepped inside the code — immersive installations that visualise human data.
Human Connection
Real people in real spaces. Movement, gesture, eye contact, collaboration. Photography that captures the moment a decision forms — not posed, but alive.
Data as Narrative
Transform workforce intelligence into visual stories. Charts that provoke. Dashboards that reveal. Data visualisations that make senior leaders see their organisations differently.
Photography Direction
Favour high-contrast, editorial-grade imagery. Dark environments with human figures illuminated by screens, data projections, or natural light. Silhouettes against data walls. Hands reaching through digital fields. People in motion through immersive installations. Avoid sterile corporate stock at all costs. If it could be any conference, it's not UNLEASH.
09 — Tone of Voice
How UNLEASH speaks
We speak to the C-suite with the authority of a market intelligence platform and the warmth of a trusted advisor. We provoke, we challenge, but we never condescend. The audience is smart — treat them that way.
✦ We are
Decision-led. Every piece of content helps a leader make a better decision. If it doesn't inform a decision, it doesn't ship.
Provocative with purpose. We ask the questions boardrooms avoid. "Who codes the culture?" isn't rhetorical — it's an audit.
Structurally sharp. We focus on structural constraints, not symptoms. Others talk about "talent remix." We talk about execution bottlenecks.
Cross-functional by design. Reinvention is a team sport. We bring CHROs, CTOs, and CFOs into the same conversation.
Warm but direct. We send the love note an hour after the meeting. We never make someone chase. They remember us because we remembered them first.
✦ We are not
Content-for-content's-sake. No filler. No "thought leadership" that leads nowhere. Interesting is the enemy of useful.
Vendor-first. We're not a trade show. Sponsors earn attention through insight, not through logos on lanyards. Commercial has no authority over content.
Generic HR conference language. "The future of work" without specificity. "Digital transformation" without a decision attached. These are banned.
Passive. We don't wait. We don't let emails go unanswered. We don't let speakers feel forgotten. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to be remembered.
Trend reporters. Gartner tracks trends. We pressure for decisions. Most trend reports describe symptoms. We focus on what leaders need to do by Monday.
10 — Event Contexts
One system, regional intelligence
The UNLEASH design system flexes across global contexts. Same visual DNA, different regional emphasis — because a conversation about AI in Paris carries different weight than the same conversation in Miami.
Miami, FL — 2027
UNLEASH 2027
The speed market. US enterprises are deploying AI agents at pace, and the conversation here is about scale, ROI, and competitive advantage. The tone is ambitious, data-heavy, and forward-looking. Optimising for velocity.
AI at Scale
Workforce Redesign
Decide Now
Paris, France — 2026
UNLEASH 2026
The governance market. European leaders are navigating the EU AI Act, cross-border regulation, and the philosophical question of what work means. Repurposing Humanity in the Age of Machines lives here most naturally. Optimising for legitimacy.
Ethics & Governance
EU AI Act
Reframe
Primary Audience
Primary
CHROs & CPOs
The system architects. They need decision frameworks, peer intelligence, and the confidence to drive transformation across the C-suite.
Primary
HR Function Leaders
Senior leaders of Talent, Total Rewards, Learning & Skills, Performance, and Employee Experience. The operators turning strategy into action across the function.
Strategic
CTOs & CIOs
The code writers. They build the infrastructure. Bringing them into the HR conversation is where UNLEASH creates unique value.
Emerging
CFOs & COOs
The business case. Workforce transformation is a P&L conversation. These leaders need data, not inspiration.
11 — The UNLEASH Standard
Nobody should have to chase
This isn't just a design guideline — it's an operating principle that applies to every UNLEASHer, every touchpoint, every email.
// The UNLEASH Love Note Protocol
const touchpoint = {
speaker_post_stage: "Send within 1 hour. One-liner minimum.",
customer_inquiry: "Acknowledge immediately. Log in system. Resolve within 24h.",
sponsor_meeting: "Thank you note same day. Follow-up action within 48h.",
session_confirmation: "Speaker should never have to ask. Proactive, always.",
attendee_feedback: "Acknowledge, log, route to owner. Close the loop."
};
// The test: if someone has to chase us, we've failed. // They remember us because we remembered them first.
For Speakers
Hilary shouldn't have to ask. The moment a session is confirmed, the moment travel needs are known, the moment a speaker steps off stage — there should be an UNLEASHer reaching out. The experience is the product.
For Sponsors
Workday, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft — these are partners, not purchasers. Every interaction should feel like a strategic conversation, not a transaction. Earn the relationship every single time.