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Minnesota HR TECH EXPO February 23, 2011 RecapEXPO 2011 Theme: “Head in the Cloud…Feet on the Ground”Posted by LEHRN Member - Claire Edmondson (claire@edmondsondesign.com)
EXPO OverviewWhat makes for a successful HR TECH EXPO year over year? It’s the high quality of the speakers, the variety of the vendors, the generosity of the Sponsors, and what we each bring and take-away from the event. Chief among the take-aways is the value of face-to-face networking and new connections made among the attendees. The 2011 Minnesota HR TECH EXPO shined on almost all fronts. 180 attendees and 100 vendor representatives came to the event last week at the Earle Brown Center. Much learning and fun was had along the way. The event has grown in each of the three years it has been produced. I am not certain, but I imagine that there are few, or maybe no other regions in the country that assemble a HR/HCM technology event of this magnitude. The EXPO is a significant investment for vendors - vendors have to supply considerable time and resources to attend the EXPO. The appearance of the exhibitor booths and of the exposition hall overall showed the effort that was invested. The EXPO is high value for participants – it delivers access to vendors and provides hours of leading edge educational content. And the EXPO is important for our region – the event demonstrates to vendors that our HR community is progressive about driving business outcomes, and knowledgeable about product evaluation and vendor evaluation. We all benefit when vendors want to compete in our region. We get more product choices, better product pricing, better customer service, and a better flow of information when vendors see that our region is highly networked and market savvy. I need to mention this series of EXPO events is produced on a not-for-profit basis and is staffed principally by volunteer leaders and committee members. There is good reason to want the Minnesota HR TECH EXPO to be an even bigger and better event in 2012. EXPO Morning RecapThe morning kick off was a far sighted but pragmatic keynote address from futurist Dr. George Kubik from Anticipatory Futures Group. George was tasked with framing the “Head-in-the-Cloud” portion of the conference theme. His focus emphasized the talent expectations of and on our future workforce. The reality is this: we are competing with everyone and everywhere around the globe for our jobs. The demand for education will continue to increase as we move from rural to urban areas. With information doubling every 10 years, what can be automated, will be. You’ll need workers who are forward-thinking, fast, agile, resilient and competent to embrace constant and rapid changes. Dr. Kubik outlined a new set of “group” competencies vs. individual KSA’s for the future. We hope to see Dr. Kubik at future LEHRN meetings where we he is invited to offer regular insights on we can learn to be more “future proof” HR professionals.
Among the eight presentations during the morning Edutrack sessions, three drew the larger audiences: Deluxe Corp speaking on “Effective use of Social Media, Oracle speaking on “Measuring the Value of Your Human Capital”, and The Newman Group’s “Innovation in Talent Management Technology”. EXPO Afternoon RecapAfter an “American Bistro” themed lunch, Steve Goldberg from Bersin & Associates delivered the second keynote address which framed the second element of the conference theme – “Feet-on-the-Ground.” Steve’s slides and observations focused on the most recent advances in HR tools and technology. His keynote hour ended too quickly and many participants joined Steve for a second hour of idea sharing and Q&A in his Edutrack session. A favorite slide in his deck was the his new definition for HR ERP, which Steve says should be every HR professional’s new mantra: Engagement-Retention-Productivity (reinforcing the importance of measuring success by business impact).. Evaluation – EXPO Business ValueA survey will be issued to all participants and to all exhibitors. Your ideas to improve the EXPO in 2012 will be solicited in the survey. Your ideas and are also welcome anytime during the year – email to lehrn@msn.com. I will jump the formal evaluation and offer my observation that most participants appear to find high value in the dense educational content offered at the EXPO. Participants also value access to vendors who are already their partners and connecting with vendors that may be in near-future selection processes. The vendor/exhibitor evaluations will likely be mixed. Vendor invest their time and money into the EXPO event hoping for real prospects to emerge from the crowd. Brand awareness and name recognition are good outcomes for an exhibitor, but real prospects are the real value-makers for exhibitors. We all benefit if both participants and vendors can report great content, great networking, and great business development after attending the EXPO. That should be the goal of the 2012 HR TECH EXPO. Your comments and ideas are appreciated. Recap Wrap-upBy the end of the day, many personal and business relationships had been established and/or reinforced. A number of generous prizes, donated by vendors, had been awarded. A special thank you to Ben Bush, Social Media Strategist at Deluxe Corp, for devising the first-ever LEHRN Facebook contest - which I entered and WON. The contest winner received free admission to the EXPO; however, as I was already a LEHRN member and EXPO volunteer, I passed the free admission on to a colleague. Now after attending the EXPO, she has decided to become a member of LEHRN! Well, that about covers the day. I am inspired to come back to learn and share with others. I definitely see more HCM imagination and collaboration in my future. Thank you to the LEHRN Board of Directors and to the LEHRN EXPO Committees.
EXPO Edutrack Presentation DownloadsEXPO Edutrack presentations are available for download. Members and Non-members must log in to view the "EXPO Edutrack Presentations" choice under HR TECH EXPO tab in the menu bar. Your email address is your login. See you on Leap Day, February 29th for EXPO 2012. |
