At my previous workplace, we had a benefit that allowed us to use $1,000 a year towards learning and development. Colleagues of mine put their budget towards books, online courses, classes at other nearby universities, and conferences. In my career, I have loved attending different events on recruiting or panels on culture. Conferences with speakers talking on all facets involved with HR, recruiting, and people energized me. It felt like I was using my time wisely and getting a lot out of it. The challenging part for me though was finding these conferences. Unless it was through word of mouth or passed onto me through social media, I didn’t have a clue what was happening and when. conferCal is a tool that allows you to look up conferences based off your interests – work related or not. While digging into the tool a little bit more today, I even found an upcoming conference just on food blogging. Additionally, you can use this tool beyond just finding a conference to attend. You can find those that you can both sponsor at or speak at. Here’s hoping that some of you will find something you like on here!