With a little effort, I don’t think it would be hard to attend a different HR-related conference every week. In fact, I’ll bet that somewhere in the world right now, recruiters are gathering together to swap stories and soak up industry knowledge from a bevy of speakers.

Interested in joining one of these soirees? There are the usual suspects, of course, such as local and regional meetings sponsored by the Society of Human Resource management (SHRM) and the various HR trade publications, as well as the next wave of cutting-edge conferences created by Kennedy Information, Onrec, ERE and other dedicated groups. Next, throw in industry-specific HR workshops in the U.S and abroad, plus targeted get-togethers organized by Pete Weddle’s International Association of Employment Web Sites (IAEWS) and the confabs created by CareerXRoad’s Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler. Finally, toss in vendor-sponsored sessions plus well-organized events hosted by the career counseling world, such as those from the Career Management Alliance and the Association of Career Professionals, and you’ll be lucky to get home to celebrate major holidays with your family.

Despite the overflow of opportunities to meet and share ideas with your colleagues, I’m surprised by the lack of new faces from one conference to the next. I’m not writing about the cast of speakers and vendors who generate business by supporting these gatherings from week to week (and can boast the frequent-flyer miles to prove it). I’m wondering why more HR pros don’t break away from the daily grind for a day or two to soak up new ideas, get updates on the latest trends and vendor offerings, and simply allow the other side of their brains a chance to get some exercise.

I’ve heard lots of excuses about why conference attendance often is low among HRers, with the leading reason an easy one: depleted travel budgets. OK, I get it. But the lack of travel dollars shouldn’t keep local HR pros from skipping a day behind the desk and hopping over to a nearby conference. A great example was the Onrec conference held in late September in downtown San Francisco. Organizer David Hurst did a nice job finding a centrally located hotel, and he developed a very interesting agenda filled with leading-edge presentations (in full disclosure, I moderated a panel discussion there). There was a room downstairs full of vendors showing off their latest advances, and those in attendance included a range of key decision-makers and pundits who have their fingers on the pulse of the recruitment world.

Yet the HR turnout was pathetic. In most of the sessions, speakers were discussing trends with each other, along with vendor representatives and industry watchers. When asked by one speaker for a show of hands of how many in the audience were actively recruiting, you only needed two hands to add them up. Since I know promotion for the event was widespread, I can only assume that HR folks throughout the Bay Area thought they had better things to do that day.

We haven’t reached New Year’s Day yet, so it’s a bit early to make resolutions. But I suggest that every HR pro resolve now to attend at least one industry gathering in the next 12 months. I’m willing to wager that once you do, you’ll look for more opportunities to visit these informative networking events more often.