I’m sure many of you are looking forward to attending the Fall ERE Expo in
Washington D.C. in a couple of weeks.  For some of you, it may be the first time; for others, you may have attended before – in either case, if you are involved in recruitment, it definitely will be the place to be… 

I have had the opportunity to meet some of you at previous conferences and  hope to meet other new faces at the upcoming conference.  In case you haven’t guessed yet, I have the honor of serving as the Chairperson of the event this fall.  In my spare time, I am employed as the Director of Workforce Planning for HealthEast Care System in St Paul MN; an organization with 7,000 employees deep in the throes of recruiting and retaining a competent health care workforce.  

In the past, some of the chairmen have been Dr John Sullivan, Gerry Crispin and Jeremy Eskenazi.  While I have some pretty big shoes to fill, it’s exciting to be the first practitioner to serve in this role but I will need your help to make this an outstanding event. 

I’ve recently had the opportunity to talk with most of the speakers and have been able to see their presentations.  I know that you will come away with new information and many great ideas.  You are encouraged to ask questions of the speakers either during their presentation or as you encounter them in the exhibit hall or the hospitality hours. This is your opportunity to get as much as you can from them.   

The best advice I can give you to maximize this event is network, network, and network! Review the participants list prior to the conference and find out who you want to meet – maybe its someone in your industry, hopefully its not.  Who do you want to steal ideas from (sorry I do it all the time and adapt to my needs) – now is your chance.  Take advantage of the opportunity to meet these people and start a dialogue. 

The same holds true for the vendors.  You never know when you’re going to need some of the services that the vendors provide, so create those relationships in anticipation of this.     

I do have to steal the idea/advice from Jeremy that he offered for the spring ERE. It’s so much easier to network and meet other people if you place your name tag on your right lapel.  You shake hands with your right hand and it is then a natural movement to view a person’s nametag as you make eye contact – without looking at their midsection to see a nametag hanging from a lanyard. (Thanks, Jeremy) 

Finally, be sure to bring your credit cards or your checkbook to participate in the silent auction.  The proceeds go to the ERE Foundation which provides educational support to disadvantaged youth in the US and abroad. Some of the things you will be able to bid on are:    iPhone, iPods, Digital Camera, Telephone Sourcing Learning Series, Exec Talent in Asia Conference and more. The top bid wins the prize (I won a conference located in
Hawaii last year – not bad)….  

Take a minute and share any questions or comments that you have: what you are looking for from this conference, who would you like to meet – or what sites are you going to see in Washington.   Looking forward to meeting everyone in a couple of weeks. 

Trudy Knoepke-Campbell

ERE Conference Chairperson

Well, its just beautiful here in Southern California today, and it looks as if the weather will be just as great next week for ERExpo 2007 Spring! Things are wrapping up for us on the preparation side, and we are ready for the biggest ERExpo ever! I have been talking to a lot of the ERE community, our speakers and panelists, and our exhibitors about the Expo, and everyone seems to have lots of questions and answers on how to make the most of the event. I thought I would give you a few tidbits from my own experiences as well as what I have heard.

OVERALL TIPS

1. YOUR NAME BADGE. Ok, this, as many of you already know…is my biggest pet peeve of any conference. I know, for comfort conference organizers like to have our name badges hang on a really cool lanyard. Unfortunately, you know what happens…the lanyard hangs the name tag about halfway down our torso, and it swings and swivels as the day goes along, often, obstructing the name completely. I love to be able to know and use people’s names, but I totally feel uncomfortable scanning someone’s torso up and down to see their name. When you have to ask for someone’s name or (or worse, “where are you from?”…Ill get into that later), and they are wearing a name tag…its just so counterproductive when the person whom you asked has to lift up their name badge and show it to you!

So, here is my suggestion…if you like to network… remove the lanyard and use the clip or pin and place the name badge on your lapel or near your right shoulder. When you shake hands with people, this is the easiest place for them to look without that annoying torso scan! Please take my advice, you’ll find that it really works to your benefit.

