Tag Archives: HR Conferences

September 3, 2010 · 6:07 pm

Fear and Loathing in Orlando

I’ve just returned from the SHRM-affiliated HR Florida state conference. What an experience! Organized and executed entirely by SHRM chapter volunteers, this conference had over 1,400 attendees in a beautiful and roomy resort in Orlando. Carol MacDaniel, Lori Goldsmith , Stephen M. Geraghty-Harrison and the entire team did a remarkable job in bringing a content-laden and interactive experience to the attendees. Truly a terrific experience.

Here’s something that was validated for me in Orlando about HR professionals and social media. Of the 1,400+ attendees at the conference in Orlando, maybe 200 were engaged actively in social media. That’s 14%.

Knowing that this would be an issue, the folks at HR Florida did a superb job of providing sessions, support and encouragement for the attendees to start to engage with social media. A very robust effort.

Trish MacFarlane over at HR Ringleader noticed it too. And I agree with her identified reason for the lack of engagement: fear. I’m not sure what they’re afraid of, but here are some suggestions to those of us who do “get it”:

be encouraging
be role models
be generous with your time
teach and mentor
be patient
BE LEADERS

Despite the conventional wisdome that social media is only for the younger generations, a post on The Social Graf blog by Erik Sass gave some interesting data about the adoption of social media by those who aren’t young. Here’s what it says about survey data collected from Princeton Survey Research Associates on behalf of the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

Among Internet users ages 50+ overall, social network use increased from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010. To boot, 10% of the 50+ cohort uses Twitter or a similar “status update” service, either to post updates or check other people’s updates.
Looking at specific age cohorts, social network use among Internet users ages 50-64 surged from 25% to 47%, with 20% of this group saying they check into social networks on a daily basis — up from 10% last year.
By contrast, social network use among Internet users ages 18-29 appears to be reaching saturation, growing from 76% in April 2009 to 86% in May 2010.

There’s a message here for HR professionals. It says more of our employees are engaged in social media than aren’t — and not just the folks we assumed were engaged! We have a real opportunity, perhaps even an obligation, to get out in front of our employees.

Because if they’re using social media at home they’re using social media at work.

But I get it. It’s scary. I held my breath when I jumped into social media when I was the Chief Operating Officer of SHRM. And guess what? I lived. More to the point, SHRM lived. My adoption of social media paved the way for greater engagement of members and non-members alike. And it also paved the way for SHRM to begin to step up organizationally to the opportunities active social media involvement creates. Their new public relations campaign, We Know Next, has significant social media outreach strategies embedded in it.

As a profession, we need to be able to lead the social media policy discussions, not abdicate them to the legal department or the marketing department. As business leaders, we need to understand the implications of the use (and misuse) of social media on our corporate and employer brands. As HR leaders, we need to be out in front of our employees and understand the impact of social media on employee engagement and our cultures.

This is the work of Human Resources. It’s new (for most). It involves technology. It’s scary. So let’s step up and support our colleagues in learning these new applications for engaging our employees and building stronger cultures. Let’s not let fear paralyze our profession from doing its essential work: providing strategic business leadership that positively impacts employee and customer satisfaction.

After all, isn’t that our job?

8 Comments

Filed under Business Success, China Gorman, Culture, HR, HR Conferences, Leadership, Social Media

Tagged as Business Success, China Gorman, Culture, HR, HR Conferences, HRFL, Leadership, Social Media

August 31, 2010 · 8:50 pm

Conference Attendance 101

So. You took advice from my last blog post and decided which conference to attend. Congratulations. But now you want to be sure that you leverage your investment by making the most of your attendance. Here are three proven strategies for making sure you get your money’s worth.

Sessions

Conferences generally have 3 types of content sessions:

General Sessions: these are sessions that are intended for the full complement of attendees. The speakers are typically big names in the industry who speak on universal topics relevant to the conference theme or they are big celebrity names meant to draw your attendance to the conference. Here in Orlando where I’m attending the SHRM affiliated HR Florida conference, the opening general session featured Henry Winkler. (He was terrific, by the way.)
Concurrent Sessions: these are the main content tracks that are scheduled throughout the conference. Each time slot will hold multiple options for your consideration. Designed for smaller subsets of the conference attendees, these tend to be led by practitioners, consultants or academics and are focused content of a practical nature.
Sponsor Highlights: these are sessions that feature a sponsor or exhibitor’s product or service, are marketing-focused in nature, and come as part of their sponsorship/exhibitor fee.

In a typical two and a half day conference, it’s important to select the sessions you want to attend wisely – and in advance. But it’s also important not to over-schedule yourself (more on that later). I recommend attending all the General Sessions. The big names generally have value and the celebrity speakers are generally engaging, entertaining and motivating. Then attend concurrent sessions in about 75% of the time slots.

Save time for Networking

One of the particular values of attending a conference in person (as opposed to an online conference or a series of webinars) is the opportunity to meet other like minded people. Look at the list of presenters. Look at the list of sponsors/exhibitors. Find out who else will be attending. Then target 4-8 people that you’d really like to meet and talk with – and find them at the conference. Leaving time in your session schedule to set short appointments when you find people on your target list will allow you to be thoughtful in creating new relationships. Don’t pass up the opportunity to learn from industry pros – who, by the way, also want to network and meet people just like you!

