I am always excited to attend these conferences as I meet great people and learn a ton of new things.
Today, at SHRM-Atlanta's conference the energy was high and so was the knowledge sharing. If you want to check out the twitter stream, follow hashtag #shrmatl11. With record attendance with over 1100 HR professionals and resource partners, the day was off to a great start. Kat Cole, President of Cinnabon gave the opening keynote. She is fantastic, and at 33, what a dynamo. Kat talked about an organizational learnng building competence, confidence and connections to the business.
I guess what impressed me most today were the great conversations that I was able to participate in. They inspire me and validate for me that the work that I do is truly important. Here are some snippets from my conversations today:
1) The economy is still a hot topic especially around Atlanta. Most individuals I spoke with whether employed or not, whether a practitioner or a vendor, seemed to be surprisingly upbeat. Even with the news media and politicians talking about a double-dip recession, I certainly didn't feel that opinion coming from today's attendees.
2) Engagement and training are still important even with tight budgets. Smart companies are paying attention to engagement because they know this economic situation will pass. And when it does, employees will have choices. Smart companies are still investing in training to increase the skills and knowledge of their employees. Leaders know that making investments now will pay off in productivity and retention increases later.
3) HR peeps are Rockstars! I had so many conversations about business issues. Not just people issues but issues involving market share, mergers and acquisitions, capacity planning, customer retention, product development and many others. I was so excited to hear my fellow HR comrades having a business discussion without mentioning the words "policy", "procedure" or hear it comes...."seat at the table."
I can't wait to see what the rest of the week brings....
A big shout out to my blogger and twitter friends...@jheineck @havrilla @mattcharney @mikehaberman @mgrindell @teelajackson @incblot @debdooken @jennyinthesouth @JenniferAMartz.