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.

Size Matters

Size matters.. Bigger is Better - you have heard all of the cliches before. Well I beg to differ on these points and would toss out my own cliche ... It's Quality over Quantity! That my line and I am sticking to it!

While this is not a complaint it is simply a fact, our pre-conference registration numbers are down for 2013, and we know why.  THAT, however has not stopped or slowed all of the hard working volunteers from ILSHRM from putting together a fantastic line-up of keynote and breakout session, Along with this we have also assembled a talented team of social media folks to help us spread the news about our event, both leading up to and during the conference.

So we are getting close to go time, BUT it is still not to late for you to attend click right here to do so.

If you are sitting on the fence about attending I would like to offer some insight. Please indulge me to run down the keynote presentation line up, and give you some of my thoughts on our speakers.

Dr, Daniel Crosby - He is a real Doctor. He is a blogger.  He has done TED talks, he is an author and a father.  This guy is worth the price of admission alone (even if he won't return my phone calls.)

Laurie Ruettimann is co-presenting with Kris Dunn Mid day on Monday. In my opinion both Laurie and Kris are icons when it comes to Human Resources.  I have come to know these two through social media, while having had the opportunity to meet both of them IRL (in real life) as we say.  Laurie is an outspoken, opinionated sometimes bad girl of HR - but always entertaining and thought provoking. She is often quoted, she speaks a lot.  Kris is one of the brightest minds when it comes to HR and recruiting. He is also a prolific blogger. He is the founder of Fistful of Talent (a must read site for any HR Pro - IMO) and he has his own site The Human Capitalist. As an aside, Kris is a huge basketball fan and manages to often weave that into his thoughts and commentary about HR. If you don't believe me ask him about the eight-man rotation.

So put that Kris and Laurie formula together, stir it up, let it age a bit - and we will see how it turns outs.  If I had a grand to bet, I would go long on this presentation. I'll bet these two do a presentation that will be talked about for a year. Anyone care to bet me?

Our third Keynote presentation is from a guy that I have know for several years now. He comes from a royal humble HR background and now travels around the world country in his jet Mustang. Mr Dwane Lay is also a speaker, author, and someone who actually works in HR.  He come from a background of LEAN processes and often speaks about applying those process to HR. Dwane has also spear-headed fund-raising efforts for disadvantaged kids at SHRM 2012 in Atlanta and at SHRM 2013 in Chicago.  Dwane will no doubt bring his A+ game to Illinois SHRM.

Meanwhile, Susan Avello (ILSHRM volunteer extraordinaire) has assembled an informative collection of  videos from many of our breakout presenters as well. There are going to be some hugely memorable breakouts as well.   We will talk more about them later in the week.

So scroll back up to the top... oh never mind do it here ... to register for the conference.

I hope to see you at The Illinois SHRM 2013 Conference in Oak Brook, IL. I will be there along with many of the cool kids- you should be there too!

- Dave Ryan Director of Social Media ISC SHRM

#ILSHRM13 - You, Your Team and Your Culture, We've Got You Covered!

We have a guest post today from ...

Sabrina Baker

Sabrina Baker (@sabrinalbaker) is a certified human resource professional who spent eleven years in the corporate trenches before experiencing a layoff in 2010.  That experience drove her to start her own human resource consulting and recruiting business focused on not only helping employers, but employees too.  She is passionate about helping job seekers and in 2012 co-founded Discovering Social in an effort to help job seekers navigate this very different job market.  Sabrina serves in several volunteer roles including the current conference chair for the Illinois State Council of Human Resources

The annual ILSHRM conference is committed to providing HR practitioners, vendors and consultants across the state a chance to learn, grow and network.  Every year we spend a great deal of time focusing on how we can make the annual event something that allows attendees the opportunity to walk away with ideas to improve themselves and their work environment.

This year will be no different.

Even though ILSHRM is sharing its city with the National SHRM Conference in June, we are still planning on a full ILSHRM event in August.  On August 18-20, ILSHRM will be hosting its 13th annual state conference.  The event will be held at Drury Lane in Oakbrook, IL.

My goal as Conference Chair is to provide every attendee with a to-do list when they leave our conference.  It is my belief that after every conference one attends they walk away with one of three thoughts (or variations thereof):

"Wow that was nice, but not sure what to do with all of that info."

"Well that was a total waste of time.  Can't wait to see how many emails I have waiting."

"I learned some great things over the past couple of days and cannot wait to start implementing."

I want everyone walking away thinking that last one.  Yes our conference is nice and yes you will walk back into work with 337 emails to answer, but hopefully you will walk away with some key takeaways to help improve both you and your professional lives.

To that end, I am very pleased to announce the following keynote speakers.  We have a Doctor, a Chief Human Resource Officer, an operations-turned HR leader and a self-professed failed HR pro turned influential speaker, writer and social media pro.  Sounds like a pretty eclectic group right?

Dr. Daniel Crosby (@incblot) will be kicking us off with his motivational speech, "You're Not That Great!"  Dr. Crosby is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who helps organizations understand the intersection of minds and markets.  He has been featured in the Huffington Post, Registered Rep and Risk Management Magazine.  He was recently named as one of the 12 thinkers to watch in the world of organizational psychology and has worked with clients such as Morgan Stanley, Grant Thornton and NASA (yes NASA).

The duo of Laurie Ruettimann (@lruettimann) and Kris Dunn (@kris_dunn) will be walking us through the "9 Faces of HR".  If you have pictures of a traditional nine box grid often used in succession planning, you are on the right track.  This nine box however will have the Laurie and Kris flare added to it.

Laurie has over a decade of Human Resources experience in Fortune 500 companies.  In addition to creating Punk Rock HR which was recognized by Forbes as one of the top 100 blogs for women, she was also the co-founder of several new media start-ups including HRM Today – the first social network for HR professionals.

Kris is a VP of HR type who has led HR practices in Fortune 500s and venture capital-held startups. He works for a living, and believes that the key to great business results is to get great people, then do cool stuff to maximize their motivation, performance and effectiveness once you have them in the door.   In his own words, here are his professional stats: 3 degrees. One marriage. An SPHR that's been recertified twice. 2,000+ hires. 1,000+ fires.  In addition to his own blog, Kris founded Fistful of Talent, a multi-contributor blog which provides daily HR insights.  Kris is one of the most transparent HR pro's you can find. 

As if those weren't enough, Dwane Lay (@dwanelay) will be wrapping up our conference with "Lean Culture: The Impossible, The Possible and Living on the Difference".  Dwane is the Head of HR Process Design for Dovetail Software a leading provider of HR case management and employee request management.   He is recognized as a leading authority on the application of Lean tools and techniques in Human Resources, as well as having a wealth of experience in applying business technology to improve HR processes.  Dwane holds an MBA from Lindenwood University, as well as having earned a Six Sigma Black Belt and is a certified Senior Professional of Human Resources.

I am thrilled about this lineup.  I believe each speaker is going to allow our attendees the ability to take a good look at themselves, their teams and the culture around them and figure out ways to improve all three.

Be on the lookout for other key announcements as we continue to prepare for the ILSHRM conference.  We anticipate attendee registration to open March 1, 2013.  We are also preparing an exciting Sunday event which should allow us to help HR professionals across the state with a very specific need (cryptic I know, but can't share anything more than that right now).

Hope to see you in August,

Sabrina Baker, PHR

ILSHRM Conference Chair