Event Preview - SHRM Annual with Jennifer McClure

In episode 718, Jennifer McClure joins Bill Banham to preview the SHRM Annual Conference and Expo and her special BFF Birthday Party in Chicago. 

During the 2024 SHRM Annual Conference and Expo, Disrupt will host a VIP party at the House of Blues. The party will celebrate Jennifer McClure’s 60th birthday and champion the reawakening of the DisruptHR community after COVID-19.

The party will be co-hosted by Jennifer McClure, Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR, Steve Browne (whose Mission is to meet every HR leader in the world), Erich Kurschat of HRHotSeat, and the DisruptHR Chicago team led by Amy Perry. It will include a live DJ, a photo booth and lots of networking with others in the HR space.


Listen as Jennifer and Bill discuss:

• What excites Jennifer about the growth of Disrupt since the end of the Pandemic
• New and relaunched Disrupt chapters making an impact
• Why SHRM Annua is a key event on the HR calendar
• Jennifer's sessions at #SHRM24 - From Traditional to Transformational: Disrupting HR to Thrive in the New Era of Work and Lead with Impact: Drive Career and Business Success Through Personal Branding and Influential Leadership

We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom and visit hrgazettecom.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello everybody, this is your host today, bill Bannam, and in this episode we're going to preview the upcoming SHRM Annual Conference and Expo, plus the BFF birthday party for none other than the amazing Jennifer McClure over at the House of Blues in wonderful Chicago. I personally love bringing people together to network, connect and have loads of fun while helping to shape the future of work. That's why I enjoy being one of around 450 people organising Disrupt HR events in over 150 cities in 34 countries around the globe.

Speaker 2: 1:06

During the 2024 sherm annual conference and expo, disrupt will be hosting a viv party at the house of blues in chicago and the party will celebrate jennifer mcclure's hang on, I must have this wrong. It's a 60th birthday. I'm sure it must be 40th and uh championing the reawakening of Disrupt HR post-COVID-19. I'm delighted to have my ticket to the event and at the event we'll be celebrating everything about Disrupt HR and what it stands for, and we'll also have a chance to network with fellow like-minded HR pros and others in and around HR, of Pros and others in and around HR. The party will be co -hosted by Laurie Rutterman, steve Brown, who has recently been on the show again and Eric Kerstat of HR Hot Seat. Joining me on the show today to talk about all of these wonderful things is none other than Jennifer McClure, visionary behind Disrupt HR, the global movement that challenges the status quo and fosters innovative ideas in the workplace. Jennifer, welcome back to the HR Chat Show. It's wonderful to have you here today.

Speaker 3: 2:12

Yes, thank you for having me back. I know you have a vibrant community, so it's always great to connect with them and to hear from people who've listened to the show afterwards.

Speaker 2: 2:21

You have a vibrant community, madam, and we'll talk all about that today, so I guess I should start with many happy returns. Has your birthday happened yet?

Speaker 3: 2:29

It is Monday, june 17th, which surprises me. Every time I think about it, I'm like, oh, I have a birthday coming up in just a few days and, just like every year, I'm like they're just really another day. You have to mark this time on the calendar, especially for this type of you know birthday. But I, you know, I'm not the only one that says it. I truly do not feel that old, if that is old. So the mind is still in the 20s, the body depending on the day, maybe the 40s, you're right, the body depending on the day, maybe the 40s, you're right?

Speaker 2: 3:12

Well, I am personally very, very excited about your party on June 24th I think it's 7 till 10 Central Time. I got the invite and I think I registered within like a minute of receiving it and then I sent you a message off through saying how excited I was. What can attendees expect?

Speaker 3: 3:23

you know, um, I don't really know. It's interesting how this has evolved. My friend, laurie rudiman, who is one of the organizers and, um, certainly an og in the hr, uh, thought leadership community it's funny. I was thinking while you were reading the introduction. I started following laur Laurie's anonymous blog at the time. It was called Team Building is for Suckers, one of her first. She had a few anonymous blogs in 2007.

