Archive for category Uncategorized
RecruitTECH considers Sydney and Melbourne Conferences
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on October 20th, 2009
RecruitTECH 2009, the inaugural Australian recruitment and technology conference, held in Canberra on 18 September 2009 was a great success, according to its organiser, Clayton Wehner.
‘Our hope was to put on a day-long program of engaging speakers and to have a ‘full house’ of delegates and we achieved both of those aims’, said Clayton, who is also the Managing Director of ACT jobs board CapitalJobs.com.au (http://www.capitaljobs.com.au).
‘We were very lucky to have the support of some great sponsors: the ACT Government, which provided us with a grant to run the event as part of the ACT’s ‘Business in Focus’ month, as well as CapitalJobs.com.au, Peoplebank and JobAdder. Without their help, RecruitTECH 2009 wouldn’t have gone ahead’.
Seventy five delegates, both local and interstate, attended the conference and were representative of the broad spectrum of organisations that are actively using technology to aid their recruitment efforts: recruitment companies, government departments and agencies, small-to-medium enterprises and multinationals.
Delegates were treated to a program of engaging presentations from the likes of recruitment industry stalwart Ross Clennett, social networking queen Laurel Papworth and well-known Oracle blogger David Talamelli. A humourous ‘vox pop’ video from JobAdder’s Brett Iredale was well received by the audience and demonstrated the levels of engagement that can be achieved through online video.
A highlight of the day was the event’s Twitter handle (#recruittech2009) appearing in the top 5 Australian topics for the day as delegates tweeted and re-tweeted their comments around the world. This feat was indicative of the power of social networking, a recurrent theme throughout RecruitTECH 2009.
Given the success of the 2009 event, consideration is now being given to running the event again in 2010.
‘The feedback for RecruitTECH 2009 has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re keen to run the event in both Melbourne and Sydney in late 2010. We had quite a few people contact us in the lead up to RecruitTECH 2009 and ask when the show was moving to those cities, so we’re confident that it will be well received there, too‘.
Anyone interested in attending or sponsoring RecruitTECH 2010 should get in contact with Clayton Wehner at info@capitaljobs.com.au.
Video footage of RecruitTECH 2009 presentations will soon be available at http://www.recruittech.com.au.
Doorstop interview: Michael Specht
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on August 15th, 2009
We caught up with Michael Specht to ask him a little about himself and his business - Michael will be speaking at RecruitTECH on 18 September 2009.
Michael Specht has been involved in the technology industry for over 20 years specialising in the impact that technology has on management practices and organisation. He currently leads an HR technology consulting business, Inspecht looking at how social media can be used by organisations to not just enhance their business but actually attract the best people to work for them and also deliver on shareholder value. Previously he has worked in a multitude of roles ranging from software development to project management both in Australia and overseas. He is a regular speaker on HR technology for the Australian Human Resource Institute and has been convener in their HR Technology Special Interest Group. His blog which discusses HR and recruitment has over 5,000 unique readers every month and one of the top 50 in the world covering HR and Recruitment.
Your position/title?
Owner/Founder of Inspecht
Where do you live?
Melbourne
Give us a quick elevator pitch for your business.
I can’t - it is still evolving, but if you must, I run a small consulting business, Inspecht, specialising in HR technology and the application of Web 2.0 tools and techniques for companies of all sizes. To pay the bills I also do project management and change management.
How old is your business?
About 18 months
Why are you passionate about your business?
I want to change the way the world sees technology and its impact on organisations and people.
Name your three favourite business-related websites - the ones you visit religiously in your business
Twitter, Google Reader for my feeds, Saasu my accounting software J
Name your three favourite websites - the ones that you visit in your spare time
All sorts of sites depending on what is of interest, they vary from business to technical.
How many hours do you work in a typical working day and do you work weekends?
It depends; today 15 hours, some days 8 hours, weekends always
What do you do in your spare time?
Work, run, ski and spend time with my family, oh and work
How many followers do you have on Twitter?
Around 2,999 plus or minus 10 or 20 depending on the day
How many friends do you have on Facebook?
446 or so
Do you blog? Where is your blog located?
Yes I blog, you can find me at http://specht.com.au/michael/
If you were able to invite any three people to dinner, who would they be and why?
