Building Professional Connections: A Day in the Life Sunday

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My down time (which has been in very short supply these past few months) is very important to me. I don't give it up easy.

My Sundays are very predictable - lazy mornings at home with the family - and I like it that way. Knowing that,  it may surprise you that that I am not at home with the family today. I am . . .  of all the places in the world I can be . . .  building professional connections at an HR conference in Chicago.

Actually, it's not that crazy at all. 

HRevolution is an event to allow HR professionals, recruiters, and business leaders to come together and discuss issues that affect businesses today.

I love this conference. I find so much value in taking an issue and hashing it out with a small group of people, especially when one idea leads to another and we end up somewhere unexpected. I don't always love it when someone has an idea I hadn't thought of or when their idea rocks a "truth," or something close to it, for me. But this is when I start to think - and grow.

I love the people. From this year's planning committee and participants to prior planning committee members and participants . . . we have some of the best HR professionals in the room today.

That bit I threw out to you in the beginning about "building professional connections?" Who am I trying to kid?! It's about me reconnecting with friends, colleagues and a room full of 150 forward-thinking, mess-with-the-status-quo people who just happen to work in and around the HR space.

Thanks to Trish McFarlane, Ben Eubanks, Steve Boese, and Matt Stollak for bringing it to us one more time.

Here are a few HRevolution flashbacks posts for your reading pleasure

Have a wonderful Sunday and go out and learn something today. It can be how to pick the best apple, how to use a Blackberry (@mikekrupa), how change a profession or anything at all in between - it's your choice.

Enjoy!

My New Rules for Professional Travel

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HR professionals must invest in learning to be relevant.

An investment in learning means "learning how HR professionals in other organizations address problems similar to yours, how they are innovating on behalf of the organization . . . " HR From the Outside In

And that involves an investment in travel.

I love to travel. The almost-four years I was stationed in Germany, I utilized my 4-day passes, Federal holidays and 30 days of leave a year to see the highs and lows of Europe. Save my salary for future? Not me. I returned to the states with very little in the bank but a ton of memories. My husband and I share a love of travel with the kid as we embark on trips that have included the continental United States, Alaska and the Caribbean. Personal travel rocks!

Then, there's professional travel.

I don't travel for business often, but when I do, it seems to come in rushes. The next 4 weeks or so have me in Des Moines, Minneapolis, Chicago and Rochester, MN. I'll be away from home more than I am at home.

Driving to the airport early one morning after leaving a sleeping family behind, I've come up with a few rules for my travel from this day forth:

  • No back-to-back trips for me and the husband. At least a full 24 hours together is required.
  • Combine professional and family travel together when we can. What's a missed school day here or there when Washington D.C. is the destination?
  • Leave in the light of day vs. stealing away in the dark. (Having a private jet would eliminate the 2 hour drive to the airport. Just saying)
  • Upgrade the home technology to support FaceTime, Skype or something more than a quick text or hurried call in the midst of group dinners.

Above all, always tell each other you were missed. I enjoy being with my family. Our time together is already absorbed with the what not's of the day and, when you add in travel away from home, our time is reduced even more.

What rules do you have for your professional travel?

Photo credit: iStockphoto