Speaker 3: 3:53

And in 2009, I went to my first SHRM conference in New Orleans. I was invited there and recruiting recruiting blogscom, which is not around anymore, reached out to me when they saw that I was going and they said hey, if we send you a flip cam if anybody remembers the flip cams, but back before we all had cameras on our phones would you just walk around and just interview people for us to share on our website and we'll give you? I think it was like $400. I'm like yes. And so I reached out to Laurie, who I'd never met, and asked if I could interview her there, and she was a big deal. She had come out as Punk Rock HR, which was her iteration of her blog, but she had her name on it and she graciously said yes, and so I interviewed her at the 2009 SHRM conference and she decided to adopt me as her best friend, which has been probably the best personal and professional happening in my life of all time. So that's what 14 years ago. It's 2014, 15 years ago and, long story short, laurie lives in North Carolina, I live in Ohio, so we typically see each other at conferences and events and maybe a couple of times a year if we decide to go visit each other. But she truly is the best, and about probably six months ago, she said hey, your birthday, because it's always usually the week of SHRM or the week before or after SHRM, since SHRM is usually in mid-June. She said your birthday is there. If I come to Chicago, can I throw a birthday party for you? And I said do I have to do anything? And she said no. So I'm thinking we're all going to go to dinner with some of our friends.

Speaker 3: 5:38

I've received none of the upfront communications about this event and I've started seeing. You know, know that it's the house blues holds 400 people, but they're expecting, you know, a waitlist and people can rotate in and out, and now they're sponsors and it's a big deal. So I'm excited and truly excited. You know they originally we just invited. You know VIPs, who are people we knew. You know nobody's more important than anybody else, it's just people that we knew. Then they sent me a link to send to the Disrupt HR organizers as an appreciation, and I was really surprised and thrilled actually, that so many of our Disrupt HR organizers are coming that aren't even attending the conference. They just want to come to meet people and be at the party. So I think you'll be at the conference and the party as well, right?

Speaker 4: 6:32

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Speaker 2: 7:12

That would be an affirmative. That would be a damn straight. I'll be at both. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 3: 7:16

Yeah, there are quite a few people who are just coming in, either flying in or driving in for the event. And it kind of brings me back and again early days of social media whatever. China Gorman was the COO of SHRM and she's kind of the one that's credited with getting SHRM involved with social media, because they were very resistant, like everybody else was, back then, and she hosted a networking party in Washington DC and I flew it. I just decided I need to see the people that are there and I flew in. Laurie actually messaged me and told me I could stay with her and paid my own money to just go meet people. And again, I think that's not been something that a lot of people have done over the last few years as we have become more connected via social media. So the fact that people are coming to meet people in real life, I'm really excited about it.

Speaker 2: 8:05

We have spoken quite a bit about Laurie just now. There are two other co-organizers of this super cool party. Those are Eric and the amazing Steve Brown who, by the time this episode goes live, we would have recently published an episode with Steve where we look ahead to SHRM and we also talk about your amazing party. By the way, um, in terms of Eric and Steve, how have they contributed to your?

Speaker 3: 8:29

um well, steve again. You know I won't go into a long story, but I've known him longer than Laurie. We live in, we live in Cincinnati, so we know each other and Steve is someone that I consider my uh, mentor and friend. And when we started Disrupt HR in December 2013, the idea came mid-2013, my co-founder and I, chris Ostich when Chris said let's do this and let's hold an event at the Rheingeist in December, I said we have to get Steve Brown involved, because you can't have an HR event in Cincinnati if Steve Brown is not involved. You can't have an HR event in Cincinnati if Steve Brown is not involved. And that is the truth. If Steve's not coming, then people will be like this is not worth my time.

Speaker 3: 9:11

So Steve's been with Disrupt HR from the very beginning. Been with me Again. Laurie is 15 years, 14, 15 years. Steve's probably 20, 25 in terms of being in my life and so similar, I think. When Laurie said, hey, we're going to have a birthday party for you and it expanded beyond just a dinner with friends to what it's become, she said we have to get Steve involved. We know Steve's mission in life is to connect with every HR person on the planet, so this will hopefully be an opportunity for him to maybe meet a couple of people he doesn't know yet, but there will certainly be a lot of people who want to come there to see him in person, in addition to the two mega sessions that he'll have at SHRM.

Speaker 3: 9:49

Eric Kerschat is the founder of HR Hot Seat, which started really as kind of an online networking community. I think he's expanded into in-person events, probably been around for four or five years I know we connected a lot during COVID times, maybe even before then but he's always just been someone. He's in Chicago who's reached out to me to get ideas to how to expand his community. It's not the same as Disrupt HR, but he's kind of learned from my experiences with what's worked and what's not worked and what I'd recommend or what I'd not recommend, and certainly taken his own direction and it's really grown a lot over the last few years. So since he's in Chicago, the Disrupt HR Chicago community is also involved in supporting the event and that's led by Amy Perry. So Steve Laurie, amy with the Disrupt HR Chicago community and then the team at RepCap with Mary Ellen Slater are the ones that are really behind all the details and getting the venue and figuring out all the details and getting sponsors and making it a great party.

