Please whatever you do, do not pay for a ticket to Linkedin Talent Connect #ever

This year was the first I was fortunate enough to attend Linkedin's Talent Connect last week in Sydney (Last year I requested to go along as all my peers were invited, but as I was in agency at the time they told me the content would not be 'relevant' to an agency recruiter...)

Luckily for me I got to see a few friends and network a little, but the rest of the time was pretty ehhh. I learned more (not really) about using a product my company has already bought. I was perplexed to see members of the audience frantically scribbling when the Linkedin staff glossed over 'tips' for moving your recruitment from reactive to proactive (use tags and statuses in Linkedin recruiter of course!)

Naturally I'm wondering what else anyone got out of it? If you have been at the last spate of Linkedin Talent Connect's - reply and let me know what your major take-aways' were!

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Permalink Reply by Linda Ferrante on May 5, 2014 at 8:29am

I attended a similar event and they almost didn't let me in because we ARE an agency recruiter! They actually pulled me aside when I was in the check in line, because the word 'Staffing' is in our company name. They said it wouldn't be appropriate for me since their product would basically replace me in the workforce.

They have such HIGH opinions of what they think their software can do, but what they fail to realize is that recruiters, NOT software, actually make worthwhile connections.

I ended up sitting in on the seminar, but it was a fight to get to stay. After awhile, it became out of principle and not because I really wanted to stay! It wasn't that informative, in fact, at one point they asked a participant for his success story and the guy said because of the program he no longer has a use for third party recruiters. Sitting at my table were 6 third party recruiters who recruit on ONLY openings for his company. So, how valuable, reliable or trustworthy was that info?!

Taken with a grain of salt, LI is just trying to make money, same as everyone else. I just don't necessarily agree with their methods. :)

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Permalink Reply by Matt Charney on May 5, 2014 at 9:26am

I've always wondered how companies get away with charging for user conferences. At one vendor I worked, their blow-out cost their members, who were paying an average of around 750k/year for access to their services, $1200 a person to attend, not to mention the T&E to get to a relatively isolated 5 star resort. I get wanting to learn about the best ways to maximize investments in your HR Tech product as well as share best practices & tips with a "community of practice," but charging existing enterprise clients for the privilege reeks a little of exploitation. This isn't to single LinkedIn out, and in fact, it's actually one of the best of these conferences in terms of agenda, speakers and content. It's just the whole idea that seems a bit, well, fishy.