“HR Technology Europe: I’m speaking” by Thomas Otter, Acadian Ventures
Back in the day I used to talk at a lot of conferences. When I worked at Gartner and SuccessFactors, I would regularly trott across the stage at various events around the world. Over the last couple of years, I’ve done far less of it, but I was asked by the nice folks at HR Technology to dust off my skillz. They are kicking off a European Event, so I figured why not. Details of the event here (Amsterdam RAI 2-3 May 2024).
Once more unto the breach and all that.
The next question was what to talk about. While I’m doing a lot of relatively deep work on AI at the moment, I didn’t want to add yet another AI talk to the roster. AI fatigue is real.
Over the last 30 years or so, I’ve seen HR technology from a variety of angles, from presales, product management, as an analyst and so on, I was thinking how can I bring those perspectives together into something a bit different, what can I bring to the event that would be useful for HR leaders and HR IT people?
I’ve been involved in 100s of HR software deals over the years, I suppose if I was to add them all up it would involve several billions of dollars (alas for most of those I wasn’t on commission).
Today I make my living as a venture capitalist, investing in early stage HR technology companies, so I don’t have specific attachment to any one vendor or analyst firm. As I now longer have a brand police governing my slides or messaging, I can go a bit off-piste, way off-piste. I think it is about time explained how I really think enterprises should shop for HR software.
