Here's a summary of the notes I took at Day 1. Almost all is from Bill Kennedy's brief and the Q&A session afterward (which was awesome...hat's off to Mr. Kennedy for trying to be as direct and forthcoming as possible without giving away the family secrets).

- avg is currently 5,300 total hours. A short time ago it was 5,500. But that doesn't mean you aren't getting called just because you don't have 5,000+ hrs.

- they use an algorithm to ensure an objective candidate ranking. Every time they want to send Hogans they re-calculate and (currently) send to the top ~30 candidates. However, once those 30 names are identified they put eyes on the application as a final QC/sanity check.

- some items have fixed point values for the algorithm (i.e. bachelor's degree). Some items are stair-stepped on point values (i.e. flight hours). Mr. Kennedy didn't go into specifics beyond that.

- United has one of the largest book orders of new aircraft

- United estimates needing 11,147 pilots over the next 20 years.

- Approx 11,000 apps in their system, of which anywhere from 200-600 at a time are older than 180 days since last update and therefore ignored by the algorithm that ranks them.

- Drone time not considered by United or the FAA; don't even include it.

- Rotary wing time not currently considered but they are looking at this issue and there may be changes to the policy in the future (no timeline given).

- If medical is more than one year old on the app, the system skips over that app.

- 4 LORs minimum to get max points. They care more about the LORs discussing ethics, integrity, and leadership than what a great pilot you are.

- Go "full disclosure" with your flying history, to include UPT phase check ride busts.

- Mil conversion add on to flight hours is "baked in" to the algorithm, so only input raw time.

- Currently forecast to hire 630 next year. Obvious caveat that that number can change.

- Looking at a different model for recruiting. Good chance that 2017 will be last year that United attends the "big 3" conferences.

- They aren't worried about your flying skill. They hire future captains and want honest, humble, truthful, personable people.

My personal take on the event:
Very well done - especially considering this was the first event like this - by a great team that obviously cares about United and cares about military veterans. It was very informative and, to me, well worth the trip out there.