Welcome to the HR Carnival-HRevolution style! I’ve prepared a short video to lead into this fun “occasion” and the text of the video is below if you’re the reading type (or if my mug isn’t something you enjoy staring at). Please set aside some time to seriously read through and absorb this stuff, because it’s the most comprehensive collection of information about the event to date.

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If you’d like to get on the email list for the HRevolution email newsletter, just sign up at this link. Spam is for eating on grilled cheese sandwiches and not for your inbox, so don’t worry about that. I’ll be sharing tidbits as the year goes on so you can stay on top of any developments and secret plans.

Thanks for dropping by and thanks to everyone who took the time to write and submit something. I was surprised at the number of submissions. Last year when I did my first regular carnival, I had fewer than this time! Trish and I both appreciate everyone for their help in making this event what it is today.

Below you\’ll find links to the posts about HRevolution. I didn\’t censor anything, so you will find that some talk about what went wrong at HRev this year. That\’s perfectly fine. I know it isn\’t perfect, and one thing to remember is that HRev is in its infancy. The idea of the event is less than a year old, and there are still kinks to work out.

But hey, it\’s a $100 ticket. If you can\’t get at least that much value from the event, maybe it\’s you? :-)

Quick shout outs to Dee, Mervyn, and Mike—you guys carried some great sessions, and I appreciate you letting me tag along with y\’all.

If I had time to go through and talk about everyone who submitted, you\’d fall asleep anyway. So here\’s a universal and heartfelt thanks to everyone for making this all possible.

Some HR bloggers get more than 20,000 hits per month. There is an interested audience out there. We had just over 100 people at HRev this time. That\’s a lot of wiggle room, so make sure you share this post with anyone and everyone to make sure they know everything there is to know. If you weren’t able to attend, you can get a great feel for the event by reading through the posts gathered here. And if you are serious about trying to get the “HRevolution feeling,” then you definitely need to take the advice I wrote about here.

Now get to reading. :-)

The Posts of HRevolution 2010

Let’s start at the top, shall we? Trish McFarlane has become such a wonderful friend to me since our first phone conversation last year. Her posts about HRevolution have been fun to read, and since she’s a co-creator, I just can’t keep her down to one post. Learn more in her posts about the pioneer spirit, who owns culture,and  innovation in a static world.

Next up we have Crystal Peterson, another wonderful friend and talented HR pro. She was a big piece of planning for this event and the original one. I really wanted to see the session that she participated in more than any other, because personal and employment branding are both big topics in my work right now. While I didn’t get to see the whole session, Crystal still gave a great recap in her post on personal brands.

Then Joan, a fantastic individual to know (and she talks a lot on the phone ;-) ), hopped in with her post on rants and raves.

Teresa Morris, who most of us know as @controllergirl on Twitter, was a welcome addition to this year’s event. Her comments are short and sweet.

Johnny Nyk… Nyk… Nykolaiszyn (whew, that’s tough to get out!) offers a great post-HRevolution challenge for us all to stay on top of the commitments we made that day.

Mark Stelzner passes along this piece on HRevolution discontent and gives us some thoughts for future events. Mark played a role on the planning committee this year and was much more positive and happy than he seemed to be last year (you had to be there when we all left the last session feeling lethargic and hopeless). ;-)

With one of the most creative titles, Jessica Miller Merrill shares her unconference eyebrow wax post and some thoughts on how it’s hard bringing about a revolution.

A great, short conversation on Saturday evening is my best memory of Paul Smith. We talked about one of my favorite topics (blogging) and I was pleasantly surprised by some of his comments. Make sure you check out his whole series on how he is evolving.

Lance Haun is a fun, down to earth kind of guy. I had the pleasure of sharing his company at dinner on Saturday, and while we didn’t speak together much, it was nice to be close to the guy who co-led the final session on becoming a credible activist for the HR profession.

Benjamin McCall is a lively guy and has some great thoughts to share. One of my favorite points was about how an unconference is a form of leadership development training.

Mervyn Dinnen, one of our UK participants, was a pleasure to meet. I love some accents, and he has a great one. :-) I had the opportunity to participate with him and Dee Honner as facilitators for a last minute session on mobilizing HR, and it was fun to hear his thoughts on the issues. His main thought? Be yourself and spread the message.

Krista Francis is my informal mentor. I can talk with her about almost anything and I think she’s a superstar. She lets me act important by asking me questions on blogging, WordPress, and other fun web stuff, so it all balances out. She gives us five thoughts on HRevolution, and I won’t spoil her fun by giving them away here.

Steve Boese, yet another person who took time out of his busy schedule to help plan this event, talks about barnstorming and taking the HRev show on the road.

One guy who I’m really sad to have missed out on talking to was Victorio Milian. Why? His post on his HRev action plan is a great reason. His thoughts and ideas are amazingly insightful and he challenges me to be and do better.

Mike Vandervort is a great guy and I would have loved to have chatted more with him. He let me have a little bit of the floor during our blogging session and his post-event thoughts are interesting ones.

Shauna Moerke (she of the big laugh and the bigger smile) got my weekend going with a laugh. She takes things a little more seriously in her post about how social matters.

Tammy Colson talks about making personal changes in her post, and I think it’s something we all should challenge ourselves with as well.

Frank Zupan, funny man and the-man-without-a-blog, dropped this great tweet on me that I just had to share. My post from #HRevolution: I took more than I gave. That is all.