Speaker 5: 10:54

Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at HRGazettecom. And now back to the show.

Speaker 2: 11:09

Well, I am super excited about it. Okay, so, as regular listeners of this show will know, I have the great honor to be a co-organizer of a whole bunch of Disrupt chapters in the US and in the UK. I think I read recently Jen correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think I read recently that there are over 7,500 videos of Disrupt Talks on the site and on Vimeo. Can you firstly correct me if I am wrong on that? I think that's the number and maybe you could mention a few talks that have impressed you recently or made you question something about what you thought about the world of work.

Speaker 3: 11:53

I can tell you there's probably 7,000 videos in my email right now to upload, because April and May were I don't know if they were record months, because 2019 was really strong for Disrupt HR event but probably close to record months in terms of number of events and, of course, as happens, all the videos have come in at once to be uploaded and so I don't get to watch them. I actually thought this week I'm like I need to like schedule some time in July, maybe just take like three days off and just watch, because I see the titles and I see the speakers and I'm like, wow, that looks really interesting. But I've got, you know, again 300 videos to upload that I want to make sure I get online for people to share, so I don't have the time to watch them. It's just really exciting to me to see the variety of talks. You know I think you asked me in the last show to talk about some that have particularly impressed me and, as I said, it's like picking children, but I like that I'm seeing. You know I've threatened and I think I mentioned it on your last show that we spoke to take the titles and maybe drop them in a word cloud and see? Kind of, because I get asked sometimes what are the trends? Certainly, ai, you know you probably don't have an event where I don't see a talk that includes something about AI and how we should use it, or it's the angel or the devil of you know the workplace. But I think I'm seeing a lot more diversity of topics that are being talked about. I know I saw one that I want to made a note I want to watch was around discussion of suicide in the workplace and again, those are the kind of topics that I see the title and I'm intrigued. Certainly, I want to learn from the person who shared about it and I saw they posted on LinkedIn that you know this was an opportunity for them to talk about a very important topic. But I also I always reflect and I'm like that's not a topic you're seeing at other conferences and events. You know these are, these are important topics. Many of them are, even if they're people who bring an idea and they just want to share about it for fun. The variety I think that you get at the Disrupt HR events of ideas, perspectives. I'm blown away every time I do watch videos or attend an event.

Speaker 3: 14:06

I spoke at Disrupt HR Columbus last month, which is about a couple hours up the road from me, and I just sat there and I think there were 12 speakers. I spoke as well. Every one of the speakers and I'm a professional speaker. That's what I do, you know speak at conferences and stand on stages and share ideas. I think of the 11 other speakers, every one of them presented in a way that they were professional speakers. They were confident, they delivered a great message. With the five minute 20 slide format it was concise, the variety of ideas.

Speaker 3: 14:43

I talked to one of the young ladies after she came off stage and I said I was just so impressed with your delivery, with your talk, and she said I've never given a talk before and I wanted to challenge myself to do this and I'm just like I sit in the audience of the Disrupt HR event and go. This is why we do this. These people are in your workplace, they're out there, they have ideas they can present. Now we all know there are people who are terrified to present and some of those have challenged themselves to give talks at Disrupt HR and sometimes that goes well and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn't for people who do it all the time, but they're in your workplace and they just need to be tapped on the shoulder, given an opportunity, and I love that Disrupt HR gives them that. So that's a long way of answering your question. I can't pick a favorite, but I love seeing the variety of topics you know authenticity, gender, pay, equity, lgbtq issues. You know those are all just within the last few months of topics that I've seen from Disrupt HR events around the world. Again, I think you know.

Speaker 3: 15:46

One of the things that you wanted to ask me about maybe later was where I'm excited to see Disrupt HR coming back or coming to, and was thrilled last year when Lagos, nigeria, came on board Because while we'd had events in South Africa which there are no licensed cities currently in South Africa I still can't believe that, but we'd had three cities in the past in South Africa but never throughout the African continent, and so to have Lagos come on board and this again, not that I should be surprised, but again, maybe just because I hadn't seen anyone from the continent of Africa beyond South Africa. The topics and the professionalism and the delivery of the people who gave the talks at that event were amazing. Since then, one of the organizers has taken it to Nairobi. The first Disrupt HR Nairobi event will be in July. She plans to expand. I think the government of Abuja in Nigeria reached out to her about maybe bringing it to Abuja. So after the Nairobi event she's going to look into that.

