Over the past two months, I have been to three conferences (Ohio SHRM, Recruiting Trends, and Digital Dealer). Each conference had good sessions and bad sessions.
I want to talk about the bad ones and piss off about half of the speaking circuit.
Motivational Speakers? Are Stupid.
Nothing makes me more upset than spending $800 to attend a two day conference, only to be able to bring nothing back to my company other than a renewed sense of self. Except, I've heard these same motivational speeches so many times, that they all seem the same. As soon as the speaker gets up there to motivate me these days, I tune him/her out and start playing on my phone.
Here's the thing, I'm not sure why we continue to book speakers telling HR people that they need to like people. Um. That's our whole job. We get it, already. If you don't like humans, and you need this same speech sang to you over and over, you probably shouldn't be in Human Resources.
No Vendors Allowed
Okay, maybe not all vendors should be banned from speaking, but vendors who are pitching a commercial to us, and we paid to get into this conference… those ones should be banned.
I can see their product in the expo hall if I'm interested.
At the Digital Dealer Conference, a mobile app vendor spoke to the crowd about why car dealerships need mobile apps. The dealership world is divided on this issue. Some of us feel that since we have excellent mobile websites, so why would need an app? Because really, customers don't want that app taking up space on their iPhones. A dealership is not Target.
The session would have been more effective to have another dealer standing in front of us, telling us how a mobile app increased his number of service repair orders, or helped him send push notifications to his app audience, thus increasing his sales $X.
We want to hear from our peers. Not from someone who has skin in the game of a product sale.
Wait. You haven't practiced HR in 12 years?
Consulting is one thing. If you're a consultant, I can see how you would be able to stay relevant with what is going on in the world of Human Resources. But if you are just writing books and traveling around speaking about Human Resources, how the heck do you know what we're facing everyday at the office?
You don't.
If you want to stay relevant in HR and speak about HR, you'd better be doing some darn HR.
Wait. You have never worked in HR or with any HR function? Like, ever?
At one of these conferences they actually booked an improvisation actress, who called people up front and basically put on a comedy routine.
Can someone please tell me what that has to do with my job?
It was a real stretch to get her session related back to the world of HR.
I'm sick of getting tips and tricks at the hotel bar.
No, I'm not a hooker (not those kinds of tips and tricks, get your mind out of the gutter).
At the Recruiting Trends Conference, I met Matt Charney, and we talked shop over drinks. I learned so much from him, and I'm actually excited to follow up with him soon so he can mentor me through setting up
the perfect online application which will allow people to apply with their Facebook and LinkedIn accounts (something we are lacking, and something I imagine a lot of small and medium businesses are lacking).
What if I hadn't met Matt? Sure, they talked about the ability to do this in a session about candidate experience (which, are we really still confused about candidate experience?), but had I not gone super in-depth with Matt, I'd still be floating around out there, out of touch with his awesome lesson for me.
Book more Matt's. Teach me things that the expense of this trip worthwhile. Stop talking about the BS fluffy topics. No wonder people think HR people don't know how to talk like business people.
Stop wasting money on big name speakers when you have people who live and breathe it in your backyard.
One of the best sessions I've ever sat through was one taught by my local HR buddy, Jill Kapanis. She was so knowledgeable about reducing healthcare costs in a self-funded environment.
Jill taught me at least five new things. These things helped shape our medical plan, and shaped it without cost shifting. As a result, we have offered insurance with $11 per week premiums for the past five years. Again, without cost shifting.
Jill is brilliant, and she lives right here in Toledo, Ohio. I think a lot of times, we get caught up in delivering the audience someone from Google, and we forget that the girl without a budget, from the medium-sized business down the street, she knows a lot of stuff. And maybe if we didn't pay speakers so much money to speak, it wouldn't cost the rest of us a small fortune to attend, *cough* *cough* SHRM.
Don't Hoard Information
In all fairness, since I have complained about speakers being a waste of my time, I have decided to do something about it. I have been going around speaking about social recruiting. I tell people straight up what to spend money on and what they can do for free.
My boss once asked me why I would share my secrets with other businesses. I told him I'm sharing them because no one else is sharing. We need to stop being snobby HR information hoarders. If you know how to do something, get up there and speak!
Tell me what worked for your company. Tell me what failed. Tell me where you made huge mistakes so I can avoid those pitfalls. Tell me the words that come out of your mouth during difficult conversations.
The speaker circuit needs fresh blood. I've been doing it for a few months, and if nothing else, you get into the conference for free if you have something to teach people. So look at it like that. If you have a totally awesome idea, and you are willing to share it with us, and you want to save your company $1,200 on a conference pass – call the conference and ask them to speak.
Who knows, you could become HR famous when you start speaking. And trust me, CEOs love getting the name of their business out there. People from all over the world have heard about Ed Schmidt Auto, Inc. because of it. Just don't get out of the game once you become HR famous, or you'll also become HR irrelevant.
What do you think? Have you sat through some pretty horrendous conference sessions? Or do you love yourself a good motivational speaker?
Amen and we at ILSHRM have tried to live by your rules. I think we have done pretty well by them.
