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November 15, 2007
Conference Board Sessions
Greetings to those of you who were able to join me in Chicago for the Conference Board's Employer Brand Conference.
If you weren't able to come, you missed an excellent session, overall. But what I found fascinating--and I think there's a lesson here for all of us--is how similar the processes have become and yet, how different the outcomes are.
To be fair, there was still open water between the general understanding of employer brand by presenters from the consumer brand space and those of us who live in the employer space. (For example, I was surprised to hear a consumer brander respond to a question about whether different generations have differing degrees of loyalty with "I don't know.") But the big news was that most of us seem to be doing things using similar methodologies. While it's not all the same, they're variations on a theme.
Why does this matter? To me, it matters because it suggests that the field of employer branding is showing signs of maturity. The messages are both "we use these processes because we know they work," and "we use these methods because we know they're what our clients expect."
It also matters because the fact that similar methodologies can lead to such different outcomes offers good proof of both the people and the process. Simply put, similar processes don't lead to cookie-cutter outcomes.
In terms of learnings, the session I personally found most engaging was the pre-conference workshop I held with my friend Bernie Charland. That may sound self-serving--of course it does, actually--but hold on. What I really enjoyed about this was first, that it was scheduled as a four hour session, whereas most of the other sessions lasted 45 minutes, and second, that the size of the group allowed us to get very, very interactive.
So what's the lesson? First, that it's hard to get beyond call and response in 45 minutes. You need more time to connect. Second, and this point is related, the most satisfying thing about conferences is the interaction with all the smart people one gets to chat with. But there's no surprise there, is there?
Posted by davidkippen at November 15, 2007 06:54 PM