The BCHRMA conference was invigorating

BySherwin Arnott

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of going to Vancouver to attend the tradeshow at the BCHRMA Conference; my first participation at a BC Human Resources Management Association event. It was awesome to be there. It was also awesome getting there.

Here’s a photo from the morning of the first day.

The Morning sun shines in Vancouver at the Event Centre

For me this photo represents the curiousity and wonder and optimism of the attendees that I met. That very morning in fact, high energy comedian speaker Shawn Achor spoke and rocked the conference. If you haven’t seen his TED talk, it’s well worth the twelve minutes and 18 seconds.

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Fantastic, right? The result was, in part, that the people that I met that first day were very interested in emotional intelligence. In particular, they were interested in optimism. They were interested in the importance of understanding one’s own emotional landscape and self perception. And they were interested in well-being.

And of course, it was wonderful meeting up with Klaudia Williams! I don’t get to see her in person that often and it’s always a joy when I do.

And Achor wasn’t the only rockstar there. Chris Hadfield also graced the stage. Since I don’t have live footage, you’ll have to make do with this David Bowie cover.

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Now, I didn’t actually hear either Achor nor Hadfield speak. I just had the good fortune of meeting the teary, laughing, rosie cheeked folks that streamed out of these presentations. And I followed carefully the live tweeting.

And our tradeshow neighbours had jellybeans. Which was awesome! And the work they do is also cool.

Three pins: grumpy, blah, stressed

And we met some other folks with cool initiatives too. The thing is that I’m still very much an outsider to the industry of human resources. But human resources, or human capital, or people management, or leadership development, or whatever you call it… it appears to me to be undergoing a major phase change. So in case I haven’t been clear, I was glad to have the opportunity to attend this year’s BCHRMA conference.

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The Vancouver Event Centre is a stunning venue.

Wooden eggs suspended from the ceiling of the Vancouver Event Centre

Looking at some public art: giant digital pixelated killer whale

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Looking back, looking forward

The keynote was delivered by Chris Hadfield. Hadfield knows something about leadership and he knows something about being human. He is, after all, a jedi knight at social media.

I like that he demonstrates optimism. And I admire that he also appears to have unconditional acceptance of what is real: “And in the astronaut business, we have a saying, which is, there is no problem so bad that you can’t make it worse.” And he plays the guitar.

Check out his TED talk and pay close attention to his remarks on self-perception, and decision making.

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