Speakers

Donald H Taylor

Donald H Taylor is the chairman of The Learning and Performance Institute (LPI). He is an influential writer and speaker in the field of technology-supported learning. Donald has over two decades experience in L&D and IT, beginning by programming PDP-11 computers in the early 1980s, followed by a range of training roles.

Donald’s career has involved a series of software start ups and trade sales, and a range of operational and board level positions in classroom training. He was the 2007 recipient of the Colin Corder award for services to Training and has also chaired the Learning Technologies Conference since 2000.

Session: ‘GOING GLOBAL WITH YOUR LEARNING PROGRAMME’

Implementing learning across countries is increasingly a regular part of the learning professional’s role. What are the practical implications of this, beyond the obvious need for the localization of training materials? Is an international learning programme just the same a national one, on a bigger scale? What are the issues associated with running a learning programme at a distance? Join LPI chairman Don Taylor as he explores the devil that lurks in the detail of going global with learning, including:

• Practical issues of supporting elearning across time zones
• How cultural differences affect working locally
• Where are you on the people/process matrix?
• What to avoid in developing content and systems
• How to work on learner engagement across the globe

James Bannerman

James Bannerman is a Creative Change Agent who combines creativity with psychology to help businesses innovate. Before working with businesses James was a platinum-selling songwriter, a freelance cartoonist (eg Punch), is trained in clinical psychotherapy, and has an M.A.Hons from Edinburgh University in English Literature.

As an Innovation Consultant he has worked with many leading organisations such as British Airways, Orange, Starbucks, Rolls-Royce, HSBC and Takeda, as well as at the National Space Centre on a mission to Mars.

Session: ‘SMARTER THINKING, SMARTER LEARNING’ 

How can learning professionals stimulate smarter ways of thinking and smarter ways of learning in the workplace? This workshop from James Bannerman, author of Genius, will introduce participants to a variety of practical creative thinking tools and techniques; it will also highlight some of the psychological and organisational blocks that inhibit effective learning, as well as powerful strategies for getting beyond them. James is a specialist in lateral thinking and learning who has worked with British Airways, Orange, and Rolls-Royce and the National Space Centre. Join him to explore:

• Fresh perspectives on the world of Training and Development
• Practical tools and techniques for stimulating smarter learning
• An effective 3 step process for evaluating new ideas
• A sharper understanding of how the mind works
• An opportunity to step beyond the obvious, and explore ‘alternative’ and ‘additional’ ways to help make learning smarter

Stacey Harris

Stacey Harris leads Brandon Hall Group’s research organisation, overseeing their strategy and agenda in five research portfolio areas of Talent, Learning, Sales, Marketing, and Executive Management. With over 15 years of research, consulting, and practitioner experience Stacey has led key research initiatives in strategic HR, talent strategy, organisation and governance, and measurement. Harris has also worked with companies such as McDonald’s, Lockheed Martin, Cisco, and Pfizer on a variety of mission-critical talent initiatives.

Session: ‘RELATIONSHIP-CENTRED LEARNING’

L&D has shifted from being teaching-centred to learner-centred, and the change continues. A more connected, more mobile workforce, driven by today’s social and economic changes, is moving to a new way of learning: relationship-centred learning. Today the focus is on the relationships between learners, their goals, the content, and their environments, with each changing rapidly. Join Stacey Harris as she explores the implications of this trend based on research findings from over 600 learning organisations.

• The drivers changing organisational learning
• When relationship-centred learning boosts performance – and when it doesn’t
• The 3 key characteristics of relationship-centred learning
• Award winning examples of organisation practising relationship-centred learning
• Planning for the future in your own workplace

Nic Laycock

With over 35 years experience in learning as practitioner, manager and consultant, Nic Laycock (MD of Amos Laycock Consulting) is passionate about the application of technology to learning. He believes social learning is the key to Smart Working in the business improvement.  Convinced about the social media empowering learning, Nic is an active Tweeter, writer and blogger about aspects online communities in the workplace.

Now living and working back in UK Nic spent 17 years to 2009 in South Africa.  Nic has worked in many industries and on 5 continents. .

