Overview of the floor from #SHRM13 - Who is here and Who is not!

With over 700 exhibitors on the floor it is just overwhelming to see it all - but I gave it a shot! So here are some of the things vendors are doing to get attention, some of the innovative ideas, and it is also interesting to see who is not at the convention.

Getting your Attention:

As you can imagine, with 15,000 streaming past the exhibits - everyone is trying their best to get your attention. Here are some of the ones seem to be working!

• Pictures with Characters, Knights, Willy Wonka - 
• Orange Cotton Candy
• Games - Careerbuilder has this amazing game that is getting lots of hype
• T-Shirts! The booths that were giving away T-Shirts were packed. 

New Emerging Products or Services:

One of the things I love about the SHRM hall is it gives you a feel for what is going on the HR supplier space and where new product or service areas are growing. Here are some of the interesting areas that are here:

• Wellness Programs - but these aren't the overall programs, but the actual health techniques. For instance Weight Watchers, Fitbit and some aerobics programs are here. It feels like the we are migrating from needing to have programs that reward people for being healthy to having to have programs that teach the specifics. 
• Innovative Health Care - there were a number of vendors here who are pitching Telehealth and global care (e.g. send folks to Costa Rica for surgeries). 

Who isn't here:

What is also intriguing is seeing who didn't come to SHRM as it kinds of makes you wonder why? 

• The big consulting shops - So think PWC, Mercer, AonHewitt, Buck Consulting, etc. 
• The benefits administrators and HR Outsourcing Shops- AonHewitt, XeroxACS, Northgate, IBM

If you want to see the list of who is here - the list can be found here.