This is my account of Day 1 “The Morning” of Talent 42 2016.

It started with checking in, and a meet and greet. I was great to see so many people and to catch up with some friends that I have not seen for a while.

John Vlastelica started it off with his opening remarks. As usual, John did not disappoint as he was funny, engaging and really got us pumped.

First up was Chris Veenboer from Bookin.com, speaking about Winning Top Tech Talent When you not a global Tech Brand. He speaks about the motivating factors for different fields. For instance; Engineers want to work on cool tech, Designers want to make Art, Copywriters want to write books. The goal is to grow you tech dept by 40% YoY and bring in new and different talent. In the end, he says do not throw money at the problem. He reminds you to look worldwide for talent. He leaves with a few tips; Hackerank A/B testing works, Diversity is not just a color, Booths at conferences are stupid, You need a recruitment analyst, and do away with the hiring manager review.

Next up came Bob Melk from Dice on the Future of tech recruiting. He starts with the evolution of Tech Recruiting-1950s & the 1960s was about ads in papers, 1990s & 2000S was about the internet Job boards, and 2016 is about Data Science & Social Info. He went over employment rates, talent maps, and stuff. Lots of supply and demand stuff. The summation demand is growing, and supply is shrinking. Then they go in about their data visualization tool, which is free and really pretty good.

The last presentation of the morning was Scott Ruthfield CEO of Rooster Park and his subject What Tech skills will your Hiring Managers Want in 2021. Well I can sum this whole presentation up with 3 concepts “machine Leaning”, “Big Data” and “Neural Networks”.

Next up Day 1 The Afternoon.