Perspectives
President's Pen - Highlights and Reflections from the ASTD International Conference in Atlanta
by
Deborah Avrin
What has 3 renowned key note speakers, 190+ concurrent sessions, 370+ exhibitors and close to 9,000 of your closest friends? ICE…ASTD’s International Conference and Exhibition 2007.
ICE
was held this year in Atlanta on June 4th-6th, 2007 with
pre-conference sessions and certification workshops held a few days prior.
Having had the privilege to attend, I would like to share a few
highlights and impressions.
Who
better to open a conference of this caliber than Jim Collins, author of Good
to Great and Built to Last? Mr.
Collins and his team are in the midst of new research to identify those
factors that companies who went from Great to Good and below all have in
common with the purpose to give all of us “early warning” signs to look
for to stop the decline before it becomes irreversible.
I’m sure we are all looking forward to his next book.
The
number of concurrent sessions is almost overwhelming. Participants could choose from several different tracks
such as E-Learning, Designing and Delivering learning, Personal and
Professional Development, Organizational Change, Performance Improvement,
Learning as a Business Strategy etc. or attend a smorgasbord of sessions. Some of my favorites included:
Dana Robinson’s session on asking questions to get to the strategic
issue behind training requests; Hip Hopping ADDIE (a lively end of day
session) which provided great ideas for adding multiple intelligence
strategies to training design; Service Initiatives: Making a Difference with
Marriott’s Kimo Kippen, ASTD’s Chairman of the Board (look for Mr. Kippen
at our Dallas ASTD chapter meeting in October, and the Future of Leadership
Development from the Masters with training guru’s Ken Blanchard, Bill Byham
(DDI) and Jack Zenger. All the
Masters agreed that leadership development will continue to be a critical
topic with the retirement of baby boomers and continued promotion from within
organizational policies.
Any
member of a chapter leadership team has access to a special room with various
sessions designed to assist chapters with cookies and free books at 3:00!
I attended several sessions which provided valuable information for
CPLP and Employee Learning Week. You
will be hearing more about these topics in the months to come.
The
ASTD website offers a pre-planning on-line tool which I would highly recommend
to save time and pick the best sessions for you. I saw many folks who had their nose constantly buried in
their conference brochure trying to figure out where to go next!
Many of the session handouts have been posted on: http://astd2007.astd.org/speakerhandouts.htm.
So if you missed the conference you still have a chance to read some of
the concurrent session content.
Mark
your calendars for June 1-4 in 2008 when ICE will be held in San Diego.
Next
Month:
The Dallas ASTD Succession Plan and How You Can Participate
About the Author: Deborah Avrin, SPHR, has been a human resources professional for over 18 years and holds a BBA in Human Resources and an MS in Organizational Behavior. Her company, Management Skills Resource Inc., works with organizations that want to build the confidence, competence and courage of their management teams through creative training workshops. Ms. Avrin holds a lifetime Senior Professional in Human Resources certification and keeps current in training and human resources trends by her affiliation with the Dallas Human Resources Association and teaching the SHRM Learning Systems through the University of Dallas. She is the 2007 President of Dallas ASTD.