Session: ‘SHARING KNOWLEDGE WITH CURATION & COMMUNITIES’

• Curation as part of a larger learning programme
• Managing information overload
• The power of ‘parallel working’ vs teams
• Combining alerts with other ways of
• Managing curation with easily available tools

Mike Collins

Mike supports HR transformation programmes as a learning consultant focusing on learning strategy, technology & systems. Dedicated to challenging the mindset around learning and development and move away from traditional methods and expectations of training. Demonstrating that online learning doesn’t mean boring page turners or regulatory training.

Session: ‘USING LIVE ONLINE LEARNING FOR ORGANISATION COLLABORATION’

Workshops and classroom courses can be effective ways of delivering training, but they are not the only way. Join Mike Collins as he explores how he took a full-day workshop and moved it online. What were the difficulties to overcome in ensuring engagement, and what were the benefits? Is it even possible to recreate the workshop atmosphere online? Join Mike as he examines:

• Moving a full-day workshop to 3 x 1 hour online sessions
• Methods to build engagement and interaction
• Sharing resources and work for peer review / feedback
• Creating a community for conversations
• Culture & behaviours vs technology

Dr. Jane Bozarth

Dr. Jane Bozarth is the Elearning Coordinator for the North Carolina, USA, Office of State Personnel. She is the author of ELearning Solutions on a Shoestring; Better than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging Elearning with PowerPoint; From Analysis to Evaluation: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Trainers; and Social Media for Trainers, coming out in August 2010. She is a popular conference speaker and is frequently found at both live and online international events.

Session: ‘MOVING TRAINERS TO USING SOCIAL MEDIA’

Social media provides so many opportunities to enhance and extend traditional learning experiences. But — where to begin? In this session we’ll talk about using social media for the right reasons and identifying opportunities to use it in effective, engaging ways. We’ll also talk about up‑skilling for success at working in this new environment and moving from content deliverer to learning partner. Note: this session is less and introduction to Social Media and more about extending traditional experiences with social and collaborative tools.

• Specifying strategies
• Choosing tools and approaches that support instructional goals
• Different forms social media use can take, from broadcasting to supporting communities
• L&D’s role: moving from facilitator to participant
• What’s next?

David Mallon

David Mallon leads the Research team at Bersin & Associates.  He is responsible for establishing overall strategy and direction for the firm’s research efforts, ensuring timely and efficient production of new research, establishing member professional development offerings, and driving continuous innovation in methods and outputs.

Previously, Mallon had been responsible for some of Bersin & Associates’ most innovative and thought provoking work, including major industry studies such as High Impact Learning Culture, Learning Management Systems, and High Impact Learning Practices. His research now plays a central role in the learning strategies of companies such as Kaiser Permanente, Michelin, Microsoft, and Xerox.

Session: ‘WINNING WITH A HIGH-IMPACT LEARNING CULTURE’

What do executives and managers want? Performance. How can learning support this? Bersin and Associates’ research has unveiled a set of activities proven to deliver a strong learning culture. Companies with such a culture are 18% more likely to be a market-share leader in one or more of their markets. That’s performance. Join Bersin’s head of research, David Mallon, as he shares his findings on high-impact learning cultures, including:

• Specifying strategies
• Choosing tools and approaches that support instructional goals
• Different forms social media use can take, from broadcasting to supporting communities
• L&D’s role: moving from facilitator to participant
• What’s next?

Stephanie Dedhar and Nick Shackleton-Jones

Stephanie spent the first four years of her working life on the supplier side, project managing and designing bespoke e-learning solutions on many and varied topics for a range of organisations. Along the way she developed a passion for online learning design, being named Instructional Designer of the Year at the Learning Awards 2010 and sharing her tips and ideas at www.stephaniededhar.wordpress.com. In 2011 Stephanie made the leap to an in-house role and now works as a learning and performance consultant within leadership development at BP.

Nick started his career as a psychology lecturer, developing an interest in technology which brought him into the world of elearning. Before joining BP in December 2010 as Group Head of elearning Nick worked for the BBC where he was responsible for online & informal learning.

