Two of my favorite events are coming up in October and I think you should be there because they deal with both issues. And as talent acquisition and management moves forward, they will be the most pressing issues if you want to be considered a leader.

HRevolution Vegas

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In a few weeks, a hundred or so people will gather at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for a discussion in the next evolution in HR. This will be my third (of four) and each one is a different experience. This is also the closest one to home for me so I’m looking forward to it.

Of course, I am also facilitating a session too. What’s it about? Here’s what I wrote to the HRevolution founders:

Beyond blogging: building influence digitally tomorrow – You can’t go to an HR conference anymore and not hear someone talk about starting a blog. Technorati says there are over 700 blogs on the topic of human resources. That number could double or triple in the next couple of years. What will you do to stand out in the noise? Talk not only about how to improve the content you have but how to present/repurpose older material and develop new ideas and partnerships to deal with what’s coming up.

Part of where I’m going with it came from a discussion I had with Trish McFarlane at SHRM about what a bunch of early adopter bloggers are doing now. Writing and sharing is good enough on its own but it is also a means to an end (and it certainly has been for some). Are people going to be happy if they are at the same place in 5 years? Do people know how many people are going to be writing about HR in the future?

We’re going to have fun with it and if you read this blog or follow what I do here or on TLNT, you should be there.

Recruiting Innovation Summit

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I am incredibly biased about this event because I program the conference for my company, ERE Media. Given the shameless promotion of one Bill Kutik of a certain HR Technology Conference, I don’t feel as bad.

The Recruiting Innovation Summit is hand-picked to give recruiters insight into the most innovative practices recruiters are using. I try to bring as many practitioners as possible to the stage to talk about their processes first hand. The other key is the audience which is full of bright recruiters with their own ideas. Every time I go, I talk to a few people who could have been on the agenda just as easily. And a free hint: get here early enough the day before to hit the tweetup the night before. It’s only a one day event

This particular event is being held at Facebook’s headquarters in the Bay area which is great in and of itself. Richard Cho has been involved in the last three events and is a wealth of information just himself (but fatally flawed as a San Jose Sharks fan).

I can’t wait for the event to kick off. If you’re a recruiter looking for an edge, this is the conference you have to put on your calendar.

Oh, And One More Thing

There’s a new conference coming to town soon. I am ecstatic about it and happy to be associated with it. But if I were to give you a hint, I would think you might want to keep February 26th-28th open and keep your cowboy boots ready to ride.

Got it? Okay good.

* * * * *

This is a pretty silly post title, right?

Especially if I want people to read my post and become regular readers. Getting a discount code is purely transactional. I wouldn’t get a single reader if that’s all there was here. And there is a pretty good lesson about it that is relevant to HR technology space.

Technology only works well when it is done in conjunction with your overall strategy.

People familiar with blogging and basic SEO know why I picked this post title. As far as I can tell, I’ll be the only page on the internet with a page title and h1 tag that specifically says “HR Technology Discount Code”. That’s search engine gold, baby. Add in Las Vegas and the year in the first line of text (along with the date of the post) and you’re pretty well covered. In the next few days, I expect to see a steady stream of traffic flowing in…

And leaving just as quick.

Head and hand moving in concert

My goal isn’t to get people to come to my blog to then just simply leave though. My goal is to attract long-term readers, get them to read through more of my material and connect in some way (subscribing, following on Twitter, etc…). A post title like this doesn’t encourage any of that.

I’ll get great technical results, sure. In fact, this post went about as perfectly as it could. But it didn’t align with my overall strategy for my blog so it could be considered a major failure.

One of the things they’ll talk about in Las Vegas is the importance of making your technology choices in concert with your strategy. In sessions, you’ll often hear horror stories of attendees going out with RFP’s that are a hundred times more complicated than they need to be (or a hundred times less complicated, though that seems more rare). All because they were sold on technological capabilities before they considered their core strategic necessities first. There are many people there that will be trying to fix past technological pains and you don’t want that to be the legacy you leave.

As much as I think the HR tech show is for the geeks of our industry, it can be just as helpful to those guys and gals in more traditional HR leadership roles telling those geeks what they need. It’s easy to become enamored by the shiny objects known as HCM software (especially when you’re running a piece of software on a server in the basement with a decade’s worth of dust on the cabinet).

If you don’t figure out your strategy, you could end up like me: running a post title that seems like a good idea (and is technically sound) but totally doesn’t fit the profile nor the goal of this blog. Only, I’m guessing your boss probably takes it a lot harder than the boss of my blog when you screw up like that.

• I’ll be tweeting on my own twitter account as well as the TLNT twitter account. The latter one probably a bit more frequently than the former. So if you’re not there and want to follow me specifically, that’s where I will be.
• If you want to follow everyone tweeting about the conference, follow the #shrm11 hashtag on twitter. Just a warning: it will be a fire hose of inside chatter, vendor giveaways and information all jumbled together.
• Unless something exceptional happens, most of my coverage will be over at TLNT.com as well. Take a look if you haven’t already and subscribe (I write typically three times a week there).
• That being said, the news from this event is relatively muted. Only a couple of my meetings could result in actual, noteworthy news. Most of my meetings are with potential sources, writers and longer term stories on TLNT.
• Basic equipment: tennis shoes (runners for this one), jeans, black or white button up shirt, bottled water, iPad, laptop, Flipcam, pen, notebook and backpack. I almost added my sport coat to this list but no… just no.
• If you see me, say hi. If we’ve never met, still say hi. I’m just a regular dude who likes to meet other great people. If you follow this blog, you’re good people. I try to hangout in the back of rooms.
• We’re hosting a party Sunday night and doing a radio show on Tuesday (you might want to show up a bit early for the party). I also plan on going to the SHRM tweetup Monday and the SmartBrief Advisory Board dinner Tuesday.
• I will not be out until 4:30am playing blackjack, drinking gin and tonics and then walking home in my dress socks carrying my shoes while having a conversation with a vagrant. Not that I have any experience with that.
• I will probably go home super tired Wednesday afternoon and ready for a long sleep.

If you’ll be there, I hope we get to talk or at least high five. If not, hope to catch you in-person at another event (or if you’re ever in Seattle…).

For many professionals, networking at a business conference can be daunting. Still, it’s often necessary and can be beneficial when done properly. Having an outgoing personality helps, though not everyone is naturally outgoing.

Focusing your energy on meeting the right people and making an impression are essential strategies, though both require practice. By following proven methods, you’ll be able to apply techniques to your effective networking tactics.

Conferences attract hundreds, if not thousands, of attendees. To stand out you’ll need to focus on what you’re trying to accomplish. Define your goal and stick to it, you’ll immediately narrow your focus to the most important areas and people to target.

Here are five key tips to networking at a business conference:

1. Build Your Social Network

Talk to others; taking a genuine interest in people you come into contact with is the first step in building your network of friends and associates. Ask others questions about themselves, their jobs, hobbies and families.

Get in touch with old acquaintances, distant relatives and people with whom you went to school. This is a good exercise in reaching out and strengthening your existing connections.

The key is to smile and take a keen interest in other people’s lives.

2. Pay Attention to Details

Get to know people personally as well as professionally. While your goal may be to talk business, taking a few minutes to discover hobbies and other significant details can be beneficial by strengthening an otherwise standard business relationship.

Once you’ve learned a few details, write them down. You want to remember what you’ve learned. You never know when you or someone you know will benefit from the contacts you’ve made and the relationships you’re building.

3. Find the Extroverts

Once you start networking, you’ll come across people who have been networking experts; individuals who have been networking for a very long time and seem to know everybody. Get to know these extroverted professionals. They’ll introduce you to others who share your interests or goals.

4. Be Generous

Networking is a two-way street. While you’re making connections that can help you, consider how you can help others. Think of contacts you have that may benefit those you’re networking with, listen, and compliment and be sincere.

Networking is about more than finding job opportunities; you may meet entrepreneurs interested in an idea you’re developing, business connections to help with a future project or professionals who can recommend services.

It’s important to remember you’re establishing good relations with people and opening channels for mutual benefit.

5. Follow Up

People hand out business cards for a reason. Maintain your address database and stay in touch with those you’ve met. Note everyone’s birthday and send a “Happy Birthday” email. Or, use current events as a reason to make contact. For example, touch base if they’ve had inclement weather in their area or forward a relevant, interesting article.

Of course, a little preparation goes a long way. Before the conference, research keynote speakers and others who will be in attendance. Set goals and identify those that you’d like to meet. Plus, you can always establish connections via social networking websites beforehand. With these simple tips, you’ll be armed with the knowledge and techniques to make networking work in your favor.

Claudia Vandermilt works with Villanova University as a copywriter on professional education, online certificate programs and career training. Villanova University has been ranked the #1 Regional University in the North by U.S. News & World Report for almost two decades. Villanova offers master certificates in project management, human resources, six sigma and other prominent fields.

