Last week there was a resounding "boom!" in the space that is the overlap between social media, conferences and the recruiting industry. It came to us on the 8th and it called itself, "Recruitfest." And while it was billed to be the next in a series of 'unconferences,' I believe this wasn't the case. In fact, I believe that if this had been another event where everyone sat under a tree talking about process or around a living room beating on drums, that we as professionals would have cheated ourselves. This is not to take away from the value of the conversations and comradery from previous events, but more to point out that this was anything but a repeat occurance and that it showed there is a space in between the traditional and untraditional conference formats that could be the new winning solution.

Recruitfest pushed a dozen practitioners and evangelists on to a 'talk show' stage at the newly remodeled Paramount Theatre and asked them to simply speak with, not at, the participants both in the room and online just like they would if the discussion was one on one. The goal was to find those conversations that typically only happen in the hallways of larger conferences or at the mixers afterwards - and make them the focal point of the event. The idea being, I believe, to capture the spirit of the 'unconference' and then polish, package and deliver it to the masses that otherwise might not have the budget to travel around the world or schedules that allow days to participate on this level. Mission accomplished in the form of what I can only tell you had more of a TED feeling than anything else - except this was focused on our industry... our passion.
Outside of breaking the code on the evolution of HR/Recruiting conferences, what did I take away from the event?

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