2020 Job Fair & Showcase, Sponsored by Obsidian HR
With the support of our amazing Job Fair Sponsor Obsidian HR, this year Denver Startup Week expanded the Job Fair & Showcase to span our entire Week of events from September 14-18. As we went 100% virtual, DSW also partnered with Remo as our Job Fair platform to create a new event format that allowed recruiting companies and job-seekers to connect in small group and 1:1 settings by jumping from table to table.
This year, the Job Fair and Showcase was one of our largest events in terms of registered attendees, second only to our Kickoff Celebration with Robert Smith. The 2020 Job Fair & Showcase assembled many of Denver's best early- and growth-stage companies on one platform, allowing organizations outside of the greater Denver area the opportunity to participate for the first time. Across the six 2-hour sessions, we had 1,470 individual registered job-seekers looking for positions amongst 40 hiring companies ranging in industry and size.
If you've attended this event in previous years you already know DSW’s Job Fair is not really a "job fair" in the traditional sense. This year we pivoted the experience entirely - no DJ’s, no physical gatherings, and no drinks. But as we moved through the Week, we heard both our attendees and our recruiters loud and clear - this digital format works better for a lot of people. Making career connections and meeting new people was as easy as heading from your bedroom to your living room and opening up your computer to join the party.
Due to the access like never before, this year’s event drew recruiters and attendees from across the United States, all the way from L. A. to NYC, and even further, with folks joining from around the world, propelling Denver Startup Week to build an even more inclusive and diverse network. This Job Fair was open to all, and provided a space for creatives, developers, leaders, educators, strategists, artists, engineers, students, entrepreneurs and many others to come together virtually and build one another up as we built our networks.
One of the highlights of these Job Fair sessions, aside from active recruitment, was attendee networking. As we planned for a virtual event, our community shared that often this is one of the largest missing pieces of many virtual events. When we set up our Job Fair floor plan, tables on the sides of the room labeled Networking created a ‘hallway space’ for conversation, opening up virtual places for entrepreneurs and professionals to casually meet other like-minded individuals. These tables varied in size, from small 2-person tables to tables that fit up to 6, allowing for a range of different kinds of conversations.
But this format isn’t only ideal for attendees. The opportunity to hop from a larger group conversation to private side tables also offered recruiters opportunities to continue with successful conversations - one recruiting company was even able to interview and hire a candidate during a DSW Job Fair session. Recruiters told us that they were able to make more connections in a shorter span of time, and Remo provided quick and easy opportunities to direct attendees to company websites & hiring pages, and vice versa, easily allowing recruiters to view attendee profiles and resumes.
The 2020 Job Fair and Showcase was an adventure - virtual networking is new and unfamiliar to many of us, and comes with a learning curve. We are so grateful for a talented and eager community of job-seekers and hiring companies that were willing to dive into the unknown to continue pushing our entrepreneurial community forward. We can’t wait to see you next year! To give us your feedback on this year’s Job Fair and Showcase, please reach out to shelby@denverstartupweek.org.