Chris Anderson of TED fame, cause he has spent so much time with thought leaders through the TED conference. Clay Shirky as I have been a fan of his writing for a long time. Finally either of the Google founders to understand what makes them tick.
Do you have a business mantra or favourite saying? If so, what is it?
I have two; “It’s not what the software does. It’s what the user does.” And the second comes from the Agile Project Management methodology of Scrum “A pig and a chicken are walking down a road. The chicken looks at the pig and says, “Hey, why don’t we open a restaurant?” The pig looks back at the chicken and says, “Good idea, what do you want to call it?” The chicken thinks about it and says, “Why don’t we call it ‘Ham and Eggs’?” “I don’t think so,” says the pig, “I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved.”
What is the biggest mistake that you have ever made in your business?
While I make mistakes daily probably the biggest was not starting it sooner.
In your eyes, what are the three top trends in the recruitment and technology space?
That is a hard question, one I have been pondering for many months and still have no answers. If I look toward the top 5 Boston Consulting Groups’ Mega Trends (Economic Volatility, Globalisation, Connectivity, Rise of Trust and Transparency, Global Warming and Rise of Green Products) they provide us some view on what is going to happen around recruitment technology. With continued economic volatility the only trends that will become mainstream will be the ones that limit economic exposure or provide a return on investment in a very short time. The continued push of globalisation and connectivity will influence how and where work is done, impacting the how and where we source candidates. The rise of trust and transparency will fuel more sites like Glassdoor, and Rate my Professor while providing both candidates and recruiters the ability to research each other in a way that has never been seen before.
What are you going to talk about at RecruitTECH and why is it important?
I will be talking about Social media in the workplace and why you should never turn a deep fryer into a spa.
Recruitment technology is nothing without the right people: Ross Clennett
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on August 10th, 2009
From Shortlist.net.au
All the new technology in the world will not replace the critical element of personal contact in the recruitment process, says recruitment trainer Ross Clennett.
Clennett, who will be speaking at the RecruitTech conference in Canberra next month, said that the recruitment process had stayed essentially the same since the late 19th century - with employers advertising a vacancy and interviewing the best applicants.
In recent years, he said, new technologies had developed which gave employers a wide range of tools to promote their vacancies and screen candidates, including social media sites, databases, psychometric testing and CRM systems.
However, a bigger shift occurred when employers realised the importance of relationship-building in the recruitment process, he said.
This was typified by the example of Google, he said, which used its own staff as company ambassadors, and involved them in the recruitment process.
“They understood the power of a brand, and of their own employees being the most important thing in terms of getting other good people in,” Clennett said.
While Google was still the exception, rather than the norm, he said, it had demonstrated that “ultimately it’s the quality of the people running the recruitment function that is going to make a success of your campaign”.
Doorstop interview: David Talamelli
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on August 4th, 2009
David Talamelli is the Principal Recruiter for Oracle in the Asia Pacific region. He will be speaking about blogging and recruitment at RecruitTECH 2009. David has created and run Oracle’s Global Recruitment Blog (http://blogs.oracle.com/jobsatoracle). This blog is instrumental in Oracle’s Web 2.0 Recruitment Strategy and has grown to over 1500+ subscribers in the last 12 months. We caught up with David to find out a little more about him…
Your position/title?
Principal Recruiter APAC for Oracle Corporation
Where do you live?
Melbourne, Australia
Give us a quick elevator pitch for your business…
Oracle is the world’s largest business software company, with more than 320,000 customers including 100 of the Fortune 100 representing a variety of sizes and industries in more than 145 countries around the globe. Link to the corporate profile: here http://www.oracle.com/corporate/information-powers-profitability.pdf
Oracle Corporation has a dedicated Global Team of Recruiters who are responsible for identifying and bringing talented individuals into Oracle of which I am part of.
How old is your business?
Oracle’s timeline as a company can be viewed: here http://www.oracle.com/timeline/index.html?origref=http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/index.htm
Why are you passionate about your business?
I recruit for Oracle and have brought a number of people into our business. When I talk to people about opportunities at Oracle and they ask me what it is like to work here - I let them know that I truly believe Oracle is a great place to work. This is a strong message to convey to people and when the message is genuine it is that much more powerful a statement. From a recruitment perspective I enjoy the challenges of searching for, identifying and talking to the talented people who may potentially work here. It is always interesting to talk to people with such a range of skills and experience.
