One of the best attended presentations at Training 2026, this session had them clapping, laughing, and learning. It was a perfect way to start the conference and a perfect webinar for any learning professional struggling with competing priorities, expectations, and demands.

Imagine a training team of 12 people responsible for the arrival, orientation, and job-specific training of new employees. Now imagine over 100 of those trainees are arriving every week. Those arrivals continue for months. And there are very few training facilities. And the trainers are coping with all this while wearing hard hats, dodging construction vehicles, walking through muddy landscapes, and working extremely long hours a day, every day, for six months straight.

That was the experience of the 1998 Disney’s Animal Kingdom opening training team. That training team was one of the factors that made the opening of Disney World’s newest park a success. Lenn Millbower was on that team and learned valuable trainer lessons about conflict, collaboration, creativity, flexibility, focus, and fun.

In this presentation, he will share the lessons he learned and how those lessons can help you develop and apply more effective training strategies, even when confronted the most difficult to handle challenges. Join him for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bring adventure and adaptability into your own programs, and deliver actionable training strategies, and discover how to thrive when the training goes wild.

By attending this session, you will learn how to:

• Clarify priorities when trainees are overwhelmed with information.
• Develop training so memorable they’ll want to do it again.
• Design and deliver orientations that align new hire goals with organization expectations.
• Cope with team member conflicts, egos, and competing priorities.
• Maintain your sanity, even when everything and everyone around you is mired in chaos.

Lenn Millbower, former Disney training leader and entertainment expert is the author of The Santa System: Ten Leader Lessons from the North Pole. In that analogy case study of Santa’s North Pole workshop, Lenn shares Santa’s methods for creating an extraordinary organization. At the North Pole, Lenn discovered a workshop driven by emotional purpose, outstanding leadership, and a continuous improvement focus. He also learned some fun facts, including the real story of Santa, Mrs. Claus, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Learn Santa’s secrets and you’ll love your success.