My First Ever Conference!

Darling Harbour- view from Exhibition Centre


Lunch/Exhibitions: quite the spread!

Yesterday I attended my first conference: the 2010 AHRI HR Technology Conference. It was a wonderful day of listening, learning, networking, listening, learning and more networking. And eating...and drinking, of course!

Hosted at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre (Australia's largest and most premier conference venue), it was the best possible first conference experience I could have asked for. I mean, seriously. Check out those views! Not that I had much time to enjoy them. It kicked off at 9 am, with a keynote speaker who ranted about innovation for an hour. It was actually very engaging, and I must admit that "INNOVATION!" was in my head all day long. Given by Jonar Nader, it was a really great start to a technology conference and I felt that most of the audience was engaged. Everyone received a free copy of his book, Lose Friends & Infuriate Lovers, but I still have no idea how it relates to human resources or recruitment. Oh, well. If you get a copy of that book from me for Christmas, I must not like you very much or think that you need some serious relationship advice!

Morning tea followed, with coffee, muffins, etc. Delicious. I was quite impressed with the food and bev arrangements for the entire day; we were constantly fed and caffeinated thoughout the day. The food and bevs were dispersed in the exhibition room, where there were booths from various companies, mostly offering HR and recruitment software.

Networking is fun! And easy. Conversation starters weren't difficult, as everyone there had something to do with HR, recruitment or HR and recruitment technologies. Unfortunately, I didn't have a business card (I was only on day 8 of being employed at JXT!) but I had some of my manager's cards with my name, email and mobile written in. Sorta ghetto, but nobody minded. Actually, it was a great way to get to know who's who and what's what in the industry, and as soon as I said, "I'm brand new to the industry," I had business cards thrown my way with explanations of why their product or service is the BEST in the industry. Silly salespeople. I may be young, but I'm not not dumb!

Anyway, the day was filled with lectures (wait...I thought I was DONE with uni..sigh) on topics such as social collaboration tools (wikis), e-recruitment, HR Technology for mobiles and the best talk of the day (OK, so maybe I'm a LITTLE biased...): "Using social media to drive employee engagement." It was given by Michael Specht, who leads a HR technology consulting business and is extremely social media-savvy. I had the pleasure of talking with him before his presentation, and was able to secure myself a spot at his upcoming social recruitment seminar in December. I'm very exctied!

Another amazing person that I had the honour of meeting was Brad Howarth, a Sydney journalist and writer (see his most recent article on social media here). I was able to pick his brain for quite a bit on both social media and journalism, and he gave me some great pointers for developing my writing and for getting published. Great guy, and fantastic writer. He's done a lot of stuff for the Sydney Morning Herald (and Rolling Stone; how cool is that?!) and has a book coming out soon, as well (A Faster Future, on the National Broadband Network). Did I mention he was the MC for the entire conference?

As you can see, my first conference was a huge success. I spent the entire day listening and learning in lectures or walking around the exhibitions, wide-eyed and fresh, meeting as many people as I could and absorbing as much of the industry as possible.

I have to admit, though, that by 5 pm I was completely exhausted. As if wearing heels isn't enough (hey, I'm new to this whole corporate thing; gone are the days of rocking up to class in thongs and a t-shirt, and my feet aren't too happy about that), I sort of talked, smiled and introduced myself to death. Alas, the end of the conference brought cold beers and warm snacks, and everyone was grateful to relax with a bevvy and enjoy the view pictured above until 6 pm.

At the end of it all, I did manage to escape with a pile of business cards, a brain-full of information on HR, recruitment, technology and business and and a new goal. By Septemer 2011, I want to be the one at the front of the room, with my powerpoint slides and lazer beam, enlightening a room-ful of professionals on the ways in which social media can help their businesses. I know that I'm not there yet, and I know that I have a long way to go. But I'm confident that I can do it, and I've already got the support of the JXT team to help me achieve it.

All in all, my first conference was a great success!