We all hear that change is good and while I usually agree, I must admit that changing our live customer event to a virtual event was not one I was originally on board with. To say we have the greatest customers is an understatement. Which is why the entire Aquire team looks forward each year to hosting the Aquire User Conference. The event is filled with great sessions, workshops, networking and product training, but more importantly it’s the energy and the buzz you get from being around people that love your product as much as you do that makes it such a special event.

That being said, we understood that HR needs had changed a great deal in the past few months which was our motivation for going virtual. Travel and training dollars were non-existent and while I like my colleagues a great deal, I didn’t want to spend 3 days with just them at a resort – and no customers. Because of the momentum we have built over the past five years hosting live events, we didn’t want to lose that by not having a customer event at all this year. We weren’t sure if we would have four people or 400 attend our virtual sessions and were pleasantly surprised when we far surpassed our original attendance expectations!

The conference started with a fantastic keynote from Dr. Kevin Carlson, Associate Professor of Management at Virginia Tech. His keynote, “Rethinking HR Metrics and Workforce Analytics: Making Them Work For You,” set the tone for the remainder of the conference. The sessions that followed really focused on the impact that  accurate information has on an organization whether it be headcount management, succession planning before major workforce transitions, short and long term organizational modeling, tracking budgets in your org chart or generating org charts specifically for executives. The common theme was if you aren’t making your workforce data work for you then it’s not going to work at all. The tips, tricks and best practices that were shared by our presenters and participants were invaluable to all those attended.

So, while virtual worked this year, we are eagerly planning next year’s live event. But enough from me, here are some comments from customers who attended the virtual conference – customers we can’t wait to see in Dallas next year!

“Thank you for having the Virtual Conference this year. It was a great idea.”

“Great conference in today’s economy and a great way to get information out to the users. Great job.”

“For this time where we are all looking at cost containment, this format was very timely. I learned a lot about your new products and got some quick tips. Great change.”

“The virtual conference had the advantage that I probably would not have been able to attend any sessions if travel was involved.”

“We really appreciate this kind of event. It has been a great help to us.”

Amy has been with Aquire since 2002 and has more that 15 years of experience in marketing and event management.

I spent three days last week attending the 2009 ASUG SAPPHIRE USA show in Orlando. As I registered, someone told me total attendance was somewhere between eight and ten thousand. Walking the floor, it seemed to me the population was less than that. But from both the standpoint of company marquees and interest in purchasing something, the quality of the attendees was very good – a positive trend I have found at several tradeshows this spring.

Many of the SAP presentations seemed to focus around analytics, highlighting the wares offered by the Business Objects group. Every presentation, from finance to HR, showcased easy-to-compile graphs and making data more actionable for immediate business decisions. This was a change from last year, where talent and succession management seemed to be the prevalent topics. Succession management and planning were, surprisingly, nearly invisible this year.

As in the past, both ASUG and SAP did a fine job of providing real world customer presentations on most topics. I was particularly impressed with two excellent presentations, one from Comcast on creating competitive advantages with SAP, and one from Bayer about executing human resource transformations.

Even the breaks, lunch, and after hours events proved useful for networking with partners, customers, and prospects. All told, it was quality time very well spent.

A 25-year veteran of the software and technology industry, Tom McKeown has been with Aquire since 2005.

From the comfort of your desktop or conference room, you will hear first-hand from the experts how to effectively tackle some of today’s most challenging issues in HR. If you are a customer and have not yet registered, don’t let this great opportunity pass you by. Many of our customers worldwide are taking advantage of this opportunity and scheduling conference rooms for their employees. There is no limit to how many from your team can attend and best of all – it is free. Not a term you hear often these days!

Topics include:

• Using Analytics to Run your (HR) Business
• 5 Easy Steps to Better and Cleaner Data
• Succession Planning Before a Layoff
• Org Modeling and Budgeting
• And more!

Register for the Virtual Conference today!

We will miss seeing so many familiar faces this year in Dallas but expect to see them all again in 2010!

Cheers,
Lois

Follow Lois on Twitter: http://twitter.com/loismelbourne

They are looking for ways to improve their processes, ways to expand their minds and perspectives. They share ideas and develop new ones. My favorite quote from the conference was from an attendee. She said, “I’m so glad my company is not freaking out over this economy and is still investing in being great by sending people to conferences and tradeshows to learn and do research.” What a great attitude for both her and her company!

John W. Boudreau, Ph.D. was the opening keynote speaker Monday morning. My biggest take away (of many) from his presentation is that if your leaders and users are not learning how to be BETTER at their jobs by using your technology, then you need to change your approach to your technology or work on your education of how they use it.

For example, if your managers are not BETTER at leading and giving feedback because they are using your performance review system, then it isn’t a very good system. Efficiency is not enough. That gave me MANY ideas to consider and I will be asking LOTS of questions about that for a long time. There are so many layers to the concept that we may talk about it again in this space. I would like your comments, too.

The IHRIM organization is continuing to improve. There were announcements about a bigger slate of webinars to bring education to all members who need to expand their education and awareness, as well as about the new certification for HRIS and HR Technology professionals which to begin in September. I encourage you to participate and invite your colleagues. The energy of this group is invigorating.

Cheers,
Lois

It’s a shame, because those people who did have to fight for their travel budget deserved a lot more. It makes you wonder what will happen to their budgeting for next year. Many people were frustrated.

If you’ve done any shopping in retail stores lately, you know that many of them have found the religion of keeping customers. They are striving to provide the best service they possibly can. Now is not the time to frustrate your customer.

On the other hand, the expo floor at the conference afforded us great conversations with customers, prospects, and partners. I completely enjoyed speaking with all of you who stopped by the booth. I hope we offered you good advice in return for your efforts of stopping by.

Cheers,
Lois

• Do your planning: Who do you want to meet?
• Don’t “Work a Room”…”work” can be tedious, laborious, and sometimes painfully awkward – just socialize instead.
• Leverage a “Wing-Man/Wing-Woman”…think Maverick/Goose (Top-Gun). Network with a partner so that you can feel more comfortable when you walk up to a group.
• Diversity: talk to others who are VERY different than yourself. Age, Race, Gender, Role…you’ll be pleasantly surprised with your findings.
• Be humble/generous: the greatest networkers in the world are Shoe-Shine professionals at the airport. They have a ton of information to share and make you feel like the most important person in their world during your time with them.
• SMILE…this incredibly simple act invites conversation.

There are many great opportunities for HR education and networking this fall. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I thought I would share several good choices.

HR Technology Conference Large industry show covering the technology and best practices it takes to implement the technology well.

HR-XML Technology conference designed for those needing to integrate systems or make systems interoperate.

SHRM Strategy Conference
Creating the HR Leadership Agenda

OAUG (Oracle’s User Group) and Quest have great conferences in Virginia, Atlanta, and Midwest; and other conferences have education for Peoplesoft and Oracle users.
HR.com’s Employer of Excellence

Certification Classes for PHR, SPHR, GPHR
A challenging endeavor worth the time you put in, because you are getting new ideas while you are diving into the intricacies of the HR trade. (December is testing the window.)

Then there are the webinars – WONDERFUL webinars – and too many to list here, but check out sites like:

http://www.shrm.org/
http://www.ihrim.org/
http://www.hr.com/
http://www.hronline.com/
http://www.workforce.com/

Cheers,
Lois