Category Archives: Illinois SHRM Conference

Review and Demo of @SlideKlowd – a Game-changer app for Events, Conferences and Training

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slideklowd

I’m on vacation in sunny California so I thought I would pull a few of my favorites from the archives. Check these folks out. 

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You never know who you’re going to connect with on the Twitters.

Back a few months I had tweeted a post in regard to me preparing for my SHRM Work/Flex presentation and happened to mention my Powerpoint. I received a follow from @SlideKlowd and checked into who they were – as I often do before simply clicking the ole “follow” button.

Upon my investigation I found out more about their amazing mobile and desktop app that allows greater engagement between presenters and their audiences whether it’s at conferences or events, online hangouts or training. I was so excited about the possibility of doing away with “the way we’ve always done it” and having to fill out those paper surveys after a conference session or keynote, for one. Secondly, I see how this can tremendously affect the way we communicate and present future events and / or training for HR and beyond.

Just think about the possibilities of having real-time engagement with your audience and being able to walk away with REAL data. I guess it could be terrifying to presenters who are boring and those who can’t engage an audience and the like.

My next step was to follow them back online and hear more about their product and services so I did just that. I was hoping to use SlideKlowd at my presentation in October but it was cutting it short.

I sat in with my new-found connection > Justin Foster, one of the founders of SlideKlowd, in a private one-on-one Webinar to share more about what they offered and I fell head over hills with this product. I like it so much, in fact, that I told several of my HR buds about it and scheduled a Google+ hangout for Justin to present the demo to them.

hangout with SlideKlowd

Here is the hangout >

Thanks Justin, for a superb job and for the fantastic job you guys are doing at creating a greater way to drive engagement.

Oh, you’ll want to check them out at SlideKlowd.com and connect with them on Facebook and Twitter. I can’t recommend them enough.

Here is their latest video introduction.

My take-aways from #ILSHRM12 – It’s a wrap!

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I’ve not been putting this post off because I didn’t get anything out of ILSHRM12, I simply have been exhausted, feeling ill, and trying to gather my thoughts so I make sense.

My social media friends were so gracious to hurry up and share their thoughts on the conference and I truly appreciate all they did to make it such a spectacular event. You can find a conglomeration of those here and here!

I enjoyed hearing Simon T. Bailey for the first time who encouraged us to “Be Brilliant” and of course told us all we “Were Dancers.” I swear I laughed every time he laughed. It was contagious. I always enjoy sitting in on my friends Joe Gerstandt and Jason Lauritsen with their fabuloso TalentAnarchy keynote as they always drive me to tears and regain the passion for what I do. They are experts in that, in fact. Oh, and thanks for your new book “Social Gravity.” I encourage you all to GET IT and read.

It was my first time hearing Cy Wakeman speak and let me tell you, I was impressed. I totally wish I could do a presentation like she pulled off, no notes, no crowded powerpoint presentations – simple and effective. Here’s a little video I took of her keynote discussing Drama -

This year was the first year ILSHRM set up a Social Media Lab for attendees to drop in and learn more about utilizing social media in their everyday work and personal lives. Our friends from Canadian Geoff Webb and Jeff Waldman and crew were so great to come and set up shop. They are the experts over at SocialHR.biz. Check em -

One of the sessions “The Billion Dollar Employee Crisis” by my friend and former business partner, Sue Salach, was great. I’m passionate about this topic of Caregivers in the Workplace, and unfortunately, folks didn’t flock to it. I think it’s something we don’t want to think about, yet it is costing companies billions in lost productivity. She wrote a wrap-up post on the session over on her blog The Working Caregiver. You need to check it.

Our awesome State Conference Director John Jorgensen, was so great to allow me to interview him for a few moments at the conference -

And finally, our friends at Dovetail Software sponsored the after hours Tweet up where I caught this great footage of a few HR pros getting down. I love this video :)

If you’d like to see more videos pre and post conference, hang out a little on my Youtube Channel. There’s lots more on this years fabulous conference.

That’s a wrap, folks!

Special Props:

Special thanks to Charlie Judy (@HRFishbowl) our host and emcee for the conference, our sponsors BC/BS of Illinois, Dovetail Software and cfactorWorks – who sponsored our mobile app. Also, a personal thank you to Carolyn Walsh, who was so great in helping me get that mobile app together. Thank you all.

I’m a SHRMinator – Up next, #ILSHRM12

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So this weekend, my friends and I head out to Oak Brook, IL to attend the annual Illinois State Conference of the Society of Human Resource Management . It just so happens, I was given the title “Social Media Chair” for the conference and was able to bring a lot of my online blogging and social media HR friends to be a part of my Social Media Press Team. Check out the team, if you aren’t connected with them, you should be.

We’ll be sharing the conference sessions on our blogs (including this one), on The Twitters, Facebook and wherever else we can find space to share. So, if you’re not into that kind of thing, tune out for a few days starting Sunday.

I hope you’ll stay with us as we run with it. It’s sure to be a grand conference, it always is. They do it up with a BANG! This year, we even have a first ever Mobile App, which I was glad to have been a part of the creation process. (Thank you @DonnaRogers – ILSHRM State Director, @JohnJorgensen – State Conference Director, and @DaveRyan – ILSHRM Director of Social Media)

Last year was my first time attending ILSHRM, and I was blown away by the caliber of folks speaking and those with whom I was able to meet in person. Taking that online experience into the real world, if you will. Although some of us would rather live in a cave and never come out except to eat, it’s good every now and again to meet up in person and have a beer together. Just don’t overdo the alcohol or you get stupid.

So, for more of an in-depth look into the conference go to the conference website, follow along on the Twitters with the hashtag #ILSHRM12, and stay tuned for some good stuff soon to come your way.

Oh, I almost forgot. I’ve got some good news next week after the conference on a new venture.So stay tuned and have a fabulous weekend friends.