For many people, a conference is a once or twice a year thing. My wife goes to one conference a year. My dad goes to two, maybe three. For ERE, it is a seven times a year thing. For me personally, it could be more depending on where I’m going or if I’m speaking.

And Seth Godin goes to a lot of conferences too. And he suggests you skip the content and go straight for the conversations.

Conversations Are Great…

We’ve been live streaming our conferences for quite a while. Now since most of our conferences have multiple breakout sessions, it means you don’t get to decide which one is live streamed but you do get somewhere between 5-6 hours of streamed content along with most of the slides from all presentations.

So if it were strictly about getting great content, you might be sitting at home instead of going. Surely, much of the value must be in having conversations, right?

Well, yes and no.

On the yes side, of course they are a great part about the conference. And it is a great place to get together with different people. How many other places can you get together with a top vendor in the industry, a Fortune 50 head of talent acquisition and the top consultant in the space? It’s one of my favorite parts of the conference.

But Wait, There’s More!

Part of the value is most certainly on the content side though. Good content attracts good people. It’s not always easy but if you figure you’ve got a marketplace of conferences, unconferences, seminars, workshops and the like, you’re competing with many different options. The only way you have the types of conversations you want to have is if the attendees are top notch too. And many of those folks are looking closely at agendas and speakers before they make their decision.

Another issue is the in-person presentation experience. Have you tried to watch live streamed conferences for more than an hour? It’s tough for me. Even during our own conferences, I find myself switching to e-mail or Twitter or writing something while it goes on in the background. Being in-person guarantees I’ll be more engaged with the content and having videos and slidedecks of the content afterward only helps reinforce the message (not necessarily giving me a reason to skip).

Lastly, how many of these conversations are happening in a vacuum? Many of the memorable conversations I’ve had with other attendees started because a speaker planted an idea or suggested something provocative. Without a catalyst for conversation, where would many of these conversations end up?

A Final Point About Conversations

I haven’t gone to a conference solely for conversation but sometimes conversation is the only good thing I get out of a conference. That’s not the ideal though. Spending thousands of dollars to have some conversations may not be a big deal to some people but it is to me.

I have yet to fully connect with people in my local area so I could be having great conversations for a fraction of the cost. It seems like trying to concentrate it all into a couple days at a conference lacks some creativity and effectiveness. Most of the time, I’m so busy talking that I end up grabbing contact info and connecting after the event. Which is fine of course, but it makes me question the logic of only focusing on conversations.

In my mind, the perfect conference experience is an agenda, venue, attendees, networking and side conversations all working together in support of one another. When I left the last ERE Expo, I had over a dozen conversations after the conference (that I couldn’t do in person) along with months of contact after the fact with attendees I had managed to connect with. Add a couple of the more memorable sessions, learnings and lightbulb moments and it was an optimal event for me. And as my friend Chris Ferdinandi commented when he shared Godin’s post with me, why shouldn’t we expect and do all of that?

#socialrecruiting summit – September 13th – Seattle, WA

I went to my first one last spring and had a blast. While I was speaking at the last summit, this one I’ll be all ears. And I certainly won’t be wearing a t-shirt that tight again (seriously).

This year’s #socialrecruiting summit is being held at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA (just east of Seattle). It’s full of great sessions and our chairperson this year is Chris Hoyt, The Recruiter Guy himself.

We’ll also be having a tweetup and charity poker tournament as well.

I honestly can’t wait for this event. Since I won’t be speaking, I’m going to be focused in on the presentation content and networking with some of the best and brightest in social recruiting.

If you haven’t made plans to come yet, there are still some spots available and airfares are still affordable from most major airports to Seattle ($200 roundtrip from LA!).

Let me know if you have any questions. Our company ERE Media is putting on the event.

SMA Staffing Symposium – September 23rd – Seattle, WA

The Staffing Management Association of Seattle is putting on a one day symposium a week and a half after the social recruiting summit so I’ll be burning up I-5 like mad in September.

The event is being keynoted by someone you may have heard about: Laurie Ruettimann (of The Cynical Girl, formerly of PunkRockHR). It is also being chaired by John Vlastelica who chaired ERE’s Spring Expo and features a great number of fabulous speakers.

There is still time to check it out and register for the conference.

