Blogsquad #CIPD15

Well here's a turn-up for the books.  I've been blogging since March, and last month the CIPD themselves noticed what I was doing, and asked me if I was going to #CIPD15 in November.

"Yes", said I.  "I haven't missed a CIPD Conference & Exhibition since I started going in 2004."

"Well", said they.  "Do you fancy blogging about it? You can be part of the official CIPD Blogsquad and you get a free ticket to both days of the conference and unrivalled access to all the sessions and speakers."

"Actually", said I, "I was probably going to blog about it anyway, but seeing as you asked so nicely, then OK."

And here we all are now.  Somehow I've managed to keep quiet about it until yesterdays big reveal by CIPD.

I'm liking the sci-fi theme of this although I'm fairly certain that the design team could have Davros-ed me up a bit given that I've spent 40 years honing just that kind of look.

So what's involved?  Well, the programme for #CIPD15 is here - take a look. Its a fantastic programme and there's some amazing speakers there.  My role, and bear in mind I'd have been going anyway, is to cover the event via this blog and report on what I see.  I'm part of a squad of more talented and more experienced HR bloggers who will also be doing the same, so between us we'll cover off the entire programme, but I'm feeling very much like the new kid on the block.

I love the CIPD Conference.  I first went in 2004 when it was in Harrogate and was blown away by the experience.  I came away from that trip absolutely loaded with reading material plus, strangely I thought at the time, free gifts from exhibitors.  When I got home it was like Xmas and birthdays all rolled into one for my children, and I don't think I've needed to buy a pen, or mints, or Celebrations, since.

The conference when at Harrogate was quite different than Manchester now - it felt bigger, despite Harrogate itself being much smaller.  But it was like the conference took over the entire town and all its hotels and bars, and everywhere you went you bumped into fellow attendees.  In Manchester, its lost in the shuffle somehow of a major metropolitan city, and doesn't feel as special even though I think the organisation and look and feel has improved.  I look forward to it every year - although the proximity of Manchester to where I live and work means that I've not been able to justify an overnight stay and experience the "evening" entertainment like I could do at Harrogate.

There's a good deal of free seminars purely in the exhibition so if you wanted to you could get a lot of value just from attending that, but the conference offers a whole lot more.

I'm excited about going, and even more so now I'm on the Blogsquad. I hope to gain a lot of knowledge and thoughts about leading-edge HR that I can take back into the workplace, aswell as give my views via this blog on the whole experience.

Bring it on.

Gary

PS in other news, Poppy turns 1 in a couple of weeks.  That's gone exceptionally quickly! How much things change in just one year...