5:00 am…Why do you haunt me so?  Thank goodness the Rosen Shingle Creek, one of the nicest places I have ever stayed in by the way, is equipped with a coffee shop serving Starbucks – thank you coffee gods! 

Up early for an 8:15 am general session with a keynote by the Honorable Alexis Herman.  I worked with her backstage to make sure she was set for her speech and didn’t trip on any wires.  What a sweet, intelligent and prolific woman.  Most remember her as the 23rd United States Secretary of Labor, serving under President Bill Clinton but as she described, her story has much more to offer.  Her address touched on how she incorporated her interest in non-profits, government and the private sector into an amazing career.  Herman also stressed the importance of mentoring, especially in the workplace.

As the last attendee exited the general session hall our amazing team from PSAV and the Rosen began resetting for our Tuesday night event – Vegas Night! (more on that later)  I quickly exited backstage and checked up on the tweets for #SHRMFL.  Everything was turning out great – lots of tweets from inside sessions and lots of tweets from those HR pros who couldn’t make it this year.  To take advantage of the massive exposure we were getting on Twitter I ran into the expo hall with my camera and started to snap shots of some of our incredible sponsors and exhibitors who went above and beyond to help us pull of this conference.  Later that afternoon attendees gathered back in the expo hall for all of the fantastic giveaways.  The fun doesn’t end here!

Friends from SeaWorld Orlando

Next up members of the HR Florida State Council held our quarterly meeting with special guest Dorothy Hill, Field Services Director for SHRM.  Dorothy touched on the changes coming to SHRM and how they would impact the state and regional level.  She also announced SHRM India – WOW!  In addition 2009 HR Florida State Council President Kitty Fields announced the 2009 HR Florida STP/ATP (Serve the Professional/Advance the Profession) awards.  I am happy to report that Big Bend SHRM won for Membership and Workforce Readiness.  What makes me even more ecstatic is that this is the 3rd consecutive year that our chapter has one for our membership efforts! 

From our council meeting we all made our way to Vegas Night with Dr. Scott’s Outrageous Hypnosis Comedy - who was by far a huge hit!  Participants volunteered to take part in this hilarious show impersonating famous musical acts like Britney Spears, KISS and Michael Jackson.  Following the hypnotist attendees flooded the dance floor and made their way to the casino tables for an evening of fun with friends new and old.  A big shout out to the 2009 HR Florida State Conference Entertainment Chair Marc Grad – this is the most fun I’ve had at a conference to date!

As chapter president for Big Bend SHRM I am a voting member of the HR Florida State Council.  This year I am also volunteering as one of two Technology Directors that manage the council’s presence in social media.  On top of that I volunteered to be a member of the 2009 conference team.  Needless to say I love it all!

Roger loves stuffing bags!

Today was a long day for us at the HR Florida State Conference.  It began with me waking up at 5 am not being able to sleep because I was thinking about all the prep work left to do!  After a few hours of web updates, posts on Facebook and tweets I headed down to the conference team room to grab my radio and hit the conference center floor.  First big task:  stuff over 1,300 conference attendee goodie bags, with help from members of our incredible conference team filling in for missing volunteers.  After 3.5 hours, a few dozen paper cuts, a slice and dice from a pair of scissors and some much needed coffee and pastries, a cheer rang through the hall as the last bag was stuffed and ready to go!  With the bright green bags piled high we dispersed and found other tasks to tackle.

At this point I made my way up to help out in a pre-conference session, “Social Media + HR” presented by Kris Dunn from The HR Capitalist and Fistful of Talent.  The session was packed with 30 HR pros eager learn what Kris had to say.  We were also graced with appearances by two other fellow HR bloggers Jessica Lee from Fistful of Talent and Mike VanDervort from The Human Race Horses.

Kris did a phenomenal overview of why social media should be important to you as an HR pro, including answering the question “Who cares?” – “Your customers, your candidates, your kids, your employees and people who want to give you money as an HR pro!”  Kris thoroughly covered tidbits on Google Reader and its importance to an HR pro with a drive to learn.  Attendees had their laptops and followed his every move – slowly getting the hang of it. 

Next came a detailed look into Twitter.  With the help of Jessica, Mike and myself Kris was able to lead attendees to creating their own accounts and tweeting for the very first time.  This caused quite a few smiles across the room - that turned into lots of excellent questions.  By the end of the session everyone seemed pretty content and proud of themselves – maybe even a little less scared of social media!

As attendees began to flood the hotel and registration area I headed off to a technical rehearsal for our general sessions followed by a meeting with the registration team, making name badges for our blogging panel and finally dinner.  No sooner did I set my napkin on the table I was out the door to review pictures taken by our wonderful photographer from Jobing.com for our following day’s presentations.  I can’t forget helping the HR Florida secretary prepare gift baskets for our silent auction benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation and the SHRM Foundation.

Last but certainly not least I made it back to my hotel room just past midnight to right this update and head to bed.  Another early day awaits me but I look forward to each and every second of it!