Blake Mycoskie from TOMS Shoes
I’ve been to more than a few conferences in the past year… in fact, it’s starting to feel a bit like a foggy mess of speakers, social hours and information overload.
I don’t mean that in a bad way, but there does come a point when you start to forget and everything starts to mesh together.
Perhaps this is also the point when the culmination of ideas that one has been exposed to start to mold and become personal – the whole “I don’t know how I know this, but it seems like something I’ve heard of…” shift.
When I saw the roster for the 2010 Human Capital Summit, I was energized with the speaker list.
Human Capital Summit 2010, Tucson, AZ
Unlike many of the conferences I’ve attended lately, this is what I would refer to as an un-unconference – or, in other words, a conference. Schedules, no cell phone usage reminders and lots of dress-to-impress clothes. The speakers have written books as opposed to starting online followings (in many cases)… and the participants are from large corporations with big budgets behind them.
Beyond the initial shock that no one was walking around in flip-flops with a flip cam, I settled in to old conference life pretty quickly. Of course, I didn’t bring along any dress up clothes, so I guess that’s only partially true. Nonetheless, I sat through the opener and the second opener and the first speaker, etc…
There were some real golden nuggets of information shared today, so I’ll just get right to it.
Geoff Colvin, Fortune Magazine
He was great and I really enjoyed his style. Starting out with the current headlines, he reminded the audience that the only way our companies will be successful is with the right people.
He stressed that attracting talent should be the most important key competency if we are going to push our organizations to be the best. Check out his website.
Here is a video I found of him on YouTube.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqdFoLxRn-s
Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Shoes
Blake is the man – I mean, c’mon… the guy started a company that gives as much back as they take. For every pair of shoes that someone buys from TOMS Shoes, a pair of shoes is donated to a child in need. Blake has a common sense approach to changing the world and it is quite inspiring.
If you haven’t visited their site already, check them out: Website Link. You can find Blake on Twitter here.
Here is a cool video with the history of the company.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTQsQUu1Ho8
Jim Carroll, Futurist, Trends and Innovation Expert
I found this presentation to be pretty “in your face” and inspiring. This may have to do with the fact that I love the topic of innovation… but, that aside, I think that the audience was forced to sit back and say “Wow! I need to change the way I think.”
Boiling down his message, I left with the notion that companies who ignore the speed of change will be left in the past. To be the future, you have to think about the future.
Check out the video below and perhaps visit his website.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yajhwh5_-k8
Great message Jim! I enjoyed it!
Polly Pearson, EMC
I’ve wanted to hear from Polly Pearson for a while on the topic of social media/networking within a larger organization.
Polly brought the audience through the steps that EMC took in order to roll-out and embrace a larger strategy. It was pretty cool to listen to her laid back style for making the overall approach function. The messages I took away were: Trust, ROI, Baby Steps and Find A Bigger Bully Than Legal.
Trust your employees to act like adults and make good decisions.
ROI = Risk Of Ignoring = If you don’t get involved with social media, your competitors may… are you okay with that?
Take Baby Steps in getting the organization on board – start with an internal network and let it build towards being external facing.
Finally, if Legal wants to shut you down and is acting like a bully, find a bigger bully than legal to help you along with your cause.
Here is a video of Polly speaking at the Gravity Summit.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CktwxxiNkI
John Phillips, Microsoft & Doug Berg, Jobs2Web
John and Doug definitely earned the Tactical Award for the day!
This was not a conversation about potential methods for using social media in recruiting – nope! This was a down to the bones, real picture, show you the steps kind of presentation that had plenty of metrics to back up the claims.
First of all, I commend Microsoft for embracing forward-looking methods in recruiting… kudos to John for being able to articulate the business case for use.
Second, Jobs2Web is amazing! I’m not often left sitting back saying “Wow!” – but this did it. Really, really, really good stuff… and it’s all backed up with metrics. Doug Berg knows his recruiting stuff and it shows!
Check out the Jobs2Web website when you have a second – it’s pretty cool!
So, that’s the story for Day 1 at the HCI 2010 meeting. Lots of information to take in, but it’s been well worth it thus far!
If you are interesting in following the hashtag on Twitter, you can find the Tweet under #HCI10
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