Notes from #SHRM11 - Day 2

Trying to come up with four or five notes from SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition - Day 2 has proven to be a little more difficult than I figured. Mainly because I have realized I am not actually attending the event, but rather participating in it in kind of an odd way. I have not had a chance to go to any concurrent sessions, and have only caught parts of the keynotes.

I have spent most of my conference time hanging out in the Dice booth, taking a few meetings with some interesting vendors, and catching up with some of the HR Social Media posse that has descended en masse on this event. The booth work has been fun, a little crazy at times (fuzzy dice are a really popular swag item), and we have had a chance to meet lots of nice and interesting people.The bass player looks like Rick Fox

So we'll give the SHRM Day 2 notes/rundown with a nod towards some of the ancillary activities and sights and sounds surrounding the event. 

1. Expo Hall and other circles of Hell

I finally had a chance to stroll around the Expo Hall yesterday and after a few minutes it becomes a kind of numbing experience. Sort of like all the casinos here in Vegas. Similar kinds of displays, giveaways, pitches, and sort of hard to differentiate providers from each other. Sure, here and there you'll see a few innovative ideas, but honestly one of the most effective ones I saw simply involved giving away water to tired and slightly dehydrated attendees. I think you can stand-out by doing a few simple things, rather than massive, over-the-top demonstrations of force. 

2. Vegas - Part 4.

The only thing I have left to offer is that it is kind of amazing that a city so dependent on the tourist trade makes it so difficult to actually get from one place to another in a reasonable amount of time. Cab lines, hotel check in lines, interminable waits in numerous hotels to have simple requests answered and addressed somehow are not enough to keep people away. I guess the potent combination of gambling, sunshine, and Elvis impersonators make for too compelling a draw.

3. Industrial Pipe Manufacturing

The best question that Laurie Ruetimann and I got in the Dice.com booth was from an HR professional at a traditional, B2B manufacturing company about how she can better promote, organize, educate, and support social media efforts in her organization. It was a great question, and while I hope Laurie and I offered a few decent suggestions about how she can try to move the needle in the B2B space, it reinforced to me how there is still a huge swath of the workplace for whom 'social' is still new and scary territory.

4. Parties

The Monday night combination of the SHRM/BranchOut Tweet-Up followed by the Monster.com party/concert made for a big night. You know you are in the right place when you see a Tim Sackett in the front row of a Natasha Bedingfield concert. Natasha put on an excellent show, cementing her place in the illustrious category of 'singers you think you have never heard of but once they play a few songs you say, 'oh yeah, I know her'.

5. Tony Hseih is not smarter than you

I am writing this while listenting to Zappos.com CEO's Tony Hseih speech. Tony's speech really stands out compared to the last two keynotes since it is seems much more personal, a bit less formally structured, and more directly relevant to HR professionals in the audience. Ideas about company culture, hiring and firing for cultural fit, specific approaches to interviewing and onboarding are all practical and meaningful to the SHRM population.  Sure your company can't simply mimic Zappos, and Tony agrees that you shouldn't, but that you can take the lessons from Zappos (and others), and apply them in your organization.  But the takeaway really is most if not all of the success of Zappos stems from simple things - hire people that fit, stay true to your cause, find a higher purpose than making money. Tony Hseih is not smarter than you, really. But he makes it happen, and most of the rest of us get stuck in rhe reasons why we can't make it happen.

That's it for now, probably only one more of these posts coming to try and wrap-up the event.

Notes from #SHRM11 - Day 1

The second field report from the SHRM National Conference & Exposition sadly will offer no more insight than yesterday's Day 0.5 dispatch - but in the spirit of not allowing a lack of compelling content from grinding out the content, we continue unabated.

So without further ado, here are Steve's Notes from #SHRM11 - Day 1.

1. The Opening Part 1 - SHRM really loves talking about SHRM

The first part of the event's opening address covered lots of SHRM housekeeping, including the formal announcement of the removal of the 'Interim' from SHRM's now CEO Hank Jackson's title. Hank gave a decent enough review of SHRM's opportunities and challenges going forward, strikes an impressive prescence and command on the stage, and generally seems to be the kind of guy that people want to follow and rally around. He talked mostly about SHRM stuff to SHRM people, and even though after about 15 minutes of the SHRMy-ness, it got a little stilted, I get the reasoning and the value.

