This is only one of the many reviews you can read of the #TRULondon Unconference, which took place near Brick Lane, in London’s East End, from the 16th to 18th February. Slap bang in the middle was the first UKRecruiter Networking event of the year, at the same well-appointed venue.
I’ll leave it to others to speak in detail about the many discussion tracks which were held, and the quality of the venue, facilities, coffee and Pick’n’Mix sweet stand (yes, you heard me right). The beauty, and the pleasure, for me lay in the format of the event itself.
On each of the 2 days I was there, there appeared to be around 120 delegates, drawn from HR, job boards, recruitment agencies, education, social media firms and of course a smattering of expert industry consultants. That there was such an even mix of each, led to the best possible range of experiences and opinions. Someone asked me late on Thursday why I had attended, and indeed why I have regularly made the 800 mile round trip to London for networking events over the past decade. I’ve been asked this many times before, but for the first time, I finally came up with an answer that felt genuine and rung true.
I appreciate that this sounds weird, but here goes. The Disney Corporation has a department of Imagineering. They employ people as professional imagineers, where their roles include creative and technological speculation on how the company, in all its forms, can develop into the future. The scale of their projects can be immense, so the planning, and imagination stages need to happen years or decades in advance of any public awareness. At #TRULondon last week were some of the most influential people in the UK online recruitment sector. Not all, by any means, but certainly enough to form a quorum. Everyone attending had brought their brains, credibility and imagination along with them. For me, the greatest excitement is to be in a room of very intelligent individuals, who all have their own unique perspective on how our industry sector can and will evolve over the next months, years and decades. I found myself subjected to far more intellectual rigour than I’m used to, and my opinions were scrutinised by those who are far cleverer than me. Frankly, I love that kind of environment, and subsequently learned more in those two days than in the previous 3 months.
PS.
Further, more detailed, blog articles can be found here:
MR Linkedin – The Good the Bad and the Ugly
Jamie Leonard – #TRU Review
James Mayes – #TRU Review
Lisa Jones – #TRULondon Wordcloud
John Ingham – Be social to compete
Wise Man Say – 10 Lessons from TRULondon 3
Beyond Interactive – Our Thoughts
