2015 HR Technology Conference & Boundaries

I am attending the 18th Annual HR Technology Conference & Exposition, next week.

The first year that I attended this conference was fun. I traveled to Chicago and was able to connect with a bunch of internet friends who have since become colleagues and advisors. Those were simple times. We were in the middle of the recession. Social media wasn’t pervasive. It was possible to have fun without every move being captured on Periscope or Twitter.

I haven’t missed a year since.

This year, the event is in Las Vegas.

I’m an older and wiser conference attendee. Unlike 2009, I’m now a runner. This week will be spent carbo-loading, hydrating and getting in some long runs to calm my central nervous system. I don’t want to fly into Las Vegas feeling tired or rundown. I want to make the right choices before I land at McCarran International Airport.

Why am I going to HR Tech in the first place?

That’s a good question. I’ll meet with current and former clients. I’m attending the event to blog for Castlight Health and to offer support to my colleagues who write for CareerBuilder’s blog. I’m also there to help Globoforce kick off their WorkHuman 2016 conference campaign.

I’ll find time to mock my fair share of HR technology executives, too. I am ready to cover late-breaking news on leadership puke and what people are wearing.

Here’s how this fits on my blog.

Because I’m thinking about my upcoming trip to Las Vegas, I’ll be blogging about professional boundaries at work. It’s very trendy to embrace the #hustle and #yesand quality of life, right now. Want to get ahead? Bro-down and make it happen.

But I’ve been thinking about how it’s possible to say #yesbut and #nobecause a little more often without the world coming to an end. The world demands your soul in exchange for the honor of receiving a paycheck. Whether you work in human resources or at Waffle House, how do you make personal and ethical choices that leave everybody feeling okay?

That’s my theme for the week.

P.S. Let me know if you’re attending the conference, next week. I’m swamped, we probably can’t have coffee, but we can meet up in the hallway outside of some random ballroom and say hello.