An ERE Summary

Last week I traveled across country to sunny San Diego for ERE – The Recruitment industry’s largest gathering and trade show – normally.

But we are not in normal times and that was evident at the SD Convention Center where the girth of the venue dwarfed the actual event.  It was obvious to all that our ranks have been reduced and of the 250 – 300 (estimated) attendees there was not one who wasn’t grateful to have the opportunity to attend.  That can’t be said for all the vendors as there were some empty booths and notable absences.

As the attendees passed by our booth I was sure to ask them about the sessions going on and what they thought.  For anyone who has attended an ERE, the answers won’t suprise you.  The highlights were a live feed of Kevin Costner (noted Recruiting pundit? No, investor in the company GreenJobInterview.com who sponsored the session) speaking on recruiting and someone actually qualified to do so, Vicki Perry, Director of Strategic Staffing at Avery Dennison who’s session was the buzz at lunch on Wednesday.

But the same ERE complaint was echoed by almost everyone I spoke to; too much philosophy by the same pundits and not enough real world “how to get it done” by practitioners.  I think we all have recognized this fact with the big “shows” – too many people telling you how great life could be for Recruiting if you could; (fill in the blank) get hiring managers to behave, get candidates to behave, innovate, streamline etc, etc.

I got the distinct feeling that the lucky folks who got some travel dollars and were asked to attend ERE this spring were tasked with bringing back real solutions, whether in practices or technology – go find us something that will make a difference.  They saw a couple new items in the trade show and may have heard a couple of tidbits in the sessions that ran for three days but overall, they were left wanting/needing more.

For those of you lucky enough to stumble onto some travel dollars in the fall, there is a show that is NOT in Hollywood Florida that promises to actually TEACH you something.  It is the First Annual Recruitment Learning Conference put on by Qualigence, Inc.  This is a new format designed to really teach you how to do something in your department.  You will want to check it out and attend if you can.  For more details go to www.qualigence.com .

I hope to see you in September in Chicago and am sure to see some of you in Florida again for yet another ERE mini-mega show.