Chicago, Shootouts and Stelzner: HR Tech 2009

When it’s trade show season, the questions approaching the registration deadlines start to get interesting. The typical dialogue includes: “Who’s attending this year?”; “Will the vendors actually have something new to say instead of the same old story?”; “Do you think buyers will attend given the downturn?”; and “Are you covering the event?”

The answer to all of the above is “Yes!” From September 30th to October 2nd, yours truly will be live and in person at the 12th Annual HR Technology Conference. Ringmaster (and industry eye-poker) Bill Kutik will be hosting the event at Chicago’s McCormick Place. As a former Chicago resident, I’m looking forward to getting back to my Midwestern roots and hanging with some of the best and brightest in the space. And if you like a little drama, you can watch Plateau and Salary.com go toe-to-toe against SAP and Lawson in the Talent Management Shootout. Although I don’t like the term Talent Management, I’ll still go for the sheer thrill of application engineers and consultants running like headless chickens across the carpeted expo floor. Good times!

And if you liked my coverage of SHRM 2009, you can rest assured that I’ll be blogging and tweeting live from the venue. However, I’d prefer it if you joined me live. So take advantage of the super special secret Inflexion reader uber discount of $470 off the standard price. That’s a pretty hefty cut so you can’t blame your lack of attendance on the recession. To cash in, just go to the conference registration page and enter “INFLEXION09″ in the promotion code field. Very simple.

I hope to see you there! In the interim, be sure to let me know which of the agenda items you’re most interested in by posting a comment here. And if you do make it, please email me and we’ll set up a time to chat over pizza and a beer. Have a terrific week everyone and let’s keep the conversation going.