ResearchGoddess

I don’t know how you could possibly read any recruiting blog and NOT know what SourceCon is at this point! Between the sourcing challenges and the conspiracy theories of who is behind the whole event, everyone is talking about it! In my personal opinion, it’s about time research got its own billing and I am excited about attending this conference!

A lot of people who have emailed me are looking for some information to help ’sell’ conference attendance to their employers. Here is what I know at this point:

The speakers for SourceCon include a refreshing mix of established talented researchers and sourcers as well as some relatively unknown up-and-comers. Some of the heavy hitters include:

• Jim Stroud (event MC) – EVERYone knows Jim. He is a “Searchologist” and all-around nice-guy. Jim has been in the recruiting industry since the mid-late 90’s and is known best for his blog, Jim Stroud 2.0.
• Shally Steckerl – Shally is the”Chief CyberSleuth” at JobMachine, his sourcing consultancy and research training brainchild. Shally has been around the industry since the mid-late 90’s as well and is known worldwide for his expertise in developing sourcing teams and teaching passive search techniques.
• Conni LaDouceur – Conni is the founder of ExecuQuest and arguably the ‘mother of recruiting research’, having more than 20 years of experience under her belt.
• Dave Copps – Dave is the CEO of PureDiscovery Corporation and a self-proclaimed search geek. He has worked with some small institutions you may have heard of – The Pentagon, the CIA, US DoD, FBI, etc…..
• Tracey Friend – Tracey is the SVP Talent Acquisition with Countrywide Financial. Tracey is literally EVERYwhere, and networked with EVERYone. Special props to Tracey as she and I are both Florida alums!
• Glenn Gutmacher – founder of Recruiting-Online.com and Recruiting Researcher at Microsoft, Glenn has also been involved in recruiting research since the late 90’s and has a great reputation of being one of the best technical minds in research.

I could go on and name ALL of the speakers, but you can go to SourceCon’s website and check them out. The value that all of the speakers will bring to your research knowledge base FAR exceeds the $899 admission cost. As a matter of fact, the speakers who are consultants would charge more than that for less than 5 hours of their time, so the cost is really a steal for what you receive in return.

Some of the topics which will be covered will include:

• Next Generation Talent (X and Y)
• Baby Boomer Gap in the WorkForce
• Definine Research and its Benefit in a Recruiting Organization
• Hidden Talent Pools
• Proactive Pipelining of Talent
• Ethics Surrounding Research and Sourcing
• Competitive Intelligence / Competitive Advantage
• Finding Passive Talent Fast
• Name Generation

Those who are orchestrating SourceCon indicate a true love of research and sourcing, and that is the motivation behind this event. It was not put on to be a vendor-driven revenue generator, but rather as a conference to gather those of us who have an appreciation and deep interest in the function of research so that we may learn collectively from one another.

With that being said, I have been given permission to offer a special promotional discount to anyone who has not yet registered for SourceCon but would like to attend. If you are planning to register for this conference, please use the promotional code ABH0730 when you register. You will receive a 10% discount on the price of conference admission.

I am very much looking forward to meeting all of you who will be attending! See you in Atlanta!

I spent the last half of last week in Cleveland, Ohio working from SearchPath’s corporate offices. This most recent trip, I had the privilege to run into co-founders of Main Sequence Technologies, Martin Snyder and Bill Kubicek, at SPI’s summer picnic. Main Sequence created the applicant tracking system that SPI uses, PC Recruiter. I have been a user of PC Recruiter since my first days of internet research back in 2002 and have watched the product evolve from a windows-based application to a powerful web-based ASP solution. I have always spoken highly of the application as well because I believe it is one of the most comprehensive contact management systems available to recruiters and HR professionals. One of the neatest things about PCR is that all the features it contains are a direct result of suggestions from the users. They take recommendations from their end users very seriously and determine what new features will be implemented based on the number of requests for new things.

Forgive me everyone; I have been out of town for a few days working with SearchPath up in Cleveland, so I am opening up the floodgates of things that have been swimming around in my mind that I wanted to write about!

I read this article by Scott Ginsberg this afternoon and had to post it up here. The ideas that Scott outlines are almost a carbon copy of what someone should do to help develop their personal online brand.

By the way, for those who do not know who Scott Ginsberg is, he is ‘that guy with the nametag’. Check out his website here, and his blog here. I’ve always found him to be a neat person to learn about; he took a very simple idea of wearing a name tag to encourage others to talk to you and developed a successful business around it.

