Alive HR

I wish I’d heard Al Gore speak. Even if he didn’t invent the internet, I have a lot of respect for his Government Reinvention efforts in the 90′s. Even if actual results were modest, least he tried; I haven’t seen too many other people tackle that monstrous elephant in the room.

I wish I’d heard Marcus Buckingham.  I’ve been a fan of him and of Gallup for years.

I wish I’d sampled some of the other great sessions as well. I could have knocked out some serious CEU’s.

I wish I’d been able to spend time with Ben Eubanks at an event he wasn’t responsible for helping coordinate, so that we would actually have five minutes to talk!

And I wish I could have networked and met other great people and made some new connections.

I wish I’d toured San Diego and visited the zoo.

But I didn’t do any of that, because I didn’t go to SHRM this year. In fact,  I’ve never gone to SHRM though I’ve been a member on and off for fifteen years, as long as I’ve been in HR.

Why haven’t I gone? Well, at the risk of whining, I’ve always work in a nonprofit social services environment. In all these years, I’ve never scraped up the registration and travel money. But this year, I *almost* went. The conference coincided with the time chosen for our family vacation and for a minute, I thought I had convinced my husband that California would be an awesome destination.  But he had already been to San Diego several times and he ultimately declined. Also, airfare to California, lodging,  meals and activities  x 4 people would have gotten really, really expensive! In the end, it was much less expensive to take everyone to Costa Rica instead.

One of these days, I *will* get to SHRM. But meanwhile, I am a bit irked that attendance at SHRM conferences constitutes such financial sacrifice that significant numbers of HR professionals are routinely excluded. There are students, nonprofit practitioners, professionals in transition who can’t afford the registration and travel costs. Ditto many small businesses and entrepreneurs.

I talked to China Gorman about the affordability question when she still worked at SHRM; she assured me they are aware of the issue and had a committee looking at it. All nonprofits are not created equal; some have plenty of dough, while others operate on shoestring budgets. The solution is not as simple as creating a nonprofit rate, especially since that fails to address other classes of financial hardship. She also suggested that some of the big names that people want to see command Big Bucks.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I could forgo seeing Al and Marcus, etc., if that would lower conference costs. And maybe SHRM could mix in some unconference-type events, either on their own or partnering with other groups.  Fact: in the last year,  for a fraction of the cost of registration at one SHRM conference, I have paid for travel and registration to three (3) unconference events: two HRevolutions and RecruitDC. It’s hard to believe that SHRM couldn’t use their considerable resources to plan some less expensive events. In addition to making some events more affordable, by going this route, SHRM could also pull in some HR pros who don’t belong to SHRM or who have seen the organization as too staid and conservative.

I’d be interested to hear what you think. Is the exclusion of people who can’t afford SHRM conferences an issue, or no? If it’s an issue, what suggestions do you have for change? How can SHRM reinvent its events and conferences to be more inclusive?