Frontline Workers: The Essential Invisible
September 7-8, 2026
Chicago, IL
For many frontline workers, having access to health benefits does not mean being able to use them. Rigid shifts, lost wages, transportation constraints, confusing systems, and limited trust can make care practically unreachable.
In this Acquis IRL, we will bring 6–10 healthcare executives, benefit designers, and policy shapers to Chicago for 1.5 days inside the barriers and real-world tradeoffs frontline workers face every day. Join a crew. Build a budget. Sit at the table. Experience what stands between having coverage and actually using it.
What to expect
Chronic condition support group
Share a meal with real shift workers who have chronic conditions. Hear why silence felt safer than asking for help. Why using their benefits feels harder than figuring it out alone.
Join the crew
Take public transit across the city. Show up on time or get written up. Then step onto a frontline work crew —halfway through, someone hands you an HR flyer. You'll see how far it travels.
Make it work on $15/hour
Evaluate real job offers the way a frontline worker has to — wages vs. bus routes, childcare vs. shift times, benefits that don't start for 90 days. Try to keep someone employed for a year.
Request an invitation
Acquis IRLs are intimate, invite-only experiences that take senior executives directly into the environments where their decisions create real impact — revealing strategic insights that don't emerge in boardrooms or executive suites.
Strategy that starts in real life (irl)
Acquis IRLs widen executives' aperture and create an environment to ensure strategies account for stakeholder effects, regulatory risks, and social dynamics that increasingly shape long-term business success.