Guest Post By Tom McKeown, President of Aquire

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. read more »

While we are on the topic of customers…Dollars are tight these days and so many of our customers were concerned they wouldn’t make this year’s annual customer conference because training and travel budgets were greatly reduced. That is why the team decided to take this year’s conference to the Web. read more »

The return trip home from the IHRIM conference gave me time to reflect on the last few days. I visit, and we exhibit at, a lot of conferences and tradeshows. IHRIM is, and really always has been, a unique experience. The energy and community between the attendees is wonderful and contagious. Even though the economy is tough, these professionals know they need to invest in themselves and their businesses. read more »

Unfortunately, I found last week’s SAPHR 2009 conference content uninspiring. The sessions were redundant, covered by so many other shows, including last year’s SAPHR show.

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. read more »

When you are planning your visit to a conference please think about some of the following tips. These are provided by Marc Ramos, networker extraordinaire, who presents a “How to Network at OHUG” (Oracle HR User Group) to a standing room only crowd each year.

• 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. read more »