NY HR Week Post-Show Report

The NY HR Week™ conference took place May 4 – 6, in New York City.

THE GOOD

  1. The location was great – the Hilton on Avenue of Americas in New York City.
  2. The collection of three distinct conferences hit on hot employment sectors– HRO World, HR in Healthcare and HR and EEO in the Federal Workplace.
  3. The Platinum and Gold sponsors’ information was very visible.
  4. The vendors were set up and raring to talk to all attendees in the exhibit hall.
  5. All of the attendees, both HR practitioners and vendors were treated very well with fabulous meals and registration goodies.
  6. I think that the conference was organized well – it was easy to find where you needed to be, the volunteers were very helpful and friendly, the list of the topics and sessions were well thought out and seemed to be relevant to the issues and pains experienced by those HR professionals in the specific track. They even had one-on-one sessions if the attendees wished, with thought leaders in each of those tracks. For anyone attending to learn and receive various insights on their issues – this was a valuable conference for that.

THE NOT SO GOOD

Why was it not as successful as it could have been? I see a number of things playing a role in this:

  1. Unfortunately, there was not always the buzz of conversation happening on the exhibition floor. The vendors indicated that the majority of the attendees were within the Federal Track, and only a very small percentage of the vendors would sell into that target. Where were the rest of the attendees?
  2. The sessions were scheduled during the exhibit hours, and so it is hard for any attendee to be at two places at once. However, word was that those sessions were not full either. The session that I attended had a speaker that was the HR director from the largest employer in US, and there may have been a dozen participants. It was first thing in the morning and it was in the Federal track, so perhaps that explains the lack of attendees, but I am not convinced of that.
  3. The meals and breaks were fabulous, however they were not in the exhibit hall, and in order to get to them, you did not have to pass through much of the exhibit floor and a seasoned professional could very easily pass by those five or six vendors with eyes averted.
  4. I hate to state the obvious BUT the economics of our times have forced many companies to restrict, freeze or eliminate any travel budgets for those HR practitioners that would have benefited from this conference. Though being in New York City, you would have thought that local corporations would have sent people, and that would have boosted the numbers.
  5. Even some of the vendors decided to pull out of exhibiting at this conference, and again I presume, due to restricted budgets. I noticed a couple of HR Solution providers who decided to be a Platinum/Gold sponsor, BUT choose not to exhibit on the floor. To save money on travel and shipping, and yet still have a presence? I would think so and perhaps a strategy that will work best right now.
  6. I did not hear about many exciting, new announcements. The floor was interestingly silent about that – but some very exciting awards were given out on Tuesday night at the Awards Ceremony at the Russian Tea Room.

THE VERY GOOD

A number of HRmarketer clients were in the winner’s circle and more were nominated for some awards and we are very proud of their achievement.

  1. Kelly OCG was honored with an award for “Customer Relationship of the Year” Large Market because of their long standing relationship with GE Money.
  2. ADP was also awarded with an award for “Customer Relationship of the Year” in the Mid Market with The E.W. Scripps Company. ADP was also nominated for another award with their client Sodexo.
  3. We are also proud of our clients that were nominated for these awards – SilkRoad Technology with their client Plante & Moran; Ceredian with their client Veyance Technologies and The RightThing with their client WellPoint. The RightThing’s president, Jamie Minier, was also nominated for Innovative Executive of the year.

The NY HR Week has been offering an organized and varied program for seven years now, and I anticipate that they will continue to have this event. Will this year encourage the organizers to revitalize the program for the benefit of the sponsors and attendees? Or are they convinced that the results have a direct relationship to the economy? Sorry, I can’t answer that – but I can say – gee I love NYC.

Posted by Rita Jackson.

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