Staying Connected after the Show

February 4th, 2011

Growth in Twitter participation this year at the HRPA has been spectacular. Last year when I first launched our Twitter event at HRPA 2010 we had a total of 52 Tweeps participating. Not bad given there was no official promotion, sponsors or big bad Tweet Wall. This year it looks like we will have more than tripled the number of Tweeps to 175.

But it doesn’t all end this afternoon, make sure you stay connected with all these Tweeps because we’re going to triple again next year. To facilitate this I’ve put together a HRPA 2011 Twitter list that you can follow throughout the year. Click here to follow the list.

I’ve tried to keep track and capture all participating Tweeps in this list however if I missed anyone Tweet me at @geoffclen and I’ll add you to the list.

Enjoy the rest of the show, I’ll be back with some final stats tonight.

Great show everyone!

Day 3: #HRPA2011 one Swaggy Day

February 4th, 2011

Its the final day of  the HRPA 2011 Conference.  A day of exciting prizes and surprises.  The big raffle item this year seems to be the iPad, I saw numerous exhibitors with iPad promotions.  That’s not the only cool promotions and swag to be had out there.  Checkout these cool items:

1. Monsters from Monster.ca (who wouldn’t want a Monster pet!)

2. Tigers from Ultimate Software (more cute that ferocious)

3. Crazy Jellyfish YoYo things from ICIMS (weird, ask Joannawoo she’ll demo it for you)

4. Cool digital media device stand from Carlson Marketing (using mine with my iPad)

5. Someone is monkeying around at CareerBuilder (I think he won this?)

I’m certain I’ve missed many, many great swag like items.  Snap a picture and send it to me @geoffclen.

Enjoy the day!

Day 2 and the Twitterfest Continues

February 3rd, 2011

I didn’t think it possible, but you Tweeps at #hrpa2011 really did it!  Yes, we exceeded the record set yesterday with 164 unique authors and a potential market reach of more than 53,000.

Today’s top Tweep was without a doubt @joannawoo, how does she type so fast!  Also making the top Tweep list:

@AgileDudes
@TREventsCanada
@geoffclen
@k8mcyap
@jenniferaking
@josephinemeleca

I hope everyone is looking forward to tomorrow, let’s keep up the Tweets and get the message out.

Walking the Exhibit Floor at #HRPA2011

February 3rd, 2011

Just finished walking the Exhibit floor at #HRP2011. Lots of really interesting companies offering some pretty great products.

Manage WSIB claims and training, Jordan, Clear Path, #843, #hrpa2011, #hrpa, #exhibitors

Audience response engaged training, Jeff Monger, Turning Tech, #hrpa2011, #hrpa, #exhibitors

Online health and safety training, Danielle, #634, #hrpa20ww, #hrpa, #exhibitors

Source for improv engagement and productivity, Kamilah, N-Gen, #hrpa2011, #hrpa, #exhibitors

Support employers to recruit immigrant,Triec, Valeisha Sobhee, #hrpa2011, #hrpa, #exhibitors

Boutique provider employee assistance prgms, Rob Gould, Aspiria, #hrpa2011, #hrpa, #exhibitors

Carlson employee engagement, Tori, #310 #hrpa2011, #hrpa, #exhibitor

Employee engagement solutions, Stuart, iloverewards, #hrpa2011, #hrpa, #exhibitors

Full service benefits firm, Francesca Mackie, #337, #hrpa2011, #hrpa, #exhibitors

Outplacement with a difference, Martin Kingston #142 #hrpa2011, #hrpa, #exhibitors

Just a few examples of some great companies and people. Get out and meet them all!

Cheers

Day 2 at #HRPA2011 off to a Great Start

February 3rd, 2011

Day 2 of the #hrpa2011 conference seems to be off to a great start! This morning we had 138 unique Tweeps participating in the conversation, giving us a potential market reach of 45,500!

I arrived here this morning from Mississauga, ironically the traffic was worse today than it was yesterday. Regardless, looks like a great crowd again!

The first place I migrated too once I arrived was the Great Wall of Tweets as I call it. Looks fantastic but I see @joannawoo is now the number one Tweep!

Well deserved, if you want to see pretty much everything that is going on at the show or at least all that is fit to Tweet, go to search.twitter.com and enter @joannawoo, it’s like you are actually there.

The First #HRPA2011 Conference Round Up

February 2nd, 2011

Here it is, hot off the presses, the first edition of the HRPA 2011 Conference Round Up newspaper. I’ll be publishing this show summary each morning and evening to Twitter and by email. I hope you all enjoy it.

Click here to view the paper

Day 1: A Twitterific Day at #hrpa2011

February 2nd, 2011

Well, day one at hrpa2011 is over and by the measure of Twitter it was a fantastic success.  The Twitter stats speak for themselves.  We had a total 121 unique contributors posting almost 350 tweets.  We collectively had a potential market reach of approximately 38,500 people and more than doubled our traffic from Tuesday.

