Why Al Gore Should Be This Year’s SHRM Annual Keynote Speaker

A ConvenientTruth

Twitter is a great tool for making connections, spreading the word on services, exchanging thoughts, and sharing important information with various communities.  Last week, China Gorman broke the news on Twitter  that Al Gore will be the Keynote Speaker at the 2010 SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition in San Diego.

It wasn’t long before a dialogue broke out via Twitter about the merits of this choice.    What got me involved was a tweet from Martha Finney, who expressed extreme dismay at the choice.   I think it is safe to say that Martha feels disenfranchised as a member of SHRM as a direct result of the selection of Gore as the 2010 keynote speaker.   We engaged in a short, but very interesting dialogue about the issue.  You can see her thoughts on why Gore shouldn’t be speaking at the 2010 SHRM conference here. 

Why Al Gore should be speaking in front of SHRM

My take is that the selection of Al Gore as the keynote for 2010 is not significantly different than selecting Jack Welch as the SHRM keynote in 2009.   This looks like SHRM’s way of presenting different perspectives on business and leadership at their National Conference.  Certainly, Jack Welch is the polar opposite of Al Gore when it comes to thinking about business, economics, and the environment.   Human Resources professionals need to be aware of the thinking that each represents, and possess an understanding of how issues like these can impact your business, and your brand.  The presentation of these influential, yet oppositely aligned speakers would probably be more effective if you could see them speak at the same event, although speakers fees would surely make this approach cost prohibitive.

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