The Austin Chamber held the inaugural State of Talent event this past Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at the Topfer Theatre in Austin. The content was geared toward HR professionals, recruiters, CTOs, educators, trainers, elected officials and student leaders.

2016 Chamber Board Chair Tony Budet kicked off the event by welcoming attendees and setting the tone.

Then, Doug Gray, SVP of Indeed, opened the discussion of Austin’s workforce ecosystem with statistics about Austin’s current workforce demographics and where we still have gaps.

Next, Greg Garrison, Head of Global Software Engineering & Austin Site Leader at Google, gave a recap of his tenure as the Chamber’s Vice Chair of Talent. He stressed the importance of utilizing the workforce we already have in Austin and training them to meet the evolving needs of our employers.

Before the rapid-fire panel began, Mayor Adler joined the conversation to remind attendees that that Austin is growing because of its unique work and life opportunities. He also agreed with Garrison that we need to continue to find ways to employ current Austin residents.

In the rapid-fire panel round, we welcomed the following contributors to the stage:

• William Coombes, Vice President, Head of Visa User Experience
• Todd M. Fox, Garrison Commander, Fort Hood
• Peggy Frazier, VP, Global Talent Acquisition & Onboarding, Blackbaud
• Veronica Vargas Stidvent, Chancellor, WGU Texas

In this segment, the Austin Chamber announced the new WorkLiveAustin.com site – a tool for HR professionals, Austin employers, interns and job seekers to share and receive information about the workforce. We also recommitted ourselves to helping veteran talent find jobs with the Operation Austin job fair at Fort Hood and helping interns get connected in Austin with volunteering opportunities.There was a networking happy hour in the lobby of the Topfer Theatre following the discussions on the stage.

For more photos from the event, see the Flickr page here.

Here is a sample of the social media conversation during this event: