In this episode of the HRchat Podcast, new DisruptHR Buffalo co-organizers Bill Banham and Chris Bjorling preview the relaunch event happening on April 11 plus they discuss their hopes for the ATD Conference and Expo in New Orleans in May.
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In this episode of the HRchat Podcast, new DisruptHR Buffalo co-organizers Bill Banham and Chris Bjorling preview the relaunch event happening on April 11 plus they discuss their hopes for the ATD Conference and Expo in New Orleans in May.
Learn more and get tickets:
Feature Your Brand on the HRchat Podcast
The HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score.
Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here.
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HRGazettecom. And visit HRGazettecom.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello, this is Bill Bannum, your host today, and joining me back on the show today is my friend, the awesome human being, mr Christopher Bueling. Chris, how are you?
Speaker 3:Hey, bill, I'm great today. Thanks for taking this moment to ask me some questions, chat with me. It's always fun to be on air with you and just to be around your bubbly personality all the time. So thank you.
Speaker 2:I try to be bubbly as much as possible. Sometimes I'm not, chris, but you caught me on a good day, okay? So, listeners, today we are talking about something that Chris and I are co-organizing and it's an event happening in beautiful Buffalo, new York. It's on April 11th, so that's in a few days. As you're listening to this episode today, it's going to be at the Hofbrauhaus Buffalo, which is this big beer hall and we've got this beautiful back room as part of that. We've got over 200 folks registered so far, lots of cool leaders and hr pros and and the like, and it's um, it's the relaunch event. So there hasn't been a disrupt hr in buffalo since before the pandemic my goodness me, before the pandemic. They were awesome, so that's lots of pressure on our shoulders to deliver on april the 11th.
Speaker 2:Fortunately, uh, we have partnered up with a bunch of the previous co-organizers. They've been very gracious to help us and get things going and even, indeed, continue it with us, uh, plus some other awesome partners like atd, the, the local atd chapter, and the local show and equivalent chapter, um. So it's, it's going to be a good event and we've got some pretty cool speakers, including mr buehling. Mr buehling is going to be a good event, and we've got some pretty cool speakers, including mr buerling. Mr buerling is going to do a talk at disrupt buffalo. Um, so for those of you who haven't listened to an episode with me and chris before, let's just, uh, take a moment, chris, and why don't you tell our listeners all about yourself and then tell them a bit about fidelio?
Speaker 3:excellent. Thanks, bill. Thanks, bill. Yeah, I'm looking forward to being in Buffalo here shortly too. I just live down the road, but it's always fun when I, when I, when I go over and hang out in the Buffalo area. So I'm looking forward to this.
Speaker 3:Um, so I am Crispy Orling, I am the president of um Fidelio Inc. And I have been in the training and development world for like forever, it seems, since 1997 is when I started the company and where I came from. So with that then I have been through the whole talent management space since that time, doing different things, focusing on different opportunities and understanding the genesis of you know what we need to do for helping people and in my space there we look at the total life cycle of an employee, from cradle to grave hiring and pre-hiring into. You know how do you exit them from the organization gracefully, hopefully over a period of time. So, um, my experience has given me a lot of opportunity to to um work in these areas, uh, specifically to.
Speaker 3:You know, for each of our clients they have a different request and need. So when I talk about you know Fidel here in a second um, um, and we kind of for Fidelio. We are an organization that does two things One, we have consulting, and two, we have products and services, and that's online tools. And so, because of our vast experience and the experience level of our consultants and our programmers, we're able to provide a lot of HR-based solutions and success components for each of our clients that we work with.
Speaker 3:Again, each client comes to us with a different request. We satisfy it through utilization of our experience, our tools, and each client's solution tends to be different than the next, even though they may be the same label, like succession planning or performance management or whatever. But we've worked with large companies, we work with small companies and we've got a lot of success in enabling them to continue down their strategic path. So that's about it for me, but one other thing I will throw out there bill that you always find interesting is I have seven children and it's a. It's a joy of my life, and I will leave it at that at this point thank you.
Speaker 2:Seven children, which makes you a truly rich man, my friend. Um, okay, so, as I mentioned a moment ago, you are one of the awesome new co-organizers of disrupt hr buffalo. Uh, what is it about the disrupt hr event series that appeals to you, chris?
