The American Staffing Association's Staffing World 2006 conference and exhibition was "first class", said a UK recruiter who attended this year for the third time.

Gary Redman, group managing director of Now Recruitment in Newcastle, was among the UK industry professionals who gave the event in Las Vegas high marks for organisation and content. "I think it's great," Redman said.

The UK contingent was one of the largest of non-US recruiters and suppliers. Redman took nine people from his company. Ken Belshaw, director of Belfast-based Grafton Recruitment, took 14 people. Both Redman and Collins offered special praise for a keynote speech by management guru Jim Collins, author of From Good to Great.

Collins' dominant message was that a business could not become great without having "the right people in the right seats on the bus". Widespread acceptance of that philosophy "could elevate our industry", Belshaw told Recruiter.

"It gave me a tremendous lift," Belshaw said. Recruiters could use Collins' message as a tool to convince clients of the importance of their services, he added.

Sergei Makhmodov, commercial director for London-based Daxtra Technologies, said he and his colleagues had a "very positive" view of the event. "The organisers put in a tremendous effort, and the attendance was impressive."

Roger Tweedy, director of the REC's research unit, said he found the event "delivered extremely well" in terms of education and networking. He attended to learn more about the development of vendor management services and "to get a better feel" for the VMS market.

"A key learning point was that the US market is not as advanced as we thought," Tweedy said. "In fact, some aspects of VMS are more developed in the UK. Other than that, I was struck by the similarity of the issues facing our markets."