I know its day two but don’t ask me what day it actually is. I got up this morning wondering where my cat was and then realized I wasn’t at home, bummer.
Day two has been filled with mostly good stuff. Conference opened up with Awards and Earl Graves Sr.
Congratulations to the Birmingham companies recognized for their best companies awards. Also Ultimate Software for being #1 again for the second year in a row in Medium companies.
Earl Graves Sr, he gave a great speech and no one left without realizing that man loves his wife. He spoke about his life story from the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy. Graves got in a few funnies like “its hard to find qualified white people”. The crowd got a kick out of that one. Graves challenged HR professionals to “find and cultivate the next generation of leaders”
The remainder of my day was filled with a some what crappy lunch in which I made sodas appear, three sessions and of course the spoils of visiting vendor booths.
The sessions left me with more questions than answers. One session leader suggested leaders should only be slightly more of an expert in their field than their staff. Another posed questions about HR pros searching Googling for candidates. The last session was Egonomics and it was by far my favorite. The SHRM bookstore will see me tomorrow so I can purchase the book. The session was, what I presume to be, an overview of the book which is an in depth analysis of the level 5 group from Good to Great. According to the session leader, the top 2%, which are level 5’ers, have two rare traits; humility and an ego. Not the “you a-hole” ego either. The session was thought provoking and the session leader was a great speaker.
Tonight, the husband and I are off to find some dinner and entertainment. Looking forward to Sharlyn Lauby’s session tomorrow, hope to see you there!
Edited to add: Bourbon House Seafood – Fanstatic! We saw the Yahoo Hot Jobs party and they seemed to be having a blast, there will be a good bit of tired SHRM folk tomorrow!
