Ladies and gentlemen, “it’s a wrap”! HireVue just successfully finished their first-ever user conference, “Digital Disruption” (#vueDD), and I was truly humbled to have participated in this milestone event. Aside from the fact that it took place in an absolutely breath-taking mountainous setting of the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah the quality of the event itself was top-notch. I have organized dozens upon dozens of events during the course of my career, and I know first-hand how difficult they are to organize and deliver, from start to finish. The details, the people involved, external factors, attendees, venue, food, travel and the list goes on. I congratulate HireVue and the organizing group, volunteers and others involved who made Digital Disruption a raving success.

Let’s dive a little bit deeper. As the Founder of SocialHRCamp.com (note: the new website launching very VERY soon!) I wanted the Camp interactive learning platform to be different, full of value and a must-attend event for HR and Recruitment Practitioners because the content, education, collaboration and learning would help them in their jobs. I enjoy attending conferences and other industry events but I am often critical of them for one simple reason. That reason is they do an absolutely terrible job at teaching attendees “how” to do something. Without a doubt, conferences are great places to network, get inspired and have fun. But when attendees go back to their day jobs what’s the effect? Status quo. Digital Disruption did NOT fall into this trap, and for that I am extremely proud.

The natural progression of typical user conference is to sell, sell and sell some more. Tout how great we are, demo product and tell everyone how bad our competitors are. HireVue did not do any of this. Instead, they educated, involved customers and engaged in open and transparent dialogue. The theme was disrupting recruitment, and the only way to really do this is to challenge each other, the status quo and the technology tools we use and have access to. It was about pushing boundaries, be more strategic, more effective and ultimately add more business value to our organizations. Nothing wrong with this, and in fact, this education, engage and socialize approach is exactly what successful salespeople and marketers do to attract new buying customers.

Of course HireVue is in the business of selling, and I have absolutely no doubts in my mind that they will continue their progression as the leader in digital recruitment, evolving their disruptive behavior and doing things nobody ever thought of, or dared to do. Good on you guys, and my only suitable closing point is this — as long as there is a relatively sizeable Canadian attendee base at future HireVue user conferences they will continue their unprecedented growth. Bam!