2. DIVIDE AND CONQUER. Lots of you will come to the Expo with other members of your team. That’s great… we love to see teams participate. But, a few words of advice… don’t just roam the Expo in a pack. Heck… recruiters are supposed to be networking experts…so, network!

When you arrive in the general session, force yourself to go meet new people. Divide and conquer. If you have a team of people, instead of wandering in the pack and meeting new people together, you can multiply your networking if you split up. The same with the conference sessions: if you have more than one person going to the conference, why not maximize your investment? Split up and go to different sessions so your team can benefit.

I have heard great stories about companies who send their teams to the Expo and actually assign individual team members to attend specific sessions, and then are required to come back to the office and give a summary presentation to the team members who did not get to come. Boy, that maximizes the investment.

In the evenings and during breaks, you can go back to the pack and feed with your kin. (PS: During general sessions, I will personally roam the hall seeking out packs and trying to separate you to get you to network. We have large delegations from Safeco, Microsoft, W. L. Gore, Capital Group, American Family, Assurant, Avery Dennison, Intuit, Cargill, Taylor Made, Irvine Company, and many others… I’ll be looking out for you to break up your pack!)

3. MAXIMIZE THE EXPO HALL. The Expo hall is a really important place. Yes, there are a lot of vendors who would like to sell you something, and many of you are coming to the Expo on the hunt to buy something. That makes everyone happy. But, even better, those vendors are really great networkers too.

So, maximize your time in the Expo hall. Go with a plan. Check out the Expo hall roster, and mark out who you would like to talk to based on the descriptions and your prior knowledge, and then… go meet a few others you would not normally go talk to… especially those exhibitors you have no clue on what they do or how you could use them.

I know all too well that attendees tend to walk the exhibit hall and scan by the booths, looking for signs of “do I know them?” or “could I use that?” …if the signs are not there…they move on. Don’t do that… go up to at least a couple of exhibitors you don’t know, and ask them “what do you do?”.  Also, remember, recruiting professionals… the exhibitors are a source of great networking resources. Are you looking to hire great recruiting staff? Are you looking for referrals on a particular type of technology or tool?

Do not underestimate the power of the resources in the exhibit hall. The people who exhibit are very well networked folks. They can and will help to make referrals of candidates, tell you about tools and technologies (many of these folks have actually worked for mulitiple exhibitors at one point in their careers, so they know even about competing technologies and tools… you just have to ask).

One last thing: I like to suggest to folks that its a great idea to make initial contact with exhibitors during the breaks and meal periods when everyone goes to the hall. Its even better to go and have follow up and more comprehensive discussions with exhibitors when the hall is still open but there are sessions going on (exhibitors are less busy handing out all of their tchotchkies and are really open to having a good conversation with you without pissing off that line of attendees looking for their handouts!).

4. FOR OUR EXHIBITORS. I would like to offer a constructive criticism to all exhibitors everywhere. It has to do with treating everyone like a person. Here is what I mean. Exhibitors are notorious for “scanning” the passersby wandering the hall. What are they scanning for? They are doing that awful “torso scan” where they look for the name of the company you work for… if they get a “hit” (a well known or large company target), they will attempt to snare you into their nest. If you actually walk up to the exhibit and start a conversation, often the exhibitors will ask you “where are you from?”, as if your name and who you are are not as important as the known buying potential or marquee name of your employer.

I would suggest to exhibitors: please remember that everyone at the Expo is a person first, and a buyer second. If you connect with the person first, the buying often comes easier. I have felt loved and wanted when I worked for a big brand name company and later, when I worked for a start up or less known company, the same exhibitors wouldnt even give me the time of day. Keep it real exhibitors… treat the attendees as people first (and be careful of the “torso scan” and the call outs!)

5. THE PARTIES. Ok, so by now you may have been invited to a party or two. Thanks to exhibitors and others, the party scene in San Diego is great. So, which one do you go to and what do you get out of it (besides a lot of free food, drink, and fun!)?

