SHRM Social Media Crowd Makes Up 1.57% of Conference

I am starting to get excited about an upcoming trip. I will be attending the SHRM Leadership Conference. This is an annual conference put on by the mothership in Arlington, VA.

I am excited because as I don't get to attend a lot of events as my Company does not have a huge unlimited conference/travel budget. So the times I get to travel and attend conferences are usually fulfilling, enlightening as well as invigorating. I have attended this conference in previous years. It sounds like the numbers are down for this year. The current count is 700. In previous years that I’ve attended it has hit 1300 or so.

So, one of the things that is fun about conferences for me is this; I enjoy getting to visit with my social media/twitter friends. Most of us look forward to meeting in IRL. Those of us who communicate on twitter/Facebook/Linkedin/Youtube etc. really get a kick out of this. It’s like meeting a pen pal, or long lost friend, or telephone business associate.

Now I have been one of the folks out front trying to promote this event, mainly because I am happy to be an attendee. Myself and fellow tweeter akabruno have worked to try and bring people together, those who will be attending. We (the social media enthusiast/SHRM members) have also been supported by Curtis Midkiff, and we appreciate all that he has done and is doing for us.

I have been working on keeping a list of my fellow tweeps who will be attending, and while I know that I do not have them all of the twitter crowd, so farI have 12 people on my list. So being the math wizard that I am that tells me our active tweeters currently comprise a whopping 1.57% of the attendees (ouch!).I thought the New Media tweeps were more of a force. Contact me if you are attending and I will add you to the list.

No matter, I will see  all 12 of you at the Friday night tweet-up – thanks for supporting us Curtis!





Uploaded Pictures from previous SHRM - related Tweet-Ups



SHRM 10 Overview From Incoming State Director Donna Rogers

Recently, I was speaking with our incoming State Director Donna Rogers, and she shared with me a presentation she had done for some of her peers at the University of Illinois in Springfield.  Donna shared with them her big takeaways from the SHRM National Convention in San Diego earlier this year.

I asked Donna if she would share it with the world and post it on our Illinois State Council Blog site.  She has graciously agreed, so here you go...

Top 10 Take Away's From SHRM10: An Education, HR, & Management Perspective

View more presentations from Donna Skowronski.

The Conference - Why do You Attend?

The Welcome at theDrury Lane for the Illinois 2010 SHRM Conference

The Conference – most of us like attending them, whether they are directly related to what we are doing, indirectly related or not at all related to our daily job. Sometimes you will attend a conference for something that is not your job, whether for a volunteer activity, or some pursuit other than your job. Nonetheless, most people that I talk with seem to enjoy attending. In attempting to create a better conference experience for the attendee, I am curious as to what it is that people enjoy the most about “the conference”.

• Is it simply getting out of the office or traveling to some exotic location?
• Is it the learning that is supposed to take place at the event?
• Is it the social aspects i.e. networking?
• Is it presenting and having an audience?

I know that there are more reasons than this to attend a conference and I know that we don’t always attend each conference for the same reason, but I think there is an underlying reason for each of us as to why we like attending.

I ask the question because I want to learn this so that we may incorporate that into our Illinois SHRM State Conference strategy for next year. We will be making some announcements about the 2011 IL SHRM Conference in November.

So if you dare--- leave a comment and tell me what trips your trigger about attending conferences?