HRevolution 2010 - Top Ten List

The HRevolution 2010 was fantastic, as expected, and I in the next few days will certainly dive in to some of the topics like culture, 'The Secret', and informal learning in more detail, I wanted to just to a quick brain dump of some of my key observations.

So here goes the David Letterman-style Top 10 Things I learned at HRevolution 2010:

10.Environment really matters.  When people first stepped off the elevator and walked into Catalyst Ranch you could see and hear their excitement and enthusiasm.  I think you can be creative and disruptive and innovative in a hotel conference room. Maybe.  But in a cool, colorful, and quirky space like the Catalyst, opening your mind and letting loose seems so much more likely.

9.Social networks are perhaps even more powerful that I thought.  Several people attended HRevolution completely on the basis of wanting to meet some of the bloggers they read or the people they were only acquainted with on Twitter.

8. Lance Haun would not throw his HR Apprentice team leader Mike Krupa under the bus despite ample opportunity and encouragement.  In fact, the HR Apprentice session, one that 'forced' participants to engage and then defend their thoughts, was one of the highlights of the day I think.

7. Dress codes at events, and possibly in most workplaces, are for suckers. At the #Monstersocial event on Friday night, we had flip-flops, pajama pants, fancy dresses, and even a tuxedo turn up.  No one cared.  Create an environment where people can be comfortable as they are, and they will absolutely shine, even in a tuxedo.

6. Live radio shows are fun, even if it can be impossible to hear what is going on.  We had a great time doing the HR Happy Hour show 'Live from the #Monstersocial Red Carpet', but I suspect for anyone listening at home, it may have sounded like a train wreck.  Thanks to the great China Gorman for her enthusiastic listening and tweeting during the show.

5. If you in to the whole 'personal brand' thing, you better have a good idea about it.  On the HR Happy Hour the fabulous Maren Hogan told us that 'My personal brand is gorgeous', and you know what - no one around the room disagreed.

4. If I had to distill all the conversations I heard down to one word, the word would be 'culture'.  Discussions about culture permeated many of the sessions, from branding and culture alignment, to diversity, to informal learning and collaboration, and even in the HR Apprentice session.  Has organizational culture development become the new 'seat at the table'?

3. Sweet Mandy B's cupcakes are incredible.

2. During the event, and immediately after, many attendees asked me, and I suspect most of the other organizers - 'What's Next?' When will the next HRevolution take place?  Will it bigger, better, more powerful than before?  Here is what I (personally) think - we should not rush to decide 'What's Next?' until we have a better feel for what 'this'is.   And I mean that we need to see how (or if) people that attended the event turn out to be successful in applying the things they heard, leveraging the connections they made, and actually see positive outcomes both personally and professionally.  Without those kinds of outcomes, then HRevolution is just a 36 hour funfest with 125 cool people. 

1. What was 'said'at HRevolution matters much less than what gets done the other 364 days of the year.  As Laurie and Lance suggested in their closingsession, how HRevolution influences behavior, business practices, and ultimately changes not just how HR gets done, but how businesses are run and managed is the barometer by which the event, and the ability of those of us in the HR social media bubble will be measured.  The conversation, and the connections, are just the small, first step.  But truly, it is an important step.

Thanks to Trish McFarlane and Ben Eubanks for creating this and for letting me be a small part of the movement.  It was great to work with you again, along with Jason Seiden, Mark Stelzner, Crystal Peterson, and Joan Ginsberg.

I am honored to be included in such fine company.

HRevolution 2010 - Sharing the Experience

HRevolution 2010 is just two days away.

As is the case with any big event, as it draws closer the excitement ratchets up a level or two. Blog posts are written, radio shows are scheduled, tweets start flying, and an overall feeling of 'something really fantastic is about to happen' seems to infect the participants.

And sadly in the case of HRevolution, not everyone who wants to attend will be able to, either due to scheduling conflicts, or travel problems, or quite simply because every last available place is spoken for.

Since at least part of the unique value of this kind of less-formal, participant driven event is the openness and sharing that occurs before, during, and after the 'official' proceedings are complete we thought it would be a good idea to share some information and observations about sharing the HRevolution experience beyond the 100 or so attendees.

