The ERE Expo went down last week. Judging by the turnout, you probably weren’t there. That’s not to say the show was a failure; it just means it was a bit more intimate than the past few events. The word on the show floor had paid attendees at around 225, where it’s said to have been as high as the six hundreds previously, and vendor count stood at around 60 where it’s reportedly been in the hundred-plus before.
Considering the state of the economy, it was nothing to be ashamed of, and I expect a similarly lighter attendee list as other industry shows roll out their conferences in the months to come.
A brief discussion with ERE head David Manaster brought a positive outlook when he reminded me that attendance at the most recent show was about the same as it was a few years ago with about the same overhead. They’ll no doubt survive the economic storm.
As usual, it was filled with a good number of tidbits and rumors. Here’s a breakdown:
- Monster – First, we love Eric Winegardner who presided over the awards ceremony. Homeboy must have a keg of Monster Kool-Aid at home ’cause no one drinks it up like he does. Following his Twitter account is an ongoing exercise in slurping up the industry’s least loved company. Anyway, apparently sales numbers are way down these days. Someone who should know said the company was at only 40 percent of sales quota for the first quarter.
- Green Job Interview.com – Green is apparently the new black (or the new diversity, depending on how you look at it). The company, which brings live interviewing via webcam to the market, did a good job of generating buzz by bringing actor Kevin Costner, an investor in the company, to the show via virtual interview. Not sure the company brings anything to the table that free service Skype doesn’t already do, but Hollywood doesn’t come to recruiting often, so, cool.
- Jobster – Word is Jobster is down to only 3 employees. Recent news says they’re changing their name to Recruiting.com, which they bought in 2006. “It is harder to sell clients. It is harder to grow the business,” said CEO Jeff Seely. “If we want to plan for the future, we need to be taking all of that into consideration.”
- GoJobs / SEO4Jobs – Apparently CEO Jonathan Duarte has let his staff go and is going to spend the next 2 years traveling the globe with his family. Good for him. Bad for his employees.
- Bayard Advertising – The recruitment ad agency has snagged one of our favorite ex-NAS employees, Don Sabatino, following the recent layoffs. Congrats to Don and Bayard.
- Bounty Jobs – Although the company sponsored something like coffee mugs at the conference, buzz surrounding the company is bleak. Cuts are expected in order to stay alive.
- Jobfox – This one is tough to substantiate, but word is Jobfox is nearly out of cash … like 3 mos. left kinda nearly-out-of-cash. Recent e-mail correspondence from CEO Rob McGovern point to an unveiling of something new and exciting in the near future, so we’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out.
- Climber – The San Diego-based company came to the hometown party but failed to have a booth. With former VP of Sales Josh Akers gone, we wouldn’t be surprised to see founder Mike O’Brien pick up his ball and go home sooner rather than later.
As usual, stay tuned to Cheezhead for the latest on all the above and more. With Kennedy right around the corner the hive is sure to continue buzzing through spring and summer. For pics from ERE, be sure to visit our Facebook Fan Site.
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April 6th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
This is the item that Rob McGovern was likely referring to in the email you mentioned.
http://www.ere.net/2009/03/31/universal-job-application-system-introduced-by-jobfox/
April 6th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
No wonder I keep getting weekly emails from jobfox asking for $30 to become an ‘advantage jobseeker’. Their marketing “guarantees me 3 times the interviews” other poor schlubs would get that don’t pony up. I’m sure that was never really measured but that’s what it says. I’ve had my resume on there for 2 years and the same 5 jobs have been “matched” to me ever since day one with no change.
April 6th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I wonder how many Jobfox employees were the ones who told about the “almost out of money” rumor. Ex-Jobfox and current Jobfox employees are out there telling people of the dire situation. Rumors about their demise have been swirling around a lot in the last few months, especially since their last layoff. Not sure what Rob could do to resurrect his company other than get another VC handout. I think that’s probably the only thing that would keep Jobfox afloat.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Hey Joel,
You’ve been to a lot of the ERE expos and every year there are new rumors.. which ones of these rumors do you think hold true? In this economy it’s a tough call.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Good question about the reality of the rumors. Seems like everyone is having issues but larger firms (ie: Monster & Careerbuilder) have a little more stability – money in the bank. So does this mean that we’re seeing the last of Jobster, JobFox, Bounty – etc? And if they are going down, what are Simplyhired and Indeed doing to grab more market share?
April 7th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
real unemployment rate pushing towards 16% currently –
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/learn-how-to-invest/The-real-unemployment-rate.aspx
April 20th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Eric’s not the only one who’s guzzling the Kool-Aid. There are thousands more at Monster just like him. While there may have been issues in the past, Monster has changed and for the better. It’s a different company with thousands of dedicated associates.
The only thing that hasn’t changed Joel is your stupid rhetoric and baseless accusations. It might be better if you used your site and blogs to help connect people with jobs the way Monster does. Now that would be an honorable accomplishment!
At a time when hundreds of thousands of families are suffering, trying to figure out how to pay their mortgages, credit cards, medical, education, and other bills, don’t you think it’s time to get real?
From Someone who DOES know what’s going on at Monster
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Joel – getting paid by CB to slam monster doesn’t make you right.