If you’re a jobseeker, don’t miss the Chandler Career Connect job fair on March 29th from 4-9 at the Chandler Center for the Arts. There are over 60 companies attending, some great speakers (oh, and I’ll be there too)… Great opportunity for folks in Chandler and the rest of the valley!
We are once again honored to have the professional staff of Bradford Jones Photography on hand to provide free avatar photographs for LaidOffCamp Phoenix attendees.
However, as we are expecting up to 300 attendees due to our new location in the Chandler Community Center (thanks to the generosity of the City of Chandler), we have established a separate ticket for those desiring avatar photographs. You’ll find it on our EventBrite page.
We kindly ask you to NOT reserve a photography slot if you:
This way the limited slots available can go to those folks who really need a good photo to use in their online job search.
We already have some terrific speakers finalized for our April 30th event, covering great topics:
We are seeking speakers for the following topics:
If you are interested in speaking on one of these topics, or know somebody who is, just email us.
We are excited to announce our next LaidOffCamp coming to Chandler on Saturday, April 30th, 2011. We’re in the planning stages now, so mark your calendar and watch this space for information about topics, speakers, sponsors!
Hi everyone! I hope the week and a half since LaidOffCamp has been fruitful for you — I have heard from many attendees who have been rethinking their approach, reworking their resumes and refocusing their efforts based on the insight and advice they received from our wonderful speakers and volunteers.
I’m pleased to let you know that the first 10 session videos recorded by Boyd Coleman (@leaky_tiki on Twitter) and his wife Tina-Marie (@sugargirlxox) are up on Vimeo.com for your viewing pleasure. Bookmark this page, because he’ll be uploading the remaining videos shortly. I’m so grateful to have videos of these great sessions to share with those of you who weren’t able to join us, or who had to make the difficult decision to attend one session over another. Now we can all benefit from all of them!
Also, an avatar update: If you had your photograph taken by the amazing Brad Jones (@monkey_brad), he is editing all of them and hopes to have them all emailed to you individually by November 15th. As you can imagine, working through the hundreds of images to find the right avatar for each subject is a time-consuming process, and since Brad has a real business to run it’s amazing we’re getting all those little beautiful images done at all! Thanks again to Brad for his generous donation of time and talent.
We will continue to post new information on the LaidOffCamp Phoenix website, and will email folks who registered for the event with any new information when necessary (although we try to pester you as infrequently as possible).
I also wanted to mention that the amazing Pam Slim (@pamslim), author of Escape From Cubicle Nation who spoke at the Camp about finding your “side hustle”, is offering her first-ever in-person coaching group here in Phoenix. It starts November 15th, and you can get details here. If you’re thinking about moving from your corporate job into something completely different, there’s no better person to help you on your way.
I hope the LaidOffCamp Phoenix community can continue to support you. If there’s anything we can do, don’t hesitate to email us.
I want to give a shout out to the folks who have graciously offered to provide food at LaidOffCamp.
First, I want to thank Glynis Legrand, CEO of the Urban Tea Loft, for her generous donation of breakfast. The main event doesn’t start until 9 sharp, but come early, as we will have a free breakfast available and the opportunity to network. The Urban Tea Loft provided breakfast at the last LaidOffCamp Phoenix, and we are delighted to have them back again this year.
Our lunch providers are also back again this year. Randy Walters, of Pittsburgh Willie’s, will be setting up his hot dog cart just outside the senior center at lunch time. He is also graciously donating his time and his hotdogs to help support this community, so let’s support him back! Also providing lunch is Floridino’s, so if pizza is your thing, join us for some tasty pies!
Without the support of these generous local businesses, LaidOffCamp participants would be running around with empty stomachs!
I’m so thrilled to be able to announce another LaidOffCamp Phoenix event on Saturday, October 23rd in Chandler! Since our last event in April 2010 we’ve been asked, over and over, “When are you doing it again?” It’s gratifying to now announce the next LaidOffCamp Phoenix.
This fall’s event will be supported by a group of dedicated volunteers and coordinated by Perri Collins, who has generously offered to serve as Chief Wrangler this time around. Perri will happily accept any and all help in the form of:
… and probably anything else you can think of that you’d like to do or contribute. If you can help, you can reach Perri by emailing LaidOffCamp Phoenix or submitting a contact form through this website.
And keep an eye on our Facebook page, LinkedIn group and Twitter feed for more information coming soon!
Whew!What an amazing day.
I’m exhausted, and energized. I’m proud, and I’m humbled. I’m digging out from a month of doing virtually nothing else, and I’m looking forward to doing it again.
I want to share some of my favorite things about the day, but first — an apology.
As the event grew, the City of Chandler was kind enough to allow us to use two additional rooms in the downtown Library to accommodate the growing list of sessions and attendees. As a result, I had to completely rework the agenda for the day.
