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You ought to be going to HRDemo (December 8 and 9 in Las Vegas).

In its inaugural year, the show promises to shake up the conventional definition of a convention. HRDemo is designed for people who want to understand what’s really possible with HR Technology. Unlike other events, HRDemo gets you front row exposure to the vendor’s latest. No lines to get to the booth while the booth workers fling plastic objects.

If you talk to most industry analysts, they will tell you that HRTechnology is not very well differentiated. The past several years have seen intensified development with little growth in marketing or sales. As a result, you can barely tell one vendor from the other. They all carry the same recurring 80% of the functionality.

So, what makes them different from each other.

By now, you’ve heard my notion that software is really that thing that operates between you and the people at the vendor. Thick or thin, software is a kind of membrane that is supposed to be the nexus where all of the action takes place. Since it’s 80% the same, what matters?

Company culture. What you really need to understand when you buy technology  is the vendor’s culture? Do they blame each other when something breaks? Do they get creative when there’s a problem? Do they quickly jump to tell you whether or not the problem is a scope issue? Are they more interested in your success or their own? Are promptness and accuracy the foundation of their work? Or, are they quick to obfuscate and slither with spin?

The best way to find out is to see them in action.

At HRDemo, the main thing is a series of product demos. The vendors are on stage for an hour. They get to tell their story the way they want you to hear it. There are no prearranged, prescripted scenarios to fake you with. They do their thing and you get to participate with your mind and your laptop.

What you can know for sure is that any demo that lasts an hour will encounter technical glitches. That’s when you get to see the underlying culture shine through.

You might be asking yourself, why would I go somewhere to see this? I can get demos done by webinar at any time?

At HRDemo, there will be 6 hours of programming on each of two days. You’ll be able to pick among a variety of vendors to see the stuff you want to see. Rather than arranging a dozen demos and doing all of the internal coordination, you can get it all done in one place in an intense couple of days.

Of course, there will be some fun to be had. We’re going to throw a Viva SaaS Vegas party in honor of the emerging HR SaaS Consortioum (it’s a collective of users, vendors and analysts). It should be a major moment.

If you decide to go, you can get a 50% discount by mentioning my name. Use JOHNSUMSER as the code when you register.

I’ll tell you some more in coming days.