The conference has been traditionally held in the Autumn, hosted by one of our members.
Previous locations have included Denver, Newport Rhode Island, Louisville and Knoxville to name a few. This year due to Covid-19 the conference was held virtually across Zoom over 3 successive Tuesday afternoons 24th November, 1st December and 8th December.
10Eighty hosted this year’s virtual event. As is the custom there was a virtual drinks evening in advance of the event hosted by Laura Poisson, GOA’s Boston partner.
This year the conference focused on 3 themes:
- The Future of Employment
- The Future of Outplacement
- The Impact of Technology (and its impact on the world of work and outplacement delivery in particular).
10Eighty Executive Coach and Ayoa advocate Liz Oseland attended all sessions to capture the themes, actions and key takeaways from each session using the Ayoa tool.
The conference kicked off with entertainment from Fergus Flanagan who performed a 20 minute magic show and who ably demonstrated that in a virtual environment it is still possible to do an array of card and mind reading tricks.
Kate Shoesmith deputy CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation presented and discussed the future of employment, highlighting that it is critical for employers to understand what is important to their consumers and their employees. She highlighted the growth in self-employment and the divergence of this trend in the UK and USA. She concluded her session how the need for both employees and employers to develop skills for the future in an unpredictable environment and finally she predicted there would be an increasing need for better career management within organisations.
The second session was led by Edwin Trevor Roberts , the GOA’s Australian partner who commenced the session playing his didgeridoo! Using rounds, the members in breakout rooms addressed ‘what trends are impacting on the future of outplacement’ and ‘how can we harness these trends to strengthen our individual and collective future’.
The final session led by David Mantica looked at digital transformation, what it means for the world of work, the need to unlearn and how outplacement coaches need to prepare their client in advance of them losing their jobs.
Following this session members addressed how the GOA could help them build their businesses, what they needed to do to make the GOA more effective and lastly what objectives did the GOA need to set itself for 2021.
We were delighted to receive all positive feedback about this event – however it is hoped that in 2022, at the next conference, all members would be able to meet again face to face.
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‘The annual conference of the GOA highlighted for me – yet again – the inherent power of a community. Open sharing and dialogue always paves the way for greater insight and understanding especially as we navigate the uncertainty of work in this decade.’ – Edwin Trevor Roberts
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‘The annual GOA conference provided an opportunity to leverage the perspectives, creativity and expertise from a group of people that share a common purpose around providing the human touch in outplacement support. We explored the impact of COVID, workforce trends and technology on our world of work. A few themes that surfaced:
- Remote work is here to stay
- The contract/gig work economy is growing
- Remployability is the key to job security
- Digital disruption means that: No business or business model is safe, no product is static, change is inevitable, and innovation is a business necessity
The GOA is uniquely positioned to innovate through sharing resources and best practices to meet the evolving needs of companies and individuals navigating the complexities of workforce changes and career transition. Additionally, we are excited about the possibility of launching the Global Outplacement Academy to educate the workforce on the benefits of proactive career management and outplacement’. – Laura Poisson
