The HRO (Human Resource Outsourcing) World West Conference wraps up today. The conference has always been held in New York, but due to the huge growth in the field the organizers wisely decided to add a conference in Los Angeles. Several hundred attendees were fortunate enough to attend and there were dozens of exhibitors and providers ranging from payroll processing organizations to headhunters to consultants to organizations which source candidates using labor in India and other offshore locations.

Three major themes were apparent:

1. There are 1,250 providers in 15 categories. It is a very competitive and innovative field. The successful providers are and will be those that do the best job of listening to the needs and wants of their clients and then delivering appropriately.

2. There is momentum in the mid-market sector. About 60 percent of the attendees were from organizations with fewer than 2,000 employees. As recently as a year ago, the overwhelming majority were from organizations that were far larger. This is no longer an option reserved only for the largest organizations.

3. HRO buyers are finding their voices. They're no longer shy and are now expressing their needs and wants to their providers and, just as critically, they're holding those providers accountable to delivering the desired results. A year ago, anti-globalization demonstrators crashed and disrupted HRO World in New York. This year, no demonstrators and organizations in general seem much more willing to talk about their successes and failures in outsourcing some or even all of their human resource functions.