I finally managed to attend one of Sumser's Recruiting Roadshow - and I'm glad I went. With great speakers presenting there was no shortage on good information to review - although this, in my opinion, wasn't the real win of the event.

The feel of the event was very much UNlike your typical conference. The focus was truly local and had more of a 'town hall' vibe. It would seem that John Sumser has tapped into a good niche in terms of how to interact with recruiters that might simply be used to filing in and filing out of most PowerPoint slideshows after writing a check for $1,000. Of course that's the other thing - the event was free.

The Recruiting Roadshow can pull off the 'free' trick courtesy of great sponsors like Arbita, RecruitingBlogs.com, TalentMaze and zoominfo. And in staying with that town hall feel, anyone would have been hard pressed to find a sponsor or vendor soliciting their services. It was subtle - and appreciated.

Sumser kicked off the event with a fun networking exercise followed by "Spiky and Flat" - his overview of some ongoing multigenerational issues and geographic shifts in the workforce.

Following John was Jeff Kay - President & Chief Executive Officer of Kaye/Bassman International and Next Level Recruiting Training with some fun videos highlighting his insites about Next Level Strategies for creating a Next Level Workplace. Sadly, my video batteries konked out while he was speaking and I wasn't able to grab some of the more engaging content of the event. If you've a chance to watch Jeff speak, I'd highly recommend it.

Hank Stringer spoke about the elements of excellence in search relationships with an interactive presentation. His experience in the industry and current role as CEO of Q Talent Partners ensured a strong body of knowledge that was complimented by great presenting skills and an off-beat sense of humor.

Always a favorite was Dennis Smith of WirelessJobs.com who wrapped up the event by speaking about social media. As dialed in as anyone in the industry, Dennis did a great job getting a fair bit of information into smaller bits and anecdotes that the attendees could digest. One of the harder items to present on is often social media due to how quickly it moves and based on just how much there really is - it's truly an art if your audience can walk away eager to try at least 3 of the new things you've shared.

My favorite part of the event? Getting to meet some of the people behind the avatars at RecruitingBlogs.com. It is always great to sync up in real life with those you've chatted, tweeted, or emailed for weeks or months on end. Nothing beats the real interaction with some of the RBC community's great contributors. If you're a recruiter and you still haven't made the trip over to RecruitingBlogs.com, you're really missing out.

Here's a quick video with some highlights of the various presentations - and some rambling of RecruiterGuy on the way home from the event. My recommendation? If you've the chance to attend one of Sumser's Roadshows... Do it. You'll more than likely enjoy the change of pace and that 'hometown' approach while still getting great content thrown your way.


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