Are You Riding the Train?

As an HR professional, I have a question for you, “How often do you ride the train?” This was a phrase shared with me recently at a Vendor Fair. From time to time, my employer is called upon to present/display/participate (pick your verb) at events put on by our customers. This task usually falls within the purview of the sales department. Occasionally, I will tag along to one of these events, just to see what is really happening in the sales world and how our organizations is perceived by our customers.

I feel that it is very important that everyone gets out of the office and the entire HR domain to see what it is your organization actually does. If you are in retail, you might spend some time talking with customers out on the sales floor and see how they view your business and how your employees interact with customers – first hand. Perhaps, if you are in medicine you might visit the surgical suites or waiting room to see what’s going on around the place?

So, back in my recent visit into the real world, I was speaking with a sales manager who was sharing with me his view on how sales managers often fail. He explained that they get caught up in the numbers and office politics and stop spending time out in the field with their sales representatives. He said that they begin to lose touch with the “real world.” He then said they don’t spend any time riding the train.

Now, you can use the analogy however you like, but the concept is simple – get out find out what’s going on. Are you riding the train often enough?

HR Florida 2010 - If You Can't Go - Follow the Conference via On line Resources

The SHRM State conferences continue and the HR Florida extravaganza is looming on the horizon, beginning on August 30. While everyone is welcome to read this post, consider this for all of the non-Florida residents, and those that are relatively new to the social media scene. If you have an HR Twitter friend who is new to social media, twitter, blogs, ect. send them a link to this post.

With the leadership of John Jorgensen  the Illinois State Council brought social media to the forefront, of state conferences this year, coming on the heels of the SHRM National Conference in San Diego. While Illinois did a great job, the upcoming Florida event is something I would encourage all of you to follow, this year and even consider attending next year (that is this blogger’s plan). They will be using the Hashtag #HRFL10 to catalogue tweets. So if you search for that hashtag (#) you will be able to see most of the tweets coming from the event.

There are many reasons that you should look at this event. First, they have more than 1200 attendees already signed up (the number is probably greater before it is all said and done). According to Florida State Council’s Social media director Steve MG Harrison he has said that they have several hundred active twitter users, which means there will be a lot of tweeting coming from the event.

Florida is home to blogger Mike VanDervort . Mike will be in attendance and giving his insight into the events. Mike was in attendance at the Illinois State Council’s state conference (and did an excellent job covering the event). He recently told me that he has made nearly 1000 blog posts to his site.

Our home state blogger Trish McFarlane  will be attendance too and will be tweeting and blogging. Trish too was in attendance at the Illinois State Council’s state conference (and did an excellent job covering the event).

Florida will be hosting a MONSTER tweet up on Monday evening. Monster’s main man Eric Winegardner  will be there and coordinating the tweet up. – Sorry I am missing this event and the tweet stream should be “interesting.”

SHRM National’s Social Media director Curtiss Midkiff  will be in Florida helping to promote and cover the event. Curtiss was at ILSHRM and provided us with some great assistance and entertainment.

The Recently launched Voice of HR  a new business venture of Mark Stelzner and Laurie Ruettimann  will be on-site and helping to promote the event via social media. This will be their inaugural event under this banner, and it should be most interesting.

China Miner Gorman  former COO of SHRM will be in attendance and one of the Keynote presenters at the event. No doubt she will be tweeting and blogging  about the event as well. China was NOT at ILSHRM10, but we will soon get her committed to attend in 2011.

Another one of this sites blogger favorites is Jessica Miller-Merrell. She is the author of http://www.blogggin4jobs.com/. She will be at HR Florida. Jessica will be presenting at the event. Her program is entitled HR is the new PR.  I am sure Jessica will generate some great blog posts and a multitude of tweets, just like she did at SHRM National this year.

Host of HRHappy Hour  and internet radio sensation Steve Boese will be at HR Florida and I believe I heard him say there will be two live broadcast coming from the event. Check the HR Happy Hour site to confirm live broadcast dates and times.

If you follow the HR stream on twitter there is another name you might recognize – Bill Boorman  – the founder of TruEvents. Bill is from the U,K, and he too will be in attendance at HR Florida and probably posting on his blog.

UPDATE 8/23 Now add to your blogger roster... Jennifer Mc Clure http://twitter.com/CincyRecruiter/. Jennifer is in the people business and blogs at another one of ILSHRM blog favorites Unbridled Talent.

It is not my intention to slight anyone, I am sure I have left out others who will be at HRFL10, so I will apologize here. There are going to be a lot of the leaders in social media there, lots of tweeting and blogging going on so if you are not going to get to go, you can still participate actively via cyberspace. I would encourage all of you to check in this event. It will be a behemoth

Enjoy and good luck to all of our SHRM Friends in Florida!