ILSHRM Day Two

Written on Tuesday...Day one of Illinois SHRM is now behind us and it is on to day two.  While the Social Media team did it’s best to send out tweets, and Facebook some of the detail of the event never rise to the surface, except to a very few of the organizers and event planners.

Monday was a really good day.  A high-energy event with lots of knowledge being shared, people interacting with one and other and an overall positive vibe to the event.  The as the end of the day came it was time for the conference attendees to relax a bit and move away from the conference venue.  It’s social time.  This year’s we gathered at The Clubhouse in Oak Brook Center.  From the Drury Lane to The Clubhouse is about a mile or so.  Some folks chose to walk while most drove.

I would estimate that 150 people or so attended the event. While that is a nice crowd it was probably about ¼ of the people at the event. The venue was nice with plenty of room.  People were mingling and chatting with one and other as they do at these events.  Often times the alcohol lowers the inhibitions and people get out of conference mode and really get to know one and other. (We all know this.) This is networking, most of us in this space love doing this.

At our meet-up food was provided and a free drink was offered to each of the attendees. This was a nice touch as well. It may be that the enticement of one free drink is enough to get someone to attend, who might otherwise not.  So the meet up came off without a hitch, not like some dysfunctional family event that ends in a name-calling battle or fist fight – you know, like you see in the movies.

So all of this niceness took place thanks to two people.  Our after-lunch keynote speakers Laurie Reuttimann and Kris Dunn were gracious enough to sponsor the event. So what does that mean?  I was not there for the whole conversation but my understanding is it kind of went down like this.  Kris and Laurie came up with the idea to present together for the first time and to do it at ILSHRM.  ILSHRM agreed to compensate them for their efforts, just like every conference does with their keynote speakers.  Then the two of them hatched out this plan for ILSHRM to have a sponsored meet up the night of the event.  And it closes like this; why don’t you just keep half of what you were going to pay us and use that to pay for the meet-up. In my book that is pretty damn magnanimous.

   

What this means is that no one can ever accuse Laurie and Kris of being in it for the money.  They are truly giving back to their profession. From all of us at Illinois SHRM, thanks for the wonderful presentation and thanks for sponsoring the event. You two really and truly are thought leaders and are advancing the profession. We were lucky to have the two of you team up and join us for this year's event.

Please enjoy their presentation in it's entirety right here (with a special thanks to our friends at JSTN).


Kris Dunn & Lauren Ruettimann Keynote from Jonathan Sladek on Vimeo.