The Little Red Hen and RecruitFest

Conference season is in session, full swing. Social Recruiting Summit at Microsoft looms on next week's horizon, along with NY's SHRM and OnRec. Several other state's SHRM conferences pepper the month - Kansas, Tennessee, Ohio, South Dakota, Pennsylvannia, Nebraska, Kentucky, Virginia, Iowa, Arkansas and South Carolina. ASHHRA, AHIMA, and NAPS and then HR Technology Conference corners the end of September into October. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Other states boasts their SHRM conferences in October and RecruitFest, as well. By the way, you won't want to miss RecruitFest - Thanks to Monster.com and RecruitingBlogs.com - this event will be fantastic! It is, after all, the original "unconference." So..., I've attended a few conferences this year and it is nice to see attendance up. Of course, it is always great to reconnect with friends, and perhaps even, former co-workers, even better, though, is the opportunity to increase the amount of knowledge that already rests in your, no doubt, very full brain.

My daughter recently reminded me of the story of the Little Red Hen. You may or may not know this story - a little hen finds a grain of wheat and decides to plant the wheat. She asks friends and neighbors who would like to help. No one says yes. Then she asks who would like to help her manage and harvest her crop. Of course, no one wants to do any work. Lastly she asks who would like to help her make the bread using the wheat that comes as a result of her harvest. Once again, avoidance of work is plentiful.

However, when the bread is complete and she asks who would like to help her eat the bread, many barnyard friends jump at the chance but she is quick to decline their assistance. As no one wanted to help in her other work, so should no one help in the consumption of the results of that work.

Being a mother, I don't really agree with the Little Red Hen's tactics. And I am sure she did not win any friends or influence people. Sometimes, you have to do the work. An "If you build it, they will come" mentally, so to speak. Ask anyone who has ever exhibited at a conference - do all the work, have all the info ready, all the giveaways in place and pray for participants / interested parties. It's a tough gig and I love it. I loved it as an Executive Recruiter exhibiting, I loved it as a corporate recruiter attending and I love it as a vendor in this fantastic space.

And guess what? I'll share my bread!

by rayannethorn

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by C. B. Stalling!! on September 13, 2010 at 8:43am

Thanks for sharing the bread....

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on September 14, 2010 at 9:43am

Here's the part of The Little Red Hen story they decided to change just before going to print.

Little Red Hen "Who wants to help me plant this single grain of wheat?"

Friends "You can handle it. We have to go to a big social farming event. We'll learn so much more there - and come back and tell you all about it."

Little Red Hen "Who want to help me take care of this single wheat plant?"

Friends "You can handle it. We're all on a blogtalk radio show talking about how to take care of wheat plants."

Little Red Hen "Who wants to help me harvest this single, tiny wheat plant?"

Friends "You can surely handle it. The only thing you've got going is that one single plant. We have a big TweetChat going on about how to get wheat plants to harvest themselves."

Little Red Hen "Who wants to help me eat this wheat?"

Friends "Would you please just shut up already? We just got back from a HUGE conference. The food was fantastic. We're all on Atkins anyway. Don't you even know who you're sharing this barnyard with?