Session: ‘FROM COURSES TO RESOURCES: NEXT GENERATION PROJECTS AT BP’

There’s more than one way to support learning – courses are always needed but are never enough. In this session, Stephanie Dedhar and Nick Shackleton-Jones demonstrate the value of going beyond the course, making a range of resources and learning assets available for learners to draw on at the point of need. Drawing on practical experience within BP and showcasing a variety of recent projects, Stephanie and Nick will explore the next generation of online learning solutions, incorporating video-based peer stories, infographics, fact-sheets, e-books, and other online resources.

• Taking the time to understand learner needs and motivations
• Designing task-focused resources for on-the-job relevance
• Making learning stick with point-of-need, self-service materials
• Ensuring learners know where to look and what to learn
• Building resources for use in a variety of environments

David Perring

David Perring is Director of Research at Elearnity, one of Europe’s leading independent Learning and Talent Analyst. David is responsible for Elearnity’s corporate and vendor research agenda and process, including management of Elearnity’s corporate research network, topic-based research papers, vendor briefing programme and Vendor Perspectives. In addition, David also leads a range of research and thought leadership activities on the realities of Learning and Talent Technology and Innovation in Europe.

David has a practical background in Performance Development.  He has been involved in Learning Technologies for over 12 years, formerly as Head of Learning Solutions and Technologies at Virgin Media and more recently at RSA Group.

Session: ‘IS MOBILE LEARNING FINALLY HERE?’

Has the time for mobile learning come? The answer, according to Elearnity’s David Perring, is a resounding ‘yes’, but not in the form you might have expected. Drawing on extensive research with both enterprise users of mobile learning and vendors, David will explore the perfect storm of technology and provision that means people now expect to learn from their mobile devices, but not necessarily take to take a course. The new world of mobile learning involves collaboration, quick reference, videos and communities, and threatens to leave formal L&D behind.

• Why the consumer model on mobile trumps formal learning
• Supporting workflow and online direct support
• The difference between tablet and smart phone delivery
• The opportunities around diagnostics and assessment
• How mobile is part of a shift from learning to performance development

Julie Wedgwood

Julie Wedgwood specialises in turning the theories and strategies developed by L&D Leaders into practical real world solutions that harness learning technology to help organisations to work and learn smarter.  Julie views technology as a workplace learning enabler and believes that organisations can improve employee effectiveness, accelerate skills transfer efficiency and improve productivity within the workforce by using a rich mix of formal, informal and collaborative approaches.

Julie has over 25 years experience of teaching and training across a wide range of industry sectors in the UK, EMEA and USA.  She has gained recognition as one of the leading learning architects for blended learning, and works alongside some of the most progressive e-learning designers in the USA. Julie is a fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute and member of the LPI Advisory Board.

Session: ‘ONLINE COMMUNITY MODERATION IN THE REAL WORLD’

How do you practically train over 200 people online at the same time? When Julie Wedgwood delivered a major online learning community programme for  a public sector organisation, numbers escalated until she had three times more than originally expected. The result: hundreds of emails each day, countless assessments to mark and on top of it all a community web site to manage and moderate. In the end the programme was a success, but along the way there were plenty of hard lessons learned. Join Julie as she explores:

• Why academic online moderation models don’t work in the corporate world
• How to manage online crowds – the need to prepare for peaks in activity
• Why appearing to be omnipresent online matters to your learners and how to do it
• Why a communications plan is vital to sustaining online activity
• Practical ways to manage your own time and resources
• The benefits of generating an active and self-supporting community

Dr Brian Sutton

Brian has variously been a mechanical engineering designer, a Naval Officer, an IT Programme manager and a consultant.  He holds a BSc in Engineering from Bath University, and MSc in IT Management from the LSE and a Doctorate in corporate education from Middlesex University.  In the late 90’s he was Professor of Systems Management at the Information Resources Management College of the National Defense University, Washington DC.

