So it was with Rose Mirielle Exumé and her sister Alta Grace Garcon who one Monday afternoon left their home in Deerfield Beach, Florida to travel the 15 miles or so to Broward General.

What is normally a routine journey on I-95 was for this family anything but and Olivier Jean Paul Exumé was born in the fast lane in the back seat of his auntie’s SUV.

For the drivers on the road that day who would have imagined the drama in that car pulling over for no apparent reason? For sure, they were as oblivious to the clamor that accompanied baby Olivier’s birth just as the heaving mother and her panic-stricken sister were oblivious to the travelers speeding by.

Like the information superhighways where data streams in self-contained packets so too do people transport themselves along I-95 absorbed in the bubble of their own journey and experience. Data conveying information about national security and seismic activity share the same beam of light as updates about Uncle Vinnie’s hemorrhoids. No doubt gangsters running drugs and soccer Moms dropping off children were among those whistling by the lurching SUV.

Olivier’s passage was featured on the evening news. The miracle of life was not in of itself important but the circumstances of its coming to be the “human interest” headline.  This is the kind of warm and fuzzy stuff that keeps viewers glued to the box while the commercials run, good for ratings, good for business.

Where the news was most welcomed was in the neighborhood where Rose and her sister lived. Carried by word-of-mouth, the news soon travelled beyond the metropolis and the farthest reaches of I-95 to places where the network is defined by the community of familial ties, shared experiences, language and culture.

Suddenly, Rose was getting messages from “friends” who she never knew she had. It included people she had never heard of but who felt a connection nonetheless. It transpired that through this one and that one they shared mutual friends. People who she had left behind in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince suddenly popped up living around the corner and up the road. Just as new friendships were being made old ones were being reestablished.

The network was working. It began to take on a tangible form in the gift of diapers, car seats, bibs and bibles. An everyday event, remarkable only for the time and place of it, was the catalyst for a form of “social networking” that transcended self-interest and who-knows-who. Rose and others were personally enriched by the experience.

I-95 is a road that is seemingly always under construction. Today the work is less about the route and more about the ride. Likewise, today the Internet and its proliferation of tools, applications and content is less about the network and more about relevancy for its users.

In both instances, physical and virtual connections are easier and faster to make and navigate. But the things that define and connect communities in the real world and online are changing in ways that make “bringing physical community to online networks” a harder thing to do than at first we might think.

For those of us whose imagination is sparked by the possibility and promise of the Recruiting Roadshow there is much to reflect on in Rose’s story. For example:

When our careering down the road precludes us from being first hand witnesses to the daily miracles of life or when the human experience is trivailized to serve commercial interests; or when we fail to learn the trusted vernacular that makes word-of-mouth credible; or we fail to respond in ways that strengthen our ties to “place,” how will we ever enjoy the gifts of relative strangers who would rather you call them “friend?”

“Bringing physical community to online networks,” imagine that.

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

The now-conventional wisdom is that this is all a part of disintermediation, the collapse of old fashioned institutions in the face of superior technology. (In fact, I believe this is the case on most days.) The trends towards decentralized operations, global communications and radically thinned capital requirements in production seem inextricable from advances in technology.

The call and response nature of technology can be seen in the Museum at The Tower of London (the Armouries). The theory of disintermediation suggests that rather than an appropriate response to new technologies (bullets require bulletproof vests), we’ve reached a point where our new toys are producing an era of unprecedented democracy. It’s a good optimistic story with a happy ending for all good nerds. Technology saturation equals nirvana.

Doesn’t that seem just a little too easy?

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

SourceCon made its debut in Atlanta while other “focus groups” gathered under their respective banners of exclusivity: Recruiting Excellence 2007 in Boston, The Fordyce Forum in New Orleans, the DirectEmployers Association whooping it up in Vegas, the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) dusting things off in San Antonio.

Road warriors like Don Ramer, Gerry Crispin, Joel Cheesman, Shally Steckerl, Kevin Wheeler, Lou Adler and an army of vendors, sponsors and assorted groupies will be heading home to gather round their Thanksgiving tables, many thankful for the fact that the circus is over, at least for this year.

The recruiting industry’s conference business is big business. In so many ways, it embodies the industry’s infrastructure and creates the channels along which ideas, innovation, favors, contracts and money flow. From the podiums, assorted speakers, pundits and industry celebs promote their reputations as subject matter experts and as sometimes saviors of the human race.