Name your three favourite business-related websites - the sites you visit religiously in your business…
I visit a range of websites on any given day, three websites I currently read or use (this changes regularly) are: http://linkedin.com, http://zdnet.com and http://gizapage.com
Name your three favourite websites - the sites that you visit in your spare time…
I have RSS feeds to a number of blogs including blogs from many of the presenters at RecruitTech, currently I am enjoying http://outspokenmedia.com/, http://mashable.com/ and http://aviary.com
How many hours do you work in a typical working day and do you work weekends?
My work hours are variable as I work across various time zones - I would say anywhere between 8-10 hours a day. I find myself working at times on the weekend and outside “normal working hours”, however I try to keep this time balanced.
What do you do in your spare time?
Spending time with my wife and three kids, I also enjoy writing and try to get out for a run 2-3 times a week.
How many followers do you have on Twitter?
1300+
How many friends do you have on Facebook?
I am not too sure of the exact number somewhere between 200 and 400.
Do you blog? Where is your blog located?
Yes I do blog, I am a big blogging fan. I have been blogging for the past 12+ months on http://blogs.oracle.com/jobsatoracle to share with people the things I find interesting about Oracle, Recruitment and life as an IT Recruiter in general
If you were able to invite any three people to dinner, who would they be and why?
Michael Jordan - to see what drives his competitive mindset, Seth Godin - to differentiate between the person and the hype and Arj Barker - as he is one of the funniest comedians I have seen.
Do you have a business mantra or favourite saying? If so, what is it?
I have always liked the sayings “you create your own luck” and “treat people like you would like to be treated” - I think these are both important to remember in business and in life in general.
What is the biggest mistake that you have ever made in your business?
I have made numerous mistakes in the past, however I think the important thing is to learn from your mistakes and avoid repeating them.
In your eyes, what are the three top trends in the recruitment and technology space?
1) Web 2.0 technologies will continue to gain acceptance and usage in the Recruitment Industry as a viable means of sourcing and connecting with candidates. I believe many Recruiters are on the periphery of many of the Web 2.0 technologies with LinkedIn now being the common online social tool used by Recruiters. The uptake of Web 2.0 Technologies in the Recruitment Industry will expand into deeper and more meaningful conversations as we utilise the technology available (blogs, facebook, twitter, branding).
2) Recruitment will be a much more transparent function than it has been in the past. Recruitment is still about connecting with candidates and hiring managers. In today’s world however both candidates and clients alike have access to much more information about each other than ever before. We need to change our mindset to one where we share information about our processes and company (yes – the good, bad and ugly) rather than holding onto this information.
3) Our role as Recruiters is becoming a progressively more proactive service to our clients it will not only incorporate searching for and identifying talented individuals for our organisation but it also will include connecting with and engaging individuals/groups on employment branding, building communities, etc… We will still be measured by hard targets such as number of placements, time to hire, candidate/interview/offer percentages, etc… however there will a growing focus on soft targets such as employment branding, indirect hires, etc….
What are you going to talk about at RecruitTECH and why is it important?
Blogging and Recruitment. I will talk about blogging from a recruitment perspective and share the journey Oracle’s Recruitment Blog has had over the past 12+ months. I started the Oracle Recruitment Blog in 2008 as a chance to give people an insight into what it is like to work at Oracle and provide an avenue to explore opportunities with us. For me blogging has been a great way to connect with candidates and learn more about each other. Blogging is not meant to be an avenue to just fill open roles, it is about sharing and talking with your readers which can help grow your recruitment brand.
Doorstop Interview: Kelly Magowan
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on July 21st, 2009
Today we interview Kelly Magowan, CEO of Six Figures (http://www.sixfigures.com.au), the niche job site for executives that earn $100K+.
Kelly will be speaking at RecruitTECH 2009 about the necessity for a mix of job advertising solutions. Over the past five years, there has been a proliferation of ‘niche’ job boards in the US and UK job markets and this trend has started to become apparent in Australia, as advertising moves increasingly from print to online. In Kelly’s session, you will learn the benefits of advertising on geographically and industry-specific job boards and how they stack up against the better-known ‘generalist’ job boards.
