Shauna Moerke is…

I can’t understand how spring and summer can pass by in a haze of laziness only for fall and winter to smack me around with busyness. Is busyness even a word? Anyway, I’m going to be bouncing around the US over the coming months, though not as much as I had wanted to originally. And who knows, things will probably change. If there is one constant this year, it’s that my plans rarely survive a few months.

Nevertheless, here’s where I’m going to be:

Talent Camp, Oct. 18th through 21st: The totally awesome Susan Burns is bringing together a lot of really cool people to talk about some big ‘What if’ questions about talent. I hear there will be a beach house, wine, and a lot of deep conversations. I expect to learn a lot and don’t think I won’t be sharing the learning with all of you.

HRevolution, Nov. 6th through 7th: HR Bloggers Unite! Finally an “un-conference” dedicated just to us. What started out as a simple thought on Twitter has blossomed into something that is going to be fun, casual, and a great opportunity to meet some of the coolest bloggers out there. I expect geeking out, maybe a live HR Happy Hour, and no small amount of laughter.

Washington, DC, Jan. 26th through 28th. I will be in DC on a secret mission and I’m going to want to tweetup with you, yes you! I will either be really happy and in a mood to celebrate, or I’m going to be sad and need some cheering up. Either way, we’re going to have some fun so keep your calendar free!

Here’s where I wish I was going to be:

Talent Management Summit, Oct. 26th through 28th: Originally, I was planning on attending and I’m very sad I can’t go now. If you are attending, you lucky person you, please be sure to give Lisa and Sharlyn hugs for me and call Jason a punk monkey (and then give him a hug) for me.

Fail Spectacularly Party, Nov. 4th: Jason and Laurie are throwing a party and we’re all invited! It will be a night of schmoozing, fun, and you better bring your story to share.

Dudes, what is with me and not making it to Chicago for stuff? I live well within road trip distance. Dammit, I will make it out to Chicago this year! That’s all for me, for now, so my question is this: Where are you going to be?

So, in case you hadn’t noticed some recent talk on twitter about me, Chicago, and an HR conference, let me make it official: I will be in Chicago this October to attend the 12th Annual Talent Management Summit!

Now, you may be asking yourself, self, isn’t this the same conference that HR Minion attended last year, but in Vegas? Why, yes, you would be quite correct about that. Apparently, I didn’t scare them away with my antics last year (i.e. Heckling, twittering about drinking games, whining about my poor feet, etc.).

I certainly wasn’t planning on attending any conferences this year, but then I learned that Sharlyn Lauby, the HR Bartender, and Jason Seiden were going to be presenting. Damn, that’s good. Surprisingly, a couple of casual twitters about the event and there I go and get myself invited to live blog/twitter the conference again. Then I go and drop Lisa Rosendahl’s, of HR Thoughts, name in the right twitter birdies ear and she gets invited to be a moderator! Do you doubt the power of twitter now? Do you?

So, to all you darling Chicago readers out there, and all you planning on attending the conference, I’ll be looking forward to seeing you this October! I’ll bring the irreverence, you bring the chocolate!

You’ve seen my Twitters and you’ve read my summaries, so I’m sure it won’t come as a big surprise that I wasn’t happy. I had a fun time in Vegas, but mostly due to non-convention related stuff.

I guess the reason I am disappointed was that I was expecting something more. Something better, something unique, something organized. I was not impressed with most of what I saw and I did not find many things of value (I’ve already mentioned which presentations I enjoyed).

What I found most upsetting was that when there was a quality presentation, inevitably it hadn’t been well promoted by IQPC and the attendance was poor. It was such a shame. I have to say that if I was a presenter I would have been annoyed. And if I had paid for the conference I would have been even more upset.

I had a wonderful time with my fellow bloggers, Jenn, Laurie, and Mark. That was worth the trip alone. But will I go to another IQPC event? Nope.

Sorry this summary is late! My day today consisted of: arriving home in Minnesota after a rough red eye flight, home to sleep for a few hours, work, home to sleep for a couple of hours, pick up the puppy, and eat. But now I’m somewhat alert and capable of forming coherent sentences so here we go with a summary of day two!

