I’m excited because just six weeks from today, members of NPAworldwide and NBN will convene for our 2015 Global Conference. This annual event brings together our members from all over the world for two days of networking, training, and trading group breakout sessions. It’s a whirlwind of noise and activity. I love how excited our members are to see old friends and make new ones. I love to watch new trading relationships bloom. And I especially love the “ah-ha” moments when a brand-new member realizes how belonging to our global split placement network is going to benefit their business. I think there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings with your closest business partners … and I’m not just saying that because I happen to plan our meetings.

Here are 8 reasons you should attend recruitment conferences:

Learn – Obviously, recruitment conferences are a great place to learn about your industry – from social media best practices to legal changes to growth markets, and many other areas.

Share – Sharing is also an important part of a recruitment conference. Not only can you share your own expertise with fellow participants, you can also share what you learned with others in your office, or even your clients and candidates. Some events allow you to live-share via social media such as Twitter or Facebook.

Network – This is often cited by NPAworldwide members as their #1 reason for attending our Global Conference. They want to meet new trading partners who can help them make placements. The more networking time available, the happier they are. This can come in the form of small group discussions, shared meals, breaks, or social activities. Everyone wants to be connected.

Recharge – Everyone gets in a rut from time to time. Attending recruitment conferences can be a great way to break free of the “same old, same old” way of doing things. Perhaps you’ve forgotten some basic tools, or let a few skills get rusty. Being around a group of successful recruiters will help you recharge, refocus, and get back to your desk with a sense of renewed purpose.

Evaluate – You’ve heard about a new tool or piece of software, but don’t know if you should purchase it? Here is your chance to evaluate them! Other participants are probably using them. Use some of your networking time to ask questions, see what others are doing, and evaluate whether you can make any changes.

Discover – Recruitment conferences can be a fantastic way to discover new service providers, whether that be web designers, job boards, ATS, aggregators, or any number of recruitment-related offerings. You’ll have a chance to speak directly with representatives from those companies, perhaps even satisfied customers. You might have an opportunity to save thousands of dollars or thousands of hours of your time.

Purchase – “Show special” pricing is no joke. Whether it’s books, tapes, or other training materials available from the conference speaker, or other special deals, you can find some out-of-this-world discounts. It’s easy to dismiss the “show floor” as unnecessary. Don’t.

Visit – Last but not least, recruitment conference offers you the chance to travel, to visit a place you haven’t been before, to tie in a trip to meet up with clients, candidates, family, or distant friends. Get your money’s (and time’s!) worth out of the conference destination!

What’s your top reason for attending recruitment conferences? Share in the comments below!

Image courtesy of sixninepixels at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Last month I introduced the subject of discovering newly emerging recruiting jobs in the December 16 blog post, Pact With The Devil.

I also promised a follow-up in which I would share with you another layer of business opportunities I sometimes uncover as I call into companies every day looking for those hard-to-find candidates that aren’t exposed on social media.

I know some of you work directly with business owners who are glad to have someone take over the difficult process of hiring people. In this respect many of you become a trusted advisor and friend to these owners.

I also know that in this capacity some of you have listened to (or overheard) these owners mention that one of their plans for growth is in acquiring other companies. You may not realize it but you are in a particularly advantageous position to be on the front-end lookout position for this effort.

Let me tell you a story from that job I was working on in last month’s blog post.

As you recall, I was looking for a Director of Operations for a Midwestern heat exchanger manufacturer. They wanted a hands-on plant manager out of a discrete/engineered products manufacturer in Tornado Alley. I was calling into plants identifying plant managers on the first leg of my job.

I’d done that at fifty or so companies and the second leg of the job was to contact each one to see if they’d have an interest in speaking with the recruiter for the heat exchanger manufacturer.

I’d called and spoken with several when I got the seventh or eighth one on the line.

“Bob? This is Maureen Sharib and you don’t know me. I’m calling on behalf of XYZ and they’ve asked me if I would call you to see if you might have an interest in speaking with them about a Director of Operations position they have open at…”

Blah blah blah I finished my opening and he listened politely and then he said:

“Well, now that sounds all ducky and if I were at that point in my life I sure might be interested but seein’ as I own this joint I ‘spect I’m kinda’ stuck here for the time bein’….”

