PROBLEM:

Most major recruiting conventions aren't for regular, workaday recruiters like US.

I've been to a few major recruiting conventions (and was even a panelist at one), but not many. Most of the people there seemed to be mainly senior corporate, staffing and recruiting professionals, aka, THE PEOPLE WHO CREATE AND OVERSEE THE PROBLEMS THAT WE IN RECRUITING AND HAVE TO SOLVE. Their companies paid thousands of dollars (if you include travel and accommodations) to be told (I would guess) nice, comforting things about how well they were doing, aka, *just what they wanted to hear" and probably making the attendees feel they could actually do something useful, when (I think) very little would change at the company after the con. It didn't seem like there were plain-old corporate recruiters like me. Thus, those of us who (theoretically) could most benefit from relevant, useful information weren't attending it.

SOLUTIONS:

1) Do you think that many of the high-level staffing head attendees of them had done, considered, or perhaps even advocated at the con the following alternative action: Spend a small fraction of what it cost to go to a major co on an off-site, off-work hours meeting with food and drinks provided for the PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY DO THE RECRUITING WORK. There, they'd ask US how to improve our jobs, would implement what we needed, and would fight for it against the opposition that would very likely arise. What's rarely considered is that after a few weeks working, the most junior "newbie" scheduler, sourcer, recruiter, whatever knows more how to improve their own job than the most experienced self-proclaimed "Recruiting Thought Leader," SVP of Staffing, or CEO will EVER know, just as those people know more how to improve their own jobs than anyone else ever will.

2) Set up lots of small, local, low-cost/free conferences or unconferences where real problem-solvers (US) can closely interact with real recruiters (also US) to solve real problems. DISCLAIMER: I've helped set up in some of these and have moderated a couple of tracks in them.

Cheers,

Keith

*Would you pay thousands of dollars to hear how you were falling short, were perpetuating and adding to a bloatocracy with titles like "Culture Manager" etc.? I wouldn't.