In workshops and forums opinions are formed, behaviors are influenced, best practices honed. Over hurried snacks or fine-linen tablecloths friendships are kindled and rekindled, relationships formed, forged and sometimes soon forgotten.

The network of vocal and visible people – the publishers, promoters, speakers, track leaders, commentators, vendors, sponsors and the lucky delegates who follow the circuit – each year consolidates its position as the industry’s core.

For sure, without a core like that things would quickly fall apart. Without a core – a robust infrastructure – there is no movement, no growth and no progress.

Contrasting all of this are the recruiters themselves who are — in the main – disenfranchised from the industry’s core. Many go through their working day confined to their cubes, Monster page views and overbearing hiring managers who just want bodies, not more paper!

Others are the unsung heroes who really get it. They turn lemons into lemonade, hard work into employment of choice, and mundane jobs into exciting careers. They brand their employers, their jobs, their talent and among their peers and higher-ups, themselves.

They work with technology and systems that are flawed in their design, selection, configuration, implementation and management. Regardless, they produce talent pools that support meaningful candidate relationships and flow-on-demand. They crunch numbers and produce business intelligence, positively affecting the bottom-line.

In places where recruiting conditions are defined by more mundane things like local demographics and economics than they are by widgets and whitepapers there is a pent-up demand for something that will make recruiters’ jobs easier, more fulfilling and more rewarding. There is a desire to be more connected and better networked.

The industry’s road warriors will be going back to their homes this week to the very places where the disenfranchised and pioneers actually coexist, going back to their hometowns and local business communities.

A few of them will be taking off their battledress and rolling up their sleeves to give back to the communities where they actually live. They will be talking less about global recruiting and listening for local concerns. They are less about being paid to speak and more concerned about paying back, to teach. They will not be expecting you to travel cross country to see them at one of the industry’s conferences, they will becoming home, to you.

The sponsors do not want to pitch you, spam you or ask for anything in return for covering the $600 or so it would normally cost-per-person to have access to one of the industry’s top-billed events. They too are paying it forward.

That is what John Sumser’s Recruiting Roadshow, is all about…a different kind of conference!

Dallas, Texas

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
8:30AM – 1:30PM

University of Dallas College of Business
Graduate School of Management
Development Center, Frisco Campus

7460 Warren Parkway
Frisco TX 75034

See you there!

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

Josh Lowensohn who wrote the guide for Webware kicks-off:

What is Facebook and why should you use it?

Facebook is a social networking service that lets you connect with friends, co-workers, and others who share similar interests or who have common backgrounds. Many use it as a way to stay in touch after finishing school, or as a way to share their life publicly. What makes Facebook different from other social networks are its extensive privacy controls, its development platform, and its large and quickly growing user base. Facebook has been called the “thinking person’s” social network. Compared to many other social networks, Facebook gets new features and improvements on a regular basis.

Don’t get too comfortable. “Facebook gets new features and improvements on a regular basis” means don’t blink or you’ll log on one day and not know what to do or how to do it!

Just in case you’re hungry for more, from Robin Good there is Social Networking: A Beginner’s Guide To Facebook, another handy reference with some additional stuff to work through.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvU8fL4MiSQ][Can't see the video? Catch it on YouTube]

General Stuff

• Time and Place
• Directions and Parking
• Program Schedule
• Roadshow Sponsors
• Atlanta City Guide

Internet Access

Visitors can access wireless internet on the GT campus by using FASTPASS. The instructions for connecting to FASTPASS can be found here. Discounted vouchers can be purchased here.

In the meantime, if you have a WordPress account you should be able to comment simply by logging into your account. If you don’t a WordPress account it only takes a minute to set one up. If you would rather, you can email your comments and I’ll post them for you in the meantime.

Sorry for the bother.

Having confused the issue by contrasting a traditional conference where sponsors expect something in return for their “investment” with sponsorship for this event — more like to making a donation — I tried to explain that sponsorship dollars should be given expecting nothing in return, at best in anticipation of a boomerang effect.

I tried to rebut “What the hell are you talking about?” by referencing the network economy   — “No, no, no! Not Kelly Services!”  — and abundance theory. After going at it non-stop for 30-minutes my patron-in-waiting was ready to give it up for Atlanta. Phew!

The discussion turned to money. Oh, dear.

“What do you mean I can give any amount that matches the value I place on supporting the network?”

“What do you mean my logo will be the same size as everyone elses regardless of how much I choose to give?”

“What do you mean I can’t pass out brochures or offer discounts or promote my stuff or tout for business?”

