I'm a week removed from having returned from my 2nd PARWCC conference and, what can I say, it was a blast! 

The speaker lineup this year (and I don't really include myself in that) was outstanding and I found myself struggling while trying to pick which sessions to attend.

My goal this year was to re-hone my coaching skills and grow my coaching practice, so I focused the efforts on sessions that leaned that way.

The conference started on Sunday with Angie's Business Bootcamp where I was able to learn more about incorporating salary negotiations as a service into my coaching practice. I've always operated on the peripheral with that and probably give too much away, so I came away with some ideas on how to package it and offer it to clients.

She might also know me too well, as she provided some refreshments for me, my table partner Sarah, and a few others to enjoy at the end of the bootcamp.

Then it was my turn to host #careersandbeers for the 2nd consecutive year. The reason that I don't really consider myself a speaker is that I literally talked for less than 5 minutes.

One of my favorite basketball coaches you've never heard of is Kirby Schepp of the the University of Manitoba and in a clinic one year he talked about how players don't get better when you instruct. They get better when they figure things out on their own.

That was my goal for #careersandbeers. I broke everyone out into groups (probably could have done 1 more group), gave them each a topic, provided minimal instruction, and let them go at it. There will actually be follow up from it all this year, unlike last year!

On Monday, I started with Kris Kelso's incredible keynote about Imposter Syndrome (of which I am a sufferer of) and really enjoyed the speech. As good as it was, the thing that impressed me the most about Kris was that he didn't just keynote the conference, he participated.

He was at #careersandbeers and in one of the breakout groups. I saw him in a few other sessions that I attended as well. I was blown away by that level of interest and commitment.

The next session that I attended was my friend Ki's on "How to Network Without Networking." She's always impressed me with how intentional she is, but this was probably my favorite session.

I hate networking in the traditional sense. She doesn't believe me when I tell her that and neither does my pal Mark. Is it somewhat hypocritical for me to host the kickoff networking event? Probably, but that's not traditional networking.

She gave me a different mindset on approaching it, a different way to not awkwardly initiate conversations, and, dare I say, a renewed interest in dropping myself into a networking event soon?

After her session was lunch and Robin session on "Decoding the Hiring Process." I've never strayed too far from my recruiter hat so this was a good refresher, reminder, and I did pick up a few things on the backend of how LinkedIn Recruiter operated as it has been awhile since I've been able to play with that.

The next session was Kris's session on Coaching Frameworks. There are very few people in this industry that I respect more than Kris and by very few I mean 0. She's the best and I think the world of who she is, how she operates, and of course I came out of her session with some good ideas on incorporating more frameworks into my coaching sessions.

The final session of the day (phew!) was on Brand Building with Susan Barber. I'm great at branding my clients but often struggle with branding myself, so this was as much of a motivator as it was a learning session.

The awards dinner was fun and little did I know I was sitting right next to an Elite Circle Resume Winner, Jon, and right across from another winner, Scott! Congratulations to both of these guys!

The next session was unfortunately my last, as the airport called, but I did enjoy Jay Carlyle's speech on LinkedIn Thought Leadership. It validated a lot of the work I do on that platform and even gave me a couple of ideas for a new series or 2 to work alongside #careersandbeers.

I had a blast at the conference, but do have a couple of regrets....
1. I had to leave early due to a preschool obligation so I didn't get the whole conference experience.
2. I feel like I didn't get much quality time with everyone. It didn't help that I had to leave early, but I barely got to chat with a few people that I would have liked more time with. Such is conference life I suppose...
3. I'm the worst picture-taker ever. I took 3 pictures during the course of the entire conference.
4. Wasted collab opportunities. Scott and I talked about doing a joint #careersandbeers and I'm going to make that one happen, but there was a chance to do several of these with Carolina, Sarah, Kris, Amy, Ki, Elizabeth, Steph, Angie, Ashley, Lili, Mark, etc. on a number of different topics. This will get fixed at Thrive! 2026!

Overall, bravo to the planning committee, to the speakers, and to all of those that attended. 

Cheers!