Jamie Leonard: Building RecFest and What’s Next in Industry Events

[Music] take one for those who don’t know you can you do a brief introduction sure so um Jamie Leonard uh co-founder uh and CEO of the recruitment events company we do two things that people might know about recfest being one of them recfest is the largest event in the world of tent acquisition in UK it’s 5,000 people in the US is 2 and a half thousand people and we have our senior leadership Community as well that we have launched in the UK Middle East and Lun in the us as we speak and that is RL 100 that is the RL 100 very nice um so I have been to one breakfest I went last year um which was the year that Shaker decided to quadruple our footprint um and put up a very very large tent uh all encompassing of a bar and a lounge and the Green Room which we will be doing again this year and in a bigger way somehow uh I joked with Cali our events coordinator that it was bigger than my wedding which which is definitely true um you know this year we are really going to focus more on bringing multiple Talent leaders into the space we will still do the Green Room with you all um which we’re super excited about but just making it even more accessible with B leaders and ta leaders as a whole but what are you really excited for well number one for that I thought um you know uh Shaker’s contribution to breakfast last year was fantastic as I mentioned to you before we started talking we now kind of hold it up as the this is the Platinum this is this is what you do if you want to um make an impact at breakfast I thought the work that the marketing team here did last year was incredible um and and that’s mostly what people were talking about on the day it added huge value to it um for me I suppose it’s it’s scaling breakfest so you know year one we were a th000 people year two 2,000 we’ll probably be around two and a half thousand this year um as you know there’s still straints around travel and stuff uh with with with with some companies but it it’s the scale we’re moving out of B Centennial BenTen has been a great venue for us it’s absolutely iconic it has that um amazing view line of the the the the hill and and um the building at the top of it but now got too big for it and you know like used for last year we revers point especially when we’ve got um amazing companies like yourself come back to say we need to be bigger so whenever wants to get bigger you run out of space quite quickly so uh We’ve we’re going to be hosting the breakfast at the the fairground which is slightly further up about 10 minutes out gives us a bunch of Green Space to play with and uh yeah I’m I’m excited for that just to kind of scale it up a bit and I think also as well that you know it’s a tough time in recruitment right now we know that um the industry needs something to look forward to the industry needs something to get behind people need to get together and one themselves what makes tal acquisition recruitment you know that the industry will will fell in love with I think sometimes it’s hard to do that in the world we live in so we’re looking for to put on a really great show for the audience bringing everyone together celebrating Talent acquisition and and uh and yeah give a bit of place to the market I love that so last year we launched the new Shaker evolved branding y um this year we’ll be rolling out our 75th anniversary and we are really treating breakfest as the kickoff point to that October which is super exciting um you know as you look to kind of build out especially at the fairgrounds which I can’t wait to see you know how did you come up with this outdoor Festival format stupidity very stupidity especially if you laun CH something out those UK we don’t have a track record for very good weather uh it it really stems back from if I go back to probably 15 years ago events in our space were were really really bad for the most part and I remember going to a lot of the conferences um when I was you know not in the event space was still in tal acquisition and it all followed a very similar format it was the beige walls the GG take content you know a bad cup of coffee Triangle sandwich at lunch and then maybe a warm glass of red wine at the end and that was the networking and it was it just I just thought that the I thought it could do with freshen enough and I’ve always been someone that takes inspiration from outside the industry I think sometimes we become an echo chamber and you know the same ideas and same voes run around and when I looked at other events um you know burning man glastenbury um ComiCon you know we wanted to sort of bring some of these more consumer focused aspects into it because what those events did very well more than most events do in our industry is they create an emotional anchor to the audience um you know ComiCon is one where you know hardcore fans will every single year because that’s their that’s their event that’s where they meet their their tribe so we just thought if we could take something that feels more like what you do on the weekend and put it into a business sense then we might be a to build that emotional Anor I I’ve always love festivals my family’s always love festivals um and we just looked at that concept and said if you I love the music at a festival but the music’s secondary for me it’s the connection between human beings that you build within that environment that really counts and we thought well we can replace musicians with speakers we can replace you know some of the bars and sort of you know side stages with with our our sponsors and our our vendors and and we can try and create something where people feel that connection and to the point where it’s the first thing in their di every year how how do you create an experience that people want to go back to and you can’t really do that just