NHRMA Annual Conference – September 29th-October 1st – Bend, OR

I put on my HR hat and head down to beautiful Bend, OR to present not once, but twice to my HR colleagues at the Northwest Human Resource Management Association annual conference. My hope is that it is fantastic because it’s the reason I’m missing the HR Tech conference. I’ll be presenting on social media and HR as well as a tutorial on getting the most from blogging.

If you’re in the Northwest, this is one of the best networking opportunities anywhere. You’ll get to meet HR directors from all over the place and attendance is large enough that you’ll be able to find a group of people at around your same skill level or industry.

Still plenty of time to register too. Bend is about three hours by car from Portland but you won’t believe how lovely the drive is.And if you’re a skier, you can gameplan a trip to Mt. Bachelor later this winter.

SWHRMA Employment and Legislative Conference – October 19th – Vancouver, WA

My home turf! The Southwest Washington Human Resource Management Association conference is a great value for folks in the Portland area. I’m presenting for my local chapter for the first time a report on social recruiting methods being used by top employers.

There isn’t a ton of detail posted yet but I’ve seen the agenda and it looks to be great with some great voices from people in the greater Portland area and legislative updates from the folks up in Olympia.

If you’re in Portland, this is a great opportunity to make it across the river and see me live and in person.

I know. Me not make a conference. But I’ve got other commitments. Real commitments, people.

HR Technology Conference – 9/29-10/1 – Chicago

The first one I’m mentioning is the HR Technology Conference put on by HR Executive Magazine. This is a really fantastic conference co-chaired by the one and only Bill Kutik (the Obi-Wan Kenobi of HR Technology).

I loved the hands on feel of the conference which focuses on practitioners, consultants and analysts (always the analysts) sharing best practices, findings and other help guidance to get you through the confusing world of HR technology. And the crowd is great too with both technology geeks and HR generalists filling the halls between sessions.

I made some of the best connections at the conference last year and I know it is going to be even better this year (even without my presence). If you are in any way involved in HR technology or need to get educated on it, this is the conference to attend. Period.

If you do decide to attend, use the discount code REHAUL10 to score yourself $500 off the on-site registration. I get absolutely nothing out of the deal but maybe if enough of you use the discount code, Kutik won’t have to use the force on me next time.

SourceCon DC – 9/28-9/29 – Washington DC

So you’re in the sourcing business and you’re wondering where you can get some education and networking with the best in the business? Sometimes being a sourcer feels like a lone wolf. Hey, maybe you’re attracted to that lifestyle? I won’t judge!

SourceCon is the premier event for sourcing. I went to my first SourceCon this spring and was absolutely stunned by some of the cutting edge ways these folks can find people (and maybe I was just a bit paranoid too). For someone with very little experience with sourcing, it was a lot to eat up in a couple of days.

This fall’s event is being held at the International Spy Museum and is being chaired by the great Eric Jaquith. While that alone may be worth a trip for me, you’re going to have some of the best in sourcing give you the latest tips and tricks to find that needle in the haystack.

Register before the event to save yourself a couple hundred dollars.

ERE Expo – 10/26-10/28 – South Florida

Last but not least is the big daddy of all recruiting conferences, the ERE Expo. The fall expo is typically held in South Florida which I hear is the polar opposite of Portland in late October (must be tough to have sunny weather about 60 degrees, right?).

But you’re not going for the tan, you’re going for the great educational and networking opportunities. The expo has it.

Headed up this fall by Tony Blake, VP of Recruiting & HRIS for DaVita, the conference is going to be hands on with sessions led by the thought leaders and innovative practitioners you’ve come to expect from ERE. We’ll also have a trade show where you can hobnob with our generous sponsors and trade show exhibitors.

After this spring’s ERE Expo, I went home and slept the weekend after. There is a lot of great information and networking packed into 2.5 days to absorb and just like SourceCon, it invigorated me even more about the challenges of recruiting more than ever.

You can still save $300 off the on-site registration price if you register soon. And if you’ve got a specific need for either the ERE Expo or SourceCon like a group or something else, let me know and we’ll see if we can accommodate you.

Editor’s note: I work for ERE Media, the company that puts on SourceCon and ERE Expo. They are still great shows to attend but feel free to call me biased. I’ve been called worse.

Craig Barrett, former Chairman and CEO of Intel, stepped up to the microphone during the opening session for the Employee Health Care conference and challenged this audience of high level benefits professionals from across the country. His message? Band together and use the collective purchasing power of the private industry to demand what the government has had a hard time legislating: price controls, efficiency, increased technology utilization and smart reforms that could propel an entire industry mired in controversy back into respectability.