Thanks for sharing, Scott! I hope that you are reading this!

Dan Sweet, who writes one of my favorite blogs, FRACAT, recently ‘tagged’ me on a post he wrote revealing some little-known secrets about himself. So now I am forced to do the same. Thanks a lot, Dan. Just kidding….anyone who knows me knows I am not a very secretive person and am more than willing to share just about anything you want to know. So without any further adieu, here we go!

THE RULES:

1. Post these rules before you give you the facts.
2. List 8 random facts about yourself.
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names (linking to them)
4. Leave them a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged!

Eight Random Facts About Amybeth:

1. I have been researching for over 5 years now, but I am relatively new to the blogging scene – I’ve only been at this for about 9 months!
2. When I was in 6th grade, our English classes had an annual ‘Battle of the Books’. We were divided into teams of 3 (I think?) and we had a list of 50 books that we had to read. The Battle part of it was a competition between teams consisting of questions about the details of the books. I wanted to win so bad that I read 45 of the 50 books on the list. My team won, of course
3. I graduated from the University of Florida with honors in 3 1/2 years and was waiting tables at a restaurant nearly two years following graduation. Proof that going to college and getting good grades doesn’t always get you your dream job! (there are other ways of achieving success in the world)
4. When I was a little girl, my mom used to let me lick the batter from the bowl when she made brownies or cake. (there are raw eggs in cake and brownie batter) She also used to make me little raw hamburger meatballs when she would make burger patties. (RAW meat) Oh, and I also ate a live fuzzy caterpillar when I was 3. I am a healthy adult today and I rarely get sick. Proof that you don’t have to be a germaphobe with your kids. In fact, let them eat dirt from time to time – it builds up their immune system!
5. I am 28 years old, I am single, I have no children, and I have never been married. Guess I’m just waiting for the right man for me! I’ll wait forever if that’s what it takes.
6. I take guidance from people who have fruit on the tree. Don’t get me wrong, I allow people to share their opinions with me, but I’m very selective about the people from whom I will take advice. Think about it – if you take financial advice from your neighbor, they’ll probably be your neighbor for a long time!
7. I have a deep-seeded faith in God and I attribute everything that I have accomplished to Him.
8. I LOVE traveling, especially road trips! The longest road trip (driving) I’ve ever taken was from Fort Myers, FL to El Paso, TX (27 hrs). Other long road trips I’ve been on include Cincinnati-Fort Myers and back, East Hampton, CT-Orlando and back, Cincinnati-Kansas City and back, Cincinnati-Raleigh, NC and back, and Cincinnati-Toms River, NJ and back (all of these trips completed start-to-finish within 4 days). And by the way, I LOVE meeting interesting people – if you’re ever interested in meeting me, just give me a place where I can work during the day and somewhere to lay my head at night and I would love to come meet you!

The people I am tagging to continue this chain of revealment are:

1. Michael Notaro of Feed The Beagle!
2. Simon Meth of Sitting Xlegged
3. Moises Lopez of The Sourcing Corner
4. Gretchen Ledgard of JobSyntax
5. Rick Turoczy of More Than A Living
6. Suzy Tonini of Delotte Consulting (with a blog at RecruitingBlogs)
7. Jim Stroud of Jim Stroud 2.0
8. Leslie O’Connor of Search Wizards

Some of these people I know personally, and some are people whose work I admire and would like to know! Looking forward to their 8 Things…

Who doesn’t know the name Suzy Tonini as of the past week? She’s making headlines everywhere with her research prowess as the latest winner of SourceCon’s series of sourcing challenges. This one was a toughie, but Suzy persevered and was the first to ‘get r done’!

So I’ll go ahead and jump on the Suzy-Fan bandwagon! She is so good at what she does and is sure to give Mr. Notaro a run for his money in Atlanta.

So who will be the third contestant? Word on the street is that Jeremy Langhans might pull it off. Russ Moon could, but it was brought to my attention that he is now ineligible for the contest! Anyone else contending? Alvin Hom? Chris Cox? Terri Coligan? Can’t wait to see who it will be.

On a sort-of related note, for anyone who is attending SourceCon, I’d like to know who would be up for sushi one evening. I would imagine we can get some quality sushi in ATL. If you’re game, I’m a big fan. Shoot me a comment or an email!