Speaker 3: 16:49

And then this week I got a couple more inquiries from four different cities in Nigeria, and I forget the other country in Africa. And then someone reached out about just Africa in general. Where can I hold an event? So that excites me because we have events in Australia. So let's try to name the continents, bill, help me. Asia we certainly have events. None in China, none in Japan, though. So none in Korea. So those are opportunities for somebody. And none in India, which I'm still surprised to this day. None in India, wow. We have had, I think, one event, either Bangalore or Mumbai maybe in the past, but again, big country, lots of opportunities to disrupt Certainly Europe. Certainly US and Canada have been big. We have some in South America. So the fact that it's growing now on the African continent is really exciting to me.

Speaker 2: 17:47

Antarctica. Got anything going on in Antarctica yet?

Speaker 3: 17:49

no, maybe we should team up and um. I'll give you the license for free Bill if you want to know what Jen the thing about Antarctica is.

Speaker 2: 17:59

I heard you get a bit of a frosty reception down there. Oh, okay moving on.

Speaker 2: 18:05

Actually, I just want to pick up one thing you said there about the importance of giving new voices an opportunity and, uh, it is one of the key reasons why I love the disrupt format. Uh, when you've got 14 ish speakers, you've got an opportunity to speak for five minutes each. It does mean that you can offer up places each and every time to new voices and, my goodness me, you will be surprised and in awe of a bunch of these people who've perhaps never been on the stage before, but they're getting up there, they're giving it a go and they're being fresh. So that's awesome, jen. Briefly, so I'm going to challenge you. In one minute or less, you're going to be at SHRM. Obviously, you're hosting the party during SHRM. You're going to be doing a couple of talks. We'll mention those in just a moment. But just generally, for those folks who haven't perhaps been to SHRM annual before, in one minute or less, why should they attend?

Speaker 3: 18:58

It's the biggest show for HR professionals on earth. Last year, I think, there were 25,000 people, and that includes vendors, et cetera, but still to have 20,000 plus HR professionals in one place. The conference is a well-oiled machine. I mean, I've been going every year since 2009. It's just. You know everything from the signage to the books, to the variety of speakers and topics, to the layout of the conference centers, which sometimes can be a challenge because they're just so big. But it's just the place to be to meet and connect with people, to again have the opportunity to learn about a variety of topics from both practitioners and industry experts.

Speaker 3: 19:40

The expo hall, I think, is a place that maybe some people don't pay enough attention to, but to walk, you know, not just to even walk around, but to again to see what types of vendors there are, what are the products and services that they're offering. You know what is, what is the new hot thing. And then there's always some. For years there was the breast milk vendor that I always found them to love the idea that there was somebody that came to talk about breastfeeding in the workplace. And then there's usually somebody that has some pets know for pet insurance. So just the the sheer experience of those three or four days and, uh, the immensity of it all is a reason to come so, uh, you know how you get those notifications on your phone.

Speaker 2: 20:22

Two years ago today, all that jazz I got one yesterday, um, with a bunch of different photos that came up. Uh, one was, uh, me on the show on expo floor, uh, with johnny c taylor. He was just wandering around being a cool dude. I was such a fan boy. Um, okay, so you are presenting a couple of sessions at sherm. Uh, can you take a a minute or so for each and tell our listeners what they can expect if they attend your sessions at the conference?

Speaker 3: 20:53

on monday afternoon I believe it's 3 30 to 4 30 central time. I have uh they didn't brand mega sessions this year, which is interesting, but it is a big room because I've spoke. I've spoken in that room before, so, um, probably be over 2 000 people hopefully there and it's around moving from traditional to transformational and disrupting HR. I forget the long title exactly, but it is my new keynote for this year. I've given it a couple of times already, at Oklahoma SHRM and at a chemical conference recently. I'm excited to be sharing this message both where we are. You know, I talked to someone pitching it for their conference for the fall last week and she's like we are. You know, I talked to someone pitching it for their conference for the fall last week and she's like I know. You know we're all post COVID now. You know we don't really want to talk about that and I'm like I think we still have to talk about how it's changed, the way we think and the way we work as HR leaders and also how HR is viewed. So, while I'm not talking about, you know, postvid, necessarily, I want to make sure that we set where we are and the opportunity that lies ahead.

