The Fall Recruiting Conference Landscape

The Fall Recruiting Conference Landscape

The Fall recruiting conference season is right around the corner.  Now is the time to decide which events you want to attend and where you want to send members of your team.

The list below covers the top Fall recruiting conferences, in date order, with brief descriptions and recommendations on who should attend. (HireClix will be at the conferences marked with an *, as either a sponsor, presenter, or both).

Social Recruiting Strategies Conference (SRSC), August 2-4, Austin, TX

Don’t let the title of this conference fool you, it is actually much more than just social recruiting.  You will gain new ideas for building your social presence, branding via social, and using social platforms as a key part of your recruiting strategy.  But this conference offers more, including analytics, candidate engagement, and executive engagement strategies.  While SRSC often repeats speakers, this agenda has a good mix of recurring speakers and new voices.

Promising Sessions:

  • “Data Analytics for Recruiting Success,” a full day workshop by Andrew Gadomski, Aspen Advisors
  • “Story-Based Content for Recruiting Success,” Chloe Rada, Sodexo and Lauryn Sargent, Stories Incorporated

Who Should Attend:

  • Senior-level team members responsible for social media, candidate engagement, recruitment marketing
  • Anyone who loves 100-degree heat and 100% humidity in Austin in August

SourceCon, September 25-27, Austin, TX

THE conference for all things sourcing is in its 10th year and once again offers a robust agenda.  No other conference provides specific examples of not just what to do, but how to do it.  It truly is a sourcer’s paradise packed full of innovative ideas and, of course, the Hack-A-Thon.

Promising Sessions:

  • “Getting Started in Custom Programming for Sourcing Purposes,” Glenn Gutmacher, State Street Corporation and Kameron Swinton, Amazon
  • “SXSW – Source By Searching Weird – Exploring Alternative Deep Web Search Engine Strategies,” Ronnie Bratcher, Arete Alliance

Who Should Attend:

  • Your sourcing leader
  • Any team members focused on sourcing
  • Good recruiters who want to become great

The Conference Board’s 4th Annual Talent Acquisition Conference: Recruiting Human Capital for the Competitive Edge, September 26-27, New York City

The Conference Board consistently delivers an intimate setting (around 125 attendees) with lots of time for networking and sharing best practices with the other attendees.  This year’s agenda includes some thought provoking ideas to help you shape your talent acquisition strategy for the next 3-5 years.  They are offering the very popular Roundtable discussions again this year, which give you the chance to dig deeper into a conference topic with the presenter and other attendees.  Plus, it’s Fall in NYC.

Promising Sessions:

  • “Unconscious Bias,” Monica Canto, PVH Corporation; Laurent Longin, Duke Energy; Dawn Schlegel, CIA; Brandon Stephens, Rockwell Automation
  • “COEs: Transforming Talent Acquisition,” Heidi Gerhard, BASF

Who Should Attend:

  • Talent acquisition executives and their next level reports
  • Senior team members who influence your strategy

The Candidate Experience Symposium and Awards, October 2, Nashville*

The Talent Board will be hosting this year’s symposiums and awards celebration the day before LinkedIn’s Talent Connect conference (see below) in Nashville.  The Candidate Experience Awards (The CandEs) highlight companies providing exceptional care for their candidates, including those that aren’t offered jobs.  In addition to the evening awards dinner, there is a half-day symposium including a keynote from Shannon Miller — the most decorated American gymnast of all time, a review of the results of the candidate surveys, and a panel of recruiting leaders sharing best practices.

Who Should Attend:

  • Recruiting leaders who have applied for The CandEs
  • Anyone planning to attend Talent Connect with an interest in candidate experience

LinkedIn’s Talent Connect, October 3-5, Nashville*

LinkedIn’s annual conference moves to Nashville this year.  While only a few breakout sessions have been announced, you can expect Talent Connect to follow a similar formula to past conferences.  The agenda will likely include a celebrity-status keynote speaker, case studies from well-known employer brands, and a general session topic that makes you think/cry/re-evaluate your purpose in life.  The breakout sessions offer a mix of employers of all sizes sharing their stories, LinkedIn team members diving into details of new offerings, and consultants and vendors sharing their thought leadership.  And, of course, there will one big party.

