Bill Boorman photo by Heather Bussing
Two years ago I wrote about my first TruLondon unconference experience. Read it here. I called it The King of All Social Recruiting. It was less about the event and more about Bill Boorman, the conference “disorganizer.” I’ve just attended and led a track at TruLondon6 and I have to say it was another Bill Boorman Tour de Force. This guy just doesn’t stop innovating.
Bill innovates like you and I breathe. I don’t know how else to describe him. For instance, at this unconference he enticed a major new sponsor to underwrite the first ever conference-based live streaming Google+ hangouts. The first. Ever. The good folks from Kelly OCG’s EMEA team underwrote the filming and live streaming of “hangouts” – discussions, really – live streamed on Google+. Kelly OCG had thousands of viewers to this unscripted, captivating content – challenging and fun conversations with thought leaders from around the world on topics that ranged from “should leaders manage the different generations differently?” to a
Kelly OCG Google+ Live Streaming Hangout photo by Heather Bussing
presentation and discussion led by the CEO of Stack Overflow, Joel Spolsky. Some of the hangouts were social media focused, some were recruiting focused, some were just cool conversations by really smart people with expertise and opinions about the state of talent acquisition and development. These were happening simultaneously with the three tracks of group discussions (not filmed or streamed live) in each time block.
China Gorman and Mervyn Dinnen at TruLondon6 photo by Heather Bussing
At the same time, Mervyn Dinnen from JobSite recorded and live streamed interviews with many of the notables in attendance. John Sumser and I had a fun conversation about whether or not there really is a talent or skills shortage. Check out the JobSite channel to see the recorded interviews.
True to the Tru brand, stars in the talent firmament like Johnny Campbell, Paul Maxin, Henry Stewart, Andy Headworth,
Photo by Heather Bussing
John Sumser, Gerry Crispin, Crystal Miller and Heather Bussing led fascinating group discussions and challenged the attendees to share, learn and think differently. As a track leader, I learned as much from the colleagues in my discussion as I hope they learned from me.
I have to say it was entertaining, fun – and I really learned a lot. Just what I want from a conference – or unconference – experience.
If you get the chance to attend one of Bill’s Tru events – and they’re all over the world now with stops coming up in Amsterdam, Zurich, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Orleans, Seattle and lots more – you really need to do it. Leave your “normal” conference experience expectations outside, though. This will be a conference like no other you’ve ever attended. And you’ll be smarter for it – and your network will have grown exponentially with innovators like Bill Boorman.
Well, not really like Bill Boorman — there’s only one of him.
chinagorman.com 