It is now Day 2 of TRUBoston but I wanted to write a quick review of the event. Because I am a great lover of the sandwich principle I will give you all the lowlights then the highlights of TRUEvents second foray into the North American continent.

The Lowlights

I firmly believe that there are some fundamental differences to the European and North American audience when it comes to conference and UnConference participation. Bill once again brought his typical style of conference disorganization starting with a change of dates (depending on your platform it was either somewhat or very last minute) which created some fairly spectacular no-shows from track leaders, which set the schedule into disarray almost immediately. Some people (myself included) can live with that, but for some prospective and current attendees it left a bad taste in their mouths which over time can really detract from all the positive UnConference messages/brand. I just think an easy solution to this would have been a bit more communication and marketing to pick up attendance and leave people comfortable which timelines etc…. Again it’s Bill’s style and hey, maybe his preference in attendee is roll with it, or don’t come.

The Highlights

Bullhorn gave up their offices on the Boston waterfront to the event and catered the day so we were treated like royalty and had a fantastic view to boot. Big props to the Bullhorn team for being uber fantastic hosts. And for a smaller crowd the UnConferences pull in some damn smart people including folks from Canada, USA, UK and Ireland so you truly get an international perspective on the world of Social and Recruitment. I cannot say that I have ever walked away from an UnConference without learning something that has changed the way I think about our world of work. And it’s not necessarily the big discussions in the tracks, most often it’s the little discussions in the halls that produce the biggest aha moments for me. I don’t know many other venues where you can have an intimate discussion with Harvard, Sodexo and Google at the same table. And let’s talk about the networking. If you are a Recruiter you will walk away with ideas that will help you make better and faster placements and ultimately more money. If you are a vendor, you will walk away with new clients. If you are a large Talent Acquisition owner you will walk away with people you want to hire and ways to make your team better, faster and smarter. The last time Bill and I chatted we roughly figured that we generate about $10,000 of business per day out of each event, meaning that the networking turns into relationships which turns into business, and it doesn’t get better than that.

So to summarize TRUBoston was worth the trip to Boston. I wish I could have stayed for the whole show but what will be will be. For TRU Events the schedule includes TRU Romania next in August the TRU London returns for it’s fourth incarnation/regeneration on September 1-2 with a special Sourcing Xfactor at an undisclosed location just prior. And Radical Planet wraps up the 2011 Radical Tour in Toronto on Sept 21-22nd with an All Star cast of talent from around the world. If you have the budget it’s well worth the trip to London and Toronto in Sept. But hey that would be Radical.