Recently I was lucky enough to be one of the speakers at Talent Leaders Connect in Amsterdam.  More than 60 recruiters from across the City (the drop-out rates are much lower than in the UK) came together in the Radisson Blu for four hours of talks, networking and some very fine food!  With any conference, you hope to come away with at least three things that you can take back to your day job.  I wasn’t disappointed.  As much as I learnt things about recruiting, what I really came away with is some insights into great presentations…

Share something of yourself – Jennifer from Booking.com shared a great many things – how in 12 months, she’s turned recruiting on its head, hired more than 5200 people and grown IT referrals to 45%!  But one of the things I will remember is her grandfather’s business card.  Brilliant.

Don’t be afraid of being contentious – Rene Bolier of Onrecruit compared recruitment to dating, even to the point of talking about ‘cockblocking’.  This was one word too far for one audience member, but the rest of us were entertained by the lighthearted analogy and it certainly made sure Rene was remembered.

Share secrets – Gordon Lockenberg of People Sourcing Crew shared some of the tricks of his trade, including how to find people on LinkedIn without even having to log into LinkedIn.  Interesting, insightful – and opens up all kinds of possibilities for recruiters.

Don’t be put off by tech failures – sometimes links on your presentations don’t work.  It didn’t put off Claire Bush.  She got everyone to get their phones out and find the video for themselves.

Keep it short – everyone kept to time (or took slightly less time).  Which meant that the day finished sightly early (always a bonus).  And no-one went on and on and on (an even bigger bonus).  Seems the Dutch respect people’s time a lot more than some of their UK counterparts!

Away from the conference itself, I had a little time to spend in Amsterdam.  My fourth time there, this is a lovely and charming city – and the people are really friendly and welcoming.  What continues to amaze me though is the trains.  Not just being punctual, fast and regular.  They have wifi (that works).  And they are double-deckers!  Yes, you can go either upstairs or downstairs on the train.