The Dutch recruitment industry has harnessed the power of social networking to spread the word about the third annual Recruitment Industry Dance Event (RIDE). The event, held at the Hotel Arena in Amsterdam, brought in-house recruiters, agencies, job boards and RPO providers together for a night of dancing and networking in the Dutch capital. The event was also attended by UK recruiters from IT staffing firm Templeton, executive search firm Burns Carlton, IT and pharma recruiter Levy Associates and Atlantic Executive Search.

Rob van Elburg, director at IT and finance recruiter RAVE-cruitment and organiser told Recruiterthat the event’s attendance has grown from 800 in its inaugural year to 1,000 this year. One of the main reasons for this growth is due to the extremely engaged Dutch users of LinkedIn, which is due to open an office in the Netherlands. Elburg said: “The LinkedIn population in the Netherlands is one of the biggest in Europe. People wanted to meet each other, so we thought if people want to meet on a friendly basis - why not organise a recruitment industry dance event where people can meet in a friendly environment?”

And this informality was reflected in a packed dance floor, a Twitter page appearing on a large monitor where attendees were invited to tweet their thoughts on the event, as well as the appearance of a Dutch kids TV superstar clown by the name of Bassie (right). It also went down well with in-house recruiter, Silene Geuze, who recruits for internet firm Online Broadband, a subsidiary of T-Mobile Netherlands. “A lot of my executive search companies are here so it is nice to meet up with them. I was here last year as well. You often meet people at seminars and business events, but this way is a little bit more informal,” she said.

And for talent management solutions provider MrTed’s Ralph Brasker, the event has proven a great place to meet potential and current clients. “We have invited our clients here tonight. There are people here on consultant level, manager level and a director of a department. It is nice to meet people over a glass of beer and talk about the business,” he said.

As for van Elburg, the event has proven so popular that the prospect has been raised over a similar event planned in the UK or the US: “We think that we can grow so maybe we can do this in the UK or in the US. The first time was let’s see what happens. Why won’t it work in the UK or the US? It has worked here.”