I updated the agenda on the site and sent an email to speakers to let them know.
Well, most of the speakers.
In my hurry I accidentally failed to include a few of the speakers on the email list I used to send out the updated information. As a result, they didn’t know the agenda had changed and arrived on Saturday to find they were late or had missed their sessions completely.
This is entirely my fault, and I offer them my most sincere apologies. Most of them were gracious in their acceptance of my major screwup and many even stayed, talked to attendees one-on-one, and continued to add their value to the day. LaidOffCamp veteran Daniel McRobie, who missed his session “Career Resilience – Keeping Yourself Employable” completely, was kind enough to provide the slides as a PDF that you can download here.
I can offer nothing more than my deepest apology and my sincere hope that they’ll give me another chance next time to include their expertise and content in our plans.
Here are a just a few of my many wonderful memories of the day:
All day Sunday, and again today, I’ve read thank you emails and tweets from attendees and sponsors alike. My response, to everyone, is — THANK YOU. Without all of you the day wouldn’t have been what it was. I’m already seeing people meet online, start discussions, get connected and having new energy about their job search, business dreams, and community-building. It’s wonderful to see it happening — again.
The Resources page is up and running, and full of great offers and opportunities for LOCPHX attendees. Check it often as I’ll keep updating it as I get more information. I’ll also be working to add any video, notes from sessions, and links to the day’s work by wonderful photographers Chanelle Richardson, Brad Jones and Curtis Miller. And we’ve got a “Community Building” section with information on networking opportunities and meetups around the valley.
I’m also working to get everybody on the laid-off-camp-april-2010 list through @laidoffcampphx. If you visit our Twitter page, you can subscribe to that list and automatically be following everybody on it, even as I update the list and add people. It’s a great way to start your community if you’re new to Twitter!
So thanks again, everyone. I can’t believe it was so great again. I’m going to drink a beer out of my new mug.
Many thanks to Channel 10′s Fox News for the recent coverage of LaidOffCamp Phoenix! We also owe a great big thank you hug to our sponsor Vyllij, the free online relationship-management tool developed by the great folks at RedPear right here in the valley. Vyllij is a great way to keep track of all your contacts and their activity across the social media spectrum, and representatives will be on-hand on Saturday to help you get signed up for free and learn how to use this great community-building tool!
2 days and counting, and LaidOffCamp Phoenix is shaping up to be even better than we could have hoped. 34 sessions of incredible content from incredible people, and lots of community energy to boot! Here’s everything you need to know if you’re coming:
If you’re not already registered to attend our companion event on Friday night, check it out — we’re bringing Erik Proulx, the creator of Lemonade: The Movie, to Chandler to screen his inspirational documentary about folks who were laid off and went on to do truly amazing things. Tickets are only $5, and free if you’re unemployed. You can learn more about Erik, his film, and buy tickets or donate here.
The City of Chandler has generously allowed us to use the parking garage right next to the Senior Center for this event. PLEASE don’t park in the Library parking lot to the east of the Senior Center, as that will interfere with folks being able to access the library on a Saturday.
The entry to the garage is on Boston Street just east of Arizona Avenue. When you exit the garage you’ll be right across the walkway from the entrance to the Senior Center, where you can check in.
We’ll be kicking off right at 8:00AM with the welcome session, so be prompt!
The event will end at 4PM, but please join us at Urban Tea Loft across the street in Downtown Chandler for an after-event drink (or one of their signature teatinis!) and to continue the conversation with other attendees, speakers and volunteers.
Above all, be comfortable. This isn’t a job fair, so ditch the suit, tie, pantyhose, and whatever other stiff, uncomfortable stuff you wear to an interview. If you want to have your photograph taken for your online avatar, wear a shirt with a collar you like — the pictures will focus on your smiling face, so it doesn’t matter if you’re wearing jeans.
If you want somebody to give you feedback on your resume, bring it. If you have business cards with contact information, bring ‘em. If you can’t remember your Twitter handle, dig it up. We will have wi-fi, so you’re welcome to bring your laptop if you want. If you want someone to look at your existing website, make sure you have the URL (and the admin login information if you already have a WordPress site and need someone to look at it).
Bring a pen and paper. You’re going to meet lots of amazing folks and hear lots of amazing things, so you’ll need something with which to write it down.
We will have complimentary tea and coffee, as well as homemade scones, for breakfast from Urban Tea Loft. Lunch will be provided by Floridino’s Pizza and Pittsburgh Willy’s Gourmet Hot Dogs, and will also be free. However, there is also a snack shop in the library across the courtyard that has snacks, sandwiches, soups and other goodies — and all of the proceeds go to benefit the library. So feel free to bring some cash if you’d like, but we’ll feed you for nothing.
Mostly, bring yourself. Bring your smile, your energy, even your insecurities and troubles. Over 40 volunteers will be there to help you. And we are all looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.