The top contributors or Tweeps today were:

@AgileDudes
@TREventsCanada
@geoffclen
@joannwoo
@jenniferaking
@josephinemeleca
@katyTorg

Thanks to these seven top Tweeps but also thanks to the other 114 participants throughout the day.  You can continue to follow these stats along with our real-time Twitter feed (it really is real-time now, wahoo) on the home page of our blog. (http://www.armorpeoplelink.com/talentfindr)

Let’s blow these numbers away tomorrow!

Welcome to a Snow Covered #HRPA2011

February 2nd, 2011

Welcome to a snowy HRPA 2011, not the snowmageddon many of us feared but its still a little slowy and icy out there so be safe getting to the conference. At Talentfindr we’re getting geared up for our second year of blogging and Tweeting at the show. Once again we have our live Twitter feed for the hash tag #hrpa2011 running on the blog. This is a great way for Twitter & non-Twitter users to see what’s happening at the show minute by minute. Thanks to all my fellow Twitter participants at the show for all their great coverage.

In addition to our live Twitter feed we’ve added a few new features this year. Just below the feed you’ll see our real-time stats for the hash tag #hrpa2011. Traffic on the hash tag grew by more than 70% yesterday, we expect even more traffic today!

Some of the top Twitter influencers yesterday included:

@geoffclen
@AgileDudes
@Nadia_Issabella
@joannawoo
@BonniToronto
@jenniferaking

We are also adding a daily update of Twitter activity, blog posts and media every morning and evening beginning tonight. This update is in the form of an online Twitter driven newspaper that will be published on Twitter and by email every morning and evening. I hope everyone finds this useful, your feedback would be most appreciated.

Check back here throughout the day as we provide coverage of the event from our perspective.

Enjoy the day.

Knowing me, knowing you…! Lessons learned through ABBA!

September 10th, 2010

I had a really great client visit today and I feel compelled to tell everyone why this visit was so great! The client understood us! He understood our needs – we have them too you know!

I know what you’re thinking, it isn’t up to the client to ‘understand’ us, and you’re partly right, the majority (like 95%!) of the ‘understanding’ is obviously on us, but when we work together, we learn to understand each other.

Yah right, blah blah you say! I know, you think our industry has become just another service you turn to when you need a body, when you don’t have the tools necessary to find that right person, or possibly don’t have the time. I’m sure you even think that we are all the same. Sure we offer the same services to varying degrees, but are you and your competitor ‘the same’?

What works best for us, and ultimately for you is to treat us as an extension of your hiring needs and goals…dare I say it… a PARTNER. A hiring partner that really knows your internal culture that really digs deep and understands your frustrations, that inherently knows beyond just skill sets, what personality type and experience really works best with your already developed staff.

The client I visited today, he really understands that PARTNERSHIP mentality, and has realized that by each of us getting to know each other, we both understand how we can work well together. He understands, that finding the right people is different than just taking something off the shelf and putting it in a box, and works with us to provide useful feedback, which ultimately helps us to find him the person that suits his company’s requirements best.

So, talk to us. Get to know us. Allow us to come and visit you and really get to know your business and I really encourage you to do the same with us! Only by working to understand each others businesses and requirements can we move beyond just service and provider and work towards a real business partnership. In the end, we’ll both ‘understand’ each other better!

As Abba sang … “Knowing me, knowing you..ahaa, there ain’t nothin’ we can’t do!”

Letting Go While Resting Up

August 3rd, 2010

You are on a long awaited and much needed vacation, and your blackberry beeps; another email from a client with a question or better yet a new order. Do you respond to the message even though your out of office alert is on directing them to someone else in your absence or do you step away from your family gathered at the beach to make a call?

Studies show that more and more employees are bringing work home with them and handling business issues while on vacation. This is having tremendous effect on the family dynamic and putting unnecessary strain on relationships. These types of interruptions are taking away from the much needed rest and relaxation people yearn for. The constant disruptions prevent you from ever developing that feeling of being refreshed and rejuvenated upon your return to work. Instead your workload has doubled and the stress of having to play catch up keeps you on edge even immediately after taking time off. Vacation? What is that?

To truly enjoy your vacation there are a few things you can do in preparation for your time off.

Cross train someone to step into your place whether it is a temporary employee accessed via a recruitment firm or a co worker from another department. Take the time to ensure they are up to speed and you are confident they can handle what is thrown at them in your place.

Advise your clients that you deal with on a regular basis that you will be away and whom they can contact in your absence. This will bring your customers peace of mind knowing that they will be taken care of even if you are not there.

Be sure to turn on your out of office alert in your email, and change your voicemail to reflect your absence. The last thing you want it for a customer to say he/she has been trying to get a hold of you but you are not returning his/her calls. That just might make them pick up the phone and call your competition.

Finally sit back, relax and enjoy….

Follow me @sandragallacher