Brian’s current focus is on the design and development of work based learning programmes in support of major organisational change initiatives, in this capacity he is working with the leadership teams of several global companies in the FMCG arena

Session: ‘LEARNING AND LEADING BY ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS’

In this interactive workshop session, Dr Brian Sutton exploits over 30 years’ experience in the field to tackle a crucial question: how can you improve your impact as a learning leader? The answer includes many things, suggests Dr Sutton, but one key aspect is too often overlooked – the way we communicate. This workshop focuses on asking powerful questions, something great leaders seem to do effortlessly, and which should lead to new levels of performance Join Dr Sutton as he explores how to:

• Manage and build a better working relationship with your boss
• Get noticed and increase your circle of influence
• Deal with difficult political situations
• Increasing your visibility and circle of influence
• Create allies and advocates that enhance your reputation

Nigel Harrison

Nigel is a Chartered Business Psychologist, Performance Consultant. Nigel works with some of world’s leading organisations to implement Performance Consulting via:

• Performance Consulting Skills workshops
• Executive Coaching
• Problem Solving Sessions
• On-line distance coaching

His most recent clients are; SGS, Qualcomm, LSE, HSBC, Thomson Reuters, Xerox and AstraZeneca.

Nigel’s publications include; “Improving Employee Performance” and “How to be a True Business Partner by Performance Consulting

Session: ‘PROVING THE VALUE OF L&D THROUGH A FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE’

It is more important than ever to demonstrate the value of learning in today’s tough business climate – but crucial to do it the right way. The wrong way, according to Nigel Harrison, the UK’s leading exponent of performance consulting, is to focus on the learning. Instead, he suggests, focus on the business issues, in open, honest conversation with managers and leaders. Simple to describe, this is often deceptively difficult to achieve. It involves shifting to a new way of thinking – the ‘performance mind set’. In this session, Nigel expands on his LPI White Paper and draws on a range of real-life examples.

• Why the transactional training model is so entrenched
• Building a performance focus
• The conversational control key skills that make the difference
• Key issues, objections and pitfalls
• Practical steps you can take to move your team forward

Nigel Paine

Nigel Paine has been involved in learning technologies for over twenty years. He has run organisations producing software, CD Roms and multimedia materials,one of which won an EMMA (European Multi-media award).  His company was the first in the UK to have educational software bundled by Apple for the US market.Appointed in April 2002 to head up the BBC’s Learning and Development operation where he built one of the most successful learning and development operations in the UK. This included an award winning Leadership programme, state of the art informal learning and knowledge sharing and one of the most successful and well-used intranets in the Corporate sector. All this while managing the largest broadcast training operation in the world.

Session: ‘SIX LEARNING TRENDS THAT YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO IGNORE‘

Nigel Paine believes that changes in corporate learning over the last 5 years are greater than in the previous 20, and as former head of learning at the BBC and now a much-travelled consultant in the field, he should know. The crux is this: as L&D becomes more important to the business, it must become part of the business to thrive. That means understanding and talking the language of business, being a confident, effective consultant, capturing social learning and much more. Join Nigel – winner of the Colin Corder 2012 award for services to learning – to explore:

• What are the six trends?
• The broadening role of the L&D professional
• Building a coaching and mentoring culture
• Which organisations are pointing the way forward?
• Your best first steps and a checklist for progress

Sarah Lindsell

Sarah Lindsell is the Director of Global Learning Technology for PwC. For the past 16 years she has been working in the Learning Technology and Development space at a global and territory level.  She leads a global team whose focus is to transform the way the way that people learn and develop at PwC. Sarah has been active in the development space for over 20 years, is the recipient of many industry awards for eLearning development and was one of the short-listed candidates for outstanding contribution to the training industry in 2003. Over the past 18 months she has had a specific focus on strategic consulting, mobile learning, innovation, and the creation of a curriculum to develop their 2,000+ L&D professionals across the network to develop the necessary skills to consult around using technology for learning..

Session: ‘TURNING TRAINERS INTO PERFORMANCE CONSULTANTS‘

The role of the traditional learning professional has changed. Training delivery has evolved to include classrooms, virtual classrooms, technology and the use of social media; with this the expectations of the business and managers have evolved too. The question is: have we evolved our skills to keep pace with all this? Join Sarah Lindsell as she explores what PwC is doing to enhance the consulting skills of its learning professionals, drawing on a range of real-life example and suggesting plenty of tips to adopt and pitfalls to avoid.

• Setting the curriculum and building the learning team’s skills
• The power of role-play in developing consulting skills
• Getting global leadership involved
• What are the right questions to ask in tough dialogues …
• … and how do you interpret the answers?

Neil Lasher

Neil Lasher. The Learning Coach’s managing partner and CEO of Phone2Know Ltd., is a leading light in both the eLearning and ‘mobile’ industry.

