Thank you...better late than never.

The 13^th Annual Illinois State SHRM Conference ended two weeks ago today (that is if I finish this in time to be posted Tuesday morning) and I am just getting around to saying thanks.  I feel bad that it is taking me so long to write this but a couple of days to decompress, answer e-mail and resume other projects went a little too long.  But it is better late than never to say:  THANK YOU!

Thank you to the staff at Drury Lane, MCS and NIU Outreach.  Even though we do pay for your services, the cooperation and customer service that you deliver far outreach our initial agreements.  It is such a pleasure working with all three of your organizations, it makes running ILSHRM almost fun….ok, it is fun.

Thank you to our exhibitors and sponsors.  Without your support, we would not be able to offer such a great conference at such an affordable price.  In return, I hope you made some great new contacts that will bring in new business that will along you remain successful until we meet again next year.

Thank you to our speakers, both concurrent and keynote.  Because of your tremendous knowledge, speaking ability and congeniality, you have allowed our attendees to obtain new, valuable information and obtain new ideas that will allow them to continue to be a success in their current jobs and to launch new and innovative programs in their work places.

Thank you to our Social Media team.  You traveled across the country, and in a few cases, country borders to help us let the HR social media world know what a great event we have in terms of content and networking.

Thank you to the ILSHRM volunteers, ISC Board members and SHRM Staff.  All of you (well, most of you) are volunteers and go way above and beyond the call of duty in making the Conference a huge success.  I must point out one person in particular.  Sabrina Baker has been my right hand person for the last two year in running this conference and I have all the faith that she will continue to make this conference evolve and grow in her two year term as Conference Director.  I could not have done it without her.

Finally, Thank you to the people we do this for, our attendees.  You are the reason we’ve done this for the last 13 years and will continue to do it into the future.  Part of SHRM’s “motto” is to Serve The Profession.  We feel one of the best ways to serve it is to provide great programming and networking that will continue to allow the HR field to grow at the rate it has over the last decade or so.  Thank you for coming and supporting us in that ideal and we hope to continue to see a lot of familiar faces next year on August 18-20, 2013 at Drury Lane for the 14^th Annual Illinois SHRM Conference. 

Even though my tenure as Conference Director is over, I will see you next year.  Wouldn’t miss it for the world.

-John Jorgensen SPHR, 2011 and 2012 ILSHRM Conference Director

Another SHRM State Conference - Interested?

The Drury Lane Theater - Home of ILSHRM.

With our own version of the SHRM State Conference (ILSHRM12) in the bag for year, I can safely now talk about, and promote other SHRM state Conferences. There are some good ones coming up here in the SHRM North Central Region. While these are not in all of our backyards, for some folks another state conference is not all that far away.

As a board member of ILSHRM I have had the good fortune to attend a few events outside the Land of Lincoln. I enjoyed them immensely.  For the most part you are almost guaranteed NOT to know anyone, so you could not craft that any better as a networking event?  It is also most interesting to see the different hot button issues in the nearby states. Interested?  Take a little virtual shopping trip below...

• Indiana SHRM      August 27-29
• Ohio SHRM           Sept 19- 21
• Iowa SHRM           Sept 26 -28
• Wisconsin SHRM  October 3 - 5
• Michigan SHRM    October 10-12
• Minnesota SHRM October 14 - 16

Catch me in Orlando

Now those are the conferences close by.  Me, I am gonna take a little different approach for attending an out of state SHRM conference.  I am headed to the Mother of all State Conferences. What's that you ask... HR FLORIDA. It has been going on for the last 50 years... well maybe not that long, but this year is rumored to be their 30th SHRM State Conference.  On my trip, I plan to investigating the roots of social media and its use at SHRM conferences.  I understand HRFlorida has helped shape this landscape, and I hope to get some details on this.   HRFlorida has also been a leader in attendance. Their conferences typically draw around 1500 attendees each year. I am hopeful to find out what they do so well, and share that.  They create this monster show every year and I want to see if first hand.

There will no doubt be a lively stream flowing out on twitter under the #HRFL12 hashtag.  I will adding to that stream, sharing what I can learn about HRFlorida and it's success.

Now if you can't make HR Florida please take a look at our neighbors in the North Central Region - they too have much to offer!

Dave Ryan - Director of Social Media ISC SHRM