Well… I would try to find out which party will offer you the best bang for your time… go to the party that will offer you the best networking. Who else will be at the party is the biggest question. If you are invited to a tech recruiting oriented party, and you are not a tech recruiting pro, then keep in mind that most of the other guests at the party might be tech recruiting pros. Did everyone on your team get an invitation to that great party that the big job board is hosting? Well, if so, cool… but remember, maybe you don’t have to travel in a pack. Split up and some of you go to that one, and some of you go to another party and meet other people. Party sponsors don’t like it when I suggest this, but heck…the best networkers and partiers I know actually hit a few parties in the same night.

6. THE SESSIONS. Finally, the last suggestion I have is regarding the actual sessions. Our speakers know that we have really pressed them on making sure that the content of their session matches what the session description says in the Expo brochure, marketing material, and in the onsite guide. But,  sometimes your expectations of what the speaker are presenting or the application of the material to your company does not match up. So,  as a speaker, I have no problem with this statement: If you come to a session, and sit in the session for a few minutes and decide “hey this is not what I expected”, then I heartily endorse the idea of politely excusing yourself and going to another session. There is nothing worse than sitting in a session feeling as if you are trapped because you don’t want to be rude. Heck, I think it is much more rude to sit in a session the whole time checking out your Blackberry, or doodling…just biding your time to get out.

So, please take my advice… if the session is not what you expected, excuse yourself and check out another one. We have so many sessions with some great speakers who have worked really hard for this Expo… I know you are bound to find something to fill your days. How politically correct of me? (Don’t forget my presentation “The Recruiters Guide to Navigating Corporate Politics” on Tuesday… as you can tell I say it like it is!).

Ok… thats it for my top 6 tidbits for you. In the meantime, I am busy working on finishing programming the pre-session music again for the Expo this year. And, like last year, I will make available the playlist since many of you asked. This year, it will be available here on this blog.

Have a great weekend, and then we’ll see you in San Diego next week. Bring lots of business cards. I personally look forward to talking to all of you.

Hello everyone! Welcome to the new ERE Expo blog!

Right now, we are hard at work producing the largest ERE Expo ever! As I look out at my schedule over the next few weeks, myself and the ERE Expo team are spending time with each and every ERE Expo presenter. We have scheduled these meetings to have the opportunity to chat with each person about what the ERE Expo audience demographics are, to share with them some background data on what our audience expects and looks for (this is based on years of reviewing the data from our past ERE Expo attendee evaluations as well as what we hear in the marketplace), and to review and learn more about their content.

The content of the presentations that our presenters will make have already been discussed months ago, but now we actually get an opportunity to review their slides and content prior to the conference. I must say, that I am very excited about what I have seen so far, and I will be continuing to provide more information over the next few weeks about what we learn from the presenters and what you can expect to see at the conference.

There are so many conference sessions, that some may be more appropriate than others for the varying needs of our attendees. Because of this, Ill make sure I keep you posted on our conversations with our presenters and Ill let you know which sessions may be best for some and not for others.

A bit about my presentation, “The Recruiters Guide to Navigating Corporate Politics”: I have been working on putting the finishing touches to this presentation which I have been working on for almost 5 years. Its based on my own experiences of working as a corporate recruiter and later as a corporate recruiting leader inside of organizations. I will share some very specific stories from my own experience on what really has been successful in navigating corporate politics, and some that, well… were failures, and you’ll be able to learn from my misteps and goofs.

In addition, throughout my travels around the world in my consulting practice, I spend a lot of time with corporate recruiting professionals and business leaders. I have gathered quite a bit of content from my interactions with hundreds of people on whats working and whats not working in navigating corporate politics from a recruiting perspective. I am very excited to share my findings with you.

I have already received dozens of emails from many ERE members who have said that they are excited about coming to San Diego for my presentation because they feel that they need to do better in managing through some of the political landscape more than any other skill. I hope to be able to meet your expectations. To those of you who are reading this blog whom I have already talked to about my research, thanks in advance for participating and sharing your (sometimes hilarious) stories with me, so I can share them with our ERE Expo audience.

There are so many other great presentations and exhibitors coming to San Diego, not to mention all of the great attendees and networking…Ill try to keep you posted on whats ahead and things to look out for. In the meantime, please keep visiting our ERE Expo blog to engage with the entire ERE Expo community. See you soon in San Diego!