“To be honest, I am here for the free drinks”, a gentleman I befriended at a recent HR conference quipped.

Attendees’ indifference aside, the case for physically attending a conference seems to diminish by the day. New technologies driving the adoption of virtual conferences are improving by the day; free webinars are a dime a dozen.  Besides, content presented at most conferences is eventually available for free. Wait a month or two and you can view most of the material presented at TED. New forms of meeting are also emerging. Many swear by the unconference style and Tweetups that are a product of our age. Indeed, conferences are changing rapidly, in content, form and the value they offer.  Read more...

Notes from the AHRI national convention (15-16 June).

Colourful industry: Our industry is much larger, varied and colourful than I imagined. Every conceivable workforce issue or process is addressed by one or more solution providers. Have you heard of Wise? Staffed mostly by ex-federal police members, they investigate and eliminate workplace bullying. NIDA, employing famous actors, brings a performance art approach to corporate training. ECE International provide remuneration solutions exclusively for Australian expats. Autopia will plant 17 trees for every new vehicle bought in a salary packaging deal. GraduateOpportunites offer all you can eat statistics on graduates. Loyalty programmes, reward management, training houses, recruitment firms, job boards, talent management software, payroll solutions, the list goes on and on. The ingenuity on show was impressive.  Read more...

A year ago, this day, Destination Talent blog was born. Since then I have posted 180 times (My first post). Through this blog, I have met new friends, learnt new things, found new clients and gained so much.

If you are standing on the edge, contemplating whether blogging is for you. My advice – take the leap. Our industry need more voices; we need new stories.

Meanwhile, thanks for reading and listening to what I have to say, and for your precious time. It is a privilege.

image: Don solo

The AHRI national convention officially opened last night.  If Sunday night’s turnout was any indicator, the event promises to be popular. Close to 100 vendors signed up to display their wares. I plan on meeting everyone, over the course of the next two days. I’ve already had good conversations with a couple of technology players, education providers and HR professionals. Lots to report. The main event starts today. Follow my tweets here (dependent on Wifi access).  A few pictures from last night.

Last night, I attended an excellent event organised by University of Sydney on the theme of ‘Global Talent Search & Challenge’.  Overall, for me, two things stood out. First, while everyone else is preoccupied with short-term issues related to the downturn, in the long-term Australia face major workforce challenges, many dictated by global forces. Secondly, the movement of talent across national borders is happening with gusto.  Read more...

Report from the trenches, day two at the ATC. As the adage goes – day 1 was a cake, day 2 the icing. A really fruitful day, highlights as follows:  Read more...

Here’s a quick summary of the first day at ATC

First the bad news, Hilton conference rooms do not have wifi, which is a big shocker. I couldn’t tweet nor blog. Like most conferences, ATC delivered an ample supply of ‘PowerPoint Poisoning ’ moments. More than once, competent and respected thought leaders in our industry were let down by PowerPoint mistakes. Some of the presentations were unreadable….. massive amount of data cramped in one slide, endless bullets points, hardly any visual images, different fonts, Microsoft cliparts….the crime goes on and on. Knowledge is one thing, telling stories is another.  Read more...

Tomorrow I am attending the Australasian Talent Conference. Trevor Vas and his team has done a great job in organising the event given the general state of the economy, and how badly our industry has been affected.

Here’s the treat awaiting attendees. I am particularly excited to listen to the likes of Gerry Crispin, Dr John Sullivan and Kevin Wheeler who are all giants in our industry.  Read more...

Now in its third year, and boasting a speakers list which includes some of the recruitment industry’s leading thinkers and practitioners, the Australasian Talent Conference (ATC) is arguably the premier HR event (which focuses primarily on ‘talent’ ) in Australia. I spoke to Trevor Vas, Executive Director of HCMS and co-founder of the conference, about the ATC’s origins, its aim, line up of speakers and the theme for this year’s conference.  Read more...