By Tyler Files, Director, Talent Strategies
Estimated reading time: 1.5 minutes
Applications are open for the 2026 DRC Talent Labs, a five-month cohort experience designed to build solutions for talent challenges facing organizations today. Presented by Bank of America, the program equips participants with evidence-based strategies, subject experts, peer insights, education credits and tangible action plans.
Here are three reasons to apply today:
1. Build peer connections with DFW’s top talent leaders
Participants will join talent professionals from various regional organizations, like 2025 program participants McKesson, Children’s Health, KPMG, DFW Airport and JE Dunn Construction and more, to develop unique strategies and solutions for shared challenges. These relationships extend beyond the five-month program and create lasting resource networks for talent leaders.
2. Learn evidence-based talent strategies that actually work
Talent Labs participants will learn evidence-based strategies from market leaders and industry experts.
Across five monthly sessions, participants dive deep into practices that drive measurable talent outcomes, aligning organizational goals with employee engagement, building internal pipelines through succession planning and upskilling and leveraging AI responsibly to scale impact. Participants will hear from expert practitioners, participate in case study discussions and explore real-world examples during a Bank of America site visit, where they will see market-leading talent practices in action.
Each session is designed to provide immediately actionable frameworks. As participants build their expertise, they can earn continuing education credits toward SHRM or HRCI recertification, making Talent Labs an investment in both an organization’s success and one’s professional credentials.
3. Leave with a ready-to-implement Capstone Talent Plan
Through Talent Labs, leaders don’t just learn—they build.
Throughout the program, participants develop a Capstone Talent Plan tailored to their organization’s biggest talent challenge. Whether it’s reducing frontline turnover, building a leadership development pipeline or designing an AI-powered upskilling program, the Capstone Talent Plan becomes a roadmap for defining SMART goals, identifying stakeholders, planning implementation steps and determining how to measure success.
Participants will work alongside their peer group, refining their approach through each session with feedback from the cohort and program facilitators. By December, participants will present their plan—not as a theoretical exercise, but as a ready-to-execute strategy they can take back to their leadership team.
Ready to take the next step?
Applications for the 2026 DRC Talent Labs are currently open. The program runs August-December 2026, with five monthly sessions at the DRC office in downtown Dallas.
Ready to turn strategy into action? Visit our Talent Labs webpage to learn more and apply today. Contact talent@dallaschamber.org with any questions or comments.