“Absolutely fabulous”, “Learned so much”, “Interactive, lively and even fun”, “Jam-packed with information we’ve needed”
It would be easy to get the big head after our 2010 “Hot Topic” HR conference, themed “Questions you Never Get Real Answers to” when you review the evaluations. Great attendance, marvelous speakers, and a notebook any HR person would envy. We got so many compliments and we could hardly believe there were so few suggestions from the attendees.
We knocked it out of the ballpark with outstanding speakers this year. Some of our speakers got perfect ratings – even higher than mine. (I’m not so happy about that J although you did like me, you really liked me!).
We did hear one thing repetitively… “We don’t want concurrent sessions because we want to attend everything.” And related to that was the repeated comment “bonus sessions started way too early.” Thanks to Hope Fallen, BrickStreet Insurance, Jim Wells, Human Resources Respond and our own Vicki Ballengee for being early birds and providing great content at those bonus sessions!
There were lawyers from every major firm in West Virginia and talk about well-prepared. And every one was gracious enough to save time for questions that never get answered. Many thanks to: Beth Walker, Bowles Rice; Connie Weber, Kay Casto and Chaney; Erin Magee, Jackson Kelly; Jay Arceneaux, Lewis Glasser; Mark Carter, Dinsmore & Shohl.
The “Ask a Lawyer” panel was a HUGE success thanks to the attorneys from Spillman Thomas (Eric Kinder, Kevin Carr, Larissa Dean and Richard Wallace). The chemistry among the lawyers was wonderful and we got great legal advice.
Nearly half the evaluations stated that they attended because of the topics. Subjects like: “What to do if an employee is naked on the internet?” (Skip Lineberg, Maple Creative and Emily Bennington, Dixon Hughes), “Can you search an employee’s desk? “(Kevin Nelson, Huddleston Bolen), and “Why most performance reviews suck and what to do about it” (yours truly).
Many of us have dealt with drama and emotional issues and we learned so much from Associate Professor, Dr. Jeff Houghton and Assistant Professor, Dr. Joyce Heames about harassment and many loved Dr. David Clayman from Clayman and Associates helpful advice.
Many of you appreciated Mary Caldwell and Maureen Kendall from CAMC who were so knowledgeable about the looming health care changes that people wanted to hire them.
We’d also like to thank Barbara Gandy from WV Wage and Hour for joining us again this year along with Joseph Hardiman from the Federal EEOC and Jamie Alley from the Civil Rights Division of the Attorney General’s Office. The HR expert panel was very helpful with their advice, thanks to Mary Smiley (Spilman Thomas), Fred Dillon (Dixon Hughes) and Carolyn Wade (Steptoe and Johnson). While many of you like the HR Café we learned we need to work on the logistics of this and appreciate the leaders, Jonathan Ayoob, Steve Patrick, Lauren Childress, Vicki Ballengee and Debbie Varney.
We want to thank the group that made things happen by doing lots of “behind the scenes” stuff and worked very hard to make sure things happened when they should happen: Vicki Ballengee, Lauren Childress, Sarah Morris, Debbie Varney, Kay Weiss and Tami Dobbins-Wolfe (I am I allowed to say me too?).
Mostly it was YOU that made the conference great! We appreciate everyone’s valuable questions, input and participation at the conference. We are using all the information provided on your evaluations to make next year PERFECT!
Bernie
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