Pre-conference

In the short time remaining before the event, if you are attending and have not had a chance yet, please consider joining the LinkedIn HRevolution group, and following the HRevolution Facebook page. Honestly, even if you are not attending I'd recommend checking them out.  Both are great resources for sharing information with other attendees and organizers, and for connecting with people in advance of the event.  Already attendees are using these groups to organize mini-events and meet ups in the free time before the official festivities begin.

We also plan to keep both of these resources active and vibrant to continue and enhance the relationships, the issues, and the learning. If there are any questions at all, please feel free to post them on either of those platforms, I think you will find about 100 or so of your HRevolution pals more than willing to help out.

During the conference

Unlike some events where stuffy presenters admonish attendees for blogging, tweeting, or simply taking notes - at HRevolution you are free to tap, tap, tap away at your laptop or smartphone as much as you like.  But a couple of things to note - HRevolution will have 'official' note takers in every session to capture the important points, interesting discussions, and actionable recommendations.  These notes will be compiled, distributed, and shared with the community. So don't feel like you have to be a 'reporter' during the sessions.  Make sure you are sharing, contributing, challenging, and connecting with everyone in Chicago.  We will make sure via a combination of session notes, blog posts, video and podcasts that as much of the essential essence of the HRevolution gets shared with the folks who could not be with us.

Post-conference

The conference will be over in a few short hours,  but the learning, sharing, and connecting will to some extent, have just begun.  You will have either made new relationships or strengthened existing ones. Your 'first-degree' network of talented and passionate HR professionals will have expanded by the dozens.  These connections will continue to add value to your personal and professional endeavors.

HRevolution related blog posts will be collected and compiled into a special HRevolution-themed Carnival of HR, and feel free to post their links on the Facebook page, LinkedIn group, and tweet them out with the #HRevolution tag. Tag any pictures and videos you share on Flickr and YouTube with the #HRevolution tag as well.

But mostly, take the relationships that you form and the ideas you generate at HRevolution and build upon them.  Expand them,  fortify them, turn them into something new and fantastic and meaningful.

The HRevolution, on paper, lasts for less than 24 hours.  But you can make it last far, far longer than that.

See you in Chicago!

Spreading the Word one PDF at a Time

This week at the HRevolution Unconference one of the important themes will be how to drive more awareness in mainstream and corporate HR leadership of what is going on in the growing HR Social Media community, and to discuss and create strategies and approaches to guard against those of us in this space from simply talking to ourselves all the time.

In fact the closing session of the event (full agenda is available here), is titled:

Breaking Out of the Echo Chamber: Expanding the HR Social Media Community

In this session Laurie Ruettimann and Lance Haun will lead the discussion on ways to increase participation, awareness, acceptance (you get the idea) of these new methods of connection and collaboration in the 'old-school' HR community.  I am personally really looking forward to the session.

In that light, I wanted to share a little service that I have been using to try and get more 'non-blog readers' aware of what is going on here on my blog.  I am sure if you are a blogger, or at least a reader of blogs, you often talk to people at your organization or at events that say they never read blogs, or they can't be bothered to search, locate, subscribe to, and read even a few of the scores of excellent HR blogs that are written every day.

The service is called Tabbloid, a free utility from Hewlett-Packard that lets you register your favorite blog's RSS feed, set up schedule for how frequently you would like to receive updates, and then get a PDF file of your personal 'magazine' of blog posts and articles delivered to your email.  Think of it as an easy way to be able to get a document that can be read offline, can easily be printed in a 'print-friendly' format, and distributed to less social media inclined people in a method and manner that they are likely more comfortable with.

In fact, you can even use Tabbloid as an ad-hoc document creation and publishing mechanism for a given RSS feed (or group of feeds) content.  So if you are about to walk into a meeting or an interview, or get on a plane and need some additional 'offline' reading you can quickly produce a document with the last collection of posts from your favorite blogs.

For an example of what the created Tabbloid magazine looks like, here is the last week's worth of posts from this blog, wrapped up in a nice little 4-page document - Steve's Last 5 Posts.

For now the service is pretty basic, there is no way to modify or customize the 'magazine' title or place a custom header or footer on the document, but if you want an easy way to hand a doubting colleague or executive an nice, familiar looking document that contains a selection of content from your blog or from a collection of blogs that you recommend, then I think you should give Tabbloid a try.

