Today RecruitMilitary is announcing we are changing how we refer to our "career fairs". Effective immediately, we are going to change the name of these events from career fairs to "RecruitMilitary Opportunity Expos". Within the recruitment/trade show industry, there are a large number of companies that produce what are commonly referred to as job fairs or career fairs.
As RecruitMilitary has evolved within the military-to-civilian niche, we've learned a lot about how organizations and candidates interact. The biggest need among the 200,000 military veterans who transition out annually is to find a job or career. Pretty simple. But the recession has helped candidates and organizations alike consider that everyone has a lot more options than that. And we help not just the transitioning group, but everyone who has honorably served.
We're working with more than 65 franchisors nationally - they are all seeking veterans and military spouses to work with. We have more than 100 educational institutions who are seeking new students from the military niche. With discounting and financing programs for veterans, franchising makes a lot of sense to potential entrepreneurs. With the new GI Bill, going back to school makes more sense than ever.
So our events have evolved into large scale expos - where all legitimate organizations with opportunities - educational opportunities, franchising opportunities, and job and career opportunities are very welcome, and all these attending organizations are flourishing in their recruiting efforts due to the great candidate traffic.
How did we come up with the name change? We asked you - our customers and opportunity-seeking candidates. Here is what you told us:
Customers - we surveyed 62 different organizations and the majority of these respondents stated they liked the name "expos" better than "fairs" or "events". Interestingly, the majority of respondents were direct employers - and yet, they still voted for expos ahead of fairs.
We asked 209 different veterans what we should call the events. The overwhelming majority selected "All Veterans Total Opportunity". This was selected from a group of choices that included career fairs, career and education fairs, and several others.
Internally, after much discussion, we decided to shorten that to RecruitMilitary Opportunity Expos. As many of our readers and customers know, we produce these expos in huge and popular venues: NFL and MLB stadiums, museums, and other terrific, media popular locations. So an expo is the right name - and the opportunities (all well vetted and legitimate) better describes all of the choices our exhibitors bring to each expo.
Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 08:04PM