Melina Murray

Today ends the SHRM 2008 conference. It was an interesting experience, my first.

On the volunteer side, I really enjoyed seeing some of the behind the scenes logistics. I have worked many events in the past and was impressed by the set-up and, more importantly, attitude of all the people I met/saw working on the conference. In addition, the people I met while volunteering were awesome.

As for the conference itself, I have to say one or two days would have been enough for me. I walked the show floor and talked to many, many people in about 3 hours. (then walked it again, trying to avoid gifts, bags, toys, etc) The rest of the time was spent talking to people in lines, at tables and other random locations. The variety of types of vendors was interesting. I was surprised to see network security and entry access system companies. However, in small businesses where the Office Manager handles both HR and operations, I can see how that may be valuable.

Something Laurie Ruettimann (PunkRockHR) said in one of her posts during the conference made me laugh and resonated with my own experience.

One woman asked me, “What do you do?”

I told her that I blogged about HR issues, and she told me that blogs make her nervous.

Another guy asked me what I’m writing about. I said, “HR stuff.”

He said, “What’s the name of your publication?”

I said, “Punk Rock HR.”

He said, “Yeah. Okay.” Then he walked away from me.

So much for networking!

I had a similar experience when talking to one of the executives from SHRM.  He walked up to introduce himself and was friendly until he asked who I work for.  I said “Myself. I have my own company and work with small businesses.”   He looked surprised, said “Oh. OK. Excuse me.” and walked away.  What a way to end a conversation.  

It seems the general demographic of the conference is mid-sized to larger businesses.  While I met a few small business HR pros and some independent consultants, the vast majority of attendees seemed to come from large companies.  Interestingly, I had to curtail my use of the word “blog” when talking to people as I was constantly met with blank looks.  Sad.

One of the things that surprised me most was that there was no filter or sense of privacy in many discussions.  Whether talking to people, or sitting next to someone on the phone, I learned so much about things I shouldn’t know.  Executive salaries, serious legal issues, layoffs, terminations (with names), etc. (and the company names)  If I were some sort of HR gossip columnist, this information would have been a gold mine. 

In the end, I am happy I attended- both as a volunteer and as an attendee.  Between meeting some amazing people and gathering little nuggets of information, SHRM 2008 was well worth it.

This entry was posted on June 25, 2008 at 3:59 pm and is filed under General. Tagged: HR, HR Conference, Human Resources, SHRM, Society for Human Resource Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.