Can you believe it’s the last day of August already? That means that it’s the end of summer and also the last chance to get the best price on RecruitFest! tickets. Ticket prices go up tomorrow! Be sure not to miss these track leaders and all the great conversation. If you missed the agenda, here is the schedule again to plan for.

• Informal Tweet-up on October 6th, 7-10pm
• Conference on October 7th, 9am-5pm
• Big Party on October 7th, 8pm-12am
• Conference on October 8th, 9am-3pm

Check out the fun from last year!

The recruitment industry marketplace is a big place. There are a lot of players, big money, and high stakes. However, there is a core group of people to whom the industry seems to pay attention. They are seen everywhere, set the trends, and act as evangelists not for just a certain technology, but a set of principles. Although young, Sarah White is already in this group. She is advancing the recruitment technology industry for the better and is already a major influencer of both online and offline industry conversation. We’re happy and proud to announce Sarah White as a track leader for RecruitFest! 2010.

Sarah quickly became deeply embedded in the world of talent acquisition software and recruitment technology. In her current role as Chief Strategy Officer of HRMDirect – a SaaS Talent Acquisition (Recruiting & Onboarding) technology for small to midsized business, she provides strategic direction & planning, oversees marketing & alliances and provides regular training and education to internal staff, partners, clients and various groups on industry innovations, best practices and process improvements. Through a cultured, nonpartisan perspective, Sarah successfully crosses from a pure marketer to an agnostic technology evangelist.

Sarah is a highly prolific blogger. She participates in a number of online forums and is active on Twitter. Her articles have been featured on ERE, Recruiting Trends, RecruitingBlogs, Institute of Management Journal, Hirevue Corporate Newsletters, and Brazen Careerist. People outside of our industry are taking notice. She has been cited as an industry expert by the Wall Street Journal, NBC National & Local News Stations, various newspapers, business journals, radio shows & online radio/podcasts.

Sarah is also a tenured speaker at recruiting and business conferences and events. In the past few years, she has been asked to speak at Kennedy/OnRec,  South by Southwest (SXSW), TRU, HR Evolution, Talent Net Live, and the National Industrial Manufacturers Association (NIBA).  She has also had the chance to serve as keynote, motivational, breakout, workshop, private trainer or guest speaker on a regional and local level at a number of prestigious groups as SHRM, HRMA, Young Professionals Group (YP), Children’s Miracle Network, University of Wisconsin system schools, MRA Annual Conferences, Job Camp, CEO Roundtables, Social Media Programs and a number of Corporate Clients nationwide. She is a highly engaging and experience conference leader and will contribute greatly to the discussion at RecruitFest!

You should get to know Sarah before RecruitFest! if you don’t already. You can read her I’m So Corporate blog and hear her thoughts on things like the value of mentorship and social networking. From Sarah you will learn a lot about recruitment technology, industry trends, and insight into the acceleration of social media. But more than that, Sarah might be able to speak about how to impact an industry and leave your mark. Early in her career, Sarah’s already a known force in the recruiting industry. She is someone you can learn from and someone that you’ll want to know. See her at RecruitFest! this October!

Hey, I’m not afraid to say it. According to some very loose calculations of my own, a good 89% of people who go by online handles are certifiable. Other people like RecruiterGuy aka Chris Hoyt, use one because they’re fully committed to an industry – they want people to associate them with their professional work. It’s not a way of hiding, it’s a way of engaging and developing a cohesive body of work and principles. Chris Hoyt, perhaps more than any other practitioner in our industry, exemplifies engagement and leadership. RecruitFest! is proud to welcome Chris Hoyt as a track leader for RecruitFest! 2010.

Professionally, Chris has worked to develop effective recruitment strategies and employment branding at some of the largest global companies. He has worked for 15 years in recruitment, covering the full life-cycle of candidate engagement and sourcing to on-boarding and consulting. He is currently a Talent Engagement and Marketing Leader at PepsiCo and prior to PepsiCo, he was the Associate Director of Talent Attraction at AT&T. His role at AT&T involved developing interactive strategy and use of metrics to create the holy grail of a personalized, yet efficient and monitored recruiting process. In his current role at PepsiCo, Chris is responsible for the implementation and sustainability of PepsiCo’s digital and social recruiting strategies inclusive of managing Internet communities, analytics and 3rd party recruitment partnerships. Sounds challenging, right? Executing programs such as these on a global level require a particular form of creative discipline that few possess.