Speaker 3:well, what I love about it is it's quick bursts of information from a variety of sources. Um the the guests can come into these places, the venues, see and hear different things. Some of them may pertain to what they're thinking about, some may not pertain directly to what they're thinking about and some may realize that it pertains to something they never thought about and they walk away with a jewel of wisdom and they're out there, the short snippets, cycles of information that's putting out there. We're here to disrupt the common everyday path of the HR profession. If there's something that we can bump you into thinking differently and acting differently, then we've been successful. So that's what I really like about the Disrupt HR series is that it challenges us to think differently, and I'm excited for the Buffalo community to get that and the professionals that are on here to say, hey, yeah, you know what. It's time I should probably think something different than what I've done before.
Speaker 4:Once in a while, an event series is born that shakes things up, it makes you think differently and it leaves you inspired. That event is Disrupt HR. The format is 14 speakers, 5 minutes each and slides rotate every 15 seconds. If you're an HR professional, a CEO, a technologist or a community leader and you've got something to say about talent, a CEO, a technologist or a community leader and you've got something to say about talent, culture or technology, disrupt is the place. It's coming soon to a city near you. Learn more at disrupthrco.
Speaker 2:So big shocker for you listeners. I'm not actually a New York State native. What, bill, we can't believe that you sound like one of us. No, no, it's true, and therefore, before Chris and I were chatting today, I was trying to understand what are the accepted boundaries of what's considered Western New York. And Chris lives on the fingers, and apparently half of the fingers are in what is considered Western New York and the other half of the fingers are considered in what's considered Central New York. The event, of course, will be in the hearts of West Western New York. Chris, feel free to speak about Central New York too. I'm sure that's great as well. But in your opinion, why is Western New York a great place to make business connections? Well, first.
Speaker 3:You didn't need to tell anybody you were not from New York, because you call them fingers. They're actually finger lakes and it's okay, it's all right. It's all right. From the last time there was global ice all over us here, we had a mile sheet of ice and then it melted and we're left with these lakes and, like you say, half of them were a little less than half of them are in the western um part of the state, but buffalo is over by one of the wonders of the world, niagara falls.
Speaker 3:You know I mean when you, when you stop and think about you know buffalo's reference over and over again in movies and and discussions and things like that. But the beautiful part about Buffalo is that you know it is a revitalizing city and if you spend time downtown or in the waterfront areas, you're going to see this vibrancy coming back to life for them and with that comes you know the business environment that surrounds all of the Buffalo area and you know really the core push of the full western side of the state is the heart and soul of Buffalo and how it reacts. Now the bills are another story. You know everybody loves the bills. Everybody, you know, is there for them and it's exciting for that part to be generated and always be forefront in a lot of conversation, at least in the United States, as they go through it.
Speaker 3:But Buffalo has a ton of businesses that are sprouting and that are growing and that are continuing and it's exciting to be in this part of the state and this part of the country because it's often overlooked, because you always see the snow that comes down in Buffalo. Well, that's only a portion of the year. The rest of the year it's. It's a beautiful area, it's a beautiful climate and encourage anybody to come out and see the falls and to explore the Western portion of the finger lakes and the regions in between. There's a lot of history there and there's a lot of fun things to do.
Speaker 2:I love the Niagara region. I love to get there whenever I can. It is beautiful, often on the Canadian side, but when I can get over as well, I will do that. Chris, you are one of the speakers at Disrupt HR Buffalo, in addition to being one of the co-organizers, so I'm going to challenge you now to answer in 90 seconds or less. Can you excite us? Can you get us riled up? Can you give us a preview of your talk at disrupt hr buffalo?
Speaker 3:I can, I can, I can, I can't, hey. So, you know, we sit in this hr space and oftentimes we introduce things because we have to, out of compliance or out of dictation from our leaders that we need to gather this information, that we need to do this process, and oftentimes we're being viewed as being interruptions to the real work, as people say, and often our tools and our solutions and our requests are met with resistance, and this is terrible. I don't like it, and there's a variety of reasons behind that. But ultimately, when the day is done, what's going to make our lives easier? But ultimately, when the day is done, what's going to make our lives easier?
Speaker 3:It's what's in it for me moments. You know, how can I plan for those, where can I get them and how can I make sure that I'm enabling those each and every time I start to interact with our, their world in which we support, which is, our employees within our organization, and so that's where I'm going to focus on and we're going to talk about that. I've got some stats that we've we've got coming and I've got some, you know, process tips that we've seen successful in working with different clients over the years, as well as just well, I never thought I just needed to go through this simple process and things would be much better for me. So that's what we're going to do.
