Social Recruiting Summit in NY? Sodexo was there.

Monday I had the pleasure of attending the ERE Social Recruiting Summit in NYC. I had the added pleasure of speaking on a panel about using social media for recruiting. Kelly Dingee(@sourcerkelly) moderated the panel. Kelly and I "met" for the first time about a year and a half ago on Twitter. I was just dipping my toes in the twater and trying to twigure it all out when I got my first @reply from her with great advice that made Twitter click for me. I've been hooked ever since and I think it's safe to say many of my Sodexo colleagues feel the same now that we've been using Twitter in our recruiting strategy. I met Kelly for the first time IRL last month at TWTRCON in Washington DC so I was thrilled when I learned she was going to be the moderator on the social recruiting panel. Not being a professional speaker, it was comforting having her friendly face on stage with me. Another friendly face was Ben Gotkin (@lifeatmccladery) who coordinated the panel and included me. Ben and I also met online - it's been so long now I'm not sure if it was on Facebook or Linkedin but it was one of the two networks. Ben and I have similar social media goals and have share tips & tricks as we both tackle our employment branding. Every time I speak to Ben I learn something new. The third friendly face on stage with us was Heather Tinguely (@Heathert390). She's one person you need to know if you want to work at Microsoft. Heather and I met (by phone) for the first time just a week before the event but of course I've admired her online spaces for a very long time. View my World - ever see? Of course you have.

It was a great day filled with new ideas and many "a-ha" moments and lots of live tweeting. And if you missed the event, you can view our Social Recruiting panel on USTREAM here and here. (Note to self: smile more on stage) as well the full agenda of experts like, Laurie Ruettimann, Fred Wilson, Carmen Hudson, John Sumser, Master Burnett, Susan Burns, Gerry Crispin and Jessica Lee.

So what were the take aways and high points for me from the Social Recruiting Summit?

Take away: Transparency is good. Keep sharing real stories from your employees. It is personal. And, personal branding is still really, really important - key word being "personal."

High point: Meeting (in real life) people I've been following on Twitter or blogs for years now. Like the hostess for the day, Laurie Ruettimann, The Recruiter Guy, Chris Hoyt and The HR Farmer, Keith McIIvaine. And of course, Chris Russell with Jobs in Pods - I am a big fan of his and Sodexo has worked with him on some of our podcasts and I finally met him in person.

Take away: The term Rogue Recruiting from Fred Wilson who blogs every single day. Every day.

High Point: Watching Jessica Lee's presentation about how she uses social media for recruiting and personal branding. For the record, I don't believe Jessica Lee is an introvert. She was amazing.

What were the low points for me? I was in NYC - could there possibly be any low points? Yes. But the single low point did not come until my commute home on a delayed train turning my 3 hour commute into a 6 1/2 hour commute I'll write about that tomorrow.