- Limping to the convention center in the quiet Vegas morning made me feel like a wounded animal being stalked by a predator. Not the most comfortable feeling. Later on I told the Husband he had to look all gruff and be protective.

- There was a distinct lack of attendees today. I think Vegas may have offered more temptations than the conference could overcome. The really sad thing is that I thought there were better presentations today than yesterday.

- Note to Presenters: If you don’t use or understand social networking, please stop pretending that you do. It is not “The Facebooks” or “The Myspaces”. Please don’t, I can’t stop laughing.

- If yesterday’s theme was simplify, today’s theme was diversity. I heard 3 presentations on diversity and all of them were great!

For example:
- Scott Fleming from Replacements, LTD did an awesome job demonstrating the impact a commitment to diversity and inclusion can have on your company and your workforce. “The rewards far outweigh the challenges of doing the right thing.”
-The ladies from Herman Miller, Inc. stepped up and provided helpful strategies on how they are working to improve their diversity and inclusion. The dedication and commitment is crucial and it’s important to hold even the executives accountable by making it a part of their performance goals.
- Nicole Ganier-Cosme from Magic Workforce blew me away! Far and away the highlight of the conference for me. A recently launched staffing firm arm of the Magic Johnson Enterprise that is partnered with Adecco. Their goal is to reach out to minorities in urban communities and get them working in the corporate world. By leveraging the goodwill and community connections of the Magic Johnson Enterprise they are going to make a huge impact. Please look forward to a future post just on them.

- Lunch, dinner, and drinks with Laurie, Jenn, Mark and his lovely wife, and the Husband was all kinds of fun. Jokes were made, information was shared, and a great time was had by all.

That’s all for now, tomorrow I’ll provide an overall impression of the conference. Here’s another tantalizing photo of lunch at Dos Caminos. Check out the cool skulls in the background.

BTW, more photos can be found on The Facebooks!

It’s morning now, early, before the 2nd day of the Talent Management Summit starts. I’m getting up extra early just for you, my dear readers, so enjoy! After my first full day in Vegas, here are my thoughts:

- I brought the wrong shoes, which was only exacerbated by my poor memory regarding distances in Vegas. It took me 25 minutes to get to the Conference. I’m only 4 or 5 Hotels away!

-Can Caesar’s get any bigger? Seriously, I was walking past it for most of that 25 minutes.

-The conference wasn’t as big as I was expecting (still good considering the economy though) but it was a fairly diverse group and they all seemed quite serious. (too serious or too tired, your call).

- I don’t care if they want us to give back our badges (recycling), I’m keeping mine and the fun Press ribbon that came with it.

- My favorite speakers yesterday were Marc Effron from Avon and Susan Hailey formerly from Harrah’s. Both were energetic and interesting.

- No wireless access for HR bloggers = fail. My phone didn’t even last the day. I’m bringing the charger today.

- Jenn, Laurie, and Mark are all really cool in person and meeting up with them was worth the trip alone.

- Simple seems to be the overriding theme of the conference. Everyone was talking abut simplifying this, or that product was so simple to use, etc.

- I wish the presenters went farther and dug deeper with their presentations. I left wanting more, and not in a good way.

- The husband discovered that people don’t go to the hotel pools to swim, they go to sit around it, talk, and be seen.

- The monorail is not worth the price to only go two stops.

- People can be jerks on vacation, especially when trying to take advantage of a free shuttle. Be good and don’t cut in line. Manners exist on vacation too.

- Penn & Teller’s show was just as awesome as I remember and had a nice combo of new and old material. And let me just say that Penn was really, really nice to me when I went up to talk to him after the show. I was stuttering and nervous and he was very sweet. I’m not good with talking to people I don’t know but admire (weird huh? I have no problem talking to anybody else, even someone I admire but know.)

So that is my rundown of Day One. I will provide a Day Two summary later as well as an overall conference recap. Have a good day everyone, I’ll leave you with a group picture.