John Sumser's Recruiting Roadshow Unconference was born in my fair city, Minneapolis, this past summer. I was fortunate enough to be one of the original planners (although my role was fairly limited) and speakers and then I was also fortunate enough to be one of the presenters at the second installment, which took place in Atlanta. I presented remotely via Skype Video at the third installment, which took place in Dallas. And now I see that there will be at least five and probably nine or ten installments in 2008. Bravo, John!

If you have not yet had the pleasure of attending, plan to do so. Virtually all of the attendees are not regular attendees of the paid conferences organized by Kennedy Information, ERE, NACE, etc. Those shows are great but quite different. The Unconferences are more informal and the presenters are there because they want to give back to the recruiting community rather than to sell from the podium, receive a speaking fee, or both. Now I'm not saying that all or even most of the presenters at the paid conferences have such dastardly motivations. Most don't. But some do. And I'm not saying that the Unconferences will somehow be able to prevent that from happening at their events. But so far it hasn't. And hopefully it won't.

So make plans if your organization has a tight budget or if you want to keep abreast of the latest trends in recruiting or both.