Blog about Sourcing... and Stuff

So it’s just under a week since SourceCon10 came to it’s open and it’s close and I really cannot wait for next years.  This years event was really outstanding for a lot of reasons.  For myself personally, the biggest highlight I think was the location.  I’ve always wanted to visit California and this was my first trip there and I can finally cross it out of my top 3 places I need to visit.  Not that I saw “California” exactly, but it’s nice to say that I visited.  My goal prior to and during the event however was not achieved as I really wanted to find a sandy beach to walk on, but overall, San Diego was fantastic.

Some of the other reasons why this event was outstanding is due to the connection with ERE.  I got to meet a lot of people who regularly attend ERE, but haven’t been to SourceCon before and it was really nice seeing such a large group of people gathered for the collective good of the industry.  As some of you may know, I took a 9 month sabbatical from the working/sourcing/recruiting world in March when I turned off my computer and didn’t bother turning it back on until around November 2009.  Having that time off really allowed me to reflect on a lot of things and decide whether or not I wanted to even come back to the industry.  Seeing so many people and having such a great time, it only affirmed my decision that coming back was the right one.

In connection with the previous reason for the success of SourceCon was getting to meet with some new faces, and all of the hallway, lobby, and general outside of convention conversations I had.  In particular, I really enjoyed the time I was able to spend with Katharine Robinson who swept my title out from under me, as well as Irina Shamaeva and Lisa Offutt who were also competing during the challenge.  Getting to sit down and talk with a lot of people whom I hadn’t seen or spoken with in quite some time was worth it’s weight in gold, especially Gerry Crispin, Jeremy Langhans (GO UBERSAUCE!) Geoff Webb, Amybeth Hale, Jim Stroud, Shally Steckerl, Russ Moon, Eric Jaquith, Glenn Gutmacher, Marie Journey, Mark Tortorici, and many many others.  It was also nice meeting some of my Accenture team from parts other than New York, picking Donato’s brain, going to dinner w/ Chandra from E-Grabber (THANK YOU AGAIN!), and so many others it’s impossible to mention in a single post.

The love, the commitment, and the excellence that the top leaders in our community provide is truly awe inspiring.  I did however miss a few people who weren’t in attendance this year including the original SourceCon creators Leslie O’Conner and Rob McIntosh, as well as Suzy Tonini and my current boss whom I met at SourceCon08′, Wendy Hatch.  You were all missed and it wasn’t the same without you all.  It’s funny when you think about all of the social politics that occurs during the other 11 months of the year and how quickly we all come together and really bond when all is said and done.  I would especially like to say thank you to the man and team who made all of this possible this year, David Manaster and the ERE Team (who I will be paying a visit to in the near future since their office is a few stops away).  You guys really outdid yourselves, put on one helluva event, and I can’t express my gratitude enough.

I would also like to thank everyone who played a part in this years SourceCon Challenge.  In particular, I wanted to thank #SourceCon themselves, Geoff Webb and Julia Stone for the stellar efforts in building and compiling all of the challenges involved.  I’m still cursing my iPhone, but in all fairness, Katharine kicked ass and took names and I couldn’t be happier for her.  It was kind of lonely being in the Winners circle and it felt nice having a new addition to a family of one.  Bravo Katharine, the torch has been passed, and you have a full year until you need to defend!  The other side of the coin, is now I can actually present at next years event which I’m hoping they invite me to do.  *wink wink*

For those of you who tuned into the Arbita Lab, which was really outstanding, you may have heard me present a slightly abridged version of a lab I had put together and the feedback received felt great.  Big thanks to Shally Steckerl, Glenn Gutmacher, and everyone else who presented during the lab session! I was terribly nervous about presenting to such a large audience and having put the presentation together only a few days prior to, I was just hoping everything went off without a hitch.  I can say that it really opened my eyes to a lot of things and made me really consider my position within this industry.  I know I spoke to a lot of people and told them my inner most feelings about it all as the convention went on and more than anything, I know what it is I NEED to do for a change.  Thank you all for the opportunity to speak in the lab session, it’s really had one of the more significant impacts on my life and career.

With all of the thanks being said, I’m going to now turn to the presentations and materials highlighted in the event.  Unfortunately I was off running around quite a bit and wasn’t able to attend all of them, but I think the one critical thing I took away was the emphasis on social media.  It seemed to be a running theme throughout, and the shift in our industry is now more apparent then ever.  As someone who prides himself on his knowledge of passive search via search engines, it’s almost hard to swallow, but I think the tides have turned.  While this still does play a key role in the overall nature that is sourcing, given the current market and economic status of the country, branding seems to be the brass ring we’re all reaching for.  This was abundantly apparent in almost every presentation I was able to see.