Come and see Kelly Magowan speak at RecruitTECH…
Your position/title?
CEO of Six Figures (http://www.sixfigures.com.au)
Where do you live?
Southbank, Melbourne
Give us a quick elevator pitch for your business…
Six Figures (http://www.sixfigures.com.au) is the Executive Job Site for high salary earners to connect with advertisers and their $100K+ package jobs and contract opportunities. Catering for the top 10% of the workforce, covering all industries and professions, Six Figures connects top talent with the best employment opportunities.
How old is your business?
Six Figures launched March 2008
Why are you passionate about your business?
I have always been passionate about people’s career, business and creativity and innovation. Six Figures enables me to indulge all my passions.
Name your three favourite business-related websites - the ones you visit religiously in your business…
The Age, ERE, Techcrunch
Name your three favourite websites - the ones that you visit in your spare time…
I visit all sorts of sites such as Australian Women Online, Springwise and help my husband with his business site www.sevenbreaths.com
How many hours do you work in a typical working day and do you work weekends?
Far too many! Unfortunately when you run your own business, there is no such thing as weekends.
What do you do in your spare time?
With the little free time I have it is generally spent with my husband, family and friends and dog. I enjoy reading, yoga, travel, and am trying to learning Polish but it is going very slowly.
How many followers do you have on Twitter?
373
How many friends do you have on Facebook?
86 - I tend to spend my time on Twitter now and have neglected Facebook!
Do you blog? Where is your blog located?
I am a great fan of blogging. We have the Six Figures Blog at http://blog.sixfigures.com.au/ which is very much centered around topics and issues related to job seekers and employers looking to attract and retain talent. In addition I have my own personal blog, which is focused on women’s careers, business and financial management, www.kellykaplon.com
If you were able to invite any three people to dinner, who would they be and why?
Anita Roddick, Coco Channel, Edward De Bono
Do you have a business mantra or favourite saying? If so, what is it?
I find inspiration in a quote by Anita Roddick, “Nobody ever talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.”
What is the biggest mistake that you have ever made in your business?
Which one! There have been many. However that is a part of business and I would probably be concerned if we did not make mistakes - you just don’t want to be making the same ones! If you are not making mistakes, you are not taking risks and are unlikely to be innovating which would be concerning.
In your eyes, what are the three top trends in the recruitment and technology space?
1. Growth of niche job boards, following the US and UK job markets
2. More recruitment is starting to move in-house, including RPOs, again following the US trend where the majority of recruitment is done internally
3. Social and professional networking sites will evolve to have a more effective role in recruitment and employer branding, as well as for assisting smart organizations in building talent communities
What are you going to talk about at RecruitTECH and why is it important?
“Niche Job Sites for Quality: Why a mix of Advertising channels is best”
We are starting to see organizations adopt a more strategic approach to attracting talent, beyond a print job ad and using a generalist job site. Job seekers (active and passive) are time poor and want to customize the content they receive. They don’t want to be viewing irrelevant content and need to trust where the content is coming from. As a result having a talent sourcing strategy for each role that involves a mix of online and offline activity gives the employer the competitive advantage in attracting the top people, particularly for those key senior roles within their organizations. Recruitment is getting more strategic and sophisticated, due to the need to reflect and capture the attention of the savvy market of job seekers that we have today.
Doorstop Interview: Stephen Collins
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on July 13th, 2009
Canberra resident Stephen Collins is one of the keynote speakers at RecruitTECH 2009.
Stephen is a thinker and doer in social media and user experience. He’s recognised internationally as an innovator, community builder and engaging public speaker. Having worked for many years in the Australian public sector and consulting industries, Stephen founded acidlabs in late 2006 to help bring his philosophy of a more open, collaborative and hyperconnected world to his clients. It appears to have worked. Stephen now works with a range of organisations in the public and private sectors helping them change old corporate culture into a new model - one where conversation, collaboration and community are at the heart of everything they do.
Come and watch Stephen speak at RecruitTECH…
Public Sphere: Government 2.0 - Stephen Collins from Kate Lundy on Vimeo.
What is your name?
Steve Collins. But everyone, including my local Senator and my Mum call me trib.
