It’s on. It’s Talent Connect time.
We're very excited to welcome close to 4,000 talent acquisition and HR leaders who have come together to celebrate a year of brilliant recruiting accomplishments and get inspiration for what’s ahead in 2016.
…And we promise that indeed there will be plenty of inspiration, light bulb moments, laughs and sheer energy from getting to connect with some of the best peers in your industry. Oh, and of course, we guarantee beautiful LA weather to ward off any pre-winter blues.
In that spirit, the conference kicked off today at the Anaheim Convention Center with a full house. See the photo essay below for a full recap of what happened:
1. Welcome to Talent Connect Anaheim – blue skies, palm tress, thousands of recruiting and HR leaders. All in all, the place to be.
2. The attendees started arriving at the conference center in the am to check out the venue and see the spiffy InLounge, complete with a LinkedIn profile photo booth and product showcase stations. This year’s theme is Connect + Inspire + Transform.
3. The event officially kicked off at 1pm with an energetic welcome from the hosts J.T. O’Donnell (CEO of CAREERLISM) and Wade Burgess (Vice President of LinkedIn Talent Solutions). J.T. challenged recruiters to embrace that they are the lifeblood of their companies and flex their muscles more often.
4. Wade Burgess then walked the audience though a memorable experience he had during a United Airlines flight – a personalized note from the plane captain (Denny Flanagan), acknowledging Burgess’ customer loyalty. The story was an inspiration for how small tweaks or a simple acknowledgment can have a profound impact on your work or day-to-day.
5. LinkedIn’s heads of HR and recruiting, Pat Wadors and Brendan Browne, then took the stage to acknowledge that while TA and HR often butt heads and may be skeptical of each other, there are great benefits of the two functions working closely together. Read the full story.
6. Hootsuite's Ambrosia Vertesi shared an exciting story of innovation and breaking down barriers in HR – the company recently launched an Open HR project. The goal of the project is to “open the kimono” on how the company (and other companies who want to join in) go about HR innovation. Read the full story.
7. After the keynotes, attendees headed to afternoon breakout sessions. There were over 30 talks to choose from, with topics ranging from how to recruit millennials to measuring the ROI of talent brand.
8. This year's 100 Most InDemand Employers for North America were also announced at the conference and the winners got a chance to pick up their awards and pose for a photo op -- these Disney recruiters certainly know how to bring on the celebration. To find out what companies made the list, check out our blog post.
9. With all the sessions wrapping up at 6 o’clock, the attendees headed to the welcome reception featuring the best of SoCal – an array of yummy food trucks, local wines and craft beers…and the best DJ in LA (move over Calvin Harris).
See you at Day 2!
Topics: Talent Connect
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