Joel Cheesman, the face behind Cheezhead, an award-winning blog focusing on Internet recruiting, was looking for a creative way to garner some industry attention and some extra cash for
an upcoming HR conference he was attending. His answer came in the form of an eBay auction.
Starting at 99 cents, Cheesman offered an exclusive sponsorship opportunity to the winning bidder. At stake were T-shirt promotions, podcast features and a variety of other highlights for
the winner.
's8220;The motivation wasn'st money,'s8221; said Cheesman. 's8220;I wanted to try something different, hopefully get people in the recruitment space talking and have some fun.'s8221;
Enter JobCentral, an Indianapolis-based online employment network of direct employers and job seekers. The company offered the winning bid at $7,101.
's8220;I just thought the idea was brilliant,'s8221; said Bill Warren, executive director of JobCentral and DirectEmployers Association. 's8220;Companies are always looking for an edge at
SHRM. Sponsoring Cheezhead seemed like a much better idea than sending out a direct mail piece or having a fancier trade show booth. Considering the fact that we'sre not exhibiting this
year made the auction even more appealing.'s8221;
's8220;I have a lot of respect for Bill and his team,'s8221; said Cheesman. 's8220;Aside from picking myself up off the floor in reaction to the final bid price, I was excited to find out
that they were the winners.'s8221;
The auction'ss bidders remained anonymous to the public. However, all Cheesman saw was Warren'ss user ID, which didn'st give away his identity. 's8220;I only knew one of the bidders from
their username. All the others were a mystery,'s8221; said Cheesman.
The SHRM (http://www.shrm.org) conference runs from June 25-28, 2006 in Washington, D.C. It is the largest human resources conference in the U.S. General
Colin Powell is this year'ss keynote speaker.
About JobCentral
JobCentral National Employment Network is a service of Direct Employers Association, a non-profit consortium of leading U. S. corporations. The Association'ss purpose is to develop and
manage systems and software for employers to increase efficiency and reduce Internet recruiting costs. The Association'ss online services include the DirectEmployers employment search
engine and NACElink national college recruiting system developed in alliance with The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and a group of leading colleges and
universities. The association is managed by a board of directors consisting of member company representatives. For more information, please visit: http://www.jobcentral.com and http://www.directemployers.org.
About Cheezhead
Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Joel Cheesman authors Cheezhead, a blog focusing on technology issues within the Internet recruiting industry. The blog won an award for best technology
recruitment blog in 2006. For additional information, please visit http://www.cheezhead.com or http://www.hrseo.com.