I swallowed hard knowing I’d made a mistake when I picked up the name – I’d called and asked who the “Plant Manager” was and whoever it was I spoke with gave me the Owner’s name! Now I know some of you are thinking, “Stupid mistake!” and it was, I admit, but hey, we’re all human!

What would you have done at this point?

Here’s what I did.

As I said I swallowed hard and then I said, “You’re the owner? I’m sorry. I thought you were the Plant Manager.”

“I’m that too,” he said, humorously. “I wear a lot of hats around here.”

“Do you think about selling?” came out of my mouth next.

Here’s why I said that.

This particular customer I was doing this job for has shared with me their strategy for growth and it includes buying other heat exchanger manufacturers. This gentleman owns one.

It never hurts to ask.

“I’m 71 years old,” he said. “I’m going to sell sometime.”

I’m not at leisure to share much more with you at this time about this particular transaction (maybe someday I will!) but suffice it to say there’s money out there for you recruiters that you’re not participating in (well, maybe some of you are!) that takes the form of bird-dog fees that can add up to some wonderful bonuses that can represent whole year recruiting volumes every so often.

Recruiting isn’t just about matching people to jobs anymore. It’s about matching people (and companies) to opportunities and you can be a part of that brave new world.

Did you notice one thing though, in this exchange?

I was calling people on the telephone.

I was talking to people.

As long as you’re doing that you’ll always be in the money stream.

***

I really appreciate that you took the time to read my post. I regularly write about phone sourcing and business development issues and trends. If you’d like to read more about the mysterious world of phone sourcing (it’s really not that mysterious!), Google my name and the word gatekeeper – lots of articles will come up for you that I’ve written over the years. It’ll be a good introduction for you to the subject!

Follow me on Twitter at @MaureenSharib and/or join my sourcing group on Facebook – Sourcers Unleashed.

Yes, I do (grudgingly) have a LinkedIn profile – send me an invite at maureen at techtrak.com – I’ll accept. I do post articles over there as well.

I own the phone sourcing/competitive sniffing firm TechTrak.com, Inc. that helps companies find and telephone contact candidates for their hard-to-place positions at fractional traditional recruiting costs.

You can always contact me at 513 646 7306.

Please be reminded that effective Monday, January 12th, blog posts from NPAworldwide will be distributed exclusively via Jetpack. Currently, we are running in a dual-distribution environment through both Feedburner and Jetpack. The Feedburner distribution will be shut down on January 11th. Any blog subscribers who have NOT re-subscribed to receive email from the new provider, Jetpack, will stop receiving new posts from us. RSS subscribers are NOT impacted by this change.

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We are taking a holiday break until early January. Thank you to all of our subscribers for following our blog and sharing our posts throughout the year – we appreciate your support! We’re looking forward to bringing you another year of great content, including contributions from special guest bloggers. Best wishes to all of you for a happy, healthy, and successful 2015!

In case you did not see these, here is a recap of our five most popular recruitment blog posts of the year:

6 Questions to Ask a Split Placement Network Before You Join – From “how much does it cost” to “who owns the network” and “how are disputes handled,” here is our list of six questions you absolutely MUST ask before joining a split placement network.

Mobile Job Search is the New Normal – Not only did Indeed acquire MoBolt (a technology platform that allows job seekers to apply directly for any job, from any device), Beyond.com announced that 64% of job seekers prefer to use a smartphone for their job search activities. View this blog for a link to the full infographic.

Differences Between NPAworldwide and Fee Trader – Prospective members often wonder how NPAworldwide differs from Fee Trader. One of the key differences is that Fee Trader has a ‘bidding’ option on posted jobs, but there are other differences as well. This post will give you a quick summary of the major differences.

Worldwide Recruitment Buzzwords of 2013 – LinkedIn offered an infographic of the top ten most overused buzzwords on their platform in 2013. NPAworldwide president Dave Nerz shares the LinkedIn infographic, plus added his own list of the top 10 buzzwords most overused by recruiters globally. Feel free to add your own ideas to the list!

Hot Specialty Niches for Recruiters – If you’re a generalist looking to develop a niche practice area, here are some suggestions on the hot specialty markets, based on data collected from NPAworldwide members.

Do you have any requests for blog content next year? We are always looking for content ideas; please add yours in the comments!

Remember to confirm your email subscription using the button below – we are completing our migration to a new email service. Beginning January 12th, all email notices will be handled solely by our new provider, Jetpack.