RecFest Uncensored - Issue 3

Cold Open

I had a whole gambit for this week but with everything that's going on in Ukraine, it now seems tone-deaf. Hung and Lars shared this great open resource and I would ask you to do the same. HR For Ukraine

We've started to talk to recruiters that have helped rehire and rebuild war-torn countries previously, about sharing their experiences at RecFest. It might be optimistic to think Ukraine will be in a rebuilding stage by that point, but we can hope.

You're Not Welcome Back

Last week we talked about how to get on stage at RecFest, or any event to that point and I got a lot of really positive feedback. I did say this week I'd talk about what you can do to NOT get invited back again.

TLDR; basically don't be a jackass.

1) Don't be rude to the team. We've had to work with some divas in the past, both male and female, and we will always do what we can to make your experience as a speaker as good as it can be. However, be rude to the team and you won't get invited back. Period.

2) "I wrote my presentation on the train on the way here!" Do you think that makes you sound edgy? No, it makes you sound like a jackass. It shows disrespect for our event, our team and our audience. Out!

3) Don't be EVERYWHERE. This is slightly contradicting a previous point from last week, but if you're telling the same story over and over again, at different events, webinars, posts etc, the story loses value for our audience and therefore us. It's the law of diminishing returns.

4) Don't ask for feedback and lambaste us when you don't get the speaker score you think you deserve. I hate speaker feedback and go out of my way not to give it because despite what most speakers say when the numbers are not in their favour, we're getting blamed for it. "I wasn't briefed well enough." "The audience wasn't the right." "I had a bad time slot." And so on.

So there you go. You increase your chances significantly of getting booked again if you don't act like a jackass. Who knew?!?

Questions Answered

We had a great question from Tonics Marcus Body last week:

"I’d love to see a presentation that collated uncase studies or worst practice - ie things that didn’t work, and how to avoid them…"

Yeah, me too!

I've spoken about this subject with people in our industry and the events industry as a whole for the last 4-years. I LOVE the idea of having people talk about failures and could not agree more that stories of mistakes render far greater learnings than glossy case studies about success. BUT, you try getting the TA leader of a mid to large size organisation to get that talk signed off by Comms or PR departments. Doesn't happen. So what you end up with is either smaller companies that are happy to share those mistakes, which is great if you're in a similar size company, but the bulk of our audience isn't, or you get someone that worked for a bigger company that's not a consultant and can tell the story but has to be really careful about what details they give, which really limits the learnings.

But if you are that person that's brave enough to give a worst-practice uncase study, message me. You're gold dust and we will find a place on stage for you.

Swag

We're still awaiting our online merch store to launch, so haven't managed to get any t-shirts out yet, but they will be delivered to people that have won them so far, once it launches. Last week's winner is Marcus Body for that awesome question. You've been added to the list dude.

What sort of RecFester are you?

Love this from our Marketing team. Take the quiz and share what sort RecFester you're going to be in July. ??

And finally...

A short one from me this week folks. I spent the weekend away with my daughter and we're currently living in a caravan whilst our house gets decorated. Certainly not complaining, just wanted to explain why I'll be doing better next week.

Like everyone, Ukraine is top of my mind right now and I've been trying to work out how we can use RecFest to help. I've mentioned we're talking to recruiters of war-torn countries to share their experiences, but I would love to hear any ideas you've got on how RecFest could be used to help in some way, in the comments below.

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This newsletter was inspired by?Hung Lee's This Week, In Recruitment

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