The Kennedy/OnRec Recruiting Conference and Transition

I recently read an article in the work/life space about a couple of opposing views on the work/life struggle.  My comment on the post was:

“Great post. Isn’t transition hard? And it’s what we are all going through. Transition from 1 working parent to 2 working parent families, transition from having to leave work at work to being plugged in all the time…or not, the middle place where we find ourselves taking care of parents and children simultaneously when all we want to do is take care of ourselves, transition from placing so much emphasis on career to determine who we are to wanting more time at home.  It will get easier…we will figure it out..I am sure of it.”

This is how I felt also at last week’s Kennedy Information/OnRec recruiting conference.  We are all going through so many transitions:  Is HR dead or dying? Are workers ready to leave once the recession is over and what can be done about it?  Do people come to conferences anymore or do they just watch the streaming sessions and twitter stream?  Where the heck can I plug my laptop and Iphone in so I can also get some work done?

And the conference clearly is in flux.  Both in terms of what attendees want and how conferences can deliver it.  Some attendees want to attend a session, hear from “experts,” take some notes, go back to the office and act on ideas.  But some attendees (and more and more of them in my opinion) want to debate the topics, hash it out with really smart people and be part of the discussion and then continue the discussion at lunch, at dinner, at parties into the night.

I happen to be in the latter group.  And for me this conference was a disappoinment.

There were some great sessions:

• Joel Cheesman moderating a panel on why mobile recruiting is a no brainer with real life examples from companies like AT&T, Yahoo! and KFC.
• Eric Winegardner of Monster.com’s session on How to hire a Keeper – which was interactive and had the audience participating and debating and was NOT a sales pitch for Monster in any way.
• Don Ramer talking about Aribita’s recruiting Genome project and how HR & recruiting need to morph…to woo candidates and be more values oriented.
• And the only “unconference” moment where a panel was put together from the audience after a speaker was a no show.  The positive was how people came together quickly and put great content out…the negative (for the conference organizers) was that it came from the audience, not the organizers.

These represented 3 great hours of programming…in two days.   On the whole I thought the conference and it’s content was pretty mediocre:

• Many sessions talked about subjects that have been presented before, some for years, without adding anything new.  And most of these sessions talked at the audience and seemed to be more about the presenter than about the audience.
• There were too many vendors who had speaking slots.  Please don’t sell to me.  I am happy to go by your booth and hear your pitch if I’m interested in your product.  Don’t trap me in the 3rd row for 40 minutes in a presentation that sounded interesting in the abstract but in fact is a sales pitch.  Content is king…and attendees can differentiate between great content and a sales pitch easily.  And in the world of social media, your session will be outed as such, quickly.
• Good ideas need time to discuss.  40 minute sessions are not long enough.  I know the merging of the two shows caused some logistical problems and I’m sure the session times were part of this…but every session felt very rushed and left little interactive time at the end.
• I want to network…not for 20 minutes but for longer periods of time.  We had a great long lunch hour…but not one place where everyone was eating.  In fact it was really hard to find someplace to sit with a table to be able to cut your roast beef or turkey – which was what was served both days for lunch.  My lunch hours were not productive because I spent too much time trying to find people.
• Does water really cost that much more than really bad lemonade and iced tea?  I know times are tough…and full disclosure I was a guest of the conference and did not pay for my pass.  But I needed to leave the convention center to get a water or soda and it was a hike.
• It was hard to stay plugged in….literally.  Electricity was few and far between and in a world of blackberry’s, iphones and laptops how much would it cost to have a few power strips that have 4 or 5 outlets to plug in to?  And reliable wifi…it is nice to have free wifi at a show and I did appreciate that.  But it was spotty and difficult to use.

Much of the best part of my Chicago experience had little or nothing to do with the conference.  It involved things that were not officially conference hosted like:

• Carmen Hudson launching Tweetajob. Her enthusiasm and energy and smile should be bottled and sold.
• The tremendous Fail Spectaculary party hosted by Laurie Ruettimann and Jason Seiden.
• The great people who attended the show and debated, discussed, dined and had drinks with me.

If you’re on twitter and would like to check out the reviews of other twits check out the #onrec09 stream.  It tells the story.