For the last month Maureen has been off on her travels all over the place. It hasn’t all been fun and games though! She has been investing her time wisely by getting some me time to do some important blue sky thinking. She attended two conferences – the prestigious CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition> in Manchester and the first conference of the HR Forum in Gibraltar, which is now an official CIPD Branch.
You can imagine that there were quite a few differences between the Manchester conference that has been running for years and a first time conference of a small society in Gibraltar. The Manchester conference was a huge event, with many activity zones and stands, speakers and seminars and thousands of people professionals attending from around the world. The HR Forum conference on the other hand was a smaller affair with a couple of key speakers and a more intimate attendance of Gibraltarian people professionals. Despite their differences in size, it is refreshing to realise that both organisers of the events have their priorities in the right order, the HR Forum have set off on the right track and the CIPD Conference hasn’t lost sight of what its goals are.
Both conferences possessed some common themes which when handled correctly ensure great high quality events making size and reach of the conferences almost irrelevant. It’s quality not quantity.
Members of the HR Forum in Gibraltar – happy to be recognised!
Highly topical and relevant
It doesn’t matter how many people you have attending your event, if the topics aren’t relevant then it won’t make an impact. The HR Forum selected the topic Working towards Workplace Resolution for their conference and CIPD had four conference themes. These reflected many challenges facing those in the HR world at the moment and each conference was able to take these topics and deliver them in exciting and accessible ways for their attendees.
Innovative approach
Sometimes conferences can be a bit passive – this was avoided by both events. The HR Forum faced an exciting challenge with their new conference. They had the opportunity to put together something new and exciting which they achieved! Their keynote speaker Peter Monaghan, Area Director of ACAS was excellent as he thoroughly involved the audience via the case study examples given. No chance of snoozing off! The three practical exercises after lunch were very energising and if you want good exercises to demonstrate the skills required to mediate do contact the HR Forum committee. When putting on a new event, the challenge lies in making it memorable enough to merit a second attempt which I think we will be seeing from the HR Forum next year. The challenge you face once you have established a conference is to keep it fresh and new each year so that attendees are excited to attend again rather than view it as something done. It is impressive that the CIPD conference was able to surprise its attendees this year with their innovative approaches to the session on Leaders in Learning: exploring new tools and skills in people development.
Here the team presented information on:
- Unlocking L&D’s full potential to achieve organisational strategic learning objectives.
- How do you create a multi-format learning programme to reach the widest audience?
- Understanding how OD and L&D complement each other and where they diverge.
The pace was fast and furious! We then had the opportunity to brainstorm ideas in smaller groups. Pretty impressive organisational skills could be seen and great enthusiasm too!
Collaborative and Committed
Both conferences demonstrated the strong collaboration needed to put on a high quality event and showed that their main priority was their dedication to people professionals. Everything was primed for the benefit of the attendees and it was clear that both events’ main priority was the satisfaction of their delegates. It was fascinating to see at both events that people professionals were demonstrating the behaviours and approaches to succeed in a working environment in every aspect of their life. It is great to know that people professionals all over have the skills and tools necessary to succeed and change the face of business.
It was lovely to see the team work so evident at both events. The HR Forum’s committee being energetic and passionate – it was great to see the celebration after the event in the bar at the Eliott Hotel in Gibraltar. The strong team work from the Learning Leaders team led by:
Andy Lancaster, Head of L&D – Capability and Career Development, CIPD and the presenters:
Niall Gavin, Head of L&D and Learning Technologies, FirstGroup Plc
Paul Taylor, Assistant Director – Organisational Development, NHS Employers
Perry Timms, Social Media Engagement Adviser, CIPD
Maureen’s final thoughts on these events was a bit of quiet satisfaction in seeing past candidates of Cullen Scholefield perform so effectively – so Niall and Pete she can’t wait to see your next performance!!