Event Sourcing by Katharine Robinson - Discover Sourcing Workshop Handout

At Sourcing Hat, we think businesses
should strive to hire people that love
what they do – people that share values
and fit in with company culture. We
encourage this by helping you reach, talk
to, and meet more interesting and
interested people.
Sourcing From
Industry Events
Katharine Robinson
@TheSourceress
www.sourcinghat.co.uk
UK Sourcers
@UKSourcers
www.uksourcers.co.uk
Discover Sourcing Workshop
With Katharine Robinson, Sourcing Hat

Sourcing Hat Ltd. T: +44 (0) 7779 716 147
http://sourcinghat.co.uk katharine@sourceress.co.uk
Searching for Attendee Lists with Google
The likelihood that any particular event has published its attendee list online is fairly unlikely, but
there are some gems to be found.
Here’s an example that might help you uncover something useful.
Or try something like this:

What is Twitter and how is it useful for event sourcing?
Twitter is a microblogging platform, used in many different ways for many different agendas.
You can search Twitter to see what people are saying right now at search.twitter.com
Twitter & Events
Twitter can be used to easily identify and interact with people that are attending events.
 Search for the name of the event being mentioned in Tweets
 See if the event has a Twitter account
 Try to find out if the event has a #hashtag
 Make a list of all the people you find that will be attending an event
 Join in with tweets from the event on the day
 Watch out for reactions after the event

#Hashtag History
Hashtags started out on Twitter and provide users with a way to add context to their tweets.
You can turn any word into a hashtag simply by putting the # symbol ahead of it. You can’t have
any spaces or special characters in a hashtag.
Before using a hashtag for the first time, it’s worth looking to see how people use it. Run a
search on Twitter for your chosen tag to see if it is being used and how.
Take the hashtag #rdg (used by the residents of Reading in Berkshire) as an example. #Reading is
already being used by book lovers all over the world so it would make no sense to use it to talk
about traffic, weather or events local to the town. Residents have chosen to use #rdg instead.
This shows how important it is to check a hashtag before using it. By using a hashtag, you are
making yourself a part of an online community.
Perhaps the most powerful thing about them is that they get your tweets seen by people who
are not following you (yet!).
#Hashtags and Events
Most events have a #hashtag associated with them. Even if the organisers don’t promote one,
attendees will often create their own. You might need to do some Twitter searching to figure out
what is being said about a particular event.
Here’s a few things to try:
Does the event have a website? Does that site mention a Twitter account or a hashtag?
If you find a twitter account but no hashtag – tweet them and ask!
Are people tweeting about the full name of the event – try running a search, like

Twitter Lists
Twitter has a great feature to help recruiters and sourcers find relevant and respected twitter
accounts – Twitter Lists. This feature isn’t very well promoted though so might not be
immediately discovered by new users.
If you are an active Twitter user then you will not have failed to notice a few notifications
appearing in your @Connect section saying that someone has added you to a list or two. You
might even have created a few lists of your own.
How do Twitter lists work?
Any Twitter user can create a list and add Twitter accounts that interest them to it. You don’t
have to follow a person to add them to one of your lists. Once you create and name a list you
can start adding people to it right away using the little drop down menu on their profile.
A twitter list can be public (other people can see who is on it and choose to follow it) or private
(only you know who is on your private lists and only you can make use of them).
You can find someone’s Twitter lists by visiting their profile on twitter.com and looking at the
options on the left hand side of the page.
How are Twitter lists used with events
Quite simply, people sometimes make a twitter list of event attendees or speakers. It’s always
worth checking the lists of a Twitter account associated with an interesting event.

Lanyrd
Lanyrd uses your Twitter or LinkedIn network to find events of interest to you.
If you sign in to Lanyrd with your Twitter account, you will be shown events that your network is
attending.
This is great if you follow a lot of people in the niche you recruit in.
You can try site: searching Lanyrd to discover events too

Events on Facebook
Some events are shared on Facebook too. You can see events that you and your friends are
associated with by visiting facebook.com/events/list
You can also site: search Facebook for events that are visible publicly (remember, not all events
are visible to everyone)
Facebook not only shows you who has marked themselves as attending an event, but also who
has been invited and who has declined an invitation – all could be relevant!

Google+
You can add events on Google Plus in a similar way to Facebook.
If you use Google+ then you can see the events associated with your profile by visiting:
plus.google.com/u/0/events
Google+ events aren’t as easily site: searched though, you are better off using the Google+
inbuilt search feature.
Eventbrite
Event organisers use Eventbrite to manage ticket sales for their events and as a promotion tool.
This makes it a huge, fully searchable, events directory. Most people here today probably bought
their ticket to Discover Sourcing through Eventbrite.
Some event organisers make the attendee lists of their events publicly visible. This is really useful
for us! You can search for events very effectively from inside Eventbrite or if you just want to
find events that are displaying a list of attendees then try site: searching Eventbrite via Google or
another search engine like this:
“industry keyword” (location OR location) “attendee list” site:eventbrite.com
Similar Tool: Amiando

Meetup
Meetup.com is a great hybrid of community and events. Some people join an event community
on Meetup but never actually attend an event. Like Lanyrd, it gives you that bit extra compared
with a standard attendee list.
The URLs for groups and people profiles make X-raying Meetup really easy too.
Take the PHP London meetup group. It has 1,696 members who will all have a
profile page. If I wanted to find developers with experience
on eCommerce sites I might try a string like this:
(magento OR ecommerce OR “e commerce”)
site:meetup.com/phplondon/members
Bizzabo
This tool is primarily a mobile App designed to provide a mobile experience for events.
It can be a very useful way of meeting interesting people at the events you attend. Why not
download Bizzabo and register as attending Discover Sourcing?

Event Sourcing by Katharine Robinson - Discover Sourcing Workshop Handout

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Event Sourcing by Katharine Robinson - Discover Sourcing Workshop Handout