Wrap-up: ERE Expo 2009

It’s Sunday afternoon and my head is still spinning after attending what was hands-down the very best conference I have ever attended. Chris Hoyt said it best on Twitter yesterday:

My opinion: this #ereexpo was the most social and connected ever. Thx to everyone that attended and ESPECIALLY those that organized.

I had an opportunity to interview Jennifer McClure on the subject:

ERE Expo was held at the amazing Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. To see the presentations and video from the conference click here.

I was fortunate enough to have 24 hours of uninterrupted time with the fabulous Jenny DeVaughn and my new friend and security go-to guru Eric Jaquith as we road-tripped from ATL to Ft. Lauderdale.

Yes we did.

Twelve hours each way.

Disclaimer: If it had not been for their company and incredible conversation that trip would have been SHEER HELL just FYI.

Anyway Jenny and I are track leaders for Social Media at #RecruitFest09 the week after next so it was invaluable to have all that time to plan what we’ll be doing during our sessions in Toronto. Eric was instrumental in helping us narrow our focus for the discussions we’ll be facilitating.

The conference itself was simply amazing. While I attended several excellent sessions both in-person and streaming live from their site while working in the room, the social and networking elements of the conference were by far the very best for me.

Oh and the food was really really good too. Just two requests for future conferences, ERE:

1. Chairs during meal times
2. Diet Coke (3 days of nothing but Diet Pepsi = torture)

On the last day of the conference I was incredibly fortunate to spend some very valuable time with some very inspirational women that I’ve admired for a long time including Laurie Ruettimann, Sharlyn Lauby, Jennifer McClure, and Miriam Salpeter discussing some of the key challenges we face as entrepreneurs and bloggers. We talked about business coaches, marketing strategies, and even the history of Spanx and the inspirational Sarah Blakely.

Moi, Miriam Salpeter , Sharlyn Lauby, Laurie Ruettimann

Moi, Miriam Salpeter , Sharlyn Lauby, Laurie Ruettimann

Jennifer McClure

You can read Laurie’s post about it here.

I haven’t had a chance to write about this yet but I have engaged Alicia Arenas as my business coach and am working with her to narrow my focus and clearly define just exactly what it is that I do, develop branding around it, figure out how I’m going to monetize my blog, and ultimately reach surpass my financial goals. My conversations with her kept coming up in the discussion and I realized that we are all facing essentially the same challenges. We discussed the possibility of having a monthly call in order to share and help each other work through some of these things so I will be setting that up very shortly.

Jenny DeVaugh + Miriam Salpeter

Jenny DeVaughn, Mike VanDerVort, Moi

Me + Mary Ellen Slayter

I’m reluctant to attempt to name all of the completely awesome tweeps I was so happy to finally meet IRL at the risk of leaving anyone out. I’ll list them below (in no particular order) because if you’re not already following them you should be and if I leave anyone out I’m very sorry and please correct [and forgive] me!

Tracy Deveau @Devoted2HR

Jennifer McClure @CincyRecruiter

Sharlyn Lauby @HR Bartender

Glenn Gutmacher @gutmach

Tara Repucci @tararepucci

Lexy Thompson @lexythompson

Chris Hoyt @TheRecruiterGuy

Sarah White @sarahw79

Maren Hogan @marenhogan

Jason Davis @callmeslouch

Robin Eads @imjustagoyle

Mike Quale @tall_geek

Jason Buss @jjbuss

Laurie Ruettimann @lruettimann

Mary Ellen Slayter @SBWorkforce

Eric Winegardner @ewmonster

Shally Steckerl @shally

Kevin Wheeler @kwheeler

John Sumser @sumser

Dave Pritchard @PritchATL

Gerry Crispin @GerryCrispin

Jason Blais @JasonCBlais

Amy Renz @AmyRenz

Mike VanDerVort @mikevandervort

Irina Shamaeva @braingain

Be sure to check out additional ERE Expo wrap-ups by Sharlyn Lauby, Jason Buss, more by Jason Buss, Jason Davis, Jenny DeVaughn, Jennifer McClure, Mike VanDerVort, and Sarah White.

To view a video slideshow from the week’s events, click here.

And, you’d better believe that I’ll be at the next ERE Conference.   Hope to see you there!

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