Lots of us road-warriors here at TempWorks are pretty fond of out-of-state conferences – probably because it allows us to escape the dreary winter months and wake up next to a beach.
Last week was no exception. From March 2-5, when it was snowing in good old Minnesota, our VP of account management, Susan Wurst, and our executive VP, Casey Kraus enjoyed some much-needed Vitamin D (AKA sunshine), dinner overlooking the beach, and plenty of (well-heated) indoor networking events at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.
The two joined 140 staffing and vendor members at the biannual TempNet conference, of which TempWorks has been a sponsor for the past four years. TempNet is an association that supports independent staffing agencies by giving them a chance to share information, training, resources, and success stories. TempWorks kept the crowd hydrated by providing everyone with water bottles.
In addition to software demos at the TempWorks exhibit, Susan and Casey led a roundtable Q&A session.
“The TempWorks table was packed and had the most participants,” said Susan with a smile.
Also on the agenda were some very helpful presentations, including “Strategies for selling in a tight labor market” and “Best practices for sales calls, social media, recruiting, client development, and staff compensation,” along with relevant legal updates from TempNet’s attorney.
In another breakout session, experts traded techniques to help veterans re-entering the job market.
Veterans were also top of mind on Friday, when Susan says TempNet held a unique charity drive. The conference attendees broke into groups by U.S. region and earned materials to build wheelchairs, one piece at a time, by answering trivia questions and winning challenges. Donations, which had been collected ahead of the conference, went toward these kit-style wheelchairs, which would eventually be donated to needy veterans. The winning group, incidentally, was the Midwest. At the end of the night, we had five newly-assembled wheelchairs and an extra $13,000 ready to donate to the State Veterans Home.
