On Sunday October 4, 2014 many of you were probably watching your favorite football team either win or lose.
But while you were wiping hot wing sauce off your chin and burning the burgers – some of your HR contemporaries were here in Orlando taking advantage of the “pre-con” sessions. The pre-con sessions are held the day before the official start of the conference (hence the “Negative Day 1” in the title of this post) and based on what I saw in the sessions I attended, I’m pretty sure the folks here at HRFlorida 2014 had almost as good a time as you did watching the game. I say almost because let’s face it – you had chicken wings! Not much beats chicken wings.
I attended three of the five 3-hour sessions held during the morning and the afternoon. The session leaders were engaging and I was impressed with the level of interaction and content provided. The sessions weren’t overly crowded and the presenters did an outstanding job of creating interactive activities that not only got the attendees up and moving (no one likes to sit for 3 hours) but I’m sure there were some friendships made. The size of the sessions lent themselves to really great interaction and collaboration. What I particularly found impressive was that some of the learning that took place in the morning was brought forward and actually injected into the afternoon sessions. I think that shows how impactful these sessions were.
Now you may be wondering why I’m not providing more specifics on the sessions – well frankly – these sessions are “extra” bill so to speak. Attendees had to pay extra for all this HR goodness and in fairness – the real value is in the attending. I know how I feel when I buy my meal and they give the next guy in line a free one… (yeah like that ever happens – but you get the drift.)
I had a boss years ago who always said … “Monday through Friday I stay even with the other guy. I get ahead of him on the weekend.”
I’m not suggesting you work every weekend but the message is clear – doing what everyone else does just keeps things even. If you want to do better, do more, do greater – then you have to make the extra effort. From my perspective – those that came in early for the pre-con sessions did the extra credit work and I’m sure they will be putting it to good use on the job when they get back from #HRFL14.
Next year – check the pre-con sessions and think about how one extra day might just help you pull ahead in your career and make a much bigger impact at your organization. I’m sure you’ll learn something and you will make some new friends.
And BONUS: And you can always get chicken wings in the hotel bar after the sessions.
Paul Hebert
Vice President – Solutions Design
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/paulhebert/ | Twitter Profile: @IncentIntel
Skype: mr.paul.hebert | Google+: https://plus.google.com/+PaulHebert/
Subscribe to our blog at: http://www.symbolist.com/blog (over 1,000 already do!)
We make your workplace a better place to work, grow, create, engage, live, breathe…be.
About Author