Speaker 2:Excellent and a quick pro tip for you, chris. So all of the talks that get recorded, they're on the main Disrupt website. It gets loads and loads and loads of views and visits every month. I've been involved with some Disrupt events in the UK where we had one guy who went on the circuit dressed as a wrestler in his spandex and he got loads of views. We've got another guy at an event that I'm involved with this week as we record this episode in the UK, who is going to dress as a Dalek from Doctor who episode in the UK. Who is going to dress as a Dalek from Doctor who. So, chris, my pro tip to you would be you know, if you want to get some extra views on the website, feel free to wear something extraordinary as you present, but that's entirely up to you. Sir, we've only got a couple of minutes left for today. Just briefly, I want to mention that you and I also co-host the People and Performance podcast, which has been going for a while now.
Speaker 3:It's an absolute delight to do that with you uh what do you like about being a podcast host?
Speaker 3:yeah, I love being a podcast co-host in the fact that, um, you know, you bring some great people I've brought some, but you bring wonderful opportunity, opportunities for us to talk to people and to really get to delve into some pieces of information from these experts and from these thought leaders. And the fun part about it for me is the fact that you know, uh, it's, it's my language, it's where I'm going from. It's like getting a mini moment of having my time with some stars, or having my time with some thought leaders, or having my time with some people, or having my time with some thought leaders or having my time with some people that just stop and make me think, you know, like, oh, that's really cool. Uh, there are opportunities when we've been on these calls that you know, and in our podcasts that you know we're only on for 15 minutes. But I will tell you, there's always something to be learned in those 15 minutes.
Speaker 3:The way we we have been able to talk to them and and ask questions and get to something. It's been a, it's been invaluable to me, to, you know, to do this and I've taken lessons, I've learned and worked with my, my own clients from um uh through the process. But it's really just engaging these professionals, these people, that you get to uncover this one word of wisdom or this one thought nugget that's going to impact somebody, and we encourage everybody to to listen to them because it's it's short, it's sweet and it's to the point and you may glean something that changes your world we're going to talk about this more in future episodes, because we only got a couple of minutes now anyway.
Speaker 2:Um, but you and I. One thing, another thing that you and I are doing together because we get to hang out together quite a bit this year, which is lovely is we're both going to be covering the ATD conference in beautiful New Orleans in mid-May. Towards the end of May. We've got some of the guys from the local ATD chapter, of course, at Disrupt Buffalo in April and then you and I will be at the big one in May. Just briefly, chris, why is ATD Conference? Why is that an interesting event for you? Why is that an interesting community for you? What are you hoping to get out of attending?
Speaker 3:Excellent, excellent, excellent question. Well, atd is such a well-respected organization that just even getting the chance to go to it and to participate and to listen to the speakers and to you know kind of work the scenes too, from the PR standpoint is a light for us to go forward with. But what really drives me to ATD is that you know this is training and development and that's kind of been my core business since I started. Working is around, you know, getting people developed, getting people focused. You know providing learning for them, because it's not you know, it's not the end solution to hire somebody, it's to work and you take them and shape them and move them forward.
Speaker 3:I look back at my own career and I say you know what I couldn't do what I do today if I hadn't gone through these learnings and through these opportunities to develop myself and to move forward day, if I hadn't gone through these learnings and through these opportunities to develop myself and to move forward. So as we look about how can we systemize that and put it in focus through the ATD process points, it's a great thing and there's lessons to be learned by the experts that have come in, that have done something in their own space and their own company. That you know, really is deserting of sharing, because that, plus an adaptation of that will, you know, potentially help some organization to better themselves, to be prepared for the next generation of work for the next day. So it's exciting to be part of atd and to be at the conference in new orleans and to spend time with you. And I won't, by the way, ever wear a wrestling suit, but that's another story. I'll leave it at that never say never, mr biorling.
Speaker 2:Uh, okay, and just finally for today. How can our listeners connect with and learn more about you?
Speaker 3:excellent so you can go to linkedin. Chris biorling, christopher biorling, I'm out there. Uh, feel free to tap into that. Reach out, uh, friend me, focus on, you know, seeing what we've done, some of the things we've done, some of the connections we've had, I'm more than happy to talk and share and do those types of things. You can look at my organization at wwwfideliocom and you can see different clients we work with a lot of our philosophical overviews and discussions about you know how we can help organizations. So, personally, I hope people reach out to me through LinkedIn and we can start connecting and starting some dialogue. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, chris. Thank you very much for being my guest on this episode of the HR Chat Show. Thank you, bill and listeners as always, until next time, happy working.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HRGazettecom.