Up until around February of 2010, I don’t think I’d sent more than maybe 2 Tweets ever.  Between now and then, I’ve tweeted endlessly and it’s really found a big place in my daily activities.  It’s so crazy to think that so much has changed in 2 short years and my overall reflection is that the presentations I did manage to catch were excellent, the materials highly relevant and interesting, and overall well done.  I wish there had been time for a few more though *Peers at Dave Manaster*.  For someone who didn’t know much or realize how big of an impact this had, it’s great to know that everyone is out there fighting the good fight and really stepping up, pioneering, and delivering such strong supporting data for the rest of us who may be behind a little bit.

Upon my return to sourcing in January when I signed on with Accenture as a contract sourcer, my knowledge in the area of social media and recruiting was very limited.  I recall having a conversation with Rob McIntosh back in 2008 about tagging and the relevance of it and thinking… (is he talking about spray painting your name on buildings?).  Here were are two years later and it’s all the trend.  I would like to take a moment and just personally thank one individual in particular for taking the time out to kindly walk me through the world of social media.  Kevin D’Aprile, whom I had worked with previously to Accenture over at Hewitt Associates, really showed me what’s what and forced the issue.  I can’t thank you enough to the level of interest, the time out of your day to talk tweeting strategy, and your overall marketing prowess in these changing times. If I hadn’t listened to you, I would have been absolutely clueless at SourceCon, hehe.

Lately I’ve found myself heavily interested in the value of automation and I couldn’t quite figure out the desire for it.  After Glen Cathey’s keynote, the fears I had about losing my job to a computer were alleviated and I began to think a lot more about automation.  I know Jim Stroud has been pushing this since the day that I met him and I can say that some of the discussions I had with him back as far as 07′ on the subject have done nothing but resonate in my ears since.  I was thinking to myself that while automation is great, it seems be more of an excuse to take time out for tweeting, texting, emailing, and playing silly facebook applications.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for these things, (EXCEPT FOR FARMVILLE AND MAFIA WARS ***  NO MORE INVITES!!!), but it’s important not lose sight of the human connection.

It would seem that the economy is slowly recovering, jobs are beginning to call out to us for filling, and sourcing is still a very hot commodity when done properly.  Regardless of whether I’m right or not, we didn’t have a SourceCon in 2009, and for me and a lot of people I spoke to, 2009 was a pretty horrible year. With the times changing, technology exponentially jumping in leaps and bounds, the human element is slowly beginning to slip away from us.  Tweeting, emailing, texting, and any other form of quick status update seem to be really exploding as the top form of contact.

The moment I left San Diego, I felt it all slip back out of reach and began twittering and texting, but it kind of felt hollow and lonely in comparison.  I’ve been mulling this over for several days now and I can’t emphasis enough the value of face to face, or voice to voice contact.  Yes, I can tweet, text, email, blog, and even video blog if I want to, but stealing five minutes for a quick phone call with people is becoming more and more difficult.  If there is anything I learned more about during this years event, it was that it’s the human element which defines our success more than anything else.  That for me was the most satisfying aspect of SourceCon.  Seeing everyone this year and the connections made through face to face interaction is something no text message can replace.

I cannot thank everyone in attendance enough for just… being there.  Let’s not skip another year, I hope to see everyone at SC11 one year from now!  Oh… and if you can, it’d be nice to hear the voices behind the tweets once in a while.

Cheers^^

1. uberVU - social comments says:

   March 21, 2010 at 20:59

   Social comments and analytics for this post…

   This post was mentioned on Twitter by MikeNotaro: My closing thoughts on #Sourcecon. It’s long, boring, and rough on the eyes. But… I’m not unposting it. http://bit.ly/ceiSS4...
2. Sarang Brahme says:

   March 22, 2010 at 10:06

   It’s great to hear from you Michael after long time. Good to see you back in action. SourceCon was great – it’s my dream to be there.
   Hopefully SC11 – I’ll be there.
3. the original ubersauce says:

   March 22, 2010 at 16:28

   a.) love the look n feel of duh new blog
   b.) font choice is stellar! what is it? kind of feels like a calibri, but better…
   c.) <3 ubersauce
   d.) this is SPOT F"N ON: sourcing is still a very hot commodity when done properly.