Next week I'll be in New Orleans attending the SHRM Annual Conference June 28 through July 1st - and you'll be glad to know that I've already stocked up on anti-frizz products in an effort to control my hair's natural tendency to poof to unflattering proportions in the more tropical climes...
If you've read my Bio or LinkedIn Profile, you know that I spent most of my career as an HR Pro before making a change in 2006 to become an Executive Recruiter/Coach & Consultant. When I worked in HR, every year I would receive the Conference brochures and devour them wishing that I could attend to learn about what was new and happening in HR, as well as to meet some of my peers. But every year, the money either wasn't in the budget, or the few times that it was budgeted, something always came up that prevented me from attending. So I'm super excited about this opportunity to finally make the pilgrimage to the land of 10,000+ HR Pros and also to participate as a Press Blogger!
I'll be tweeting, blogging and vlogging while at the Conference and sharing my learnings and experiences in several places. Kris Dunn, Jessica Lee and myself will be covering the Conference for Fistful of Talent and I'll also be playing the role of "Roving Reporter" for RecruitingBlogs.com and a new website RecruitingConferences.com. I'll link to any shenanigans I post on those sites here on Cincy Recruiter's World, but if you're not already subscribing to these resources - you should be!
At the Conference, there will be a ton of opportunities to learn about all of the areas of "People Strategy" that I'm consistently curious about, including Recruiting, Executive Coaching, Human Resources, Company Culture and Employment Branding and I've tried to select sessions to get my fill in as many of those areas as possible. Here's my tentative schedule so far:
Sunday, June 28th
2:30 pm Opening General Session with Jack Welch (we're like BFF now that I follow Jack on Twitter)
5:00 pm Press Briefing
Monday, June 29th
7:00 am Retention Before Hiring, After Hiring and Long-Term Retention Strategies
10:45 am Creating a Great Place to Work: Lessons from the 2009 '50 Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America'
12:00 pm Lunch with Kris Dunn & Jessica Lee
2:00 pm How Your Web Site Can Be Your #1 Recruiting Tool
4:00 pm Creating Executive Presence: Thinking on Your Feet
6:00 pm Yahoo! HotJobs VIP Party
Tuesday, June 30th
7:00 am Strategic Interviewing Practices
10:45 am How to Give a Butt-Kicking Presentation
2:15 pm Employment Branding: Branding Your Organization To Attract & Retain A-Level Talent
6:00 pm Tweetup at Ruth Chris Steak House
Wednesday, July 1st
10:00 am Become a Talent Magnet: How to Entice, Endear & Engage Top Talent
11:30 am HR Blogger Panel: Kris Dunn, Jessica Lee, Laurie Ruettimann & Lance Haun
You should also check out some of the other bloggers who will be attending the Conference. I've linked to their Twitter profiles below, as well as their most recent posts about their Conference plans:
Lance Haun - Your HR Guy: Updated SHRM 2009 Schedule
Sharlyn Lauby - HR Bartender: The Big Easy
Jessica Lee - Jessica Lee Writes: New Orleans...Here I Come!
Michael Long - The Red Recruiter: SHRMing Out With Twitter
Laurie Ruettimann - Punk Rock HR: Social Media, Human Resources & SHRM
Mary Ellen Slayter - SmartBlog on Workforce: My SHRM Schedule
Mark Stelzner - Inflexion Advisors: HR Gone Wild - SHRM 2009
UPDATE: Thanks to Brett Farmiloe of Jobing.com for making me aware of his post 5 Ways To Participate in SHRM 2009 From the Office on ERE.net. Good tips for those who must stay home!
You can catch me tweeting as @CincyRecruiter and follow all "real time" Conference tweets via Twitter Search here with the hashtag #SHRM09. (You don't even have to sign up for Twitter to do so!)
If you'll be attending the Conference, I'd love to meet you there! You can get my contact information by texting JENNIFERM to 50500 (via Contxt).
