As a first time attendee to the SHRM Global Conference, I wanted to get the most out of every single minute in sessions, keynotes, and evening activities. A conference is more than just sessions, tracks, talks, and the bookstore.  It’s about a state of mind and experiencing your conference experience outside the box and outside of SHRM.

• Self Reflection. The conference is action packed but between sessions and events, we must self-reflect and decompress otherwise we can quickly approach information overload.  I found sanctuary during my state at SHRM in the HRCI Hideaway.  Certified professionals can relax, eat, and engage quietly from the crowds.  One of the highlights of my conference experience was my 15 minute back, neck and foot massage in the Hideaway.

• Mingle. Mingle outside your comfort zone and outside your circle of friends at large and small conferences and events such as this.  SHRM encourages networking among like-minded professionals in a comfortable and controlled atmosphere with a program called, Meet and Eat. I attended dinner at la Fiesta with 19 other strangers over dinner and met some amazing HR professionals from all over the United States. Meet and Eat has groups from large to small at a variety of different restaurants throughout the conference.  I encourage all professionals to attend an event such as this.

• Be Friends with Vendors. To make the most of my time when visiting the vendor hall, I targeted specific vendors in which to meet with.  Just like when making my grocery list, I created a list in order of booth number to make my visits organized, smooth, and controlled.  Because I am a consultant and business owner who is always in sales and engagement mode, I wanted to make the most of my time.  I employ this strategy at the grocery store by writing my list in order of the store and depending on how busy the store is, I leave with a cart full of groceries in 30 minutes.

• Social Stream. Hands down the social stream in my opinion was the best way to engage the conference outside of the box whether you are here in San Diego or listening in from your office, smart phone, or living room.  At the time of this blog post being published, there were over 5,700 tweets that included the #shrm10 hash tag over 7 days.  The Monster Street team with @beneubanks and @cincyrecruiter, Smart Brief’s video coverage of the conference and  along with the other three members of the SHRM 10 Blog Squad, David Bowles, @akabruno, and @adowling.

I think that Eric Winegardner, the VP of Client Adoption at Monster Worldwide said it best, “This conference (SHRM) is about optimisim and with tools like social media we no longer have to say, see you next year.  We can say see you tomorrow.”

Winegardner’s sentiments have been echoed throughout this amazing event.   The openness is surprising refreshing and with the rapid adoption of social media at this conference, SHRM can truly say it’s officially moving to Next and outside of the conference, outside of the box.

Photo Credit Go Smell the Coffee.

“Bringing like-minded people together in an un-conference format.”

That’s the petty much sums up the idea of Get Social Conference.  My friend, Bryan Wempen and I have put together a series of 1/2 traveling unconferences that will reach a number of midwest locations.  For a number of the general professional population, the concept of social media is still very new.  Budgets are tight.  Businesses can’t afford to send their teams or employees to events like the 140 Conference in NYC or SXSW.  It’s just not in the budget and with cut backs and re-organizations. The workload shift for a team is a hard burdon to manage while someone runs off to sunny Austin attending late night parties and interactive sessions.

Our solution lies in bringing the conference to them.  Yes, we’ll travel to you!  Our events will consist of small 100+ person venues in an intimate and informal atmosphere that allows for interaction, learning, creativity, and collaboration, the good stuff.  Persons who can benefit by attending these events are decision makers, creatives or curious, and people who are new to social media or seasoned but eager to learn how different industries, thought leaders, and businesses are using social media to grow their companies and organizations.  We aim to bring business leaders from a variety of different industries–publication, PR, Marketing, entreprenuers, bloggers, HR, Services, and more.

It’s going to be fun!  And what is really exciting is that we have just opened registration for our first event in Tulsa, Oklahoma for May 4th, 2010.  The cost to register is $75 and includes 9 tracks with leaders from literally all over the world.  Registration starts at 1:30 that day with tracks ending at 5:00 followed by a networking event or tweetup.

To learn more or register visit our Tulsa Get Social Page and feel free to visit the site.  Companies can also inquire about sponsorship opportunities at the Tulsa event or upcoming events as we begin to travel the Midwest.