HRANB Newsletter

Taking Flight, the theme of the first-ever Atlantic HR Conference, October 1-3, promised to take HR professionals to a level of thinking not traditionally explored at human resource conferences and it certainly delivered. Over the three days, 300 delegates gathered in Moncton, with participation from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia, and several provinces in between.

Many delegates commented on the phenomenal calibre of the key-note speakers, from WestJet’s VP of Talent Janice Webster and the Rock Star of People Tyson Matheson, to Don Schmenke, regarded as a Top 10 speaker by the world’s #1 CEO organizations, to Roy H. Williams who has helped more small business owners become successful than anyone else on the planet.

Combined with these world renowned speakers were several concurrent professional development sessions, a trade show and social events. The entire conference was built around offering something for everyone in HR, whether you were junior or senior in the HR field, in government or in business. Many of the concurrent presentations are now available right here, on the HRANB website.

The Atlantic HR Conference was a way to share and grow knowledge, to network and to educate on why Human Resources is the defining element in corporation’s future successes. Taking Flight dared to identify and challenge the role HR professionals play in creating remarkable brands. Today, with demographics and the business landscape shifting, HR professionals must be prepared to function at a higher level - to see ahead, envision the oncoming challenges, and then to be able to articulate effectively the messages that they must be able to successfully deliver to guide senior management.

As one conference delegate said, “The entire conference exceeded my expectations; you did a truly great job! This one will be hard to top, but is a great model for anything that comes next.”

As well, the Atlantic Canada HR Awards gala took place Thursday night, as the social highlight of the Conference, with fabulous food and entertainment (Derek Edwards and the Duo Encore) in a room spectacularly decorated. Our congratulations to all the Finalists. The winners can be seen at www.achra.ca.

The Atlantic HR Conference offered the opportunity to expand on the success of the HR Association of Nova Scotia’s (HRANS) bi-annual conference and fostered communication and contributions between all three Atlantic associations. This first annual conference was supported by the three Atlantic Human Resources Associations, and organized by HRANB.

We hope to see many of you again next year in Halifax.