Who Should Attend:

  • Your LinkedIn superusers
  • Leaders on your team who focus on strategy, brand and candidate experience
  • Your best networkers as the “who’s who” of recruiting is typically in attendance

HR Technology Conference, October 10-13, Las Vegas*

While this conference focuses on more than just talent acquisition technology, it is the one stop shop for all that is available in the recruiting technology space.  In its 20th year, HRTech provides a massive expo floor with many impressive displays by the major technology players and access to vendors and solutions for every aspect of recruiting.  Only about 25% of the breakout sessions focus on talent acquisition and/or data analytics, but that actually gives you more time to visit the expo floor when it isn’t crowded.

Promising Sessions:

  • “How is GE Evolving to Skills-Based Hiring?,” Michelle Rife, GE Digital and Vivek Ravisankar, HackerRank
  • “Redefining the Role of the ATS: Engaging Key Stakeholders for Streamlined Collaboration,” Richard Monastersky, CBS

Who Should Attend:

  • Talent acquisition leaders in need of new technology solutions in the next 12 months
  • Members of your team who need to stay on top of the latest technology trends
  • Individuals who operate well on little sleep – it’s Vegas and the after parties are abundant

ERE Recruiting Conference, October 16-18, Minneapolis*

ERE’s semi-annual recruiting conference is moving to Minneapolis this Fall.  ERE’s agenda offers sessions across a wide range of topics – from social recruiting and branding to technology and sourcing.  The speaker list leans more towards practioners, but a few industry analysts and consultants also make an appearance.  Over the years, ERE has de-emphasized the expo floor as a part of the conference, so it isn’t usually over crowded.  As most of the major recruiting technology and service providers attend, it is a great opportunity to have in-depth conversations with vendors.

Promising Sessions:

  • “The Story Behind the McDonald’s Snapchat Story,” Joe Nassar, McDonald’s
  • “The Goldilocks Solution: How to Build a Remarkable Recruiting Operating System That Scales,” Becky McCullough, Hubspot

Who Should Attend:

  • Your high potential recruiters and recruiting managers
  • Recruiting leaders looking for new vendors but can’t convince their executives to send them to Vegas for HR Tech J

Recruiting Trends & Talent Tech, November 28-30, West Palm Beach*

This conference is now in its second year after the folks behind HRTech bought Recruiting Trends.  Like other Fall conferences, it offers a broad range of hot recruiting topics, with a slight skew towards technology (given the conference title, that makes sense).  This conference has at least 6 options during each breakout session, so everyone should find a session that is relevant to their needs.  The speaker lineup is a healthy mix of practitioners and vendors/consultants/thought leaders.  The expo floor will consist of vendors who focus on solutions for talent acquisition.

Promising Sessions:

  • “The Art of the Pivot: Building an Action Plan to Drive Adoption of Modern Recruiting Behaviors,” Allyn Bailey, Intel
  • “Back to Basics: Core Tools for Your Sourcing Toolbox,” David Nicola, ViaSat, Inc.

Who Should Attend:

  • Talent acquisition leaders who want a great opportunity to learn about vendor offerings AND experience a recruiting-focused conference
  • Technology-focused members of your team who couldn’t make it to HR Tech
  • Anyone who needs an excuse to hit the beach during a stressful holiday season

College Recruiting Bootcamp, December 15, Mountain View, CA (Intuit Headquarters)

College Recruiter and Shaker will host the 11th College Recruiting Bootcamp at Intuit’s headquarters in the Bay Area.  This one-day conference is great for networking with some of the top minds in college recruiting and university relations.  While the agenda is not yet published, this conference typically offers a great mix of panel discussions, best practice presentations from companies of all sizes, and opportunities to share war stories with your peers.

Who Should Attend:

  • Talent acquisition leaders who focus on university relations/college recruiting
  • Companies looking for great ideas to incorporate into their Spring 2018 college recruiting plans

As always, the Fall is full of opportunities to learn, network and maybe sneak in some relaxation at a variety of talent acquisition conferences.  Drop us a note at sherpa@hireclix.com and let us know which events you’ll be attending.  We’d love to connect with in person this Fall.

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