One of the pioneers of both of these methods of delivery, Neil has pushed the envelope at every opportunity and always challenges the existing rules of learning to forge new methods so that the end user takes away the very best content and has the most engaging experience.

Session: ‘MOBILE LEARNING – THE HOW, THE WHAT AND THE WHY‘ 

The current rapid change in the mobile arena brings with it a host of questions: What tools are best for creating content? What delivery options are there? What are the band-wagons to avoid? Should you develop in-house or out-source and what are differences between mobile and e-learning? Above all, though, says Neil Lasher, who has focused on mobile delivery for the past few years, there are new instructional design techniques to be learnt. There is a crucial shift of focus required – the success or failure of ‘mobile’ depends on how much it focuses on business performance.

• Why courses on mobile devices are a failure waiting to happen
• The limits of mobile learning versus ‘mobile’ used to create performance
• Why mobile demands a new approach to design
• The pros and cons of BYOD – Bring Your Own Device
• The serious strategic decisions you need to make

Steve Wheeler

Steve Wheeler is Associate Professor of Learning Technologies at Plymouth University, in South West England. Originally trained as a psychologist, he has spent his entire career working in media, technology and learning, predominantly in nurse education (NHS 1981-1995) and teacher education and training (1976-1981 and 1995-present). He is now in the Faculty of Health, Education and Society.

Steve is the author of more than 150 scholarly articles and is an active and prolific edublogger. His blog Learning with ‘e’s is a regular online commentary on the social and cultural impact of disruptive technologies, and the application of digital media in education and training.

Session: ‘LEARNING FUTURES: THE CHALLENGE AND THE PROMISE‘

We appear to be in the middle of a technological revolution, but are we? Touch screen tablets, interactive handheld devices and social media have the potential to transform Learning and Development. In the training room interactive whiteboards and voting tools are available to enhance the learner experience while just around the corner Augmented and Mixed Reality, 3D printing and other innovations will soon be available. In the light of these developments this presentation will take a pragmatic rather than idealistic view and will pose several questions: Are we actually using these tools to their full potential? What are the barriers to full adoption? What challenges will these technologies bring for L&D in the coming years? We will explore these issues in relation to:

• New and emerging learning technologies
• Changing roles and responsibilities
• Challenges and benefits
• The management of change and innovation
• The future of technology enhanced learning

Laura Overton

Laura Overton has over two decades of experience helping organisations develop sustainable strategies to improve business impact of learning technologies in the workplace. She is the Managing Director of Towards Maturity – a not for profit community interest company that provides research and online resources to help organisations deliver effective learning interventions  at work. Laura is the co- author of  ‘Towards Maturity’ a  study into effective e-learning practices in the workplace (published by e-skills UK Feb 07) and author of ‘Linking Learning To Business’ looking at good practice from 16 successful implementations (Jan 04).

She has contributed to  initiatives associated with the European Commission,the UK government ( via organisations such as  Learning and Skills Council  and Becta) both in her current organisation and as a member the original  advisory board to the LSC.

Session: ‘WHAT LEARNERS REALLY WANT‘

We talk a good talk about the importance of learner centric solutions but what do we really know about the individuals that we want to support?

Whilst experienced baby boomers are walking out of the door with critical know how , millennial workers are joining with vastly different expectations about work. Technology is providing new ways of connecting with every individual at their point of need. All these factors influence our learning offering but are we basing our strategies on what we really know about our own staff or what we think we know?

It’s time to question our assumptions and really get inside the heads of the individuals in our own organisations .In this practical session we will be drawing on our direct research with literally thousands of organisations and individuals to take a closer look at:

• Individual choice – who decides?
• The 3 Rs of Motivation
• Empowering individuals – the danger zones
• Connecting with leaders as learners
• Practical steps for finding out ‘What Learners want’

Ben Betts

Ben works at the intersection of business, learning and technology.  He specialises in Social and Games-Based Learning principles, with a focus on engaging learners in online collaborative learning.  Ben is the creator of the Curatr learning platform, which is used globally by companies and universities to engage their audiences in Rich, Active and Social eLearning.

He has an MBA, specialising in Organisational Change, and is in the final year of his PhD at the International Digital Lab, University of Warwick.  Ben regurarly writes for journals and magazines in the USA and Europe and is contributing chapters to two books in 2012.