Your position/title?
Founder and Chief Troublemaker at acidlabs.
Where do you live?
In Canberra’s southern, outer ‘burbs. Close to the bush, but not in it.
Give us a quick elevator pitch for your business…
Everything you do is about people. I make it easier for people to use your business and for you to understand the users of your business.
How old is your business?
acidlabs was born as a concept in October 2006 and I opened my doors officially in February 2007.
Why are you passionate about your business?
There’s no business without people to work in it, run it and to use the services or products you provide. But so often, people are treated as a last consideration. It’s my job to change that.
Name your three favourite business-related websites - the ones you visit religiously in your business
I actually don’t visit many web sites. I read a lot of them. Hundreds every day. Honest! But I use RSS tools to do it. My must-reads are extensive, but you can’t go wrong with:
MIT Sloan Management Review
Harvard Business Review
Johnny Holland
Name your three favourite websites - the ones that you visit in your spare time
If it’s spare time, I like to read stuff that’s brainless and nothing to do with my work. So, for me it’s:
Pajiba
GoFugYourself
QuestionableContent and xkcd
How many hours do you work in a typical working day and do you work weekends?
The old work-life balance question. A normal day for me is about 8-10 hours. I try not to work on the weekend, but I usually do a few hours. Not too many.
What do you do in your spare time?
What’s spare time?
I’m getting back into going to the gym and on my bike. This Summer I’ll get back to triathlons. And during Super14 season, it’s going to the Brumbies’ home games. All that plus spending time with my girls - my wife and daughter.
How many followers do you have on Twitter?
A lot.
How many friends do you have on Facebook?
Not as many as Twitter, but still a pretty significant number.
Do you blog? Where is your blog located?
Naturally. My blog is at www.acidlabs.org.
If you were able to invite any three people to dinner, who would they be and why?
Barack Obama, Joss Whedon and anyone who’s ever spoken at or attended TED.
Why? Obama is a transformative political entity and I want to know what makes him tick. I am a huge Joss Whedon fan, so it would be a complete fanboy thing. And the third? I got to go to TED this year and it was a life-changing experience. The TEDizen family are an incredibly inspiring group.
Do you have a business mantra or favourite saying? If so, what is it?
No.
What is the biggest mistake that you have ever made in your business?
I make mistakes all the time. The thing to do is fail fast, cheap and often. From these things, you can learn and innovate.
In your eyes, what are the three top trends in the recruitment and technology space?
Relationships and social media have changed recruiting completely in the past two years. Trouble is, so many organisations, particularly recruiters, don’t put the effort in and continue to rely on nothing more than their candidate databases. With any luck, these types of organsations will die soon.
What are you going to talk about at RecruitTECH and why is it important?
People, relationships, change, fish, connections.
Come and watch Stephen speak at RecruitTECH…
Shortlist.net.au covers RecruitTECH
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on July 12th, 2009
Shortlist.net.au, an online news service for the Australian recruitment industry, contained a small piece about RecruitTECH in its Thursday newsletter:
Recruitment technology conference to address remote talent
Online freelancing technology is one of the topics to be discussed at the RecruitTech conference in Canberra this year.
Founder of niche job board CareerMums.com.au, Kate Sykes, will discuss “virtual consulting” sites, which are allowing employers to tap into a remote talent pool of part-time and contracting talent in areas such as design, website development, bookkeeping and data entry.
Other speakers at the conference include recruitment trainer Ross Clennett, Recruitment Directory founder Thomas Shaw and JobAdder boss Brett Iredale.
Doorstop Interview: Kate Sykes
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on July 10th, 2009
Canberra resident Kate Sykes is the founder of specialist jobs website CareerMums. Kate will be speaking about accessing the remote workforce during her presentation at RecruitTECH 2009.
Kate has had over 14 years experience in marketing and communications management roles at Z Corp (BostonUSA), SunSystems, Australian Stock Exchange, and Medicare Australia. In December 2006, Kate launched www.careermums.com.au – Australia’s first dedicated careers centre and jobs board for working parents and parents returning to work. Kate also provides consulting services to businesses wanting to implement flexible workplace policies, and retention strategies to retain parents after parental leave. She is a member NSW EEO Practitioner’s Association, a member of the Talent Leadership Consortium, and the chair of the Canberra Business Council’s Workstyles Committee which focuses on promoting flexible workplace practices in the ACT region.
