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Sean Furey

LinkedIN #TALENTINTELSUMMIT 2017

5 minutes

The LinkedIn Talent Intelligence Summit of 2017 was held at the magnificent London Tobacco D...

By Sean Furey

Head of Marketing

The LinkedIn Talent Intelligence Summit of 2017 was held at the magnificent London Tobacco Dock.

When considering business events, there is always the question, is it worth my while? Is it relevant? Is it current? And most of all, is it interesting? Tuesday’s event was a perfect mix of all three and more.

The LinkedIn Talent Intelligence Summit kicked off with some fantastic insights from some of LinkedIn’s top names: Jon Addison, Dan Shapero, John Jersin, Eric Owski & Melissa Furze. Collectively they blew us all away with some phenomenal stats that see no deceleration; the platform has achieved extreme growth in job views and applications across a variety of sectors. Shapero highlighted the true essence of what LinkedIn are aiming to achieve: creating economic opportunities for every member of the global workforce.

I was eager to see more from their latest announcement: Talent Insights. With over half a million profiles on LinkedIn, it’s no surprise that their focus is to really make sense of the data they collect from the platform and provide meaningful insight to customers. It will enable recruiters and marketers alike to make instinctual decisions on where supply meets demand, bridging talent gaps and providing quality service to both candidate and client. I feel that Talent Insights will set the bar for truly intelligent recruiting.

After a break in the Gallery and playing with some of the interactive digital experiences, we returned to listen to what Adelyn Zhou, CMO at TopBOT, had to say about Machine Learning. Zhou talked through the different levels of Artificial Intelligence, from systematic programming and recognition software to self-awareness, deep learning and real cognitive behaviour in machines. Before watching this fascinating segment, I did not have a clue between the differences in these terms, but, Zhou showcased how Machine Learning has already affected our lives and this time, I understood!

Marcus Sawyerr, President of Adecco Group X, took us back to the world of recruiting and how different job roles will either be effected by AI or enhanced – from what I can gather I think marketers’ jobs are going to get a whole lot more interesting. But, from a recruiting perspective, technology is already developing the process into something on such a global scale – and as he rightly pointed out, candidates are no longer ‘owned’ by select recruiters in a book, they have the opportunity to pursue jobs globally through any means. Ultimately, this has only encouraged quality service that make for excellent recruiters to thrive above all else.

After lunch, the next speaker tackled one of the biggest topics in Europe – youth unemployment. Esther O’Callaghan OBE & CEO of OPERA, spoke passionately about her journey to begin the Global Youth Foundation. It definitely shed some light on how something as simple as giving a young adult the money to get to work makes a huge difference. The youth of today are the managers, CEO’s and leaders of tomorrow, so the better start they get, the more opportunities they have to achieve great things.

When you think of the leader of a coding company, many people assume it’s a geeky guy with his hood up… Not Kathryn Parsons! As the Co-CEO of Decoded, Parsons gave a refreshing presentation that challenges the way we learn. And yes, while she contested the idea of mastering something over time (I definitely want to learn code in a day), she questioned: why can’t we learn and break through the stereotypical methods of education?. Innovation and change are the here and now, so why are we not supporting that in our education system? It was very thought-provoking, especially when I think about how little I got taught about simple IT at school; I left in 2010…. Computers were definitely a big thing during that time!

Finally, Baroness Susan Greenfield gave us an insight into how technology makes us feel and how our minds react. Without a doubt, being connected is addictive, and Susan gave us an insight about why with a fantastic lesson in neuroscience. The want, or, need for constant phone use stems from our personal identity and how well someone accepts their identity on a cognitive level. We often see amazing content on social media which has brought on the term ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out), but, is this the poster’s true identity? Why are we benchmarking against what we see online? Can this addiction be controlled to become less damaging? I do wonder whether we can stay as connected technologically as we are but be able to experience life’s ‘real-word’ opportunities as well.

What I learned most from Susan Greenfield is that the human mind is so complex and intelligent, that it would be impossible for robots and computers to replace us.

Overall, the LinkedIn Talent Intelligence Summit has given us all a LOT to think about, debate about but mostly, get excited about. Marketing in the recruitment industry is challenging at the best of times; you’re exposing people to life changing opportunities that only human relationships can sustain. But, given the right intelligence tools and insight, we can offer the best recruiting service yet.

It was also great to finish the day with our Top 25 ‘Most Socially Engaged’ award celebration:

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