Over 15,000 delegates and 650 exhibitors flocked to Europe’s annual HRM Expo in September, which came amongst the backdrop of new interactive features pioneered for this year’s show. The event, which took place in western German city of Cologne, focused on technology and the future encompassed within the theme of ‘work 4.0’.
The expo touched based with a lot of key issues and approaches to future-orientated human resource work with the help of ‘theme days’—which focused on areas such as digital transformation, candidate experience and new work. In line with the theme, the programme featured a number of interactive elements including the particularly stimulating ‘HR-Battle’ workshop and ‘FutureLAB HR’ interactive software-based workshop.
On the sidelines of the talk events, the exhibition was sprawling with future-inspired innovation as a large number of exhibitors took advantage of the ‘work 4.0’ theme to sharpen up their exhibition presence. HR software providers perbit and Oracle, for example, brought along remote-controlled robots—some of which even made small talk with the visitors!
Pushing established companies into the 21st Century is one thing but recognising the business practices of Europe’s newest companies was not an aspect overlooked by the event’s organisers. For the first time, a dedicated ‘Start-up Village HR’ space was set up at the exhibition to showcase the work of 26 start-up companies—reflecting the momentum these companies are generating to spur change in the business world. Commenting on the start-up exhibition, Dr Simon Werther, Founder, HRinstruments and Head of the HR specialist group, German Startups Association (BVDS) stated, “We at the BVDS have received positive feedback from the start-ups represented at the fair. In fact, some of the young exhibitors were very happy.”
But what should HR take away from this event? Speaking about the event, Ralf Hocke, Managing Director of the organiser spring Messe Management commented, “Human resource professionals should face up to the controversy and step away courageously from well-worn paths to learn about and use the new tools that the Working World 4.0 is offering us."
As a result, the exhibition had managed to outline specific action guidelines for human resources professionals and define new fields of business—for example by collaborating with politicians, social partners, associations and key representatives of the education system. At the same time, this complex development is still in its early stages in many companies. As Hocke concluded, "This will certainly continue to be an accompanying theme of our working lives over the next few years."
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
