Milwaukee JobCamp2 is coming!

Looking to re-energize your job search? Attend JobCamp2 on July 9th, a day camp for your career. This time, we're holding the event at a larger venue, the Potowatomi Casino in downtwon Milwaukee where you'll have access to plenty of free parking, inexpensive eats, and a friendly, safe environment in which to network and improve your career search.

Registration for the event is free and simple. And, like the last JobCamp, all we're asking is that you bring a non-perishable food item or cash donation for the needy. We will be contributing these donations to the Hunger Task Force.

We have some great speakers already lined up and I'll be writing abou them here. Stay tuned!

Here's the registration link: http://ping.fm/9iBjF

eInnovate kicks off 2009 with panel of CXOs on the economy

Today's eInnovate panel at Manpower garnered an audience of 50. Great discussion on how innovation is being driven by technology initiatives.

The panel consisted of the following people:

The panelists addressed questions about how the current economic difficulties had affected their individual businesses, how technology was being leveraged to make a difference and what concerns they had about surviving and thriving in this economy.

eInnovate is one of Milwaukee's legacy organizations devoted to technology. Its current mission is to promote and talk about how technology drives innovation from startups to global businesses.

Membership this year is free. To join eInnovate, sign up at our Ning social network site.

ResumeSlam! in Milwaukee

Over 20 hiring professionals volunteered at last Thursday's ResumeSlam at the Iron Horse Hotel. The event was a follow-up event for the Milwaukee JobCamp earlier this year and was geared to put job seekers in the company of multiple recruiters who could review their resumes in a speed-dating style fashion. Within a span of about two hours, participants were able to get substantial feedback on their resume from at least eight recruiters.

A picture from the event appears in the Journal Sentinel story about job losses slowing by Joel Dresang.

Of course, a major component of the morning's workshop was...

I know that amped up the energy of the room considerably, especially since the coffee at the Iron Horse Hotel is, as far as I can tell, caffeinated using a process involving heavy uranium. In all seriousness, though, the Iron Horse was a great venue and the participants I spoke with seemed to have a great time and found value from the format of the event.

Milwaukee lost more jobs than most major cities

Milwaukee lost greater percentage of jobs than most major U.S. cities... ouch: http://ping.fm/NoP0O

Sometimes you think it's just your imagination, but because I spend my time pretending to be a pinball bouncing back and forth between Milwaukee and Chicago, I kept feeling like Milwaukee was simply a dead market for the past year.

In fact, that seems to be something beyond mere perception. I have hopes that the efforts of the Water Council and other entrepreneurial efforts will reignite business here in Milwaukee. I am not seeing it happen with all of the risk-averse larger organizations.

Wisconsin Professional Recruiters Resource

Tomorrow's Wisconsin recruiters network meeting will include discussion of next Milwaukee JobCamp in early July and venue. http://www.wisprr.org

In addition, we'll be talking about using Twitter for the specific purpose of recruiting.  Does it work?   We want to hear from those who are using it as well as those who are considering taking the plunge.  If you're a recruiter interested in learning more, I invite you to join the Wisconsin Professional Recruiters Resource online network.

Are the lines between professional and social networks becoming blurred?

Aside from LinkedIn, I think they already were. http://ping.fm/LmgyK

Direct Placements Picking Up Again

Seeking .Net developers and QA professionals for full-time employment opps in Chicago.

It finally appears that companies are starting do dip a toe in the hiring pool again. I've long been a proponent of continuous hiring and engagement with talented professionals in the market, so it has been a disappointment to see how many companies went running, tail between legs, when it came to maintaining good public relations with job seekers. Instead of being honest and transparent about not being able to hire and still talking with job seekers, most companies that I've run into decided to hide behind the old excuse "We're on a hiring freeze."

Therefore, I'm extremely glad to say that, for Chicago at least, I am seeing more hiring opportunities beginning to pick up. These are starting in the direct placement world from the mid-to-senior level positions (from where I am sitting at least) and I hope to see more director-and-above level opportunities surfacing within a month or two.

From Friendfeed to Ping.fm... easy?

Migrating from Friendfeed to ping.fm for all content updates. The transition was pretty easy.

Well, except that I am finding that Ping.fm wants to send my Twitter updates to my blog and now I find that I've got mini posts shot through my blog from the past week!

However, this may not be a bad thing, since it encourages me to expand upon what I'm saying in my tweets. I may let it stand.

So far, Ping.fm is an easy interface. I'm still getting used to the idea of how it syndicates content, though.