Can I say that I wish RecruitFest.com looks as good as RecruiterGuy.Net? Chris is a practitioner who takes blogging and participation in the industry as a necessity. He uses it as a tool both for discussion and communication with others in the space and as a platform for ideas about moving recruitment forward. What is most incredible however, is perhaps not only the content and engagement, but the actual idea that he advances. Chris is in part responsible for pushing the concept of personalization and socialization of the recruitment function. The very concept of personalizing international brands is relatively new; the concept of the individual recruiter as a core component of employment marketing for a large corporation is bleeding edge. The interactive, engaging, and and brand-centric model that Chris evangelizes may very well be the model of talent acquisition in the future.

No matter what function you serve in general HR, corporate recruitment, or agency recruiting, you will learn a lot from Chris and enjoy the discussion with him. However, get to know him before the conference. You can read about his past experiences at recruiting conferences, his thoughts on mobile and social recruiting, or just his issues with pepper grinders. He’s also been an active participant at some strange site called RecruitingBlogs. (Chris, there are few that wear the hat so well.) We’re excited to have Chris Hoyt at RecruitFest! and know he will challenge your thinking, teach you a thing or two, and help you push your company into the future.

John Nykolaiszyn is experienced in almost every aspect of recruiting and human resources. He started humbly smiling and dialing at Maxim Group, earned a partnership in a boutique firm and made a successful transition into corporate HR in two very challenging industries, healthcare and quick service restaurants. He’s been a senior recruiter at one of South Florida’s largest teaching hospitals and a generalist at a high tech laboratory startup owned by one of the largest private hospital chains in the country. In addition to his corporate recruiting responsibilities at Burger King Corporation, he was a key member for promoting the employment brand in the social space.

He’s now responsible for representing the College of Business Administration at Florida International University, to employers on a local, national and yes, even international level. John has seen the industry from every angle and it’s why we’re excited to announce him as a track leader for RecruitFest! 2010.

Very few boutique consulting and advisory firms can claim the global reach of Dr. John Sullivan & Associates. Their practice counts the majority of the Fortune 100 as either current or past clients. They are a leading advisory firm for strategic HR planning, employment branding, metrics, and integrated talent management programs. We are very pleased to welcome Master Burnett, Managing Director for Dr. John Sullivan & Associates, as a track leader for RecruitFest! 2010.

Master Burnett’s role is complex; he is a researcher and strategic advisor. As a researcher, he closely monitors emerging trends in organizational planning and explores new practices and technology. His approach to talent acquisition and management is data-centric; Master’s research provides metrics and data to an industry plagued with guesses and soft estimates. As an advisor, Master consults with clients on talent strategy and helps optimize overall productivity. The scope of his work goes well beyond the sourcing and acquisition design of most talent strategy programs and rather extends to performance management and corporate learning.

While most of his clients are the larger companies of the world, Master has a particular interest and expertise in managing fast growth technology companies. Prior to working with Dr. John Sullivan & Associates, Master worked directly as a technical and executive recruiter for a boutique search firm in Silicon Valley. They specialized in partnering with newly formed high technology companies to build out the first string engineering and technical marketing teams. During and from this experience, Master developed a workforce planning model for high growth ventures. This model still informs the structure of leading venture backed firms experiencing the need for rapid hiring and expansion.

Although this short write-up makes Master’s work appear highly specialized and specific to talent management strategy, it is perhaps best to think of him as an explorer, a diverse and creative thinker. Master’s work has taken him to more than 42 countries and he has explored culture from an organizational and gastronomical perspective. (He’s a trained pastry chef committed to mastering global cuisine.) His perspective is valued not only by publications like Workforce Magazine and PersonnelToday, but also Forbes, BusinessWeek, and the Wall Street Journal Asia. He is also a direct contributor to online discussion – you can view his recent thoughts on the necessity for HR leadership and talent gaps in labor planning.