Come and see Kate speak at RecruitTECH 2009…
Your job?
Founder and Director of www.careermums.com.au
Where do you live?
Canberra
Give us a quick elevator pitch for your business…
Australia’s leading careers centre and jobs board for working parents and parents returning to work.
How old is your business?
2.5 years old
Why are you passionate about your business?
As a mum myself, I understand the challenges confronting skilled women returning to work
Name your three favourite business-related websites - the ones you visit religiously in your business
www.smh.com.au, www.smartcompany.com.au, www.alexa.com
Name your three favourite websites - the ones that you visit in your spare time
I don’t have spare time but I sometimes visit www.oo.com.au, www.dealsdirect.com.au,
How many hours do you work in a typical working day and do you work weekends?
Across 7 days, I work anywhere between 20-40 hours per week. My hours are not standard.
What do you do in your spare time?
Kids, exercise, see friends
How many followers do you have on Twitter?
Just started twitter – I think about 40ish people
How many friends do you have on Facebook?
I don’t use Facebook – no time to update
Do you blog? Where is your blog located?
Yes, I do - http://familyandworkflexiblity.blogspot.com/
If you were able to invite any three people to dinner, who would they be and why?
Barack Obama, Marion Le, and Prue Goward. Why? They all have a social conscience.
Do you have a business mantra or favourite saying? If so, what is it?
Keep it simple – nothing is ever complicated
What is the biggest mistake that you have ever made in your business?
Trusting IT people at face value rather than doing some investigation
In your eyes, what are the three top trends in the recruitment and technology space?
Interaction with your audience including mobile technology, direct recruitment, and recruitment through networks.
What are you going to talk about at RecruitTECH and why is it important?
Accessing a flexible and remote workforce using technology. There is too much untapped talent to ignore as businesses plan for the future workforce.
Come and see Kate speak at RecruitTECH 2009…
Doorstop Interview: Riges Younan
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on July 9th, 2009
Social recruiting guru Riges Younan is our ‘lucky last’ speaker at RecruitTECH 2009 in Canberra on 18 September 2009. Riges will be speaking about the 7 secrets to a successful employee referral program.
Riges’ current company Peerlo (http://www.peerlo.com) is a job referral technology systems developer and recruiting advisory business. He is a career recruiter with over 12 years of experience in executive search and recruiting. Riges has been responsible for 5 successful start-ups in Australia, London and New York such as http://2vouch.com and http://jobgenie.com.au. Riges is an evangelist of Social Recruiting and has a passion for using technology to efficiently drive talent sourcing.
Come and see Riges Younan speak at RecruitTECH 2009…
Your job?
Recruiting Strategist at Peerlo
Where do you live?
Melbourne
Give us a quick elevator pitch for your business…
Peerlo is a recruiting services and technology company that assists employers and recruiters to better utilise social media and web 2.0 to attract and retain talent and build a talent communities around their brand.
How old is your business?
In its current form about 4 months but Peerlo and its team was born out of a referral recruiting platform we built called 2Vouch.com which was incorporated in September of 2006.
Why are you passionate about your business?
Recruiting has always been social and the beauty of the world us recruiters live in today is, we now also have a whole bunch of tools (in addition to the phone and face to face meetings) to make the “social’ piece more scalable and the relationships we develop more meaningful. They are more meaningful because of the extra context and visibility we now get of our clients and the candidate community we engage with.
I am passionate about the value of technology driven talent sourcing and we at Peerlo aim to build technology and services to help recruiters and employers do it better.
Name your three favourite business-related websites - the ones you visit religiously in your business
Linkedin, Atlassian’s product Jira and Twitter
Name your three favourite websites? The ones that you visit in your spare time
When I have spare time, it’s usually filled with chasing my two and half year old boy around and being a husband. I occasionally peek at peoples photos on facebook.
How many hours do you work in a typical working day and do you work weekends?
I try and be disciplined enough to take Saturdays off, but as a startup entrepreneur that is very difficult. So if I’m not on my laptop, meeting people or on the phone – I am always thinking about how we can build a better business.
