Comments on: HR Tech Conference – Observations & Conclusions

By: mark.stelzner

mark.stelzner — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:46:13 +0000

@Bill – We haven’t forgotten you, I promise! Just need to carve out some time for the three of us to discuss. HRevolution might just be the right venue. Thanks for the reminder Bill.

By: Bill Kutik

Bill Kutik — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:43:04 +0000

Mark, Michael and Steve. Assume you’ll all be at HRevolution, which I will unfortunately miss. Perhaps you can get your heads together there about the structure of the unstructured programming you’d like to see at HR Technology. Enjoy.

By: Steve Boese

Steve Boese — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:48:52 +0000

Great discussion. I am happy to get on a call with you Mark, and Michael and anyone else that wants to bounce some ideas around. As I said in my original comment, I really enjoyed the conference but there are always opportunities for improvement and for making it a more rich, interactive experience.

By: Naomi Bloom

Naomi Bloom — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:32:53 +0000

Can I put my two cents worth into this really excellent discussion. I love doing the “ask the expert” sessions, and I could handle more people than I did this year. I’m also open to moderating a panel. But something that might bring the house down would be to lead exhibit hall tours, taking appropriately sized groups with specific, signed-up for processes of interest, and spewing out “killer” scenarios at the booths of likely suspects. Another, way out of the box idea would be to organize groups of relevant vendor execs — just the real execs, so no marketing folks — and have them face a room full of “ask the vendor” questioners. Just thought there should be a woman’s touch to this discussion.

By: Bill Kutik

Bill Kutik — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:15:41 +0000

Thanks, guys. Three experts do not a crowd make; rather, an informal advisory board. Happy to talk at the beginning, middle or end of your collaboration. So even (gasp!) take part.

By: Michael Krupa

Michael Krupa — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:06:53 +0000

Bill – I like Mark’s suggestion. Steve, Mark and I can get together and brainstorm some ideas and then pull you into a phone conversation. I know how much you like collaborative work and the wisdom of the crowd but we will try to make this a painless as possible.

By: mark.stelzner

mark.stelzner — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:44:52 +0000

Wow! Great comments everyone. Speaking of the wisdom of crowds…

So Bill, here’s what I might suggest. Given that Mike, Steve and I do know one another (although we all met for the first time at your show), why don’t we schedule a phone discussion sometime in the coming weeks? This would give us a chance to prepare some ideas for your consideration. What do you think??

I appreciate everyone’s desire to help our market mature. Keep pushing and have a wonderful weekend.

By: Bill Kutik

Bill Kutik — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:59:38 +0000

You beat me, Mike. I didn’t get to PeopleSoft Connect until it was way bigger. And guess what? It had become the same mix of individual practitioner presentations, panels and discussion groups that we had at HR Technology. But no Analyst Panel or Shootout, of course.

Serious question: It’s one thing to attend an Expert Session moderated by Naomi Lee Bloom, as 50 people did with many others turned away. Do you and Mark and Steve (you guys know each other?) think people would be equally eager to attend a discussion with no promise of expertise beyond that of their fellow attendees?

And how does this become different (or more successful) by holding it in a room instead of table cards on stands saying “Recruiting” or whatever on the lunch tables?

All of you taught me a lot last week about social media truly enabling collaborative work. Maybe it’s just that I don’t believe in the wisdom of the crowd. Elitist pig — I know.

But seriously, how would you structure these unstructured discussions you advocate with our size crowd? I’d really like to know.

By: Michael Krupa

Michael Krupa — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:03:05 +0000

Great summary Mark. I agree with you on having more panels and with Steve on having more unconference style sessions. The best conference I ever attended was a PeopleSoft conference in the early 1990′s. There were only 400 attendees and almost all the sessions were panel or unconference style. The ability to have a conversation in a session instead of just watching some powerpoint slides was far more useful to me.

By: HR Minion

HR Minion — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:40:55 +0000

Thanks for the great coverage, and of course for coming on the HR Happy hour again! We love to have you!