doing the same with everyone else so we took the format we took the chance we’ve been very lucky with the weather so far in the UK US last year was a little bit wet I I remember laying down um tissue towel on the floors in in your St but look this is you you know you live by the sword you die by the sword you know if it’s the Outdoor Experience that connects with people um so yeah I think um that was that’s always been the idea is is what’s the difference between an event and an experience an event is something you do between two between two p a time so for example you know brushing your teeth three weeks ago is is is an event an experience stays with you it makes a part who you are um and we’ve all got those experiences where you know you can still remember uh the first time you fell off a bike when you were a kid because that was an experience so how can you create that experience in an event and just have those moments where people go there was four or five moments within that day those two days that that just really connected them so yeah it it’s it’s being a little bit different focusing on the experience and and just wanting to really do something that hadn’t been done before I love that I will say it is the hottest ticket here at Shaker there is a long list of individuals who are going to Cali asking how they can get an invite this year um I don’t know if I’m going to make the list yet we’ll see maybe this little interview will push me to the top of that but um no and you know what I would say you mentioned the weather but I actually thought last year was a lot of fun it was pouring rain everyone got Wellies we all went to the store we prepared um but I remember walking into a tent and there were hundreds of people and everyone had a drink and Joe Shaker was handing out champagne and if anything that was the connection point you know people just had a good laugh and we had a great conversation everyone extended a little bit of fun time and then we met up afterwards and so I thought that actually just brought everyone together versus people just kind of funneling out of the event especially given you’re outside yeah I I think you know sometimes those it’s that shared experience it’s a it’s a blitz mentality you know when when things go in that situation people come together um and and and it becomes that becomes part of that shared experience it AG remember that time was at request and it chucked it down with rain and we’re all you know that’s part of it all of a sudden so um yeah no it was uh I mean we were panicking but you everyone else having a lot of fun no one else cares they they knew what they signed up for they were just happy to be outside um we have one question that we asked at Shaker and we actually started doing this at breakfast last year um what is your number one piece of advice for leaders going into this next year or just in general I think look to other areas outside of just hiring because we might not be doing a lot of ir for a while and I I I think as a ta ta leader Talent leader looking at things like T Mobility um looking at sort of some of the other areas where um things like uh background scen as an example um you know still a lot of interest in that Market at the moment you don’t have to do a ton of hiring for that for for that to um affect what you’re doing I think we have to do more leaders have to do more we can’t just rely on I right job copy I put it on a job board and and and and and get the applications in I think you know and it’s buzz word but AI is going to change a lot of this now um how many you how many people will be in Talent acquisition that’s the question you know you’ve got a lot of the roles that that that previously um you know took up a lot of the working population they’re going to go away so whe repurpose them or or whether they just eliminate them entirely I think you’re going to see a market that get a little smaller see Talent leaders need to learn a few new skills and they have the opportunity with AI as well be the first one you know uh to to to to go out and and really grab hold of it um before the other departments do because you know you can make a big difference that way uh there’s definitely going to be more with less unfortunately over the next 12 months and I think that’s that’s a skill in itself um and just be adaptable look resilien is for me is the key word as as a leader resilience over the next 12 months is going to be is going to be absolutely key and uh yeah and then you know we’ll see what we come so well we were talking about that earlier um definitely doing more with less but to your point I think it’s a key focus on internal mobility of Skilling you know even my teams we are constantly looking at Ai and how we can better leverage those tools just to start making more efficient use of our day um but ultimately that’s going to lead to better more strategic recommendations for clients and digging into prodct projects that maybe got pushed aside in the past and so finding where those opportunities lie will be huge and then to your point maybe it’s not just the recruitment marketing like traditional strategy of sponsoring a job um but really looking at your onboarding process your full candidate experience life cycle your technology staff and finding out where you can make those improvements um along the way absolutely well Jamie thank you for being the first um at our new vision lab here at Shaker appreciate you coming in we’re so excited to see what happens um everyone you can continue to follow Shaker and recfest updates in general coming out of it coming out of this and we look forward to seeing everyone in the green room and at the Shaker Booth which doesn’t really put into words the Shaker of event tent um at breakfast and we will see everyone in October Thana thank you great thank you jie Excell