It was one of those Tweetups like in the old days. The #RadBoston Tweetup on the 19th of July was an informal gathering of people who were about to attend a conference (or Unconference as this one is called) about recruitment and HR communication for the next two days.
So what is an Unconference?
The Real Unconference (#TruBoston) was organized by Bill Boorman who learned about TRU in Toronto in 2009. The concept is simple: no presentations, no powerpoint, no name badges and no pitching. Bill was impressed by the great discussions with fellow recruiters, HR professionals and employer branding specialist from around the world that attended the event. So he took TRU to London, Amsterdam and Manchester. So he was invited by the Boston-based software agency for staffing and recruiting, Bullhorn.
A Tweetup prior to an event
Recruiter and co-host of the Unconference Geoff Webb (@radicalrecruit) travelled from Toronto to Boston and came up with the idea for a Tweetup. Those who came from out of town or attendees that wanted to chat with other HR professionals beforehand had an opportunity to do so. As I was going to the Unconference myself, I thought it was great to be able to get to know some of the attendees and organizers before the actual event started. Around 15 of them showed up. So it was small enough to be able to talk with almost everybody.
Again, this Tweetup was strongly related to the Unconference that followed. However, it could have attracted more recruiters and HR people from Boston and surroundings if the twtvite page provided some more information on the Unconference and who it was for.
Location
If it wasn’t for the sign on the street, I probably would have walked by this place without even noticing that there was a bar there. Then again, this Tweetup was more a spontaneous and low key initiative for a certain in crowd to meet. I asked Geoff how he had chosen the venue, he just answered: “Leanne Chase, one of the other organizers who lives in Boston, gave me three different names of bars near the venue for the Unconference (which was at Bullhorn: FN). I thought Lucky Lounge sounds pretty nice, so I picked it.” Simple as that!
More information:
- Organizers: Geoff Webb and Leanne Chase
- Frequency: just this once, because of the Unconference
- Registration: twtvite page, but you could show up without signing up as well.
