2011 was the most successful HR Technology^® Conference & Expo in our 14 years, marking the moment we emerged as one of the top two national HR events.

The numbers only begin to tell the story:

• 30% more session-going attendees than last year’s record
• 27 countries represented, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, Indonesia and South Korea
• Six companies attending for the ninth consecutive year; 12 additional for eight out of nine years
• A record 220 exhibitors in our largest Exposition ever

Include our 60+ analysts/press/bloggers, our 70+ presenters and the 1,700 vendor representatives (full members of our community), and HR Technology^® brought together 4,600 professionals in one place at one time, who all cared about the exact same thing: IT for all aspects of HR.

Talk about a world-wide annual Town Meeting!

Beyond that were the declarations in blogs by former SHRM COO China Gorman and long-time HR editor John Hollon that HR Technology^® and SHRM now stand alone as the top two national events of the year.

Plus the insight from Mark Stelzner and China Gorman that HR Technology^® is the industry’s marketplace – for the competition, sharing, transfer or sale – of ideas, software products and sometimes entire companies! A modern agora for our world-wide community to get down to business!

Or as HR’s very first blogger John Sumser wrote, “This is the one place where you can see how it all fits together.”

You can gain other insights about the 2011 event from Steve Boese, Bryon Abramowitz, George LaRocque, Trish McFarlane or everybody who blogged!

And for those of you who attended, the new conversations that started in Las Vegas will continue right into Chicago in 2012 on our Conference LinkedIn group. But whether you attIended or not, join us there today for what everyone agrees are the best HR technology discussions on the Internet.

If you attended, you can get all the available session presentations with their valuable data and insights by clicking on the “Program Materials” box in the left column. Just enter the case sensitive user name and password you received at registration.

If you left that behind as hundreds do every year, just call 1-800-727-1227. A customer service representative will verify your attendance and give you the keys to the kingdom.

Planning has already started for our return to Chicago at the self-contained West Wing of McCormick Place, and you should be doing the same.

If you want to speak, fill out a Request for Proposal before January 9, 2012.

If you want to exhibit or sponsor in 2012, better reserve your booth space soon – we were practically sold out for 2012 when the Expo closed in 2011.

If HR technology is your executive responsibility, your actual job or currently your headache — you need to plan to attend. We have all the answers you need.

Save the dates, October 8 - 10, 2012.