by Andrew Kris

The new HRO World Europe conference builds on centuries of knowledge and tradition.

Americans have short memories. That is because they have a short history. Sure, 228 years sounds like a long time, but consider these facts: France was founded in 486, Scotland in 843, Denmark and England in the 900s, Portugal in 1143, Austria in 1156, and Switzerland in 1291. In California, the average home is 33 years old. In Western Europe, the average home is 206 years old.

And consider the conference business. Europeans invented it. Actually the Greeks and Romans invented it, Charlemagne and the Franks updated it in the 800s, then British King John refined it around the Magna Carta in 1215. Our ancestors perfected the three-ingredient formula for a great conference: One, a rousing topic; two, an audience drawn by the emotion or economics of the topic; and three, a cadre of vendors who sell their wares to the passionate audience.

Fast-forward to today. Those who make their living in the European HRO community continue this centuriesold tradition of great conferences. We call our newest variant HRO World Europe. It happens November 23-24, 2004 at the Conrad Hotel in Brussels. Our rousing topic is HRO, the 45 billion euro industry that is re-inventing the HR practice worldwide. In the 25-member European Union, there are 10,000-plus employers employing more than 200 million employees. All these employers are struggling with the impact of global competition, the need to provide high-quality employee services, and the need to be cost-efficient. HRO is an emotional topic, to be sure. But HRO is, at its most basic, a tough business decision that all companies are currently facing.

This conference is the first of its kind to feature speakers who represent a broad spectrum of organizations who have “gone HRO” across the entire EU. It reflects activities and practices in many countries, industries, and company sizes. It is the most representative set of HRO experiences ever assembled in Europe—the ultimate topical magnet for attendees who need to make HRO decisions now or in the near future.

Our audience is top HR officers at public and private- sector organizations across the European Union. If you count all companies of 500 employees or more in all 25 member countries, you have a potential audience of almost 16,000 top HR executives. They have all been, or will all soon be, asked by their executive officers to make a decision on HRO at some level. Should we outsource our payroll? How about our recruiting? Or training? Or relocation? Or the entire HR function?

Our audience needs answers. They need stories of success and failure. They need a network. And, of course, they need to know what the provider/vendor community has to offer. This top-drawer group of up to 200 HR officers will be listening intently for solutions, for pitfalls, and for answers to tough questions. Our vendors are an elite group. They represent leading HRO providers in Europe. From lead sponsors such as Accenture HR Services, ARINSO People Services, EDS, Logica CMG, and Siemens to service-provider sponsors such as ACS, ADP, Borderless Executive Search, Convergys Employee Care, IBM Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO), Randstad, and SAP, this group has executed more than 78 percent of the HRO work in Europe.

Like any great conference that reveals a previously secret society to the broader market, not everyone will be happy that this conference is occurring next month. Two groups that may be quite concerned are the (highly- paid) sourcing consultant/advisors and Americans, who have plans for Thanksgiving dinner.

As for the first group, sourcing consultants and lawyers may dream of a time before HRO World Europe, before their closely guarded secrets became conference-floor conversation. HRO World Europe, like its sister conference HRO World in New York, has dis-intermediated some of these advisors. On the show floor, sourcing secrets are offered free-of-charge to anyone who registers online at www.sharedxpertise.org. Of course, we trust that the advisors whose secrets will be unmasked will rapidly adapt to the new openness in information exchange and revamp their advisory offerings accordingly.

And as for the second group, Americans who worry about getting back to the United States in time for food and football on November 25, we say rest easy. Brussels National Airport has more than 20 non-stop flights back home between the conference ending and the start of your turkey dinner.