By Renee Gross
Last year was my first visit to the HR Tech Expo. I learned first-hand how overwhelming it can be to enter the Expo Hall. With only hours to explore over 400+ vendors, catch Tech Talks, Demos and Case Studies, how can you get the most of what the HR Tech Expo offers?
Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a first timer at HR Tech, these tips will benefit you.
1. Do Your Research
HR Tech vendors based on your selected areas of interest may already be flooding your email inbox. I recommend organizing yourself using the Save Your Favorites functionality through HR Tech’s exhibitor directory. I downloaded HR Tech’s mobile app last year, and all my pre-saved vendors automatically populated, so it was easy to make sure I stopped by their booths.
2. Make a Plan
Whether you’re an Expo Only attendee or have an All-Access pass, time is of the essence and having a plan to catch all your favorite vendors will allow you to make the most of your limited time. HR Tech has already published the Expo Hall map, so find clusters of your favorite vendors and hit up a few back-to-back. If you don’t have the time to look through the map in advance, take advantage of the Opening Night Pub Crawl to scope out the Expo Hall.
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If you already have an established relationship or familiarity with any vendors, I recommend limiting your time visiting their booths. The Expo Floor is a learning opportunity, so spending your time exploring vendors’ booths will leave you with the most significant takeaways at the end of the week.
3. So much to see and do! Balance your time.
The HR Tech Expo has so much to offer, but there’s no physical way to attend everything.
We can help you balance your time between:
- Booth visits
- Tech Talks
- Product Demos
- Case Study Presentations
- ChatHRT Discussions
Review the schedule of talks, product demos, case study presentations and ChatHRT discussions to prioritize your time. Keep in mind that once you’ve stopped by a booth and they’ve scanned your badge, you’ll begin receiving emails offering opportunities to demo and learn more about their platform after HR Tech. While HR Tech can be an opportunity to attend vendor demos, if you’re finding it hard to balance everything, I recommend simply stopping by a booth to get on their email lists rather than attending lengthy demos while you are there. You can add Sessions to your My Sessions Calendar to help plan your time.
4. Startup Pavilion
The Startup Pavilion is an excellent opportunity for me, as a consultant, to learn about new companies coming onto the scene. These companies are primarily there to gain traction in fundraising and sales. One of their goals may be to get noticed by the larger companies in the room to position their company as a potential investment/acquisition opportunity. As a practitioner, it may be worth considering in advance whether your company would be open or willing to purchase from a startup; if not, you may want to avoid the Startup Pavilion altogether. If interested, you can find the startup pavilion in the Expo Hall to the left when you enter the hall.
As HR technology consultants whose jobs depend on staying current with the latest developments in the industry, my team and I need to be strategic about our approach to Expo Hall. We accomplish this by cataloging the 400+ vendors in attendance each year so we know who has attended historically. Not all vendors attend HR Tech each year, so this history provided by our vendor tracker offers insight into which vendors to make sure we see since they weren’t there last year and may not be there next year.
Armed with this history, we’re here to help you navigate your way around – “shop” the Expo Floor with HRchitect HCM Tech experts:
- Renee Gross
- Jacqueline Kuhn
- Michelle Peart