I think I would like to go to that conference.
Nice piece. A few thoughts:
I’m with you on the motivational thing, unless there’s some depth and substance to it beyond mere ‘whoop de doo’ that kind of thing has never done much for me.
I’m a consultant first and foremost. And it’s the work that I do that makes any talks I give, relevant. I don’t like hearing from consultants who aren’t bringing relevant and most importantly recent workplace experience to bear.
Using a speaking invitation to sell is offensive, and demeaning. Every time someone does this, God kills a kitten. So don’t do it folks. Ever again.
Share the goooood stuff. Yes indeed, I don’tr want to know just how great and super it all went, tell me about the screw ups. I make mistakes, and I’m happy to share my experiences of them. I think we need more of this.
OK – so far so good. I’m about to throw it all away now. In Ohio I volunteered to help the improv lady. And we had ‘em rolling in the aisles. The next day folks were coming up to me saying I’d helped to give them all a good laugh. Sharing laughter is OK by me, I was happy to help.
Cheers – Doug
Hahaha! God does kill a kitten every time that happens!
Laughter is okay, but what did we really take away from that? Other than you are totally awesome and we should all be booking you to speak? YOU made that funny, Doug.
I’m pretty sure you are a hooker.
Kidding aside, most HR people hate public speaking. Not everyone can get up on stage and the regular joe at a the local SHRM conference proves that. It’s brutal to watch Johnny HR Generalist talk about his talent management process.
And many HR people can’t teach because they are too busy doing real work.
Why not kill the conference? I like that option best.
Shoot. You’re on to me. I am a hooker.
I think your kill the conference idea is spectacular, other than the fact that we all like to go places and see our HR friends from other places. And drink beers. Yeah, mainly go and drink beers with other HR people.
having been on both sides (as a speaker, and a conference organizer) I can empathize; poor speakers are a sign of a poorly-managed conference.
why is a speaker not a good fit? they weren’t vetted properly, they were mis-informed (or non-iniformed) by the conference contact, they were out of their element, etc. all signs of a conference that may have either outlived its usefulness or a host organization that needs to reinvent itself.
in the meantime, how about some improv…
Okay, improv…
When I say one word you follow it with the next word. I’ll start, “I…
I’ve been to one conference in my life, the state SHRM annual conference. It wasn’t all that pricey, not compared to some of the other ones I’ve seen and compared to the national SHRM conference, but it was pretty much useless beyond networking. Some of the topics sounded great but didn’t result in me taking back any real knowledge/skills/ideas that would justify the time and money spent on the conference. I routinely sat through sessions with some sort of a combination of plain bad information, poor presenter, vague information, extremely entry level information, or just unrelated to HR.
I wasn’t sure what the purpose of the vendor hall was. I know these people might be (or are) sponsors of the event, but it’s not like I was there on a shopping spree. Your fancy performance system? Your pretty work comp tracking suite? Awesome, but we are broke and if we actually had money to spend we would try to spend it on something that really mattered and would make a difference. Maybe I/my company wasn’t the target audience. Plus, it rubbed me the wrong way how many of these HR people seemed to love walking around with canvas bags gathering silly trinkets and junk. The coworkers I was there with thought I was crazy/anti-social for not wanting to collect and take home as much shit as possible.
Since then I’ve viewed conferences as for people/companies with more dollars than sense. I’m sure that’s WAY too general, but I was so put off by my experience that I can’t see how I would ever do something like that again.
SHAWN! OMG YES THIS!
We need more people targeting those without any budgets. Not all of us are fortune 500 companies. We have to make the most out of the least. I am one of these companies.
I like to see what the vendors are selling and then go do that on my own somehow. And then tell people why they shouldn’t pay for things. That stuff? That makes the conference worth the cost. Because it’s not just the conference cost you’re looking at – it’s also the cost of travel.
So if I am dropping $2,000 to be here (meals, plane, hotel, pass), I had better learn something to make a $2,000 ROI.
The HR Conference circuit needs to book more Merediths, too. You had me at vagina. Thanks for a great conversation, a great post, and hopefully, more meaningful dialogue about the stuff that matters to the people on the frontline in the future. Those drinks were totally worth the trip.
Great post.
Matt Charney
Dropping “vagina” at an HR conference was risky, but ultimately worth it.
I am so glad we met! I can’t wait to pick your brain now that I am back home.
Mer –
You probably should have checked Matt’s references before blowing so much hot air up his Ass!
I agree with most except for the fact that the most boring presentations I’ve ever sat through were put on by “actual” HR Pros who thought their process was really excited to talk about and I wanted to swallow a bullet in the first 10 minutes to stop what I was hearing! So – be careful at eliminating people who haven’t worked in “real” HR for the last 12 years – some of the smartest people in HR – got out – and now consult to help those of us still in the trenches every day. Some are douche bags – that is true – but some are freaking brilliant – I want to listen to those folks – regardless of their title and place of employment!
You also forgot the bullet around Zappos and Google – I want to hear more from those HR shops – anything that Zappos or Google does the rest of HR should do immediately – we need more of that…
T.
