#Recruitfest09

Quick thanks to the organizers and passionate leaders of #Recruitfest09. Met some great people. The sessions today were spirited, co-operative and useful. At first the unconference approach takes some adjustment but once the flow starts it's a great way to learn and contribute (and U of T isn't a bad place to do it).

Some thoughts coming out of today.

1. managing the talent puddle - forget the pool it's too big (and sounds like most are struggling with basic talent management - when WAS the last time anyone took a candidate for lunch?)
   
2. Twitter - um, not so much - despite experts to the contrary I still say that brand and audience relationship building (never mind sound search optimization) requires a multi-platform approach, not just one (I use Twitter to get you to this post, not to write it)
   
3. maybe a little too much talking to ourselves? - next time let's get some users in the room (clients and candidates) - it would be fun to hear their side of the conversation
   
4. finally, yes it's been a tough year and competition is getting worse but...the most sustainable competitive advantage any company has is it's people - so hang in there. And even though the pricing of bits and bytes is going to zero so a lot of the process crap has no value any more, if you give me the BEST person for the position I'll always be happy to pay you a fair price (it's when I don't want the best - goodbye competitive advantage, or you can't provide it, then...we're both in trouble.)
   

Bottom line. Productive way to spend a day. Lots of opportunity going forward. Hope everyone enjoys Toronto.