ILSHRM Opening Keynote Dr. Daniel Crosby

 

The 2013 Illinois SHRM Conference was opened by Dr. Daniel Crosby.  Dan was with us in 2012 but this year we brought him back and asked him to take the big stage at the Drury Lane.  Much of his talk was based on content from his recent book "You're Not That Great" - a must read (IMO).

The presentation was quite engaging and all of the remarks I heard at the conference center and at the hotel were positive.  So in case you missed the conference or were there and would like to relive the Monday morning session, just have a look see below - and once again thanks to the most excellent folks at JSTN for providing us with the video taping of the event.



Dr. Dan Crosby Keynote from Jonathan Sladek on Vimeo.



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.

ILSHRM13 Is Here

Putting together a SHRM state conference takes a lot of planning and coordinating the efforts of a lot of people.  On Sunday evening we were getting our human capital assets staged.  Many of the IL State Council volunteers are assembled at the conference hotel here in Oak Brook.  Many of the speakers and presenter arrived today.  The social media team has arrived and is on-site.  We are ready.  There was a gathering of this eclectic mix of folks on Sunday evening. Lead by Doug Shaw below is a little snipet of our team building exerecise.

As I looked around I began to take notice of all of the different geographical areas that were represented for various activities at the Illinois SHRM State Conference.  We have people here from the following locations:  IL, WI, MO, MI, OH, NE, NC, SC, TX, AL and England.  This is a pretty geographically diverse group. This should provide some very differing views to our 560+ attendees at the conference.  We are not just selling what we are doing here in Illinois.  

We have brought in some of the up and coming stars in the world of HR conference speakers and presenters.  We also have assemble a great social media team for 2013.  ILSHRM has provided a platform for many presenters to launch their careers. This year will be no different.

You can follow our tweet stream of #ILSHRM13 or visit our Facebook page or simply Google us to see what is going on.  Hopefully we will be posting some video as well.