2. The Opening Part 2 - Packaging Really Matters

The opening 'keynote' was from Virgin CEO Sir Richard Branson. I put keynote in the dreaded 'air quotes' because Branson did not deliver a speech or talk of any sort, rather he simply sat down for a 45 minute of so Q&A session interspersed with several Virgin companies propaganda inspirational videos. Branson is a legend, an icon known all over the world for daring, innovation, success, and a kind of legendary consuming personality. To have a person of such magnitude simply sitting down for a chat, rather than giving a talk, articulating a vision for the future, or a set of challenges for today's and tomorrow's leaders, or even telling a few of the best stories from a unique and inspiring career would have been a far superior option to use Branson, and could have created a keynote that attendees would be talking about for year.  It was an opportunity that was kind of wasted. Branson is a star for sure, but packaged up like a guest on the old Larry King show was a disappointment.

3. Vegas - Part 2

It is still hot. And I still want you to shut your trap about it. This includes me.

4. Vegas - Part 3

It is really hard to get around in this town. Cab lines are impossibly long anywhere that masses of people congregate. This problem is worsened by the situation described in Part 3 of this list that I am not allowed to mention. More planning is required to get from Point A to Point B in any reasonable amount of time that most SHRM-weary attendees are ready to muster after a long day of speeches, Expo Hall swag, and free cocktails. If you want to get somewhere at night, better start planning this morning.

5 Parties and Scarcity

Last night saw the first 'must-attend' after-hours event of the conference, the TLNT.com party held over at the Palazzo resort. What was planned as a little gathering of about 100-150 people soon turned into a (depending on who is doing the talking), a 700-900 RSVPed oversold, capacity challenged, long line to try and get into happening. Throughout the day whispers of 'Are you coming to TLNT? You better get there early...' were overhead in the Expo Hall.  My group (about 10 or so) managed to subvert a ridiculous cab line at the LV Conference Center (see Item 3), by securing an on-the-spot party bus, (nice work Robin Schooling), to shuttle us over to the TLNT event. We then cut the line, (sorry), and made it to the event only a few minutes late.  It was a fun time, made more fun I think by the fact that we had been hearing all day that if we didn't get over there on time (or early), we would not have made it in. This (sort of fake) scarcity elevated a normal conference social happy hour into more of an 'event' that was not to be missed. Nice work TLNT, StarrTincup, and everyone else involved.

That's it for me from Day 1 - I spent most of my Expo Hall time in the Dice.com booth, so I don't have a swag report to offer, but I hope to make some rounds today, and hopefully catch a session or two. If you are at the event, please do come by the Dice Booth #2616 to say hello.

Notes from #SHRM11 - Day 0.5

The two most uneventful blocks of time at a major conference are the first half-day or so before the event properly begins in earnest, usually with a flashy, exciting, get the crowd pumped up opening keynote by someone famous; and the last half-day where a slightly less flashy, exciting but not quite so exciting and not quite as relevant or famous as the opener, and meant to help wind down (what's left of) the crowd winds down the proceedings.Maren Hogan loves HR

I'm sitting in the SHRM National Conference & Exposition Press Room, with maybe 2 or 3 other folks, in the former time block I just described, it is about 4 hours or so until Sir Richard Branson's opening keynote gets the conference officially launched.  Now there are a number of pre-conference sessions and workshops going on prior to the opening keynote, but certainly the vast majority of attendees see the keynote, and the subsequent opening of the Expo floor as the start of the three-day swag-a-palooza.

So without much real content or news to mention, I'll just toss out a set of random notes and observations from #SHRM11 - Day 0.5 (before anything significant has actually happened).

Travel - man air travel in the US in the summer is a nightmare. Five hour delay yesterday, followed by three separate flights to get to Vegas only to find my room in the Las Vegas Hilton was essentially flooded from a leak in the A/C unit. At midnight last night that was not fun.

Vegas - It's hot. Stop talking about it. And stop with the 'What happens in Vegas goes on Twitter/Facebook' jokes. They stopped being funny in abour 2008.

Facilities - You know the 'wear comfortable shoes' advice you were given about SHRM? I hope you followed it. The LV Conference Center is a massive place. There seems to be lots of excellent wifi coverage here, in fact most of the wifi hotspot hubs have been crowded with people eating donuts, drinking coffee, and essentially doing all kinds of things you don't need wifi for.

Gambling - I love sports. I sort of like gambling on sports. But in the dead of summer, there really isn't much in the way of sports to bet on. Matt Stollak just told me he took the over at +8 on the Brewers - Twins game. I think I may find an MLS Game to bet on.  Does David Beckham still play in the league?  

Swag - Haven't seen much of the swag yet. Lots of printed materials for sure. And SHRM has set up some nice donation boxes for attendees to drop off unwanted swag items to donate to charity. I am not sure what kinds of charities are really interested in back issues of HR Magazine.  But still, it might better than getting another gross of 'Miami Heat - 2011 NBA Champions' hats. And it does seem like every vendor is giving away iPads this year. My sense is that none of them will be dropped in the charity box.

So that's it from Day 0.5, check back soon for more dispatches from the front.