Yeah, yeah. Boorman already smeared egg all over my face below.
Dude. Don’t act like you don’t know about HR stuff. I worked for you for two days once at your staffing company. And I like consultants. I said so up there. I just can’t figure out what the improv actress is doing there.
Can I call you “dude”? Because I just did.
Ah, HR professionals need to like people. No. We need some more E or I NTJs in the profession. I despair when someone says ‘I want to work in HR because I like people’.
Liking people is not the same as being effective and getting people to do the things they need to do – for the benefit of the organisation and also for their sake. You can be a great HR person without ‘liking people’ – good values, behaviours and skills trumps ‘liking people’ any day. (If you think liking people is important then there are plenty of other roles that could equally qualify, not just HR. It needs to be a stronger reason than that.)
HR is about helping the CEO and the rest of the ‘doing’ part of the enterprise be far more effective by enabling them (with your expertise around ‘people factors’) to attract, retain and develop the most appropriate talent. And the line managers are the ones who make the people stuff happen. We just facilitate that. And we also stop them doing dumb things (nod to Doug Shaw) to people that will, in the worst cases, land them in legal hot water. Let alone demotivate huge numbers of staff. And we get some of the people processes done effectively and with minimal fuss – and right first time. And we have high integrity. AND – we have worked in operational roles so we know what our internal clients need and we know what they have to battle with each day.
Well, that’s my HR manifesto.
Meredith,
Interesting that the best person you met was a vendor (Matt) but you want to ban the vendors? Better to be clear on guidelines, have a hook to lift pitchers off the stage at first pitch and ditch presentations. Ditch the term vendor, stop selling speaker slots as part of sponsorship, stop asking for speaker proposals (thats why you get the same people at all conferences), ditch powerpoint and presentations and name bages. Thats what I have done at #tru events. People love the unconference format where people get to talk and are free to vote with their feet if they hate the session. just my thoughts Meredith
Well crap! See he was so smooth, I didn’t even realize it!
In all seriousness, that Matt guy is the worst salesman ever. Because we talked about working with our existing web designer to get wht I want and how there are FREE plug ins for the rest.
Now I’ll listen to a vendor who tells me that. Plus, he used to be a talent scout or something. I don’t know. We were kind if drunk and the shop talk was followed by a dance off.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!
I have NEVER (in 15 yrs in the industry) worked for an employer that would pay for me to attend a conference.
Maybe someone should have a conference on how to get your employer to pay for you to attend one.
WHA?! That’s just CRAZY talk!
I have to admit, as a vendor that has been asked to speak at a future event, your piece really got my attention. I also have to admit that I have absolutely felt your pain on this. In my experience, a motivational speaker was probably beneficial for me if it is the keynote because it puts my mind in the right place to network strongly. That being said, maybe these conferences should focus more on small interactive group sessions rather than long speeches that don’t really benefit the group as a whole? I will most certainly be sure that my presentation is relevant to my audience rather than a sales pitch, Meredith. Thanks for bringing this topic out in the open!
Yeah, girl! Get it done at the conference!
Great discussion, especially the praise for Matt and then the revelation that he’s a vendor. I agree that many vendors make for terrible speakers due to their propensity to pitch their wares and that many practitioners are great speakers due to their hands-on knowledge. But many of the best speakers are vendors and many of the worst are practitioners. For conferences to ban all vendors from speaking because of some bad apples and to use only practitioners despite some bad apples is just too simplistic and sometimes reflective of lazy thinking.
The best conferences are those which take the time to vet their speakers based upon the value each delivers to attendees. Conferences which sell speaking slots or give them to vendors in return for sponsorships tend to exasperate the pitch problem because speakers feel more pressure to turn their presentations into sales if they are paying for what tends to amount to an infomercial. Vendors like Matt, however, understand that speaking without pitching is far more effective both for the attendees, his employer, and himself. Attendees who appreciate his presentation and feel confident in his abilities will approach him immediately after his presentation, later at the conference, or after they return to the office.
I’ve done a lot of presentations at local and national conferences including SHRM, NACE, and others and like all “good” vendors strive hard to make my presentations humorous, interactive, informative, and devoid of sales pitches. That’s hard to do and sometimes I’m more successful than others but it is always the goal.
Yup. You guys caught me! Ha!
Matt does do well because he doesn’t sell you. So I take it back about the vendors. Well, the ones that aren’t pitching me a mobile app, anyway.
Could not agree more!
Really good post, Meredith. The tough thing here is that once you can generate a steady stream of cash-flow from books and speaking fees I can imagine that it’s tough to head back to the office and deal with employee relations issues.
With that said, if the market for non-HR people in conferences dried up we could see the quality of speakers collectively improve… on the other hand, I really think there is something to be gained from watching a speaker with fantastic presentation skills get up and speak about the function – even if it what he/she is saying isn’t (totally) relevant anymore. We learn and get better at speaking about what we love by watching people who are better than us do it themselves.
Next time something like this happens (a useless speaker) take a glass half full approach and think of it as an L&D opportunity (and if you’re already a fantastic speaker yourself then just pretend).
Thanks for sharing.
Best,
Rory