What do you do in your spare time?
I am a huge football ( soccer ) so I take my son to watch a local team we support every Saturday, I am a die hard Carlton supporter and I like to cook. So spare time typically revolves around sport, beer and food. I would say that’s typical Aussie male behaviour 
How many followers do you have on Twitter?
Hmm, let me check. (back) 744 people following me. Hi followers! I promise I’ll become more interesting soon.
How many friends do you have on Facebook?
I have 90. Most of my time is spent on Twitter and Linkedin
Do you blog? Where is your blog located?
Yes – I blog at http://peerlo.com/blog and at http://rigesyounan.com
If you were able to invite any three people to dinner, who would they be and why?
CEO of Twitter Evan Williams: He has executed a few successful start-ups and I would be interested to learn what his formulae is.
Bill Clinton: Really interested to hear if Monica Lewinsky is as good as rumours say she was he he. On a serious note, I think he is one of most inspirational political leaders of our time. He’s obviously made mistakes but he would offer a wealth of knowledge.
Reid Hoffman Founder of Linkedin: We have been trying to integrate our application with Linkedin and they are not returning my calls. It would be hard to avoid me over a dinner table.
Do you have a business mantra or favourite saying? If so, what is it?
Focus, fail fast and iterate.
What is the biggest mistake that you have ever made in your business?
Putting all of my personal wealth on the line for a tech start-up. I’ve learned that you need to take some money off the table, launch early with a focused product that executes your core offering, be the best at that one thing and one thing only. Test the business model and automate later when customers arrive and revenues flow. Be agile and iterate.
In your eyes, what are the three top trends in the recruitment and technology space?
1- I am seeing employers becoming more sophisticated in the direct candidate sourcing activities, they are using tools like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook to connect directly with the candidates, build relationships and start a conversation. With this increase in knowledge employers are also increasing the expectation of what third party recruiting firms do for their fees. This is a big challenge for recruiting firms as they must continue to evolve their business and ensure they have the capability to augment the employers direct sourcing activities with bundled services or demonstrate that they are executing a thorough sourcing strategy to deliver value and justify their fees.
2- Increased use of Social Media in Recruiting to do the following things:
1. Build deeper relationships with Employers and Candidates
2. Increase the scale and reach of recruiter networks.
3. Create a much more transparent and accountable recruiting process.
3- Increased referral hiring for both recruiters and employers. (it would be remise of me not to discuss referrals.) I think the use of technology platforms and CRM will enable both employers and recruiters to leverage of their connections and contacts to increase the amount of referrals they receive when searching for a candidate to fill a job.
What are you going to talk about at RecruitTECH and why is it important?
I’ll be talking about how to implement a world class candidate referral program. There has been a lot of research about referrals as a source of hire and I’ll be discussing 7 steps to ensure your candidate referral program is world class.
Come and see Riges Younan speak at RecruitTECH 2009…
Doorstop Interview: Laurel Papworth
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on July 7th, 2009
Laurel Papworth is our opening keynote speaker at RecruitTECH 2009, to be held on Friday 18 September 2009 at the Canberra Business Events Centre, Regatta Point in Canberra ACT. More details about the event can be found here…
Laurel is Australia’s leading social network strategist and has been working in online communities, virtual worlds and forums for 20 years. She has been teaching social media marketing at University of Sydney since 2005 and her clients include Middle East Broadcasting in Saudi Arabia, and Ministry of Defense in Singapore.
Laurel is a Power150 Marketing Media blogger (one of only 3 Australians on the list) and a top Twitterer (she has over 10,000 followers). As a workshop facilitator, Laurel has provided courses in Asia, Middle East, Europe and Australia/New Zealand and recently released her courseware under creative commons (free) licence online.
Come to RecruitTECH 2009 and hear Laurel speak!
What is your job?
Social Networks Strategist
Where do you live?
Sydney
Give us a quick elevator pitch for your business…
I work with business to understand how to be social - taking corporate and government through practical solutions re: working with online communities.
How old is your business?
I have consulted in virtual communities strategies for 20 years (since early 1989), and run World Communities since 1995. Most of my clients are in Asia, including the work I do with Singapore Government although I also have a major London client.
Why are you passionate about your business?
