ne thing always amuses me about the annual SHRM conference—it is wonderfully and unfailingly predictable.

    Case in point: I was in the exhibition hall on Monday around 10 a.m., and suddenly an odd feeling swept over me. "Where are all the people fighting for cheap goodies and SHRM swag?" It shocked me that there seemed to be little of the usual trinket lust and out-of-control behavior exhibited by so many of the conference attendees wandering the show hall. This is progress, right?

    Wrong. I must have just gotten an earlier start than the usual swag-loving attendees, because within a half-hour, the usual fight for goodies was at full throttle. Ground zero seemed to be the Monster booth, where a large and aggressive crowd surged toward a Monster employee who was tossing toy versions of the Monster character (whatever its name is) to the growing crowd.

    This is part of the immutable paradox of the SHRM conference: For all the HR people who want to be valued business partners, there are also a huge number who get turned on chasing down cheap junk that probably costs a fortune in excess baggage charges to cart home.

    Many of these swag-crazy people were the same ones who packed the general session Monday to hear business author and lecturer Patrick Lencioni talk about the three signs of a miserable job (which also is the title of his latest book), and get his advice on how to make any kind of work more rewarding and fulfilling.

    I’ve heard Lencioni speak a number of times, and he’s an interesting and amusing speaker, but I was surprised by the SRO crowd that turned out to hear his talk. The same room that was probably just 85 percent full for Sidney Poitier on Sunday afternoon was jam-packed for Lencioni on Monday morning. So maybe this is what’s going on: Poitier was inspiring and thoughtful, but he didn’t offer the practical, take-this-back-to-your-job-and-put-it-to-work kind of information that Lencioni did.

    And so while Lencioni was sort of old hat for me, I have to remember that I’m an oversaturated conference-goer, not a typical SHRM attendee. This audience desperately wants information and insight today that can help them do a better job tomorrow, and this might be the only show at which they get such inspiration. I’ve seen that repeated at SHRM conferences over and over again, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether it is in San Diego, Washington, Las Vegas or Chicago. No matter where you are, HR people will turn out in droves for someone who has something thoughtful and useful to say.

    This got me to thinking: Maybe there’s only so much time that people can put in listening to smart and thoughtful speakers, and the dash into the mad exhibition hall frenzy is the counterbalance. That’s the yin and yang of the SHRM experience.

    It’s as good a theory as any, I suppose. Maybe I’ll gather a few more trinkets and swag to see if it holds true.

Workforce Management Online, June 2008 -- Register Now!