“Does Sumser know what you’re up to? What about his accountant?”

So, rather than try and explain it all again and confuse the dickens out of everyone let me simply ask:

If you would like to sponsor the Atlanta event or would like to support us in some other material way please send me an email at recruitingroadshow (at) gmail.com. The only thing I can promise in return is hero’s welcome on September 25th and a uniformly-sized logo on the sponsor’s page [in the works]. Maybe a press release or two. For sure, we’ll love you for it.

If on the other hand you think there are more deserving causes thank you for making your contributions there in recognition of this call for support. If you want a more deserving cause but can’t find one, visit Kiva.org and consider supporting them instead.

For my bamboozled benefactor I found this article in a recent BusinessWeek called Take Your PowerPoint And… It explains better than I ever could what unconferences are all about and why its perfectly okay to keep your money in your pocket:

Free classified ads on Craigslist threaten newspapers. Open-source software is gaining on Microsoft and Oracle. Now the convention business faces its own Web-inspired competition: the “unconference.”

Unconferences turn the plodding, predictable business gathering inside out. They’re a hybrid of a teach-in and a jam session, with a little show-and-tell mixed in, and they are attracting hundreds in cities like Austin, Tex., Bangalore, San Francisco, Sydney, and Tokyo. Unlike traditional, $1,000-a-head and up conferences, they’re totally unstructured—the agenda isn’t determined until the opening day of the event. Everyone who shows up is a potential speaker, and those who don’t speak contribute by posting photos, blog entries, podcasts, and video clips of the proceedings. Neckties and heels are noticeably absent. And attendance is almost always inexpensive or free.

See you at the Roadshow!

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

Problem One: It is difficult to balance the value of directly communicating with the very people who should be marking off September 25th to join our event on the campus of Georgia Tech with impersonal and potentially annoying mail that assumes someone else knows what’s best for you or that you are even in town on that day.

Problem Two: I haven’t worked out how to remove the people who have already signed-up for the Atlanta Recruiting Roadshow from the emails that are still going out. I know that doesn’t say much for yours truly but in my own defense this “campaign” has been cobbled together using paperclips, Post-it notes and our sponsors’ goodwill. After all, it is an “unconference” don’t you know!

So, some of you have signed-up and are wondering why we are still insisting you should come. Now you know. Sorry.

Problem  Three: Unsolicited email is hardly consistent with the spirit of the thing or the concept of networking and community building.  Those assume shared trust, mutual interests, professional respect and personal understanding which mass mail and indiscriminate marketing — however targeted by geography and job title your list might be — fail to do. That approach is so not what the Recruiting Roadshow is about. The other stuff is!

Oh well, no matter. There is an easy solution!

Solution One: If you haven’t signed-up yet and want to join us, do it now. Once we reach our limit for delegates the emails will magically stop. The only thing you’ll get in your inbox are updates for the day’s events.

Solution Two: If you haven’t signed-up because you won’t be coming, and you’re getting ticked off with the approach, simply follow the remove instructions on the email. If that doesn’t work — although that is one part of the system that should perform flawlessly — send me an email and I’ll take care of it personally. Send your request to recruitingroadshow (at) gmail.com. Just put “Unkosher,” ”Remove” or something like that in the subject line and I’ll take care of the rest.

Better still, just ignore the emails! They’ll stop next week anyway.

Solution Three: Whether you are coming to the Atlanta Recruiting Roadshow or not, promote and publicize the event among your own circle of friends and associates. The day promises to be a fantastic learning and networking experience for anyone involved in the business of recruiting provided that that is what you choose to make it. Remember, the Atlanta Recruiting Roadshow is only as good as you want it to be. This is your event. Own it!

Here are some useful pages to forward to your invites:

• About the Roadshow
• Speakers, Trainers, Bios and Links
• Atlanta Registration

Oh, and no – SPAM is not Kosher. But if you’re coming to the Atlanta show and have special needs — lunch is being served courtesy of Arbita — let me know before we put the order in. SPAM may just be on the menu.

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

Among its most useful bits Indeed.com has a Job Search Tools page with more stuff on it than the average Joe could possibly want. But then again, some stuff that would leave a job seeker baffled can lead a recruiter to make more sense of the world.

For example, take the Job Trends tool and sneak-a-peek behind the job postings per capita link. Click a bit and voilà! 59.8 good reasons to visit the Atlanta Recruiting Roadshow – not including the free lunch!

See you there.

Posted by: Amitai Givertz