It’s finally over, and I’m back in the office coming down from the cloud of SHRM13. SHRM really blew it out this year, with over 15,600 people in attendance. As I look fondly back through the 26,000+ tweets that flowed like wine during the conference, I thought it might be fun to do a not-so-serious recap of my experience.
#1. Next, year, let’s have SHRM on Mother’s day. Equal Opportunity. Jeremy Roberts, the new editor of SoureCon,said it best on his blog:
#SHRM13 will be awesome… but expect me on Monday 🙂
2. Lives were changed. When a conference truly inspires its attendees on an emotional level, the conferences organizers have accomplished their goals. Many found both Hillary Clinton and Gabby Giffords extremely moving. Gabby Giffords and her husband are truly #winners.
3. Many Rock Stars, One location. I got to say hi to some of my favorites, including John Sumser, Gerry Crispin, Jessica Miller Merrill, Jeremy Edwards, Maren Hogan, Jim Stroud, and Chris Russell to name a few…
4. No Monsters under the bed. Monster’s lack of presence at SHRM13 was the talk of many. Are they going down the tubes? Or maybe Monster is a trendsetter…setting the stage for other large recruiting & sourcing tools to cease participation in SHRM in the future? However, Nexxt, SimplyHired, Indeed.com, TopUSAJobs.com, RecruitMilitary.com and others were all there in true fashion, and Dice had a huge presence with its sponsorship of The Hive Social Lounge, and the Blogger’s room.
5. GlassDoor knows how to throw a party. The GlassDoor party with DJ Jazzy Jeff was insane in the membrane. Blinky was the new dress code. The Nexxt team rocked it out with some of our friends from Juju.com, Jobs2Web, and TopUSAJobs.
6. Valuable lessons to be learned. These 1-liners don’t replace the incredible content shared in most of the sessions, but here’s a few that caught my eye:
@JimStroud: “Lunch roulette. Good idea. Workers have lunch with a random coworker in order to build culture and increase engagement.” #SHRM13
@RayFerreira: “Don’t kid yourself, a corporate acquisition is like a sex change. There WILL be a cultural shift.” @annaebinder #SHRM13
@ewmonster: “I’m still fighting to make the world a better place.” – @GabbyGiffords #shrm13
@hired: “If you’re not the most talented person in the room, make sure you’re the hardest working”. #SHRM13
@jmillermerrill: “29% of hires in US come from social media according to @Evenbase.” #shrm13
Thank you for the memories, SHRM! See you next year. Readers: any fun, interesting, or compelling observations from your experience at SHRM? Comment below!
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