You know how to network, right? You prepare for these opportunities in advance by identifying what you’d like to talk about with each target and prepare 2 or 3 questions to get the conversation rolling. You can ask everyone the same questions, or you can customize your approach to each person. Your confidence will be strong as you introduce yourself to these folks and you’ll be surprised how amenable perfect strangers are to meet and talk with you.

Nothing is more attractive than a smile

As you walk the conference halls and expo aisles, make sure your demeanor and body language is open. And smile. Intentionally. You’ll appear open, friendly, not intimidating or intimidated. Really, there’s nothing more attractive than a smiling face. And there’s nothing that builds your confidence to approach strangers than acting open and welcoming.

Attending a conference and getting your money’s worth isn’t hard. But it takes some forethought and planning. Both you and your organization want to realize the investment it took to get there. Make sure you get the full value of the experience.

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Filed under China Gorman, HR Conferences, Uncategorized

Tagged as HR Conferences, Networking

August 20, 2010 · 1:49 pm

Covered Over by Conferences!

I’m looking for a job. So I’m networking. A lot! People in my network and in the networks of my network are so generous with their time and their referrals. I’m very grateful.

Most of the people I’m talking to are in or around the world of HR. They’re either HR pros themselves, or they sell to HR pros, or they support HR pros in some manner. They’re steeped in HR. And many of them ask me a variable of the same questions:

“There are so many conferences aimed at HR people. Which ones should I attend/sponsor/support?”

And you know what? They’re right. There are tons of conferences aimed at HR pros. Let’s just start with SHRM. There are 5 national/global conferences (not counting the leadership conference just for volunteer leaders). Then there are the state conferences. Some states put on conferences every other year; most put on conferences every year. Let’s call that 40 state conferences a year.

Then ASTD has a big national conference and 3 regional conferences. WorldatWork has a big conference in the U.S. and at least one other big conference in Europe or Asia Pacific. ERE has a bunch – 8 or 9 this year. I have to mention RecruitFest! put on by RecruitingBlogs.com (more on that at the bottom of this post).

But if you do cursory research you’ll find a list like this:

AHRD International Research Conference in The Americas

Benefits Forum & Expo

CUPA-HR Annual Conference & Expo

Engagement and Retention Conference

Advanced Employment Issues Symposium

Government Talent Management Summit

HR Star Conference

Jacob Fleming HR Conferences

Learning and Development Conference

National HR in Hospitality Conference & Expo

Annual HR Technology Conference & Expo

People Report Best Practice Conference

IHRIM Conference and Technology Exposition

Onrec Online Recruitment Conference & Exhibition

World Human Resources Congress

Worldwide ERC’s Global Workforce Symposium

And these don’t include the up and coming unconferences, like HREvolution, or the bigger for-profit organizations like AMA, The Conference Board, etc.

So what’s a person to do? How do you manage your professional development investments to achieve the most appropriate outcome for you and your organization?

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself as you think through the complexity and variety of the offerings:

Are HR Certification Institute recertification credits important to you?
Is there a specific issue in your organization that, if you became more expert and returned with practical learning, you could improve or solve?
Do you want a traditional conference experience or do you want a more participatory experience?
Do you like smaller, more intimate learning environments or do you prefer the energy of hundreds of learners?
Do you want a global orientation or a domestic orientation?
Do you want theory or practical application?
Do you want to be inspired and motivated or do you want to roll up your sleeves and learn new concepts and their applications?
Do you want access to the speakers while you’re in attendance?
Do you want to travel or stay closer to home?

Truly, there is something for everyone in the world of HR conferences. Each conference organization has its own approach and style. Most offer recert credits; some don’t. Some conferences focus on one issue or area of learning; some cover the HR waterfront. Most offer the traditional conference experience; some are experimenting and engaging their attendees in new ways. Some will register as many as want to attend; some are beginning to limit the number of attendees. Some have a global orientation from both content and speaker perspectives; many are domestically oriented by default. Some feature academic presentations; others offer the practical application side of things from practitioners. Some offer inspirational and motivational sessions to keep you mission-focused and energized; some are only focused on skill development and knowledge transfer.

This may help you organize your thoughts as you sift through the ever growing number of choices you have. Of course the big issue is your budget and the cost of attending. More HR pros are having to chip in their own money to attend the conferences of their choice. At the same time, it’s getting tougher and tougher for conference organizers to improve the conference content and experience without raising the price. But trust me: they’re all trying to do just that.

So be discriminating. Make sure the content meets your objectives, the learning style fits your personal preferences, the other attendees have something to offer, and that the total cost is within your budget. Be thoughtful in your selection. And be sure to provide honest and timely feedback to the conference organizers. They desperately want your critical feedback!

Along the line of budget management and conference attendance, here’s a great deal! If you’re considering attending RecruitFest! in Boston October 7-8, 2010, my readers can get a discount on the registration fee. Early bird pricing ends on August 31, so now would be a good time to go to www.eventbrite.com/event/657023174 and register. When you use my name – chinagorman – in the discount code box you’ll receive a 10% discount (including multi-ticket packages!). Not a bad deal. RecruitFest! is being sponsored by our good friends at Monster, so you know it’s going to be a great experience. I look forward to seeing you there. And if you attend one of my tracks, engage! Be controversial! Let’s get the conversation going!