Heard in the Halls, Day 3 No Booth Too Far

Heard in the Halls—Tuesday, June 24

Day 3: No Booth Too Far

Booth in the back: One would think that being the very last booth on the SHRM show floor would be a detriment to business.

Not so, says Dan White, owner of the Immigration Group of Nashville. Traffic was steady throughout the show, he said, despite being booth No. 5446—or, as he described it, “the edge of the world.”

“We were worried we’d be talking to ourselves,” said White, whose three-person firm only deals in immigration law. “I’m pleased with the percentage of people coming by who are interested in what we do.”

It’s White’s first SHRM. And, he’s hoping to move in a little closer.

“Just so long as we’re not next to the booth with a karaoke machine,” he

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Award winner: SHRM on Tuesday presented the $50,000 Michael R. Losey Human Resource Award to Herbert G. Heneman III.

Heneman is a Dickson-Bascom professor emeritus of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin School of Business. A researcher, Heneman also continues to teach, speak and publish. He is the senior author of four textbooks, the latest being Staffing Organizations, published in 2006.

“There are few more deserving of this award than Dr. Heneman,” said SHRM president and CEO Sue Meisinger. “His dedication and contributions to the profession over the past few decades have helped shape the direction of HR and made it the profession we know today.”

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Ax man: The gentle notes of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” drifted from the Dice.com booth, courtesy of longtime Chicago musician Rob Curtis.

“I mix it up, see what turns heads,” said Curtis before launching into a couple Beatles tunes.

A full-time musician who occasionally picks away at trade shows, Curtis also has a band that ranges from nine to 24 pieces.

“We’ve really enjoyed having him here, and I think he’s brought a lot of people by,” said a Dice staffer as she listened to Curtis strum away on “Blackbird.”

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Double take: Also at the Dice booth were Cory and Kristin Veselka—sisters, singers, songwriters, dancers, models and, yes, twins.

The 22-year-old Milwaukee residents tour the globe as spokesmodels. And since you need two dice to make a set, well, the twin concept worked quite well.

“We just got back from Mexico and Palm Springs,” said Cory. Or maybe it was Kristin. “We’re going to Vegas next week.”
 

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Fairy good idea: If you grabbed a box lunch on Tuesday—what’s up with no fruit or veggies?—you no doubt noticed the picture of the fat guy in the fairy suit on the outside of it.

And not far away from the tables full of lunches, there he was in person, posing for pictures and yelling, “I’m the guy on your lunch box.”

The Onboarding Fairy—only in HR, folks—was a local actor and was helping Raleigh, North Carolina-based Peopleclick launch its new onboarding program.

The theme is whether companies are sending the right message to new hires, said Ginny Gomez, Peopleclick’s senior VP of product management and marketing. The new ad uses three models—new hires are told the job is like pulling teeth, that they will be treated like royalty (guy dressed as a king) or that they’ll be working from home (guy dressed in pajamas).

So, why the onboarding fairy? “He’s like the tooth fairy,” Gomez said, “for the job that’s like pulling teeth.”
—Rick Bell