Meet The Disruptors: Rob Caswell of DisruptHR Calgary

Who are the people that are taking the lead in disrupting the future of work?

They‰Ûªre the official Disruptors (Organizers) of DisruptHR events held in cities around the world. Each week, we‰Ûªll introduce you to one of these intelligent, inspiring, and beautiful people (okay, pick two) who have stepped up, and volunteered to organize a Disrupt HR event in their city.

Rob Caswell of DisruptHRåÊCalgary (Disruptor #56)

LinkedIn ‰ÛÒ [åÊRob CaswellåÊåÊ]

Twitter ‰ÛÒ [åÊ@robcaz ]

Who are you, and what do you do in your ‰ÛÏday job‰Û?

I’m a Senior HR Advisor for Alberta Health Services, spending most of my time in trench HR and a stint in labour relations.

How did you first hear about DisruptHR?

Twitter, of course! I was following some HR bloggers and speakers, and started seeing these lightning bolts of HR goodness strike in various – at the time – US cities.

Why did you decide to raise your hand and become an organizer for DisruptHR events in Calgary?

I was interested in bringing the concept north to Canada. I saw Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa get on-board – and then thought Western Canada was feeling left out! I wasn’t sure where to get started; I went to HRevolution in St Louis in 2015, met Tammy Colson (who organizes Cleveland), and she convinced me Calgary was the right place to Disrupt (she was right and I owe her wine)!

How many events have you organized?

We hosted our fourth event on November 9 of this year. We run two a year, May and November, and are looking forward to 5.0 in May 2018 (maybe an all-star edition?)! We have a great venue in a brewery, though space is tight – we pack in 100 excited Disruptors each round.

What types of people/industries have attended your events?

Mostly HR and recruiters, though we’ve had attendees and speakers from business, entrepreneur centers, and tech firms.

What are you most proud of that has come out of being involved with/organizing DisruptHR events?

Engaging the HR community in Calgary and are in a different way, and really connecting with speakers, sponsors, and Disrupters far & wide. I love how active the community is, even between events, and have had great chats with organizers in other cities.

What kind of feedback have you received from those who attended prior DisruptHR Calgary events?

After our third event, I had a similar comment from both a speaker and an attendee – they were getting more excited about their own work, and felt this filled a gap in PD events.

What is your favorite DisruptHR Talk, and why? Pick just one? Oh dear… we’ve had great speakers, but I tell you, Adam Czarnecki has spoken for us three times, and always knocks it out of the park. Zombies v Snowflakes is a great view of human behaviour.

Snowflakes vs Zombies | Adam Czarnecki | DisruptHR Talks from DisruptHR on Vimeo.

Based off of the Talks and conversations at your events, what do you feel are the areas with the biggest opportunity for disruption?

The recurring theme seems to be killing policy and embracing humanity in our work – all the ways we need to remember that we employ people, not just functions. I love where this work is going, and the social science happening in the area.

What excites you or frustrates you about the future of work, your career and/or DisruptHR?

The excitement is going to be the same as the frustration – as work evolves and breaks ahead of traditional frameworks, legislation and policy need to keep up. We’ve still got lots of people who are holding on to words on a page, versus actions in front of them. It’s more and more becoming a community-centric world, and we need to be sharing in our community – and not putting up with the status quo!

What‰Ûªs Happening With DisruptHR Calgary:

‰ÛÒ DisruptHR Calgary Community Page

‰ÛÒ DisruptHR Calgary on Twitter (@DisruptHRYYC)

‰ÛÒ #DisruptHRYYC Calgary Twitter mentions

 

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