For me, The Dialogue is The Content (that was my business tagline for years). I am particularly passionate about educating companies that social network engagement has real ROI (return on investment) and high COI (cost of inaction). I focus primarily on monetizing social media. Showing where the money is, by following the value to the community.
Name your three favourite business-related websites?
I spend my time looking for new websites and blogs - so it’s mostly tools like Blogsearch.google.com. Also LinkedIn and Facebook.
Name your three favourite websites - the ones that you visit in your spare time
I don’t differentiate between business and personal so Facebook, Twitter and new blogs again.
How many hours do you work in a typical working day and do you work weekends?
I never stop. Oh ok, about 10 hours a day that includes weekends. But even if I am watching a movie or playing a computer game, I am thinking about the social implications of the media. Even books can trigger a blog post or a tweet on Twitter
What do you do in your spare time?
What is “spare time”? I live a creative life with my job, so it’s always exciting. If I have some spare time I like to build websites myself - I usually outsource it, but I like coding. I like filming and video so I often experiment with podcasting/vidcasting though I rarely publish publicly, because it makes me cross I am not good enough. I like to play with electronic gadgets - the next day I get free, I want to set up my new video camera that does live uploading of video grabs. At the moment it is in a box until I get an hour or two to myself.
Even if I was retired on a gazillion dollars I would still do what I do. I would just be less worried about paying the rent!
How many followers do you have on Twitter?
Just over 10,000 and God bless their little cotton socks, every last one of ‘em.
How many friends do you have on Facebook?
Just shy of 1000 and …
Do you blog? Where is your blog located?
I now blog on my own domain name laurelpapworth.com hosted for $7 a month in the States. I used to blog on silkcharm.blogspot.com (Google’s free blog site) but decided to move it to my own name in January 2009.
If you were able to invite any three people to dinner, who would they be and why?
Howard Rheingold - he wrote the original book on virtual communities back in the ’80s. Ive actually met and chatted with him a few times over the years - both in real life and in Second Life - and he’s lots of fun.
David Lynch, movie director. He does quite a bit of stuff on YouTube and Twitter and Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks etc were awesomely weird.
Margaret Thatcher. She’d keep the two guys in line
Do you have a business mantra or favourite saying? If so, what is it?
“I’m worth being paid for” (I have a tendency to do too many “coffees” and (wo)man cannot live on coffee alone)
“how can I socialize this?” there’s a temptation for people to seed viral videos in communities and call it social media. It’s much more interesting if the community can change the content in some way. I particularly like looking at a website, maybe a council library page, and daydream about how I can turn it into a community website. Does that make me strange?
What is the biggest mistake that you have ever made in your business?
Listening to other people too much. People with business experience but no online community experience. It’s better that I do what I need to do and figure out the business angle later rather than do the business stuff first and lose sight of the goal meantime. I include finding joint venture partners, taking out patents and figuring out finances in this scenario.
In your eyes, what are the three top trends in the recruitment and technology space?
The first is building a profile online. The need for a C.V. diminishes if the applicant has a substantial network on LinkedIn including testimonials from previous bosses and clients, a portfolio of work on their blog, and strong reputation on industry based online communities. They become like “star” employees or CEOs. Secondly is the move towards escrow payments for open outsourcing. This is where a project is placed online, members bid to do the work, and then the money for the job is placed up in escrow. This opens up clerical, legal, art, design work to those who are working from home, mothers, remote area workers, housebound, etc.
What are you going to talk about at RecruitTECH and why is it important?
I will be speaking on Open Outsourcing (as above). The upcoming generation are quite entrepreneurial and enjoy having a portfolio or range of jobs. So there is appeal in checking into open outsourcing sites, and bidding on a selection of jobs. This gives them standing in the community with regards to trust and reputation and encourages loyalty to that site. Open Outsourcing has the potential to completely disrupt the traditional recruitment market and is where a lot of job ads have migrated to.
Come to RecruitTECH 2009 and hear Laurel speak!
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The inaugural Australian Recruitment and Technology Conference - RecruitTECH 2009 - will be held at the Canberra Business Event Centre, Regatta Point on Friday, 18 September 2009.
RecruitTECH will feature Australia's foremost thinkers and speakers in the recruitment and technology space.
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