Inaugural CONEX-HR Conference hits the mark

Teresa Flannigan reports...

It's normally said that in a partnership that "two's company and three's a crowd" however in the case of Hr NETWORK's inaugural CONEX-HR conference and exhibition which was held on Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th February at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), the Partnerships theme was definately seen as "the more the merrier"!

With nearly 360 delegates attending the very first Hr NETWORK CONEX-HR conference and Exhibition, the event certainly lived up to its high profile billing and according to all the delegates that attended - it absolutely delivered on all its promises, particularly on the key-note's and session speaker offering.

As delegates moved through the registration process, they were provided with their Standard Life Conference Bag which also contained a leather bound folder provided by Frazer Jones, as well as a number of goodies and inserts supplied by MacRoberts, Forth Valley College, Q4 Consulting, and Blue Arrow.

In the 600 seater Pentland Auditorium, Ken Hames, the former SAS Commander, treble beret holder (Green, Red and Sand Beret) and also presenter of BBC2's Beyond Boundaries series in which he leads a team of young adults with varying physical disabilities on an expedition through some of the world's most dangerous and hostile territory, opened the conference.

Hames now talks about his experiences of leadership as a major in the British Army and the SAS and led this audience through the highs and lows of a career spanning 30 years in which he was one of the last British soldiers to guard Rudolph Hesse in the infamous stronghold of Spandau in Berlin, was paraded in front of Diana Princess of Wales, was at the liberation of Port Stanley in the Falklands and was Commanding Officer of Britain's anti-terrorist team.

Through these experiences, Hames has perfected a Masterclass in inspirational and motivational leadership which he effortlessly wove through his presentation. During the discussion he delivered transferable skills references for delegates to relate back to the workplace before talking about his latest Beyond Boundaries (BB3) expedition which took Hames and his team to the Andes.

Hames said, "BB3 was by far the hardest expedition to date. On this occasion when casting, the producers really searched extensively for team members with quite serious physical difficulties". He went on, "It was important that the BB3 series took the team to a completely new dimension in terms of challenge and we had many applicants who applied for the auditions".

With the use of excellent technical AV facilities provided by the EICC, Hames intermittently switched between clips from the BBC2 documentary which featured his young colleagues taking on some of their biggest challenges as some of the team had prosthetic limbs or were confined to wheelchairs.

The gasps from the audience was enough to sense that Hames had hit the mark with his presentation however the greatest gasps of amazement were unknowingly reserved by his audience for the moment the team of young venturers were invited on to the stage by their expedition leader Hames to the astonishment of the audience.

Hr NETWORK had secretly arranged for all 10 members of the team to be flown to Edinburgh especially for the Hames presentation.

Lee Turner, Publisher of Hr NETWORK (SCOTLAND) Magazine who was the mastermind behind the secret expedition to the EICC for the 10 team members described the moment he realised that he could have them all joining Ken Hames on stage at the end of his presentation.

Lee explained, "After meeting Ken at my office following an introduction by Peoplematters Managing Director Shona Mitchell, I was then invited to join the Shona and her team on their one day conference being held at Ratho Climbing Centre where Ken was delivering a talk on leadership. At the end of his awe-inspiring discussion, I approached Ken and asked him if getting his 10 young team members to join him at the planned Key Note address at CONEX would be possible. Ken looked quite scared at first but he admitted that although the logistics would need to be carefully considered, it was do-able"!

Lee went on, "From there, the biggest challenge was keeping it a secret. We had managed to keep the Red Hot Chilli Pipers performance at our Awards Dinner in November 2007 a secret, but involving 10 impressionable teenagers in the key note and asking them to 'stay quiet' was something else".

So from there the instructions went out to Hr NETWORK's Senior Events Manager Helen Dobson to organise 10 seperate flights from various UK airports and all flights had to come in around the same time - it was like a military style operation, but one that Helen and our team managed to pull off with flying colours.

The team had been booked in to Edinburgh's Hilton Hotel on the evening before the conference where they were joined by their team leader for Dinner and chauffeured to the EICC on conference day.

Following their appearance, the team left the stage to a standing ovation with many of the audience reduced to tears from the emotion of such an inspirational and motivational presentation.

As delegates made their way to the coffee break, many were reaching for tissues describing their experiences as wonderful and amazing.

During the coffee break in the Cromdale Hall, delegates were able to stroll round the Exhibition stands of HR related products and services which included Legal Services, Outplacement and Recruitment Specialists, IT and other online services. Governmental Agencies and Training Specialists also showed off their products. There was a treatment stand for having nails done and Indian head massage and an interactive bookstore.

After the break the Moorfoot, Tinto and Kilsyth Suites were the settings for the Debating Chamber sponsored by Hudson, Performance Related Pay delivered by Andrew MacLennan and International Assignments which was steered by Management Consultant Michael Stewart.

Delegates had been treated to an exceptional opening Key Note speaker and the momentum had continued in to lunch with the first stream of speakers too.

