Blog Post

I had the pleasure of attending the RCSA Bridging Connections conference in Hobart, Tasmania last week.  Being one of the speakers this year, i had a slightly different perspective than the conference i attended last year.

I think it's great that the RCSA run such an annual event, bringing Recruiters and associated partners together, usually in a 'stress-free' environment, away from usual business operations.  Barriers are down, people are relaxed and the conversation really flows.

This year, 3 speakers stood out for me. Greg Savage from Aquent , David Arkless from Manpower and Terry Hawkins.  Greg shared some non-nonsense recruitment insights about how Aquent are changing their approach, to respond the recruitment market needs. The underlying theme of his presentation, was that Recruiters need to have 'different conversations' with Clients and Candidates.  I particularly liked the way Aquent have done away with the traditional job search functionality on their website, and replaced it with a 'Consultant search' function instead. The logic being, that connecting Recruiters with Candidates is the way forward.

David Arkless shared macro-economic insights with the crowd, and talked about China, India, and Africa in particular. He set a broad scene on what is happening demographically speaking in different regions around the world, and tied them to how these changes with affect recruitment in the future.  Terry Hawkins, was shere dynamite. Her energy, and vibrancy really stood out in her presentation, as she talked about her trade-mark 'Pit-Man' and 'Stick-Man', and how to bring a positive attitude towards your work and life in general.

All in all, the event was a huge success, i took away many insights and will certainly implement changes within my own organisation as a result. I made many contacts and shared conversations with real thought-leaders.  I managed to interview a few people, so look out for these audio interviews on our podcast page.