As I head out the door, I’m prepared for a week’s worth of meetings, entertainment and continuing education. Hopefully, I’ll see you at the Roadshow on Wednesday or the RecruitingBlogs.com party on Thursday night.

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You can register for the Las Vegas Recruiting Roadshow™ here. Detailed information about the Las Vegas Roadshow is here

The agenda for the free event is simple, breakfast four presentations and a structured networking exercise. Continuing education, no sales pitches.

• Doug Geinzer, the CEO of Las Vegas’ own Recruiting Nevada. is a pivotal part of the Roadshow. He is providing help from marketing to local logistics. He’ll present a survey of the Recruiting landscape, opportunities and shortages.
• Don Ramer, CEO and Founder of Arbita, will offer a roadmap to the evolution of Online Recruiting in your organization
• Richard Becker will deliver a presentation on the effective use of social media in Recruiting
• John Sumser will share a view of multigenerational recruiting.

The Las Vegas Recruiting Roadshow is free to participants. Our sponsors are:

• RecruitingBlogs.com who will be throwing a party for Recruiters at the MGM Grand the evening after the Roadshow (the 28th)
• ZoomInfo: The essential research tool for Recruiters
• MainSequence Technologies: makers of PC Recruiter

The event is underwritten by the wonderful team at Arbita.

Part of the problem is the way that vendors reach out to their potential customers. There are a narrow range of potential channels: bulk email, telemarketing, tradeshows, web ads, print ads, superbowl ads and direct mail. Each of these methods assumes that response rates are tiny and that yelling is the best way to communicate. Marketing in our industry is rarely subtle or comforting. The communications channels depend on loud and oversimplified messaging.

• Regional communications differences and their impact on effective Recruiting;
• Alternative methods for vendor – customer interactions;
• The localization of expertise (local people are more effective than national celebrities);
• The use of physical networks to optimize online social networking; and,
• The development of an industry-wide continuing education infrastructure.

Our sponsorship experiment bears particularly close examination.

Typically, vendors are required to elbow their way into the consciousness of their prospects. The trade show circuit, with its endless array of booths and carnies is a good image. If you’ve never been to one of the big trade shows, imagine a sea of ring toss, duck shooting, basketball tossing, hammer and bell booths with their barkers. In the largest settings a full circling of the exhibits can take days.

Often, trade shows feature a late afternoon parade. Conference attendees are given a bingo card and sent to collect stamps from each of the booths. A fully completed card entitles the bearer to participate in the afternoon’s raffle of the giant teddy bear. There is always a stampede of attendees with their overflowing bags of goodies.

At the Recruiting Roadshow™, we’re trying something different. No corn dogs, no cotton candy, no timeshare sales, no petting zoo. In a big event, the typical commercial marketing transaction is barely remembered by the event participant. The booths blur together.

The Recruiting Roadshow depends on sponsorship. Since the events are free to participants, all of the costs are borne by the underwriters and sponsors. Sponsorship means something special to participants because the event is funded for them by a few memorable vendors. They aren’t allowed to sell anything during the Roadshow. They are, however, encouraged to attend and to get to know the local audience.

The experiment is designed to make sure that value is delivered first, that the learning environment is sacred. A Recruiting Roadshow™  sponsor is not brassy or intrusive. They use the opportunity to demonstrate the depths of their commitment to service. More than anything else, it’s an opportunity to give back to the community.

That sort of approach builds the sort of reputation that lasts a long time.

John Sumser. – © 2008 Two Color Hat, Inc. Santa Rosa, CA

In a move that simultaneously validates his encouragement of ongoing professional education and the development of professional online community, Jason Davis will provide financial support, at the sponsorship level for the Recruiting Roadshow. As a part of the arrangement, participants in Roadshow events will be given opportunities to join the community at RecruitingBlogs.com  

RecruitingBlogs.com is now the official online community of the Recruiting Roadshow™. With nearly 1,000 members, RecruitingBlogs.com is the fastest growing online network for recruiters around the planet. The network is built on the Ning platform and includes a variety of methods for interaction and collaboration between Recruiters.

Jason Davis, who founded RecruitingBlogs.com, is a serial entrepreneur and long time Recruiter. Currently, Jason wears several hats. He keeps his fingers in the Recruiting game making a placement here and there. He specializes in the acquisition and sale of Recruiting-related domain names. He is the charismatic heart of the RecruitingBlogs.com community. He is worrking long and hard on behalf of The Fordyce Letter (www.fordyceletter.com) as well.

The man is everywhere.

Wherever Jason lands, things start happening. At his best organizing a party, he has single-handedly built the Recruiting Industry’s very own Charity Poker tour. One thing is for sure. Things are going to get really interesting now that Jason is involved. Thank you, Jason. Your support and generosity will provide a profound foundation for the Recruiting Roadshow™.

John Sumser. – © 2008 Two Color Hat, Inc. Santa Rosa, CA

If you’ve been following the story of the Recruiting Roadshow™ from the beginning, you’ll recall that Ramer and Arbita have been buying lunch all the way along. As our first sponsor, they’ve been in on the planning and execution of the Roadshow since before there was a Roadshow. Don has always been there with a word of encouragement or just the right bit of financial support.

Now, however, that commitment is becoming major league.

We’ve organized the Roadshow so that it’s sort of like Public Broadcasting. Free to the audience and supported by Underwriters, Sponsors and Friends. Each of those groupings involves specific resource commitments. (Let me know, by the way, if you’re interested in becoming a supporter.)

Ramer has agreed to be an underwriter for all of the events in 2008. The deal includes an array of other bits of logistics and technical support. Don and his team give us the foundation necessary to really grow the Recruiting Roadshow™ in 2008.

Thank you.

John Sumser. – © 2008 Two Color Hat, Inc. Santa Rosa, CA