Session: ‘CURATION: LEARNING AT THE PACE OF MODERN CHANGE‘

When moving to do more learning online, it’s natural to think that this means creating a whole slew of new online materials. Ben Betts would disagree. One of the UK’s leading thinkers and practitioners in the field, Ben says the trick is not in creating learning materials centrally, but in curation: making best use of the materials that already exist, or that learners are already creating. Especially for areas of complex or fast-moving understanding, curation is an ideal approach. Join Ben on this session to explore:

• The rule of thirds in learning material creation
• Why learner engagement is essential and how to achieve it
• Turning your learners into curators
• Shaping behaviours by using techniques from gaming
• The crucial role social learning can play

Andy Tedd

Andy is a Doctoral Researcher at the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice. Before joining the Centre Andy was at the BBC where he was Director of eLearning then Executive Producer for the BBC College of Journalism. He has worked in interactive media for a very long time and can remember when it was BBC micros and laserdiscs! Other companies he has worked for include Futuremedia, Imparta and Line Communications. Andy has won lots of awards and has been nominated for a BAFTA.

Session: ‘DIGITAL NATIVES, MILLENNIALS AND MYTHS‘

Ever since Marc Prensky coined the term ‘digital natives’ in 2001, we have almost taken it for granted that different generations use technology differently, including for learning. But how much is this perception, and how much reality? Join Andy Tedd as he examines the research around the generational digital divide and draws on empirical evidence of his own experiences – and those of others – in implementing learning technologies in the workplace. Expect to explore:

• The problem of unconscious incompetence [Andy, I just make this one up]
• How adoption rates differ across the generations [this one too]
• Why more mature workers may be smarter searchers
• The behaviours that differ – and those that don’t
• Why the generational revolution has not quite arrived yet

Lee Webber and Mark Bradshaw (Avon & Somerset Police)

Session: ‘THE JOURNEY‘

It’s a familiar picture across the L&D community and particularly in the public sector: increasing training demands, with fewer resources and lower funding. Faced with this dilemma, the Avon and Somerset Constabulary training department decided to re-invent their delivery of training, with innovative ways of engaging learners and ensuring business contribution. The hard work paid off when the department received the 2012 LPI Gold Award for Training Department of the Year (Public Sector).

• Clearly identifying the challenge
• Improving client engagement
• Developing great training to meet the challenge
• Ensuring quality service delivery
• Maintaining staff development

Wendy Owen (Eversheds)

Wendy Owen heads up a team who are responsible for ensuring that Eversheds staff are able to get the most out of their core IT systems. With the team based in just 3 UK locations, the challenge for Wendy is to provide an effective and innovative training service for 9 UK and 11 global offices.

Wendy started her career with Unilever, working as a National Account Manager, before moving in to the IT Training sector in 1997. She started working for an IT training organisation then developed the training function for a small international software company. She joined the legal IT training world when she joined Eversheds LLP in 2004.

Session: ‘BREATHING LIFE INTO TIRED OLD WEBINARS‘

Are you happy that your webinars/online learning sessions are a powerful weapon in your training armoury? Wendy Owen at Eversheds wasn’t, but, with an increasingly remote workforce based in multiple international offices, knew they needed to be. In this session, Wendy explains what drove the IT Training team at Eversheds to make changes to its online learning – the practicalities as well as the benefits – and will share the good, the bad and the ugly of improving live online training!

• The need for change
• Re-skilling the team
• Challenging existing attitudes
• How are we getting on (the good and the bad)!
• Has it worked?

Lisa Johnson and Sue Rawson (Barnardo’s)

Session: ‘USING LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES TO DELIVER MORE FOR LESS‘

The learning team from the children’s charity Barnardo’s share their journey of moving a traditional organization from 100% classroom-based training to a modern, blended learning environment, and doing so on a tight budget. How did the team of five introduce this mixture of classroom- and online-based activities and materials to some 7,500 staff and volunteers at 400 sites spread across the UK, and how did their stakeholders and learners react?

• Developing resources such as videos, wikis and online guides
• Moving to live online training
• Building your learning team’s skills
• Getting learners and others on board
• Evaluating needs and business impact