You have to check out Kevin Grossman’s post about things coming in threes even if only to see his pink shirt. He also recaps a few of the thoughts from various sessions in his own unique way.

A recent contact I’ve made is with Steve Browne. While he wasn’t able to attend the event, he put together a fantastic post on Jennifer McClure’s blog about the impact of the event on those unable to attend.

A surprisingly quiet guy that I can never get enough posts from is Matt Stollack. His (interesting) advice for those returning from the event? Join SHRM. Like I said, I really like Matt and I wish he’d post more. So give him some comment love and maybe he will. :-)

Next up is a post by one of my blogging pals, Shennee Rutt. It was great to finally meet her and after she mugged (or hugged, the memory is fuzzy) me in the lobby of the hotel on day 1, I knew it would be fun to see how she reacted to the event.

One of the quietest (and sweetest) ladies at HRev was Debbie Brown. I was so thrilled to be able to carve out some time to work with her personally to answer her blogging and website questions. There’s just no substitute for a face-to-face chat! She uses interesting words in her post.

As I mentioned before, I was able to work with Dee on a session, and hearing some of her ideas was a great benefit to me as a relatively new HR pro. Plus we were able to see the hockey fan behind the camera, so all sides of her personality were uncovered. :-)

As my wife and I have been working through an adoption, I’ve had the opportunity to talk with a guy who has had the pleasure of going through that process already. I was really excited to meet him (although meeting his cute kids would have been fun, too), and Bryon Abramowitz is a sharp, tech-lovin’ dude. His comments are fantastic, and I like that he stresses the fact that it’s only a $100 dollar investment for such a great event.

My very first Twitter pal to meet in real life, April Dowling is a great person and a wonderful resource to me as well. I remember when I hassled her all the time when I got started in HR. Now it’s just every few weeks. :-) Seriously, though, she has a list of sixteen funny, interesting, and pertinent points about the event for your reading pleasure.

I was surprised when a random woman came up and got in my face. That’s because I’ve never seen Robin Schooling in person. I’ve adored her comments from afar over these past few months, and she even let me (girly squeal) host her guest post about her first unconference ever. It’s about your really cool uncle Andre.

Lois Melbourne is one smart cookie. While she doesn’t post on her blog often, I really enjoy reading what she has to say. Her post leads off with one of my favorite quotes from the event. “If you don’t add value, then you suck.”

Despite my snarky comment to JP Elliot before the event (he asked what we were going to do differently after the event was over, I said I would end up sleeping more :-) ) he was a welcome addition to the event. His thoughts on what we could do differently next time around are solid, and I’ve already started making notes for next time around.

John Ingham (of the pink blog header) was unable to attend this year, but that doesn’t keep him from participating. His post on how to get outside the social media bubble is definitely worth a read.

Ben Madden shares his post on how he is evolving (hint: by reading a lot, being willing to risk and potentially fail, etc.) and how the event impacted him.

Sarah White is an interesting woman. I think we shared a handful of words during the entire event, but I would have really liked to speak with her more in person. She gave me some great tips a few weeks prior to the event and I was overjoyed at her willingness to assist. Her post on generations (and forgetting them) is a great continuation of the generational session at HRev.

Michael Carty (yet another Brit, bet he has a cool accent, too!) wasn’t able to attend the event. In his words he was “stuck over in England.” :-) But he still made the time to write on the employer branding session and asks whether staff are the best brand ambassadors or not.

Bill Boorman is smart. And funny. And I’m glad we finally met. I may have offended him by trying to copy his awesome accent (can you tell I’m addicted to those things?), but he still had nice things to say by the end of the event, so it couldn’t have been that bad. Make sure you check his post on the war for other people’s talent.

Matt Charney and the rest of the Monster gang were on top of things this year with some fun giveaways and great toys, but my chats with Matt since the event finished have been worth more than all the cowbells and drumsticks in the world. Check out his post on breaking the silo and the bigger picture.

My travel buddy and all-around good friend Steve Harrison wrote a piece on networking at the big event. I love reading stories about the new connections!

Charlie Judy (who wore a Monster towel as a skirt for a significant portion of Friday’s festivities) made me think with his post. I have a feeling that he’s not the only one who feels this way.

Charee Klimek put together her very first video post as a tribute to the event, and she doesn’t do that bad of a job for her first run. :-)

I was interested to see how Kristina Allen, a PR professional, would view HRevolution. It turns out that she enjoyed herself while at the same time she still has the same questions as many of us when it comes to social tools.

Maren Hogan gets wordy and passionate in her post about why it matters if you weren’t there.

Lisa Rosendahl, one of the people I look up to most (she’s way smart at leadership/HR stuff!), ponders the event now that it’s over.

Stephanie Thomas tells us her story about HRevolution from the view of an outsider.

Paul Hebert, one of the most brilliant people I follow online and a delightful dinner companion, tells us what motivation looks like in real life using HRev as an example.

Although he had to leave early, Bryan Wempen still shared some great thoughts about the event. He’s one of those people I wish I could have spoken with more!

And the Rypple crew kicks the last one through the goal posts by talking about speaking the language of your profession. Quick thanks to Rypple for letting me pilot one of their video cameras around for the day and for the rockin’ t-shirt.

Whew! I don’t know about you, but I’m worn out. I’ll share a few links and we’ll call it a day, okay?

HRevolution website

HRevolution Facebook page

HRevolution LinkedIn group

HRevolution Attendee LinkedIn List