After three years of exhibiting at SHRM, we’ve learned something interesting.
Ask three people from the same company what happened at the conference, and you’ll likely get three completely different answers.
Our CEO sees long-term workplace trends and shifts in employee expectations.
Our VP of Growth focuses on operational challenges, technology adoption, and the efficient scaling of employee programs.
Our Director of Business Development spends her days speaking directly with HR leaders and hearing firsthand about onboarding, recognition, culture, and the challenges of managing modern workforces.
Since our first SHRM Annual Conference & Expo in Las Vegas in 2023, we’ve continued those conversations in Chicago in 2024 and at SHRM Ohio in 2025. Along the way, we’ve watched HR priorities evolve, workplace challenges change, and employee experience become an increasingly important business priority.
Now, as we prepare for SHRM26 in Orlando, we asked three members of the BlinkSwag team of leadership to share what they’ve learned from years of conversations with HR leaders across the SHRM community.
Building Relationships in a Changing Workplace
Abhi GoyalCEO
“As CEO, Abhi looks at macro shifts and how changing corporate landscapes impact how companies value their humans.”
Q: What’s the biggest shift you’ve seen since our first SHRM in 2023?
Abhi: “In 2023, everyone was panicked about fractured hybrid teams. Today, they are worried about AI and skills gaps. But underneath the headlines, the core human question hasn’t changed once: ‘How do I make a distributed workforce feel like a tight-knit team?’ The tech stack changes, but human nature doesn’t.”
Q: Are HR leaders buying swag differently now?
Abhi: “Massively. Gifting used to be a transactional checklist item. Now, it’s a high-stakes retention strategy. HR leaders realize that a cheap, low-quality plastic water bottle with a poorly slapped-on logo actually insults an employee. They want retail-quality, intentional items that mirror their actual brand values.”
Q: What has stayed the same?
Abhi: “The fact that people just want to feel appreciated. No matter how corporate a company is, a well-timed, thoughtful package landing on an employee’s doorstep hits the same emotional chord every single time.”
What HR Teams Are Asking For Today
Alee Raza VP of Growth
“Alee tracks the operational mechanics, the bottlenecks, the tech stacks, and how companies scale culture without losing their minds.”
Q: What is the number one complaint you hear at the booth?
Alee: “Spreadsheet fatigue. HR pros are tired of playing logistics manager. They are completely done with manually tracking home addresses, managing five different vendors, and packing onboarding boxes in a corporate supply closet. It’s a massive drain on their time.”
Q: How has the demand for automation changed things?
Alee: “People want hands-off infrastructure. Today’s conversations are all about scale and integrations. They ask us: ‘Can your platform connect directly to our Workday or BambooHR? Can it auto-ship a welcome kit the second an offer letter is signed?’ (The answer, by the way, is yes).”
Q: What’s one trend that’s officially dead?
Alee: “Single-use junk. HR teams no longer want cheap trinkets that immediately end up in a landfill. They are actively demanding sustainable items and premium retail brands that employees actually want to wear outside of office hours.”
Conversations from the Expo Floor
Darlene ZwolinskiDirector of Business Development
“Darlene lives on the front lines of the floor, talking directly with hundreds of attendees who stop by to check out our latest platform updates and grab our giveaways.”
Q: What’s your absolute favorite part of the SHRM expo floor?
Darlene: “Watching an HR director’s face when they realize our platform has no hidden monthly subscription fees. They are so used to being pitched hyper-expensive enterprise software. When they see our platform is completely free to use and they only pay for the physical merch they ship, you can literally see the weight lift off their shoulders.”
Q: Is there a specific conversation from past years that sticks with you?
Darlene: “A People Director came to our booth with a heavy heart because half of her international onboarding kits were trapped in customs, and some of the rest arrived damaged. She was spending 10 hours a week on logistics rather than on people strategy. Being able to say, ‘Hand that entire headache over to our global team, we’ve got it,’ is exactly why we do this.”
Q: Why do giveaways matter so much at an event like this?
Darlene: “Because it’s a live test case. When we hand someone an incredibly high-quality, beautifully designed piece of merchandise, they experience the exact reaction their own employees will have when receiving a package at home. It takes the idea of ‘recognition’ off the screen and makes it something tangible you can actually feel. “
The Lightning Round: Three Rapid Questions
We threw three fast questions at the whole team. Here are their unfiltered takes:
What challenge are HR leaders most focused on right now?
- Abhi: “Maintaining a human, high-empathy culture in a world heavily dominated by digital tools and automated processes.”
- Alee: “Budget accountability. Being able to cleanly track and prove the ROI of their engagement spend directly to the CFO.”
- Darlene: “Onboarding fatigue. Figuring out how to make a remote hire’s first day feel genuinely exciting, not isolating.”
What’s your top tip for anyone surviving a massive conference floor?
- Abhi: “Hydrate, wear comfortable shoes, and spend more time listening than pitching.”
- Alee: “Have a clear goal. Don’t just collect random brochures, look for actual, integrated solutions to your biggest operational bottleneck.”
- Darlene: “Stop by Booth #3565 early! The best giveaways go fast, and our team has the highest energy on the floor.”
What are you most looking forward to at SHRM 2026 in Orlando?
- Abhi: “Catching up with long-term clients who originally found us when we were just a startup at our first SHRM booth.”
- Alee: “Running live platform demos on the big screen and showing people how much time our new automated trigger workflows will save them.”
- Darlene: “The pure energy of the Orlando floor. Meeting new people, hearing their stories, and solving their logistical nightmares on the spot.”
One Theme Connects Every Single Conversation
Over three years of SHRM, we’ve heard countless stories.
Some were about onboarding challenges. Others focused on recognition programs, workplace culture, distributed teams, automation, or employee retention.
The details change from year to year.
The priorities evolve. New technologies emerge.
Yet one theme consistently appears in nearly every conversation we have.
Organizations succeed when they invest in people.
No matter how sophisticated corporate technology becomes, a company’s ultimate competitive advantage will always be its human capital. Helping organizations honor, celebrate, and connect those humans is what keeps bringing the BlinkSwag team back year after year.
And it’s what we’re most excited to continue exploring at SHRM26.
Come Say Hi in Orlando!
If you’ll be attending SHRM26 in Orlando, we’d love to meet you.
Stop by Booth #3565 to hang out with Abhi, Alee, and Darlene in person for live demos, premium merch giveaways, and real conversations about simplifying your workflow.
Whether you’re looking to improve onboarding, streamline recognition programs, simplify global gifting, or just exchange ideas with fellow HR professionals, we’re always happy to have the conversation.
See you in Orlando.😃
