The SHRM Annual Conference, or The Big Show, as I prefer to call it, has a huge number of program offerings, it can make trying to decide what sessions to attend mesmerizing. So hopefully reading a few of these blogs posts about some of the presenters and/or some of the sessions will help give you some insight as to what might be a good session.
One of the measures I often look to is if the speaker has presented before. Well, the session I am going to talk about in this post has a presenter named Brad Karsh. Brad is another "one of the buddies" from Illinois, so I am a little biased.
This is going to be Brad’s sixth year in a row presenting at The Big Show. It would seem that they think he has done a pretty good job based on that fact alone. And this year, Brad is doing two sessions: one on Monday called The New Golden Rule: Relationship Management at Work and another session on Tuesday called Presenting When You’re Not in the Room. This is the session I am really interested in attending.
Not that different than most of you, I suspect, I often Google someone, a presenter, a business contact, or new customer before I meet them IRL (in real life). I did this with Brad and found out this dude has some cache. CNN (as well as a number of other media outlets) have asked for his opinion on some HR matters. Check out this 2013 clip from CNN:
Brad is also an author, which you picked up on if you clicked through to the video. So this guy is pretty well credentialed to talk to a bunch of HR folks, at least according to @DaveTheHRCzar.
I asked Brad about the session, Presenting When You Are Not in the Room. I asked him to tell me about it without giving away all of the details. Brad said one of the takeaways from the session it this: When you are doing one of these events -- a conference call, a video call, a webinar or such -- he will show attendees how to put forward the best possible YOU.
Brad added that when you talk to these people, you have to talk to them like you would talk to a friend at a restaurant. He even quipped that some folks might be a little looser after a couple of beers (I would). He also talked about being keenly aware of the circumstances of the event. Know that the people on the other end are going to be giving half of their attention – at best.
There is a whole bunch more, but you are going to have to show up to get that – sorry!
While Brad’s day job has him speaking most of the time, he does spend a lot of time playing in the HR Pond. I asked him about the most positive thing he has noticed about us folks who work in HR. Brad said he has seen that we all care deeply for our companies and the people they support. He said, “I think they want to make work as good as they can for as many as they can.” Hmm… sounds like Brad holds most of us in pretty high regard!
So if I haven’t hooked you into attending this session, Presenting When You’re Not in the Room, I have this for you: I asked Brad what is one of the most notable facts about himself, and this is what he shared with me: “I have gambled at casinos and have driven rental cars of five different continents!” That alone is enough to get me in the door, and I will be there.
I hope to see you there, too. You can find me on twitter as @DaveTheHRCzar, tweet me and I will find you in the room.
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