The Main Event

Amy Dilman

When I was a little girl, my parents took me to see the circus. Now if I recall, it wasn’t a Ringling Bros. event, but it had the usual characters of elephants, tigers and bears (oh my! – come on, you know you just said it too), acrobats flying through the air and clowns coming out of little cars. It could have been all too overwhelming if it wasn’t for this guy in a tall top hat and red coat, the Ringmaster. Called the Monsieur Loyal, if you prefer, he captured my attention and that of the rest of the audience by telling stories of daring feats, introducing the next great acts and essentially guiding us through the show.

Now, animals and acrobats of a different kind, but still with its share of clowns, we witness the circus every day. The one we like to call HR. Sure, why not?

Charlie accepting his ILSHRM polo from
 State Director Donna Rogers

If HR is my circus, then the Illinois SHRM State Conference is an exhilarating, awe-inspiring three-ring circus. And the admirable Charlie Judy is the ringleader of this year’s show. Who else but Charlie has the chops to guide us through this event? Charlie Judy is one of those guys that ran to the shit jobs (his words). In his first 10 years of all things HR, he moved six times, most of the time to a different state, twice to different country. See what I mean? Circus.

During that time, he admitted he never took the time to connect to a local professional organization, but he was member of SHRM and had SPHR. Charlie’s tour stopped in St. Louis in 2005, and he started to connect to the HR crowd and network during that time. Just as he was getting back into it, yep, he moved again. But thankfully for IL-SHRM, Charlie has settled in Chicago and knows the importance of community – in work and in networking. He says the local chapters provide something you just can’t get from the national conferences, nor from the social stratosphere.

Charlie was last year’s ringleader at IL-SHRM. Yeah, it was cool, but he also tells me he took the role seriously. Something about having consistency. He knows attendees are bombarded with information and so it’s nice to have a person to smooth it all out. Just like last year, Charlie hopes to get people focused on what they want to accomplish. He wants to answer the questions, “Why are we gathered here? And, what should be achieved in the next couple of days?”

The 2012 Illinois State SHRM Conference, as spoken by ringleader, Charlie, is going to grant access to some of the best minds in this business right now. Social media has allowed us to uncover some really great minds, but there will be more at IL-SHRM 2012. The speakers are making a difference every day. They are the thought-makers. They aren’t afraid to challenge you. IL-SHRM 2012 has people that are asking us to look at things differently…. I can see Charlie in a tall top hat now.

So, won’t you join us for the main event? Charlie will lead the way.

  

Charlie Judy is Founder, Writer and Editor at HR Fishbowl. You can find out more about this ringleader at  http://hrfishbowl.com. 

Amy Dillman is a contributing writer to the Il-SHRM blog and President of her localchapter, CiHRG. She recently spoke with Charlie and is looking forward to seeing him on stage at IL-SHRM 2012. You can connect with Amy on Twitter as @RhumbarFan and on LinkedIn.