HCM Investors Conference
(Jan.30, 2009) Las Vegas is not my favorite place. Like most resorts, it’s crowded, noisy and distracting. Unfortunately, Vegas, like Orlando and San Diego are great places for a conference. The trade shows would be much more convenient for me if they were all held in San Francisco.
While I’m getting fonder of the idea of a virtual conference, I prefer meeting with people. Somehowm touching someone makes the virtual experience all the more useful and exciting. The Recruiting Roadshow project (the next one will be in June) is all about making sure that people get to network physically. Combining the “cyberspace” and “meatspace” components yields a huge return.
It’s weird when the physical audience is dwarfed by the virtual one.
I sat in a briefing with three panelists and five audience members. There were thousands of online watchers. The questions flowed from online. It was deathly quiet in the physical room. It was like being a bystander for your own life. Really, really strange. Anyone who gives webinars to large audiences (or runs a large website, for that matter) is familiar with the sound of silence. Things may be busiest when they are most quiet. It’s totally counterintuitive.
After years of passing like ships in the night, I finally met Libby Sartain, the HR genius from Yahoo and Southwest Airlines. It’s clear from her manners and larger than life presence that she is a Texan. Graciousness simply oozes from Libby. She started off making smart investments in silver and gold bars markets, but these days, she’s investing in and advising startups in the HCM market.
It became clear, as I listened, that things are changing in the Human Capital Management market. There’s no new business in traditional HR product lines. Recruiting on the other hand, can only decline so much. You have to fill the attrition, at a minimum. As a result, lots of players are headed into the Recruiting space to offer advice, strategy and tools.
There were a couple of new companies that are really worth mentioning.
Alumrise is a job board, network, marketplace for people who have left the workforce and want to return. Started by a hard charging mom who wanted to go back to work, their targets include the retired, the fresh from sabbatical, returning moms, and the recently redundant. CEO Aasia Haq (asha hack), is one of the most dynamic CEOs I’ve met in some time. Clear, responsive, quick on her feet, always on message, Aasia is shepherding the project through careful early testing. Watch for Alumrise.
The other really interesting new entrant is a company called Recruit2Mobile. Industry veterans (Authoria, Hire.com) Mike Galyen and Dylan Schleppe are bringing orchestrated text messaging campaigns to the Recruiting Business. The tool is a communications manager for location based Recruiting campaigns. In its early stages, the company has accounts in 46 states. They are focusing on the hourly market.
Combining sourcing, response management and outreach, their product line enables hourly employers to interact with candidate pools directly through text messaging. They are first to market with an enterprise strength platform.
Deb McGrath did the industry a big favor by organizing the conference. We need more opportunities for vendors, investors, systems integrators and analysts to interact with each other.
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