Master Burnett’s work is testimony to the broad reaching implications of a career in recruiting and talent management. When functioning at its height, talent management informs and effects every aspect of a company’s success. Master’s work challenges corporations to reach excellence through a nuanced, concrete, and engineered approach to talent strategy. His opinion and perspective is unique and intelligent – two reasons why he will be an invaluable contributor to the discussion at RecruitFest! 2010.

There are some people who excel at their jobs. Others stand out as leaders at their companies and in their fields. There is a third category of people who help craft the dialog of an industry and redefine and promote the profession itself. Susan Burns is squarely in the third category. She is a leading voice in talent acquisition and helps push the boundaries of what corporate recruiting can be. We are proud to announce Susan as a track leader for RecruitFest! 2010.

Throughout her career, Susan has helped organizations build effective workforce models. Her work covers the full gamut of talent acquisition from selection to retention. She has helped plan and deliver talent attraction and branding campaigns, technical and social media projects, long term planning models, and key high volume staffing programs on a global scale.

Her corporate work includes a position as Worldwide Talent Acquisition Leader with Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, one of the largest global public relations companies. Previously, she was Operating Vice President of Employment Initiatives and College Relations for Macy’s. Through her work at Macy’s, BusinessWeek named the company one of the Top 50 employers for new college graduates.

Most recently, Susan founded Talent Synchronicity, which is a leading consultancy focused on effectively aligning the talent and business functions of large scale corporations. Through her work, Susan advocates for a strong, leading edge talent acquisition function and strategy. Her leadership in the industry helps recenter the talent function as a core nexus of value. What does that mean? She not only helps companies create business value, she advances both the perception and reality of the recruiting career. She is someone you need to talk to if you want to make your career in recruiting be all it can be.

Susan finds some time to put her ideas to screen. Be sure to check out some of her recent thoughts on risk avoidance within talent strategy and using social networks for communication and engagement. She has made tremendous contributions to the field of recruiting, and we are pleased to welcome back Susan Burns as a RecruitFest! track leader.

It’s been another exciting week for RecruitFest. Plans are coming together. Track leaders are being assembled. To-do lists are being accidentally thrown away checked off and completed. Here are the announcements we made this week:

• We announced China Gorman as a track leader. She’s been a leader in human capital services for many years and a driving force at SHRM. She doesn’t want you to believe what we tell you about her but I don’t want you to believe what she says about herself. There, I’ve said it.
• We announced Mike Ramer as a track leader. He’s a sought after recruitment trainer who actually knows how to recruit. Imagine that? The last time I spoke with him he was going to an important client. Visiting clients? Imagine that?
• We announced Tim Dineen as a track leader and I made fun of my ignorance about what he does. He’s a specialist in search engine optimization for job posting and employment websites. It’s important stuff to know about whether you’re a Fortune 500 or work out of your home office.
• We told you how to trick your boss into buying your ticket. Umm… don’t show them this post either.

Next week, we are announcing more great track leaders and beginning the discussion around online introductions, webinars, and happenings to take place before the conference. By the time you make it to RecruitFest!, we want you to know the track leaders well, understand key topics of discussion, and have a good sense of what it’s all about.

Hey that cool picture was taken by this guy. Never seen Foucault’s Pendulum swing over an Aztec Calendar Stone before? Me neither.

The last time I met with Tim, we were sitting in a Dunkin’ Donuts. The subject of canonical URLs came up. It was the first and most likely the last time the subject was ever broached in that particular venue. “Yes,” I remember saying while looking vaguely into the distance… “canonical URLs…”

I love talking about SEO (search engine optimization) stuff probably more than Tim does. But the difference is, Tim really knows what he’s talking about. He is a true expert in Internet marketing and SEO, particularly in relation to job search, job posting, and employment websites. We’re happy to announce that Tim will be a track leader for RecruitFest! 2010.

Tim brings a rich understanding of both the technical and functional matters of job search on the web. Recently, he was the Online Marketing Manager for Indeed.com, a leading search engine for jobs. He helped the company grow its online web traffic to 20 million visitors per month by optimizing their search engine marketing, content, and domain strategies.

