If you read this blog you know that I’ve attended the SHRM National Conference for years. There is also one other conference – The HR Technology Conference – that I haven’t missed for the last 4 years, and now that my friend, Steve ‘The Call Him Mr. HR Tech’ Boese, is running the show – I doubt highly I’ll miss again! I love attending The HR Tech conference for a number of reasons that are different from why I like attending SHRM – but I think both should be on the list of every serious HR Pro. If you can only attend one – might I recommend every other year between the two.
Here’s why I attend The HR Tech Conference:
1. HR Technology Smarts! (Duh! Right. But listen, great HR Tech knowledge is the one way Trench HR Pros can separate themselves from the pack! Want to move far in your HR Career – this is a must have competency for the now and for the future. HR Tech does something better than most in that most of the speakers I’ve seen are like you and me – they actually work in HR.)
2. The Crowd! (The HR Tech Conference pulls in a completely different crowd than SHRM. I love the SHRM crowd – I feel one with the Trench HR Pros who go. HR Tech is filled with HR decision makers! You know the ones who can say yes to buying hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, of cool HR tools. Plus, some really smart HR pros who think about HR differently.)
3. The HR Vendors. (Any company in the HR space trying to make a name for themselves is there. I first met HireVue at HR Tech 3 years ago in some back little booth with nobody around – and thought – ‘Holy shit! This is the future of interviewing’ – they a bit bigger now! At HR Tech you actually get to see the future of HR before anyone else. It’s like going to the annual Car Shows and seeing the concept vehicles! How we work in HR will be different 5 years from now – want to know how – attend and find out!)
The 2013 HR Technology Conference will also be the last for the ‘Godfather of HR Tech’, Bill Kutik (that’s Bill in the picture above!), as he passes on the torch to aforementioned, Steve Boese. That is one final reason I’m attending. Bill has had a huge impact on HR Technology in his tenure and that should be celebrated.
Here’s one reason you should attend – the gang at HR Tech (because I blog a bunch and they think I’m influential – jikes on them!) has given me a special discount code ‘SACKETT’ – which saves you $500 of the price of the conference. Sign up HERE!
Besides the $500 – I’ll let you buy me a drink or take me to a cool Las Vegas show! Your choice!
Madness and brilliance… a winning combination! Thanks Bill, I did get it working after all – I thought you needed to enter it on the first page of registration, but it’s actually a few pages in. It seems I might have madness only, with no corresponding brilliance.
I haven’t been to HR Tech before, but in the 5 or so years since I first heard about it, I have only heard the best things said. And with the changing of the guard this year, how could I resist attending for the first time? I’m hoping for the distinction of the farthest-travelling delegate, I’ll be travelling a bit over 8000 miles from Melbourne Australia.
Looking forward to seeing you there Bill, Steve, and Tim.
I don’t drink, but your code does work so long as you don’t watch our ancient German reg software grind away and just keep your eye on the prize: $1,395 or $500 off at the end.
Just found that the Dahlias surround me above are the state flower of CA! I love them cause they look in real life like the flowers Van Gogh painted in his madness and brilliance.
Explains a lot!
Tim, you talked me into it… But I can’t get the discount code to work. Any tips?
Ha – if it gets too out of control, we will have to make it a sponsorship opportunity!
I will buy the first round for anyone at HR Tech than tells me ‘Tim Sackett sent me!’
You’ve just given me something fun to do now Steve! Create the largest bar bill in Vegas history for you to pay!