It is a wrap on #SHRM21!
It is 5 days since I returned from Las Vegas and #SHRM21 giving me some time to reflect on the conference. This conference did not have the flash and pizazz of #SHRM19 also held in Vegas, but this conference was special in its own way. I will probably call it the Pandemic conference in years to come.
Biggest wins of the conference:
- Seeing in-person my #HRCommunity friends. It was great to see people that I had not seen in over two years and to meet new ones that I only knew through social media.
- #SHRM21Influencers. This group shrank to a third of its 2019 size, but we were a strong and mighty group. It was so much fun being a part of this crazy, fun group of talented HR professionals. This was my 4th year being part of this rag-tag band of Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram fans. By far this was the most meaningful year as we felt like survivors. We all hope you enjoyed all of our posts of pre-during-post conference.
- General sessions speakers. As a fellow Texan, I was fan-girling to see Opal Lee hit the stage on September 11th. She was mesmerizing. SHRM did an awesome job with the tribute to 9/11. Also, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Michael Phelps.
- Concurrent session speakers. There were so many awesome speakers this year that it was hard to choose which sessions to attend. Some of my favorites were Tim Sackett, Tony Lee and Steve Gilliland. Also, one of my besties was speaking at and attending SHRM annual for the first time, Tina Marie Wohlfield. She was fantastic, but I know I am biased.
- The food. In all the conference venues that I have attended over my 30+ years in HR, I think this year had the best boxed lunches. Everything was fresh and tasty.
Some areas for improvement:
- Talent Acquisition topics and vendors. What is keeping most HR folks up at night is the current issues of finding good employees. The Talent conference was a couple weeks before annual, so many of us who might attend both had to choose. I am looking for an ATS system and there were very few vendors in the Expo Hall which was a missed opportunity for them.
- The Entertainment. I am sure that many were happy with them, but I heard more folks telling me that they wish the entertainment was with more current artists.
- Swag for the certification lounge. Many folks were disappointed to not have some fun items with the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP on it.
All in all, this was a really good conference. Most of the in-person attendees were just so happy to get out of their homes. We missed seeing others. It was really great that so many (4000+) were also able to attend virtually.
See you in June in #NOLA #SHRM22 next year!
Paula Harvey is Vice President of Human Resources & Safety at Schulte Building Systems. Paula has been in HR for over 30 years. She serves on the board of the SHRM Foundation and the SHRM Talent Acquisition Panel. Find her on Twitter @Paula4Harvey or on LinkedIn.
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