During lunch delegates were once again able to stroll round the Exhibition Hall however the organisers in ensuring there was plenty of Exhibition time had not anticipated that Delegates would spend a lot of time hanging around. Lee Turner commented "This first stream was a tricky one to work, in terms of timings. Two of our sessions were an hour long and the Debating Chamber was and hour and half so we planned to stagger lunch. This we thought would be useful as we wouldn't have 350 or so hungry delegates all looking for food at once, but networking for all of them was as important to us - this is something that we are really going to look at for next year. Its vitally important that all our exhibitors and commercial partners get fully exposed to the high calibre delegates but we also must be mindful of our delegates using their time the best way possible".

Stream Two began with three sessions once again in the Moorfoot, Tinto and Kilsyth. Head of Employment Law at MacRoberts Solicitors Stephen Miller hosted a session on Law in the workplace with a Mock Mediation session taking place alongside a three speaker session on Corporate Social Responsibilty.

Following the final break of the day which served up Energy Bars and Smoothies, stream three featured CIPD's former Assistant Director General and now a Director with PwC Duncan Brown, Q4 Consulting's Alan Crozier featuring HR Director Bill Mitchell and session nine which was delivered by Managing Director of New-U Coaching Gillian Brown on the topic of Organisational Development.

At the end of the day, delegates then made their way back to the Exhibition Hall to where a Drinks Reception laid on by Change Recruitment Group was taking place.

Delegates attending the drinks reception were treated to a sneak preview of a bright red Ferrari which was brought in to compliment the Valentines Day drinks reception theme.

Following registration on Day Two, the sessions got underway with a return to Moorfoot, Tinto and Kilsyth where the extremely entertaining Peter Cook, authour of the book Sex, Leadership and Rock'n'Roll was in session with Myths and Riffs of Leadership - guitar and all!

The Samaritans were represented by Steve Tollerton in a session on Combating Workplace Stress while leading Consultant and former Head of HR for Cable and Wireless Martin Reddington delivered a session on e-HR Technology.

Finally in to the last of the sessions before lunch, Karen Carlton Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland discussed her Equal Opportunities Strategy.

Morton Fraser hosted a Mock Tribunal on the topic of 'Facebook' abuse which provided delegates exceedingly valuable practical experience on how an actual Employment Tribunal would take place. Liquid Thinking, a session designed by Manchester based Damian Hughes provided delegates with a hugely informative look at how we perceive ourselves which was exceedingly popular among delegates.

Following lunch, delegates reconvened in the Pentland Auditorium to hear the second Key Note speaker and the conference close. John Ferguson from final session sponsors Right Management welcomed Neil Roden, Group Director, Human Resources from The Royal Bank of Scotland Group on to the stage, where he talked about World Class HR.

Neil began by looking at the Group's operations 10 years ago and went on to describe the transformation of the organisation from a small Scottish bank to an international business bigger than Starbucks and eBay combined. He also outlined how the HR function has developed and grown to support this change.

Neil described the Group's recent acquisition of ABN AMRO as part of a Consortium with Belgian bank Fortis, and Spanish bank Santander, and discussed the integration challenges his HR department faced, as well as the Group's other more recent business interests in China.

He outlined the Group's position in the world's financial market place with a set of perspectives of where the Group sits in terms of turnover, including the information that the annual profit from the Group's US concerns alone is bigger than the global profits of McDonalds.

Neil went on to describe the challenges for the year ahead and made reference to the Group's hugely successful Employee Opinion Survey scheme which boasts engagement figures in excess of 93% within a workforce of over 150,000 people, globally.

Neil then took questions from the audience before leaving to attend a strategy meeting with RBS Group Chief Executive Sir Fred Goodwin at the organisation's headquarters at Gogarburn in Edinburgh.

Finally Conference Host Clare Moore of Business Jigsaw brought the conference to a close with a review of everything that the conference had set out. She captured the essence of the Partnerships theme and encouraged delegates to think seriously about implementing the good practice techniques they had learned over the previous two days and to ensure that the CONEX-HR 2008 experience should be used as a platform for changing how we work now and to make sure that we exercise positive initiatives when we return to work.

Commenting on the overall outcomes of the conference as delegates made their way from the EICC, Lee Turner commented, "This has been our very first ever conference and although it has been exceedingly challenging to deliver something on this scale for the first time, I am extremely proud to have been a part of it. The feedback from delegates, sponsors, and exhibitors has been exceptional although I am convinced we will make adjustments and improvements for next year.

From the feedback forms that we have received, on the delegates side they thought the speaker programme was of an exceedingly high standard however they felt that the breaks and lunch times were a bit long. Lee went on, "When it came to Exhibitors, most were exceedingly pleased about the quality of the delegates however as the venue can cater for up to 1200 delegates normally, with 350 delegates at CONEX-HR, there seemed to be too much space which Helen, the Team and I will certainly be looking at next year - although after the overall reaction to this conference, we will certainly have many more delegates for 2009".

If you would like to be part of the CONEX-HR 2009 experience, either as a delegate, exhibitor or sponsor, please contact the conference planning team on Tel: 0131 625 3267 or email: subscriptions@hrnetworkscotland.co.uk.