Speaker 3: 21:54

I've been speaking professionally since 2010,. Speaking before that also but my focus has always been about I really want to wake up HR leaders to the opportunity that they have to create influence and impact in the organization, to create influence and impact in the organization. Now is the absolute best time for that opportunity for HR leaders, and so not only do I want to tap them on the head and say I hope you're stepping into that, and if you are, I'm going to talk about how you can continue to lead in your organization, and if you're not, I want to awaken you to the opportunity and excite you and inspire you to go out and do great things. So we'll talk about all that and then, as usual, sherm, for the last several years, has loved to give me a 7.30 am session. I don't know why, because I'm not a morning person. Sure, they are well attended, typically depending on the day.

Speaker 3: 22:45

So I have a Tuesday morning, which will be after the party, so I'm speaking Monday afternoon, then there's the party, and then I have a 7.30 AM session on Tuesday morning where I'll be talking about personal branding, and I've given that session although it's updated this year to talk about not only personal branding but being influential. It's been my most popular session forever. You know, usually I score very well on all my sessions because they keep letting me come back and they give me mega sessions, but the personal branding one, I think, is one that people really enjoy. Number one because you're at a conference where you're learning about a lot of industry things and what you need to do in HR. This is one where you really get to focus on you and how you can really build up your personal brand to impact your leadership and back to that ability to influence and impact the workplace. I want to prepare you to do that in this session, if you want to get up at 7.30 and join me.

Speaker 3: 23:34

If I can do it after a 60th birthday party with 450 people, surely you can do it as well. Get up and make me feel better that I had to get up early to do that.

Speaker 3: 23:47

Good luck uh, good luck. There are some really bad time slots at churm. Last year I had one. It was 7 30 am on wednesday morning, which is the last day of the conference, which is a half day. Uh, it was in las vegas. It was the morning after the janet jackson concert and the room set 5 000 people and when I saw that I was just crestfallen.

Speaker 3: 24:13

This is the room that I've always wanted at SHRM and it's at 7.30 am on Wednesday. So let's be clear, there were not 5,000 people there, but I probably would not have joined someone at 7.30 am on Wednesday as well. And then also, probably the second worst time is like the 4 or 5 o'clock session on Tuesday before the concert, which this year is Kelly Clarkson. So whoever gets those, those are always. Those are a challenge as well. So anything on Monday is great. So I'm glad to finally be back on a Monday not 7.30 am slot, even though that probably Monday 7.30 am probably is the most well-attended session at SHRM. Surprisingly, the HR professionals are eager and they want to get those credits and then it wanes throughout the week.

Speaker 2: 24:59

Jen. Uh, I'm sad to say we are already pretty much out of time before we wrap up for today. How can our listeners connect with you? And, of course, are there any tickets left for your amazing party? If so, how can folks get those?

Speaker 3: 25:11

Sure you can find me on LinkedIn if you just type in Jennifer McClure. I sure hope I show up first, but you should see that I'm the CEO of Disrupt HR and unbridled talent in my profile. In terms of tickets, general admission tickets were released today, june 12th. I haven't been on my email yet to share it, but I know Laurie and Steve and Eric and others have shared it, so there are some tickets available. I think we were at almost capacity with the VIP and the Disrupt HR organizers, but go ahead and sign up and if you don't get a ticket, you'll get on the wait list.

Speaker 3: 25:45

And again, the plan is that we can hopefully rotate people in and out as people come and go, as they do at SHRM parties. So would love to see people there. If you are at the conference, would love to see you at 3.30 on Monday or 7.30 am on Tuesday Probably lots of room in that one for you but would love to connect with you on LinkedIn and if I can help people in any way, I'm happy to do so. Honestly, I want to see all of your content, but the 7 30 is unlikely come on bill after the party.

Speaker 2: 26:18

I typically get up from the 7 30 am sessions for people I want to support jen. Jen, I'm going to support you hard. The night before I'm going to be passing hard at your party. That's the truth of it. Okay, that just leaves me to say for today, jen, thank you very much for being my guest all right.

Speaker 3: 26:30

Thank you for having me and thank you for all that you do to keep disrupt hr going in the uk and in buffalo new york.

Speaker 2: 26:36

Thank, you, jen, and listeners as always. Until next time.

Speaker 1: 26:40

Happy working thanks for listening to the hr chat show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom.