I attended my first SHRM Annual conference in 2011. It was a pretty great experience thanks to the awesome SHRM event and social media crews, the Zappos talent team (Craig’s amazing Zappos story), as well as some of my best friends and fellow bloggers who always make this event entertaining.
Since then I have been back to SRHM as a blogger, speaker, vendor asset, or other function every year. But I always participate as a blogger regardless of my other missions. In addition to SHRM, I speak at 20-30 other conferences around the world every year. And I’ve picked up some very good tips for conference success along the way.
This year, along with covering the action on social channels and my blog, I’ll be picking up intel on the latest technical innovations and trends for my amazing talent team at CA Technologies.
A couple of weeks ago I participated in a great SHRM #Nextchat Bloggerpalooza on Twitter to get everyone ready for the event. Great ideas were shared by the smart folks who will be covering the conference this year as bloggers and press for SHRM. You can get the full recap here.
For this post I am just presenting a few of my top tips for conference attendees and vendors, in no particular order. If you haven’t attended a SHRM event before (you really should if you are in HR or recruiting), or even if you have, I think you will find these suggestions useful to connect, stand out, enjoy, and learn.
For Attendees:
A3: Talking with the vendors is always great to learn the latest tech they offer. #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A2: Wear a shirt with your face on it and your name and Twitter handle. (badges are hard to read) #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A5: Conferences are exhausting. Take your time, don’t worry about the hurry. #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A5: take good notes! Nothing more frustrating than trying to remember something you were too busy to write down. #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A2: Create your own Twitter list before you attend to keep up with your list of target peeps. #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A2: Don’t rely on your mobile phone to be social (they don’t always work great in the large crowds, and they die alot) #Nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A3: chat with colleague’s about issues they are facing (and resolving), not just “where’s the party?”. #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
For Vendors:
A4: Make friends even with those who aren’t “buying”. You never know who they might be. #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A4: Don’t do your “team dinner” with your internal team when you should be out networking with attendees. #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A4: if you can’t describe it in 15 seconds, you need to hone your pitch #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A4: Send your team out to walk the floor and take pics with people. #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A4: you should attend some sessions and sit with the regular folks #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
A4: Bring your engineers along. Most of your “sales and mktg” staff can’t answer tough questions #nextchat
— Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs) June 3, 2015
The SHRM 2015 Annual Conference and Expo is at the Las Vegas Convention Center June 28th – July 1st. The networking and learning opportunities are plentiful. The expo hall is a midway of HR technology and services vendors all vying to stand out. The entertainment and parties are always top notch. And keynote speakers this year include Coach K and Dr. Oz. I can’t wait. Hope to see you there.
Follow my coverage and connect with me on Twitter and Instagram @Fishdogs.
