John understands the inner workings of employment and recruiting. He is able to see and articulate how and why people work.

This is partly because John has worked a lot of jobs—from selling doughnuts door-to door, digging ditches and building railroads to corporate executive, director, editor, and CEO.  He knows that making the right hiring decision requires both breadth and precision, and that finding the right person for the right job is a process that must adapt to an ever-changing marketplace.

The foundation of John’s interest in recruiting was how to use developing technology to find candidates that were inaccessible before.  John was on the cutting edge of how the internet and technology affect work and recruiting.  He became interested in the internet in its embryonic stages when it was known as the Well.   His conversations with folks in the San Francisco Bay Area developed into a position as CEO of the Whole Earth Catalog, where he met and worked with many of the founders of Silicon Valley.

In 1995, John started his own company, Interbiznet, where he wrote a daily column on using the internet and technology for employment recruiting as well as a survey of global employment news and trends.  His ideas have been the catalyst for dozens of new companies and countless MBA student papers.

John is currently the editor of Recruiting.com where he continues to write a daily column.  He also regularly consults with recruiters and employers on how to find, hire and keep the best employees, how people work, how companies and systems affect employees and how changing economies and technology alter the nature of work itself.   One of John’s current areas of interest is how the cultural differences between the generations are changing the workplace.   He introduced this idea last year to the top 500 employers in Canada last year where Al Gore was the warm-up act (although Mr. Gore might call it the key-note speech).

John continues to explore the importance of culture and communications through new technologies and forums like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and blogging, all of which allow us to meet and connect with people we might not have found in another era, and perhaps say things we would never say in person.

But after more than two decades of sitting behind a computer, it is time to step out and put humans back into human resources.  While it is possible to develop relationships through text messages, email and phone calls, there is still no substitute for actually meeting another person, sharing a meal and a conversation, looking people in the eye and seeing them laugh.   Thus, the Recruiting Roadshow is designed to create local networks and bring people together in the same room to connect and talk in “real time,” while getting the latest insight and information on finding the right person for the job.