Observations On #SHRM13 Thus Far

by Matthew Stollak on Tuesday, June 18, 2013

 This is the 13th SHRM Annual Conference I have attended.  The routine is pretty much the same from year to year.  So what, if anything, has stood out?

The Speakers
  • Hillary Clinton - didn't get to see her.  Closed to press.
  • Blake Mycoskie - Nice inspirational message.  Hard to screw up a talk about shoes at a HR conference.  Definitely fit category 1 of Tim Sackett's 3 categories of HR speakers
  • Jennifer McClure - Talked on the Future of HR and knocked it out of the park.  Definitely book her for your future HR conference.
  • Steve Boese - Excellent presentation on harnessing social tools.  
The Exhibit Hall
  • I probably have spent less time there then in any previous conference.  As a professor, I'm not likely to be a customer of whatever product is being hawked.  My name is not going to be drawn for a booth prize.  And, I learned long ago that SWAG remorse is never a good thing.  
  • I felt bad for the booths in the 3500-4300 range.  It seemed like they were the discount casinos in "Vegas Vacation" where games such as "Pick a Number Between 1 and 10" and "Flip a Coin" were being played 
  • I was disappointed to hear from students, yet again, that some booths treated their visit with disdain.  These are your future customers.  Treat them that way.
Travel
  • It is still a heavily dominated female crowd.  On three of the four shuttles I've taken, I was the lone male among 30 or 40 females.
 

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