As far as I can remember, it was the first time ever that I had received one. Writing thank you notes is part of the conventional wisdom about doing business. I assumed that it was theory from people with no experience until I got Steven’s note.

As you can see, I remember the note very clearly almost six months later.

Steven got me started. I’ve been following his lead and hand writing Thank You notes. What’s amazing is the effect it has on me.

Thank you, Steven.

John Sumser. – © 2007 Two Color Hat, Inc. Santa Rosa, CA

There were so many people involved in the Dallas Recruiting Roadshow, people who went above and beyond to make sure that the experience was a good one. So may people to thank..

On the ground and in the trenches, Dennis Smith and his team took care of the logistics, marshalling people and resources. Following suit, our fantastic sponsors, whiz-bang presenters, caterers, the University of Dallas and Roadshow visitors all played an integral part in making the day a huge success.

To each and everyone of you — from the heart — thank you, thank you, thank you!

In the coming days I will be posting some updates and some really useful links so stay posted.

The Houdini like magic trick was orchestrated by Bill Vick, the fabled Internet Recruiting pioneer as a waxed, waned and demonstrated Web 2.0 in a presentation on Social Media. (Bill can be found here, here, here and here. He seems to only live online.) Bill has been building and contributing to the Recruiting Industry for a very long time. Bill received a special award for compacting his talk into a very tight space.

His presentation was a blend of skype based interviews and introductions to the art and science of Social Media.

Continue Reading »

General Stuff

• Time and Place
• Directions & Map
  
• Program Schedule
• Roadshow Sponsors
• Dallas City Guide

Internet Access

Free wireless is available.

The fact of the matter is that all of the expenses to put this event on have been covered by John Sumser and his friends.

That means that Hank Stringer is not only sharing his time and expertise leading one of our networking workshops but his company itzbig is underwriting the event as our charter sponsor.

Don Ramer CEO of Arbita — who we hope will be showing up in person — is paying for lunch and refreshments. Don has supported the Roadshow from the get-go providing first-class fare for over 250 Roadshow delegates and doing more behind the scenes, cooking up other stuff.

Recruiting heavy-hitters Bill Vick and Martin Birnbach are not only waiving thousands of dollars in appearance fees but they are providing a host of other valuable things, most of all their training and coaching which — if applied — is priceless.

T-Mobile are providing the venue for the day and making sure everyone is comfortable and well taken care of.

Steven Rothberg and CollegeRecruiter.com, Bill Vargas with Diversity.com with Martin Snyder and Bill Kubicek of Main Sequence Technologies/PCRecruiter, Dennis Smith with WorldLink, Matt Martone with Yahoo! HotJobs and Camille Roberts with ZoomInfo have all given generously with financial contributions and material support.

Without these people and organizations — and more in the pipe — getting access to the quality of thinking, training, networking and community for the session we have planned would be cheap at $600 a head.

There is no quid pro quo. The giving from the Recruiting Roadshow’s sponsors is generous, gracious and without strings attached.

So, take a moment to consider this:

“What kind of people and what kind of organizations would want to do this for me?”

“Are they the kind of organizations I would do business with – socially responsible and on top of their game?”

I know, you want to know how to return the favor for being sponsored for the Dallas Recruiting Roadshow, right?

• Show up ready to share, learn, participate and laugh — or cry if needs be!
• Take at least one thing away from the experience that will leave you better equipped, more sharply focused, more intensely committed and/or better connected with your recruiting neighbors
• Take a look at who your sponsors are, understand what they do and go to them when the opportunity arises — not as vendors but as new and valuable contacts in your expanding network of Recruiting Roadshow friends.

Nothing is free, no, not even lunch. But on Tuesday, December 4 — if you are in Dallas or from around those parts — you’ll be well taken care of! That’s a promise.

Register here…

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

When recruiters complain that sourcing online fails to produce candidates who match the requirements and/or fit-in in other ways they echo the complaints of candidates who face similar frustrations.

Posting resumes on any number of job boards and creating profiles on any number of professional or social networks — being cut and pasted, searched, tagged, indexed and archived — simply means that recruiters have more pools in which to find more frogs to kiss.

The problem is this: Kissing frogs sucks.

Normally it doesn’t take very long to realize that some frogs are easier to pucker-up for than others. The more “baggage” the candidate has – on paper at least — the harder it is to kiss that frog.

For candidates, being treated more like a frog rather than the other half of happy-ever-after simply leads them to stay out of the water. Besides, the last thing this new breed of “quiet working professional” wants is to be kissed by an employer to find they’ve been lumbered with an ugly sister.

itzbig is the first network of its kind which allows these quiet working professionals to anonymously look around and see what opportunities exist without having to jump in and make a lot of ripples.

