Cool Kids (HR Tech Day One)

Being at the HR Technology Conference this year is definitely a different experience this year. Last year, I knew not a single soul in the building. This was not unusual though. When I went to conferences in the past, I did what I came there to do and went on my merry way. This year I'm here on a comped ticket to the event and am excited to be back. This year I know about a dozen or so people that I can share in this experience. We've chatting about everything from the silly (tweets about pants) to the serious (impression the first day left on us). We ate meals together. We went to after-parties. We moved in small to medium sized packs. At some point, in relation to the bloggers in attendance, we were dubbed (self-dubbed since it was internally so) the "cool kids.”

The term cool kids is a bit tongue-in-cheek. We are kind of cool in our own way. We are bloggers and/or socially media savvy or adept at communicating human resources issues. We support each other. We look out for each other. But we do sort of subsist inside a bubble. And sometimes we're not able to reach beyond. The challenge is avoid becoming stale. To grow, you need to hear the good with the bad. As much as I do not want to hear it, when someone disagrees with something I write or does not like my style of grammar or stops subscribing, I take it seriously. I know it's impossible to please everyone. But it is refreshing to hear a dissenting voice.  It prevents a person from just "showing up" everyday and going through the motions.

As far as the cool kids go, I am sure there are a number of packs circulating around these three days of the conference who refer to themselves in the same way. They should. Mixing HR with technology is pretty cool. Moreover, as I mentioned in previous posts, the field of HR progresses due to the advances in technology. However, sometimes even the cool kids need a dissenting voice to say, “where is your spark today?” “Are you just going through the motions?” “Are you just "showing up" today?” After the first day of the conference, I was left with that impression.

I am sure that it was partly me. I visited four sessions yesterday even though there were only two session times. Some of the content was over-familiar to me and did not impress that it would explore enough (Social Learning). Some had components that were more technical than I desire to be (SaaS debate).

However, some was not me. The folks from Nebraska seem like nice people. Frankly though they were reading from their power point that they handed out. So everything I could learn from them about Talent Management on a state level was right there in the hand-outs. After browsing through it to see if anything was going to be covered that would set the world on fire, I booked for another session. The session on Job Boards was the best of what I attended. It had good audience engagement, it was informative, and it got my back up when a question about small-to-medium sized companies was not answered in the way that I thought should.

Overall, I am wondering how much of the presenters really put into their day. I am not suggesting that they slacked off. However, there was definitely a lack of spark yesterday and a lack of reaching beyond. Especially now traveling in a cool kid pack myself, I thought the conference would spur more conversation about the sessions. Instead, the feedback I was hearing from them lacked enthusiasm. Again, maybe it was me. The jury’s still out.

On to Day Two.