After a succesful 48 hours of networking, technology demonstration, and, by all accounts, keynote presentations 
both enlightening and raucous, SourceCon Denver is at an end. If you weren't lucky enough to head to the Mile-High City for the event, we've got you covered. Below are some of the cheekiest, most interesting, and most insightful takeaways from the recruiting and HR conference!
Holy smokes #sourcecon pic.twitter.com/WL8T8DXEOZ
— Martin Lee (@MrMartinLee) October 1, 2014
Martin shares a picture of the calm before the storm.
How to find email patterns: Google "email | contact * * http://t.co/HMkk7Yw9zl" & look for personal email address in results. :) #sourcecon
— Stacy Donovan Zapar (@StacyZapar) October 2, 2014
This is like a cheat code for candidate research. Once you've determined the email convention for an organization, or used it to find linked accounts as with Stacy's tip, you've suddenly unlocked a treasure trove full of contact information.
Applies to all! "@StacyZapar "What if we train our recruiters and they leave?" "What if we don't and they stay?" :) @mattcharney #sourcecon"
— Ian Gertler (@IanGertler) October 3, 2014
This back and forth between Stacy and Matt was like a crossover episode between my two favorite TV shows. Great commentary on the risk of not developing your own talent.
. @thecandidategen bringing the case for Facebook through data as only an English major could. #SourceCon pic.twitter.com/HGM9BXusYi
— Matt LeBlanc (@MatthewJLeBlanc) October 2, 2014
Why @Facebook > @LinkedIn for #sourcing in a single screenshot #sourcecon pic.twitter.com/ocoNPu1nIP
— Matt Charney (@mattcharney) October 2, 2014
Because people put less professional information on Facebook, it often falls by the wayside when it comes to sourcing. Here's two firm arguments for why you should be recruiting on Facebook, based on sheer volume of users as well as Matt's point, which shows how you can use standard non-boolean language to search for people based on their interests.
Think of the difference between marketing and sales. That'll help you understand difference b/w recruiting and sourcing. #sourcecon
— Naomi (@nomes2400) October 2, 2014
Here's a spectacular way to visualize the hiring funnel. Both Marketers and Sourcers are charged with drumming up interest and getting people to put their hand up to say they want to learn more. After that, it's up to Sales/Recruiters to take that interest and turn it into a customer/employee. This is also a handy way to visualize the division of responsibility, and develop KPIs that appropriately assess employees, which can be an issue for some companies.
#SourceCon Tip: A man (from an undisclosed company) saw high engagement rates from developers when he wrote his emails to them in code.
— Greenhouse Software (@Greenhouse) October 2, 2014
This recruiting method probably isn't realistic for most people, but I'm sure you can see why it's expected. Communicate with talent in their own language and in a way that makes sense to them and shows you've done your research, and you'll have a much better hit rate.
Congrats to our friend Jeremy Roberts and the rest of the SourceCon team for pulling off a wildly successful conference! What were your favorite takeaways from the conference? Leave a comment or tweet @EnteloRob!
