SlouchCon!

Mega-congratulations today to Jason Davis and ERE! ERE has brought on Jason to help build The Fordyce Letter. This connection seems so natural to me, especially since the only time I have ever seen Jason has been at ERE Expos! So move over Fordyce Forum and SourceCon, a SlouchCon/Charity Poker Tourney will be coming to your town soon! :-)

ERE Expo - The Pictures

ERE Expo Spring 07

ERE Expo - Day 3

Day 3 kicked off for me with an early workout, providing me much needed energy for the day. The conference continued with a presentation by Jeff Bonrey, CEO of Trovix. It's funny, at conferences like this, you often hear many conflicting messages as to what is most critical in the talent acquisition space. Some of the speakers are very strong and convincing, and sometimes, they are not. Mr. Bonrey has an interesting product, he told us to change, but didn't offer much new to think about. I also disagreed with him that recruiting is all about amassing resumes. It's about building and cultivating relationships. Arte Nathan emphasized that on Wednesday, and Michael McNeal emphasized that further with the presentation that followed.

Michael truly is one of the best in the business. I first heard Michael speak back in the late 90s when he was still with Cisco. He was funny, provocative, and incredibly innovative then. Little has changed over the years. Intuit is lucky to have him now. Michael's presentation focused on building out a strategy that focuses on the Employee Experience. Can't wait to go back to the details of his presentation, this was really good, relevant stuff for me and my firm. He said that he was instructed to get everyone motivated. Mission Accomplished!

After taking care of some business, I rejoined the conference for the afternoon sessions. The first session was with Kevin Wheeler, who asked if Social Networks were hype. Kevin's grasp of technology and it's effect on the emerging workforce is fantastic. Are Social Networks hyped? He argues that the hype is overinflated now, but many of these networks will endure and eventually become the norm of recruiting. It's all about building a Talent Community and Social Networks are the key.

Next came the Bloggers panel, a Q&A session with Jim Durbin, Joe Grimm, Heather Hamilton and Dennis Smith. I got a seat front and center to blog about the bloggers. Todd actually has a great synopsis of the session on the ERE Expo Blog, so no need to be repetitive here. Got some pictures though, which once again should be up by the weekend.

The show wrapped up with the always entertaining and insightful Dr. John Sullivan. Dr. John was controversial as usual (heard a few gasps from the recruiter next to me), but this talk was different. It was really a fantastic view into the do's and don't for building a Career Website today. Perfect timing for me as we are in the process of redesigning my firm's website right now.

And then, it was done. It went by way to fast, as most good things do. I did hook up with Jason Davis and Cheezhead for a great meal and even better discussion before calling it a night. Time to head home now. I'm tired, yet energized. Several of the sessions were excellent, made some great new connections, found some very relevant vendors at the Exhibit Hall, and as always, the networking was priceless. Kudos to ERE for another great show. And kudos to ERE for bringing the fall show to my home town, Washington DC. If I didn't see you here in San Diego this week, I hope to see you in DC in October!

ERE Expo - Day 2

Started the day very early (which typically happens when I travel to the Left Coast). This was OK because I had a 7AM conference call anyway. After the call, I headed down to the conference where Jason Goldberg kicked things off once again, this time with his review of Web 2.0 and what it's implications are for recruiting, including a brief sales pitch on Jobster. Towards the end of the event, he invited Joel Cheeseman up for what was promoted as the "Main Event". Joel had some very direct, biting questions, and Jason was very smooth and 'political' with his responses. Turned out to be quite tame actually, no blood was spilled, and honestly, there were likely many in the room who probably didn't even know what the feud was about anyway.

After some helpful hints from the Conference Chairman, Jeremy Eskenazi, Arte Nathan took the stage and wowed the crowd with his energy, colorful humor and 'cut-through-the-BS' attitude. He was a true pleasure to listen to, and repeatedly made the point that what we do in recruiting is all about the people. IMO, I think he undervalues the importance of technology, especially as it relates to Gen X and Y, but his overall point of valuing personal relationships over technology was well made.

I was able to catch up a little work thanks the the free wifi access here, then headed off to the Exhibit Hall for lunch and to chat with some vendors. Dennis Smith and I then trolled the hall with an interest in chatting with a few specific vendors. Got to see the new premium product that The Ladders will be rolling out soon too. Looked very interesting. I plan to spend more time in the Exhibit Hall today.

The afternoon sessions were interesting, I took in the Google Staffing Analytics session (oh my, to have the resources they do to do what they do). They are truly making the selection process a science over there. Following the Google session, I took in some of Shally's International Sourcing training, then headed next door where I was to be a facilitator during the 'Speed Brainstorming' session on the topic of Direct Sourcing. We had a group of 11 recruiters, including Microsoft sourcing-guru, Glenn Gutmacher. We had a lively discussion around what sourcing was, what techniques we were using, what sourcing resources are available, and issues around connecting with sourced, passive candidates. Oh, and we will all be getting 'LinkedIn' with each other now too :-)

Had a great evening out with The Newman Group, who took a group of us to the Padres game. Huge thanks to Ed, Kelly and Elaine for a great night at a great ballpark. Finished the evening back at the hotel where I sat in at the ERE Charity Poker Tournament. A great time was had for a great cause. Pictures from the ball game and the Poker Tourney will be up by this weekend.

Time to get ready for the final day of the conference. Michael McNeal and John Sullivan presenting on the same day, should be fun!

ERE Expo - Day 1

Finally escaped from the dreadful Mid-Atlantic 'spring' yesterday on my journey to the ERE Expo in sunny, but only slightly warmer, San Diego. This is the 3rd straight year I have made it out to this great conference, the best recruiting show around.

The flight out was relatively uneventful, oh, except for the fact that I was one swallow of my soda away from ending up in the hospital! About halfway through the flight out here, I was finishing up my soda, chewing some ice when I felt a small metal object in my mouth. Turned out to be a metal clip, the type used to fasten bags of ice! I took the clip in the cup back to the flight attendant. The one who served me the drink said "Sorry, but I wasn't the one who put the ice in the bin." Later, when he came through the aisle offering more water (which I refused), he said "You know, once I was eating fish and found a bone in my mouth, It's an imperfect world." The fact that someone made a mistake resulting in a metal object being in my drink wasn't what bothered me at this point. What did was the fact that rather than apologize and promise to be more careful in the future, he felt it more important to cover his backside. I thought Southwest was better than that, guess not :-(

Made to the hotel around 3PM and quickly found a number of friendly faces, including Gerry Crispin, Kevin Wheeler, Dennis Smith, and the ERE staff. The awards dinner was very nice, sat with Gerry, Jeff Hunter and the EA team, a couple recruiting leaders from Nationwide and others. It was good to hear from Gerry (an awards judge) about what set the winners apart from the rest.

This being my 3rd year attending this event, I am now running into people I know at every turn. After dinner, I quickly hooked up with Mendoza, Jason Davis and Heather Hamilton. The networking just keeps getting better and better. I have some nice pictures so far and hope to have them up by the weekend.

Today got off to an early start, and it's going to be a busy one. More on that tomorrow.