In the same way, recruiters can focus on only those people who best match their selection criteria. And, once the match has been made it’s up to both to the candidate and recruiter to take the next step, a kiss perhaps.Having Austin-based itzbig underwrite the John Sumser’s Dallas Recruiting Roadshow is a big deal — we’re excited!

Recognizing in this experiment the same potential to change how we think about building community that itzbig’s leadership has delivered doing the same with HR technology is a good thing.

itzbig’s willingness to ensure that local recruiters have access to a day of real networking and learning without having to pay themselves the hundreds of dollars it would otherwise cost to visit one of the industry’s annual conferences — or to suffer the sales pitches that go with all of that – is also a measure of their forward-thinking.

When you come to the Recruiting Roadshow in Dallas make sure to look up itzbig’s Hank Stringer and Jim Hammock who along with our other great sponsors are making it happen!

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

In Atlanta there was a lot of emphasis placed on breakout sessions where individual track leaders lead workshops on a variety of topics. Over the span of these seven learning tracks there was a huge amount of information shared and a lot to think about as everyone returned to their daily routines.

In keeping with the Recruiting Roadshow being an experiment, in Dallas we’re changing it up a bit. As before, our goal is to provide a day of learning, community and networking. In Dallas we are planning to shift the emphasis from sharing content to sharing connections, building on the networking theme.

As we did in Atlanta there will be two keynotes. John Sumser will be presenting an updated presentation on multigenerational recruiting opposite Dallas’s own recruiting legend, Bill Vick – more on that later.

As before, Don Ramer, CEO of Arbita will be providing refreshments and lunch to keep everyone’s energy at a level to match the pace of the day’s events. Those events will include a series of networking and learning activities to produce more than just lessons learned but also a few ah-ha moments about the nature of our recruiting communities.

These networking sessions are going to be led by leading practitioners from both agency and corporate recruiting environments with something special added to the mix for everyone to take away and build on – more on that later too!

So, stay tuned as we get the engines turning over to deliver what promises to be a fantastic day!

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 7503

To keep ahead of all the latest news and developments you can either bookmark this page or subscribe to the feed. Either way, stay posted!

To register now, click here…

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

Don Ramer, Founding Partner and CEO of Arbita, industry leader and road warrior has been a solid supporter of the Recruiting Roadshow from the beginning.

Anyone who has taken the trouble to get to know Don — and you should — will appreciate that he has a point of view which is telescoped through various interests, interests that bring recruiting closer for us to see in the context of life. If you have read Don’s blog, The Art of War for Talent — and you should — you will also appreciate that his strategic thinking and business savvy is shaped by his study of great military thinkers, among other things of course.

Napoleon said an army marches on its stomach. It is widely thought Napoleon meant warriors must eat well to soldier on. However, Don instructed me when we last met what Napoleon really meant was this: Campaigns are won and lost on the armies’ ability supply the frontlines with food, clothes and what-have-you. In other words, do not forget the logistics!

Don has again generously agreed to feed everyone who comes to the Dallas Recruiting Roadshow. In this way, his support for our event is obvious. Not quite so obvious though are all the things that Don does behind the scenes to ensure no one ever has to question how the rations actually got there.

More than an ally, Don is a friend. Thank you.

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

By most estimates the Atlanta Recruiting Roadshow was a success. The people who turned up left with a variety of things that ran the gamut of positive impressions, affirmations and lessons learned, acquaintances made and friendship renewed.

That’s how it was meant to be and how it is hoped it can continue.

I cannot talk to most people’s experience when it comes to delivering the Recruiting Roadshow’s promise of “bringing physical community to social networks” but for those who I have spoken to I am told the day was a force multiplier for their networking efforts.

For me I can say that the value of this collaboration with John Sumser has been immense and continues to grow. My personal network has been enriched and expanded. I’m excited about the road ahead.

More, my whole view of the intrinsic value of networking – as well as the mechanics of it – is changing. I will be documenting that process as this journey progresses. Also, I will be exploring other aspects of networking that dovetail with the Recruiting Roadshow’s underlying theme of building physical community and enfranchising more local recruiters. So, stay posted for that and the continuing updates for Atlanta!

There were some great lessons learned for John and me as we sat back and weighed the Atlanta Recruiting Roadshow in the balance. As we move forward on the next leg of the tour we will be applying some of those lessons and further testing our assumptions. After all, it is an experiment.