After Barrett left the stage, it seemed the role of self-examining the employer’s role in health care disappeared as well. While many mentions of the bipartisan government health care summit in Washington D.C. were made throughout the day, not a single mention was made of conference sponsor Anthem Blue Cross’s up to 39% increase in premiums in the state of California. I can tell you what has the bigger impact in driving the frustration and the push for reform and it seemed to be danced around like an 800 pound gorilla.

A couple interesting ideas did make it out of the fray though.

Towers Watson (the post merger version of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt) presented the idea that better performing companies have better cost containment in health care. This was a significant figure too (around $2,000 an insured). I wasn’t exactly sure where to take this information. If you’re the head of benefits at a large underperforming company, is getting your company’s performance back to an acceptable level important or is it reducing your benefits cost so that your company can perform better (or both). It seemed unclear how overall business success could drive success in cost containment.

The CDC presented their social media program and it was interesting to hear their experiences with it. Here are a couple of interesting things that came out of that conversation.

1. The response to the CDC social media accounts has been driven significantly by the H1N1 outbreak.
2. Every tweet or comment posted out to social media is reviewed by a scientist for accuracy.
3. The CDC is everywhere (even SecondLife) but they are starting to focus their efforts.
4. CDC is making a big push into mobile. Obviously this would be huge for an organization like the CDC.
5. The CDC posts all of their web and social media stats online

The first day ended with Matt Miller taking a complimentary approach to Barrett’s earlier discussion. His argument that it was virtually a moral imperative that employers reduce costs and wasteful spending on health care so that they could devote those resources to business sustaining objectives rang true to many in the audience.

Overwhelmingly (and unsurprisingly) though, much of the discussion for the rest of the time focused on wellness programs, price transparency and working with data warehouse (a program that allows companies to understand cost drivers in their health plans). Can these help control some costs? Of course. But the impact in the long run isn’t going to be terribly significant. It simply doesn’t change the underlying cost structures that really impact the long term costs associated with health care. The big conversations that happened at the onset and the end of the conference didn’t match the discussions happening throughout the day with high level decision makers.

I didn’t talk to a single person that was disappointed with the conference though so I wonder if this is the sort of leadership we’re expecting on this topic? Rousing speeches that ask companies to rise to the occasion while pushing programs at the nuts and bolts level that do little to match that wit.

If there was a hint of the sort of bold action that Barrett and Miller asked for in their speeches rumbling through the hearts of attendees at the conference, I didn’t get that sense. It seemed as though most were satisfied working within the current system, believing that change could be made within it.

As I left the conference on Friday, I have to wonder if companies take seriously the major challenges and uphill battle they face. It seems as though companies are content wait it out (along with everyone else) until absolutely forced to make tougher, unpopular decisions that could actually impact the true cost of health care.

The last plan I had under my own name ran out in August of last year. I was able to enroll under my wife’s insurance for $140/month. In December, we were on vacation and I slipped and hurt my back pretty badly. Four doctor appointments, prescription drugs, physical therapy and massages: $200 out of pocket. What it could have been? Thousands of dollars. And knowing me, I would have sought shortcuts to ease the financial pain.

Decoupling health care was one of the things that many people at the Employee Health Care Conference rejected out of hand. While the argument made on a holistic level was that employers (especially large employers) could push for innovation better than individuals could, most of the concrete reasons I’ve heard is that employers put a lot of money into the pot and that benefits employees.

There is little doubt that companies could drive more innovation in health care than individuals if they wanted to. That’s the problem though: outside of internal cost containment or strategy, none of these companies (even huge ones) have forced the insurer and health providers hands.

So if the only legitimate concern is money, why aren’t we talking more about the separation of employment from health care? What are your thoughts on it?

How much say do employers have in all of this? For better or worse, they’ve been along for the ride as much as employees. They’ve been taking the brunt of the heat as insurers pressure them to use wellness plans and other poorly laid out incentives to bring down their rates a couple of percentage points. They’ve taken the brunt of the heat when premium payments for employees go up. It is no wonder that many of these companies are looking for answers.

In reality, most of these “innovations” in the health care are stop gap solutions at best and don’t address some of the key figures that continue to push health care costs further out of reach.

This Thursday and Friday, I will be attending the Employee Health Care Conference in New York as a guest of The Conference Board to see what else is going on in health care. Are insurers responding? How are they working together with employers? Will any of this mean anything with the possibility of reform?

Do you have any curiosities or questions you want answered from the Employee Health Care conference?