In May I made my annual trip to Sydney for the Australasian Talent Conference. The conference was held near Circular Quay a perfect location to take in Sydney’s amazing views and tap into it’s vibrant city buzz. I had an energising start each morning by walking to the Opera house and around the scenic harbour before heading to the conference.

The speaker line up at ATC 2014 was excellent! I’m updated on industry developments and have new tools to use in my consulting practice.

Some of the speakers I particularly enjoyed were:

Karen Lawson, CEO of CareerOne – Karen spoke about collaborative consumption and how it is changing the labour force today. I met Karen when we were speakers at the HR Summit in Perth last year. Her speech on collaborative consumption was interesting about shifts in the labour and broader markets. I recently watched an intriguing TedX video by Rachel Botsma on how we are “wired to share” and the expansion of the collaborative consumption platforms.

Kelly Quirk, Chief Executive Officer, Harrier Human Capital  and guest speaker, Rabia Siddique, Criminal and Human Rights Lawyer and retired British Army Officer gave an inspiring presentation on gender diversity. The event attendee’s were on the edge of their seats hearing about Rabia’s life and military career, she is a captivating speaker and I highly recommend her book “Equal Justice”. Kelly wrapped up the segment well with insights on where organisations can improve gender diversity. I concur with Kelly’s view that for women it’s more of a leaky pipeline than a glass ceiling. Women occupy 52% of entry level roles, 22% of middle management roles, 14% senior management and vice president, 9% of seats on the executive committee and only 2% at the CEO level.

Craig Fisher, CEO, TalentNet gave an energetic presentation and I particularly liked his advice for how to be a great resource online and offline. He recommends 1 ask (request) for 5 gives (helping others) online or in person. You can do this by being a helpful contact in the following ways:

Professional – Provide career tips, business tips, management tips, industry information, social media tips.

Personal – Give recommendations about lifestyle, family, vacations, hobbies, humour.

Company – Talk about your product, support, culture.

There were other excellent speakers at the event. To read the action visit the twitter hashtag #ATC2014. You can view the presentation slides from the full list of speakers here: http://atcevent.com/atc-2014-presentations/

Hope to see you at ATC next year!