Wednesday 18 November 2015

OME News

I normally fill this sort of post with news about account wins and new stuff - which is thinly veiled PR(sometimes no veil at all) about how great OME is. However the significant news is 2 of our team have become Dads for the first time - so congrats to Kork and Bethan on arrival of Daisy Anya Desai and Stephen and Julia on arrival of Joseph Mark Oliver.

Mothers and babies apparently doing great - the Dads have been looking a little weary though!

Tuesday 3 November 2015

LinkedIn's Talent Connect Thoughts

So went along to Talent Connect (LinkedIn's EMEA conference) couple of weeks ago and my feedback is below

1. It has become THE event in our space. Massive turn out (2000?) of senior-ish people from big and biggish organisations. Nobody else and no other event could attract that kind of attendance. LinkedIn are the official 400lb Gorilla of the industry.

2. Quite international - if I had to estimate I would say at least 25-30% were from outside UK

3. Very well organised - main conference - break out sessions. breaks with networking opportunities. I saw lots of people I knew or used to work with/for. For me - that is of huge benefit of course.

4. By definition with this amount of content - some of the quality was varied (in smaller break out sessions) and there were a few sessions from people on "the circuit" that I am sure many had experienced before - but that is a pretty harsh criticism.

5. The overriding theme was all about Brand and Marketing via LinkedIn. Using LI to promote the company, using it as a true social tool, how to build an EVP via LI platform. Clearly LinkedIn believe this to be their next area for huge growth and I 100% get that. LinkedIn recruiter tools and postings are of clear value and don't need much selling - Most orgs however are not using it in true marketing/social sense - and that's the next challenge. I think you could say that the case for ROI is a little more unproven here - but on balance we at OME are pretty much on board with this message too.

6. The Referral product launch I think will be a clear winner. It provides the platform to run a referral scheme that is trackable, promotable to a universe who we know already have LI profiles. I don't see much of a downside.
NB - no mention of the actual cost of this product to customers - so that could be the pretty big downside!

I could only attend one of the days - but followed via social media and seemed to be more on same themes.

So i attended and it looks like i drank the Kool Aid, still no side effects........yet.