HRevolution 2010 - Sponsor Spotlight - Pinstripe Talent

When many people hear the term 'outsourcing' they instantly conjure a mental image of row upon row of anonymous worker bees, chained (figuratively) to desks, headsets on, taking and making calls and reading scripts provided by the customer to carry out their tasks hour after hour, day after day.

Outsourcing is also frequently negatively associated with the export of 'good American jobs' to some foreign and distant land, furthering the steady decline of the domestic economy and contributing to the continued high level of US unemployment.

It is too bad that more of the general public doesn't see much of the 'good' side of outsourcing, where talented organizations composed of subject matter experts with deep strategic, process, and technical skills deliver high value added services to client companies, enabling them to concentrate more fully on their core capabilities, and to help them meet their business objectives.  Where the arrangements are not simply about driving costs to the lowest possible level, or just about wringing every last ounce of efficiency out of a given process.

Where the outsourcing company truly endeavors to move the relationship beyond transactional and into transformational.  This is the essential value proposition of leading Recruitment Process Outsourcing provider Pinstripe Talent, an innovator in the industry, and a major sponsor of HRevolution 2010, the premier HR and Social Media Unconference, set for May 7-8 in Chicago.

Pinstripe Talent designs, builds and delivers high-performing HR and talent acquisition solutions through Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) partnerships that integrate:

• HR strategy development
• employment branding
• sourcing
• screening
• recruiting
• hiring
• onboarding
• and employee engagement

They are a recognized leader in transforming the recruitment function into a competitive advantage for some of the world’s most demanding, complex and successful organizations.

But beyond the marketing talk, Pinstripe is simply an organization that thrives on the strength of the relationships it builds with its clients, partners, and with the HR and recruiting community at large.  It is this focus on relationships that is made evident by their participation as a sponsor for HRevolution 2010.

The event is about sharing expertise, making and strengthening relationships, and finding ways to support each other with ideas, strategies, and new and innovative approaches to attacking and solving problems.  Which it seems to me is exactly the kind of work Pinstripe engages in every day.

It is a natural fit, and on behalf of the HRevolution team, many thanks to Pinstripe Talent for the support.

HRevolution 2010

The American Revolution lasted for 8 years with Colonial soldiers enduring atrocious conditions and hardships.

The French Revolution lasted 10 solid years and helped popularize the guillotine.

Luckily for you, the HRevolution 2010 will not be (nearly) as long and as dangerous.

The only things in peril are tired ideas, same-old same-old concepts, and the notion that you are just one little cog in the machine and can't make a big impact in your job, your organization, and your profession.

So here is the real scoop:

The HRevolution2010 unconference is coming to Chicago on May 7th-8th!

Cutting edge HR social media thought leaders and practitioners from around the country will be converging for 24 hours+ of mind-bending, trend-setting discussions, yet space is limited to only 110 people, so... SIGN UP NOW!

3 reasons why this year's even will rock:

People.

First and foremost, it's the people. And the crew coming together for this year's unconference is fantastic. With about twice the capacity of last year's event, HRevolution 2010 will blend old faces with new in an intimate setting where networking and relationship building can happen the way it was meant to.

Logistics.

We've locked up a phenomenal and highly professional space for the event that could not be more perfect for an unconference. HRevolution will take place at Catalyst Ranch, which is one of Chicago's premier event locations and—bonus!—is centrally located with easy access to hotels, restaurants, and night life.

Catalyst Ranch is known for bringing a level of fun and sophistication to events that is unparalleled—no other space provider so naturally blended expertise on white boards, afternoon snack service, stereo systems, and the amount of Play-Doh they recommend for 110 people into a single conversation. Rest assured, HRevolution is happening in Chicago for a reason, and we want you to leave the event loving Chicago hospitality.

Topics.

The beauty of the unconference format is that it is designed to leave you with practical, useful knowledge. When you get back to work on Monday, and when someone asks you, "What did you get for the money," the answer that flows oh-so-naturally from your lips will blow them away. And you, too, maybe.
So if you're in HR, if you're dabbling with this social media stuff and thinking "Should I or shouldn't I... How do I...," then get here on May 7th-8th. You will meet the people and learn the stuff and be in the place that will help you put it all together.

Things you need to know:

The event registration page is here - HRevolution registration.

More information about the event can be found here - Official HRevolution2010 Site.

Storm the Bastille of 'old' HR and join us in Chicago this May!