I’ve never been to a SHRM National Conference.

So I was really excited when I was selected as a blogger for the 2014 Conference, which was going to be in one of my favorite places and feature some of my favorite people as speakers. I dreamed of eating in Disney World with my BlogFFs and other social media friends — and I plotted how I would snag a selfie with Robin Roberts.

Then I got my new job and had to cancel … If I’d pushed, they probably would have allowed me the time off since it was pre-planned. But I just didn’t feel right about it … So I made the decision to work instead — and now I set my sights on fabulous Las Vegas for the 2015 National Conference!

Even though I wasn’t there, I still got a good idea of all the happenings thru social media. Lots of great Twitter posts, Instagram photos and Facebook shares were flying around using the SHRM14 hashtag. Many of the bloggers on the official team, vendor partner sites and other bloggers wrote and shared articles from the event. It was great to see — and hard not to have bittersweet feelings about not being there.

Here are the 6 posts I think best sum up the lessons from SHRM14

• Best and Worst of SHRM14 by Joan Ginsburg
• Dominatrix Games: Employee Recognition Edition #SHRM14 by Robin Schooling
• Mickey Mouse, Jack Kerouac and Robin Roberts Walk Into a Bar from the HR Marketer
• HR Lava Lamps in India by Steve Browne
• Transforming HR and Others Around You from Halogen Software
• Dispatches from SHRM14 by John Nykolaiszyn (this one has 3 parts)

And I have to give honorable mention to my friends at SHRM – We Know Next because they did a phenomenal job of grabbing, sharing and syndicating most of the blogs out there with coverage or mention of the SHRM14 conference.

But, in case you don’t want to read all this stuff, I can summarize the SHRM14 lessons in 5 words: change, care, certify, create and count.

Whoomp. There it is.