This year for recruitDC, we did things a little differently…and we volunteered our time to help the recruitDC team out throughout the conference, and we had a blast. The recruitDC team is entirely made up of industry professionals who donate their time to put on their annual conference.

As volunteers, Brittany and I attended different speakers and live tweeted through each presentation for the official recruitDC Twitter account. If you missed RecruitDC this year, or just want a refresher, here are our favorite moments (tweets).

Recruit from Your Head and Your Heart

Kara Yarnot, VP, Strategic Consulting Services at HireClix

“To be an amazing recruiter, you need to win the minds and hearts of everyone involved in the process – your candidates, your network, your hiring managers, and your leaders.”

Sourcing on Social Media

Jeremy Bonewitz. Talent Acquisition Manager, STV

This seminar focused on reaching candidates through social media platforms, which focused on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Jeremy shared his tips on creating groups, Advanced Google Searching, and other sourcing tools.

Talent Sleuthing in the Intelligence Community

Jo Weech, Adjuct Professor at Montgomery College

Jo shares her “secret sauces” for  recruiting people with clearances. In 2016, she won the HRLA Leadership Excellence award for successfully growing a software engineering firm by 30% with zero attrition on contract.

Your Employer Brand IS Your Brand: Recruit Candidates & Customers with the Talent Attraction Lifecycle

Chad Norman, Chief Operating Officer at Catch Talent

This seminar focused on turning the great people you’ve hired, into your great recruiting force! Both candidates and consumers are heavily influenced by the things they hear and read from other people. In the seminar, Chad talked about using every part of the Talent Attraction Lifecycle to create a superior candidate experience.

How to be an Effective, One Person Recruiting Team

Veronika Henderson, Corporate Recruiter at American College of Radiology

Veronika’s seminar focused on the basics of recruiting for those with small teams and little resources. She shared her experiences and importance of setting expectations for both the hiring managers and candidates and how to utilize the data.

How to Build Community to Get Clients, Candidates, Dates and Fame

Chris Comrie, Community Manager

This seminar focused on the why and how of building a bigger network. Chris focused on how to get in front of candidates and clients in a more personal way and how to show that you care about giving back.

Gut Check — Candidate Behaviors Can Predict Quality of Hire

Ryan Healy, Founder & President of Brazen Technologies, Inc.

Ryan focused on candidate’s behaviors and how a recruiting team can hone in on these qualities. He also looked at leading organization’s recruiting processes and how they have made top talent come to them.

Talent Acquisition Leadership Panel

Kathleen Smith, Chief Marketing Officer, ClearedJobs.Net

Beth Skoletsky, VP Human Resources at Whitney, Bradley & Brown

Peter Brooks, Senior Director of Talent Acquition at Northrop Grumman Corp.

Teresa Green, VP Global Talent Acquisition at MicroStrategy

Christine Gaspar, Global HR Executive at Audi of America

Kathleen Smith lead this panel on the big picture in recruiting. The panelists talked about the skills and qualities they look for, how important recruiting is, finding and being a mentor, and supporting the team.

Innovation Lab

Susanna Frazier, Head of Strategic Sourcing at Universal Music Group

Steve Levy, VP Customer Success at Crowded.com

This hands-on sourcing session shared tips and tricks on all sourcing, including finding cleared candidates!

By the end of the day, RecruitDC had packed us with tons of new tips and tricks to be better recruiters. The biggest take-aways? Be personal and work towards a better candidate experience.