A couple weeks ago I attended a conference in Shanghai entitled, “HR – Retention: How to keep your best and brightest,” sponsored by the China Economic Review. The full-day conference was a mixed-bag, at times too high-flown to be of real use. Why conference organizers think people from big companies are good speakers eludes me: eighty-percent of the time they speak in tongues induced by the lack of oxygen at 30,000 feet. Frankly, even people who work in organizations with 1,000-plus people don’t find corporate-speak very useful.

Nonetheless, there were some useful nuggets to take away: I liked the polls presented by HR consultancies showing that Chinese staff are the most stressed in China; I appreciated the insight that underscored the observation that Chinese people most of the time leave (more than 70%) because they hate their managers; and Chinese people prize a clear career development plan as much as they do salary and title; I had underestimated corporate branding as a way to attract and retain the best – never again will I make that mistake; and I vowed after the conference to have my office send a nice email thanking people for taking the time to send the cv to our company, as long as the cv isn’t complete garbage (you’d be surprised at the number of chemical engineers interested in working for a legal consultancy).

As a conference attendee, I learned the merits of delivering presentations with useful insights and tactics that attendees can take away and put to use in their operations without delay.

After all, no one can hear you scream at 30,000 feet.