It started three years ago… the mystery of who was behind SourceCon. Who brainstormed the conference? Who was behind those crazy challenges? Leslie O’Connor was finally outted as the originator of SourceCon, and Rob McIntosh revealed himself as the original “SourceCon Dude” – the man who crafted the challenges and baffled us all. But now the torch has been passed to David Manaster and ERE. So, is that who is truly behind SourceCon? Who, exactly, IS, SourceCon now?

As with any rumor in this very close-knit community of ours, things have gotten out of hand. Speculations abound that the mastermind behind the challenges is none other than the conference emcee Jim Stroud. Others murmurings are that it must be Shally Steckerl and the team at Arbita who are indeed #SourceCon, and others still have anonymously dropped hints that they are the ones creating the challenges. Recently, a handful of people have also come forth, proclaiming publicly that they themselves are #SourceCon – including James Mayes, David Manaster, Marie Journey (she even has video evidence??), and even our own Chief Editor, Amybeth Hale. With so many possibilities, how are we to determine who indeed is the real #SourceCon?

The fact is that SourceCon isn’t about one, two, or even a small handful of people behind the challenges. It’s about the community that has developed over the years out of a common bond. Our camaraderie is due to our desire to be seen as different from our recruiting colleagues – not one and the same, but a separate  and vitally important piece of the entire talent acquisition machine. We longed to be given the proper respect for the work we do, and as a result we have banded together to help our brothers and sisters in the same struggle. Our support of each other led to the development of communities: listservs, discussion groups, social networks, blogging communities, etc. This resulted in many of our community members establishing training agendas and offering ongoing support as their entire line of work. We have so many unbelievably talented individuals in our sourcing community, each with a special skill to share with everyone, and all so incredibly willing to share these skills with his or her colleagues. This is a family, in the truest sense.

The culmination of this ‘family’ mentality is the development of an educational conference that was designed specifically for those of us in research roles. We finally have a system that is uniquely ours, created by us, for us. And so, taking that into consideration, we can safely conclude that no individual person is #SourceCon. In fact, we are all #SourceCon, because each and every one of us has a stake in this community. We wanted it, we created it, and we all continue to grow and nurture it. With all of us standing together to say “I am #SourceCon”, our collective voices proclaim instead that We Are #SourceCon.

Please share this message with your fellow researchers and let them know that you are #SourceCon when you do so. You are all #SourceCon and we are looking forward to seeing you this weekend.