Making Your Case to Attend #SourceCon Fall 2010: Proving the Value to Your Organization

Many of you have shared with us that while you would love to attend SourceCon in September, you’re not quite sure how to pitch it to your boss. Perhaps you’re uncertain of how to prove the value to you and your organization as a whole. Whatever the reason may be, we’ve come up with a nice business case for attending SourceCon that you can either forward to your boss, or print off a hard copy to hand to them.

We hope to see you in Washington, D.C., and let us know if we can help you get there!

Click here for a printable PDF

SourceCon Fall 2010
When: September 28 – 29, 2010
Where: International Spy Museum, Washington, D.C.
How Much: before Aug. 27th – $895; before Sep. 27th – $995; on-site – $1095
Hotel cost: $150-$350/night (there are several in the vicinity)

Who Should Attend: Researcher, sourcers, candidate generators, and talent acquisition professionalss, as well as those who manage them.

Conference Schedule:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28th

Conference Chairman: Eric Jaquith – Lead Recruiter, Jaquith & Company, Inc.

KEYNOTE: Glen Cathey
VP Recruiting, Kforce
Topic: The Five Levels of Talent Mining

General Sessions

Kristin Kalscheur
Global Sourcing Strategist, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide
Topic: How To Source Like a Marketer

Shally Steckerl
Chief CyberSleuth & EVP, Arbita
Topic: Sourcing Tradecraft: What Sourcers Can Learn From Spies

Jeff Eveler
Recruiter, Tiger Staffing Solutions, Inc.
Topic: Talent Intelligence Mapping: Do your recruiters share their “hunting knowledge”?

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29th

KEYNOTE: Chris Gould – Global Strategic Sourcing Leader and Tim O’Connor – Talent Acquisition & Social Media Sourcing Manager, Hewitt Associates
Topic: Building a Global Sourcing Organization: The World Is Flat

General Sessions

Shannon Myers
Managing Partner, Walton Search
Topic: Sourcer’s Toolbox

Gary Conaway
Sr. Trainer, AIRS
Topic: Sourcing Training

Maureen Sharib
Founder/Telephone Names Sourcer, TechTrak.com, Inc.
Topic: Telephone Sourcing – The Fastest Path to Candidate Name Generation

Earl Mann
Solutions Consultant, Purediscovery
Topic: Cracking the Code of Connecting: Finding the Syntax For A-Players

Michael Notaro
Sourcer, Accenture
Topic: Automation 101

The Tangible Benefits of attending SourceCon Fall 2010:

Take (some of) the mystery out of sourcing.
Learn best practices that are now available in the profession.
Observe step-by-step procedures to successfully prepare for, implement, and evaluate any sourcing initiative; even those emphasizing “soft” skills.
Learn how to make critical planning decisions that will guarantee (or vastly improve the likelihood of) success within a sourcing function.
Be provided with practical, time-saving, proven research, sourcing, and candidate generation techniques that will give you the confidence to tackle any sourcing situation.
Design effective data collection and automation systems; including some very creative ideas never previously made public before.
Learn the important aspects of automation tools, yet also how you are a critical factor in their success.
Learn how to turn “fuzzy” sourcing expectations into measurable results.
Interpret sourcing performance criteria and then determine the best course of action.
Become resourceful in finding convincing evidence of the real impact of sourcing on the organization.
Build a compelling case for the value of your sourcing.
Learn how to design custom training programs for your office in order to train other sourcers or recruiting teams on sourcing methods.
Observe case studies and personal examples of social media’s usefulness in sourcing.
Demonstrate duplicatable marketing methods to improve upon existing strategies for reaching and engaging potential candidates.
Bring your new knowledge back to your professional peers in order to benefit your entire organization.

The Costs of attending SourceCon Fall 2010:

Money: the attendance fee plus lodging, plus travel, plus other miscellaneous expenses.
Time: 2-3 days plus preparation time, travel time, and whatever time is appropriate to lead or share the lessons learned with your professional peers.
Estimate: the total costs for attending SourceCon 2010 could easily be offset by achieving only one additional quality hire that would not have otherwise been made. And the inherent economies of scale could be unlimited.

** The average placement fee today ranges between $15,000 – $20,000. By attending SourceCon Fall 2010 for less than 1/10 of this amount, you are giving yourself the opportunity to learn information to help either minimize this expense by bringing more search projects in-house or multiply this fee by equipping yourself with the tools to excel in a high-volume work environment.

The Results of attending SourceCon Fall 2010:

You will be able to lead more often on more organizationally essential talent acquisition initiatives.
You will be able to share some of the “nuggets” with your professional peers.
You will be able to partner with marketing, PR, and communications teams on improving employment brand through initial outreach initiatives.
You will be able to streamline your sourcing procedures and be more time-efficient in your research efforts.

Note: some potential attendees may see higher expectations as a benefit. They are. But the risk of being unable to lead or unwilling to share lessons learned might also be considered as risks.

The greatest risk, by far, is in remaining at your current organizational status quo in the broad set of talent acquisition programs and initiatives, while other organizations have made commitments to improve. The “war” for talent is over. Talent has won. If you are not now willing to invest in your own success, why would anyone else?