Darth Vendor

Scott Dow wins the 2007 Self-Loathing Award for his suggestion to exclude vendors from the next TalUnCon. While he seems like far too nice a guy to hold a grudge against I think his idea is wrongheaded for a number of reasons:

Everyone has an agenda. With vendors, it's just a lot more obvious. It's shortsighted to assume that selling products or services is the only way to pursue private advantage in a public forum.

It wasn't that much. Maybe some of the tracks were different, and maybe I'm less sensitive than others, but I only heard a small amount of what could be characterized as "axe grinding" by vendors, less than ten minutes in total out of maybe 6 hours worth of content. That's a pretty good signal-to-sales ratio by any measure.

One man's axe-grinding is another man's knowledge. Martin Snyder gave a brief discourse on the issue of buying software versus leasing it as a service. If you were in the market, his point may have been interesting and worthy of consideration. There were lots of parts of the event that had nothing to do with me or my interests, but that did not cause me to condemn them as generally un-worthwhile.

Vendors are the only people who care. Vendors care more about advancing the state of talent management than most company executives, because for us, it's how we make money. While talk of partnership between vendors and clients is proceeding towards the event horizon of cliche, seeing us as adversaries is a good first step towards ensuring that's how things play out.

Those who can, do. Those who do really really well, vend. Not everyone, of course--there are plenty of people who would rather stay in recruiting than become a peddler. But the people who become vendors, especially successful ones, usually know a lot more about their particular domain than any practitioner. Most of the vendors that I met were founders, like Joel Cheesman, Hans Gieskes, Yves Lermusiaux, and yes, Martin Snyder. This is a quantum difference from an event where most of the vendors are sales or marketing droids out to meet a quota.

That said, maybe we need a culture shift. In the US congress, senators and representatives get up and drone on ad infinitum about the plight of the residents of Lesser Mudpuddle or what have you. In the British parliament, at least what little of it I've seen on C-Span, MPs are interrupted and heckled as a matter of course. In the spirit of Uncoferencing, maybe we ought to encourage a more robust form of audience participation. My guess would be that if the vendors being spoken about realized they were crossing a line, they would have backed off immediately and apologized. Part of the problem is that it is not exactly clear where the line is.

Maybe we need to give vendors a sandbox. Not a soapbox--that's what non-unconferences do, but an approved channel through which to express our innate need to hawk. In a previous life, I worked at a company that at a particular trade show that covered our industry each year, we'd sit down in a suite with two of our main competitors and have an open session in which everyone showed everyone else what they had. It helped foster a spirit of respect and good sportsmanship, and led to us competing and selling on a more factual basis. The talent technology business is rife with an incredible amount of vendor boomfog, and rather than excluding vendors altogether, the TalUnCon might look to clear some of it up.

Comments

[Martin Snyder]

Well said Colin- I'm not sure I even was the guy grinding axes- thats why I thought to ask Scott who he had in mind-

I didn't encounter anyone really selling anything the whole day- if my minute of chatter is what this is all about, thats pretty sad, actually.

The other thing I still have no clue about: Does Scott think he is not a vendor ? Can't win a self-loathing award if you don't see yourself in running !

[Michael Shafrir]

You nailed it Colin. Well said.

[Martin Snyder]

Did Scott do a drive-by or what ? Hope he checks back in and comments....