With such technical experience, you would assume that Tim’s background was in software development or another technical field. Instead, he draws upon a degree in Journalism and Public Relations to craft cohesive content strategies and effective employment branding techniques. His background also includes an entrepreneurial endeavor, as the first developer of Exposure.com.

Throughout his career, Tim has stayed squarely rooted in the world of online recruitment. He is now Vice President of Internet Marketing at Onward Search, a staffing company focused on Interactive and Internet Marketing talent. He drives Onward Search’s online job listing exposure through SEO, SEM, and Social Media strategy. In addition, he is building a software platform called Recruitics, which will facilitate recruitment marketing and analytics.

So how does all this stuff apply to you? No matter if you are an individual agency recruiter looking to be found in local job searches or a major corporation looking to build high volumes of qualified job seeker traffic, Tim’s expertise is important and timely. You need your jobs and your company to be found on the web and Tim can help.

The topics he began tinkering with back in 1997 are today’s trends and best practices. His work exemplifies commitment to the recruitment industry, persistence, and a practical understanding of real world problems. We are very excited to have Tim participate as a track leader for RecruitFest! 2010 and look forward to his contribution.

RecruitFest! is coming. It’s fun. There are great people. You’ll learn a lot. But your boss vetoed a $9 business lunch last week. He laughed at your idea for a holiday party and gave you a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card instead. Invest in a conference to enrich your knowledge and network with potential clients and mentors? Yeah right…

Here are some tips on how to get your boss to buy your ticket to RecruitFest! 2010 - because well, it’s at least worth a try.

• It’s not an unconference. Just call it a plain ol’ conference.
• It’s not fun. It’s all work. In fact, you would rather not be there. It’s just something you feel like you should do.
• It’s not in the Theater district in Boston. It’s in Boston, you know, where all the big banks are.
• There was never a drum circle and we’re cancelling the party this year. Really.
• It was not dreamed up by this guy or ever held in Canada.
• RecruitFest! 2010 is about [insert your corporate mission].
• You will learn [x] and take away [y]. It will generate [z] ROI.

We’re committed to making this year’s RecruitFest! more enriching, fun, and interesting than ever before. We’re excited about our fantastic and intelligent community of attendees, track leaders, and staff. But hey, your boss isn’t going to know that. So good luck and we hope it works out for you. In the meantime, it’s August and that gift card is probably still in your wallet. Time for a coffee break.

Ninja photo by this guy

Few people elevate recruiting to an art form like Mike Ramer. In his training and writing, Mike focuses on improving and reinventing the most practical elements of recruiting. This focus is gleaned from many years in hands-on recruitment and executive search. In short, Mike knows what works today and we’re proud to announce him as a track leader for RecruitFest! 2010.

Mike Ramer is both a hands-on manager of a search firm and a sought after recruiting trainer. People respond to his genuine and interactive approach to recruitment training. He was the top-rated speaker at NEAPS (New England Association of Personnel Services) and is a well known speaker and contributor at NAPS (National Association of Personnel Services), ASA (American Staffing Association), and the Fordyce Forum.

In case you’ve never seen Mike Ramer train, you can get an idea of his approach through his online writing. People like what he has to say. For example, we run RecruitingTools.com; the article he contributed called “Three Elements of a World Class Marketing Call” is the most widely read post of all time. You can see why – he discusses cold-calling, the most mundane aspect of recruiting, and then elevates it into a discussion of best practices and relationship building. His advice is both caring and highly practical. Check out some of his recent posts on TalentCulture on building highly effective recruiting relationships and recruiting game changing talent.

For almost twenty years, Mike has run Ramer Search Consultants in the New York metro area. Ramer Search specializes in executive search and training/consulting primarily within the banking, medical device, and renewable energy industries. Besides running a successful search practice, he is a frequent contributor to national media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Smart Money, Yahoo Finance, Reuters.com, NJ Star Ledger (Career Expert column) and NPR (National Public Radio.) He earned a masters degree in international finance and is a Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) and a Certified Staffing Professional (CSP).

If you’re looking to master the most important aspects of recruiting, you will want to join the discussion with Mike Ramer. His thoughts on relationship building, motivation, and mastery of recruitment fundamentals will be invaluable to the conversation and apply to both agency and corporate recruiting practices.