New release of TopClass LMS includes out-of-the-box iMIS integration for Associations Dublin, Ireland, June 7th 2012 - WBT Systems has announced the availability of the latest version of its Learning Management System (LMS), TopClass. This latest release of the TopClass product, version 9.1, includes a configurable integration bridge to iMIS, the leading software platform developed by Advanced Solutions International (ASI). The bridge means that the integration between TopClass LMS and iMIS is seamless and reliable, and significantly simplifies an otherwise complex integration between the two systems. WBT Systems is ASI’s strategic LMS partner in its iXtend Program and has been approved as a Gold-level partner. WBT has already integrated its LMS with iMIS for many of its Association customers but the availability of this configurable bridge will ensure the integration is significantly faster, more reliable, and easier to set up and schedule. WBT Systems has been providing eLearning systems to the not-for-profit sector for a number of years and has developed and built additional features into TopClass to ensure full and robust functionality for the optimal NFP member learning experience. These features include the ability to pay for courses and events online using coupons and tokens, tracking of CEU and other accreditations, and management and printing of certificates by members upon course completion. Commenting on the news, Paul Dooley, CEO at WBT Systems said, "The availability of the iMIS integration bridge further reinforces our commitment to the Association and NFP market. It also builds on our relationship with ASI and means we can provide a superior service to any Association that is either using or planning to implement iMIS". Further information on this iMIS integration bridge is here.

Partnership brings complete eLearning solutions to Australasian not-for-profits Melbourne, Australia, March 14th 2012 - IServices, specialist provider of technology services to not-for-profit organisations, and WBT Systems, leading eLearning software technology provider, have joined forces. Together the companies will provide eLearning technology, services and support to Asia Pacific associations, professional bodies and institutes. IServices has offices in Melbourne and Sydney and provides systems integration services for not-for-profits. It is also the largest Australasian Authorised Solution Provider of iMIS, the most widely used association management software from Advanced Solutions International (ASI). IServices supports more than 80 iMIS customers in the region. WBT is based in Dublin, Ireland and is also an ASI Gold partner with a proven integration between iMIS and TopClass, its Learning Management System. For IServices customers already using iMIS, the partnership with WBT Systems means that these organisations have access to a learning technology provider - one that offers an integrated system for managing continuing professional development programs online. TopClass is a web-based platform that enables not-for-profits to sell courses and products and manage online and classroom training. The system also manages certifications and events, and has features that award and track continuing education units. Commenting on the partnership, IServices CEO, Liz Drury said, "We are very pleased to have formed this partnership so that we are now able to offer a world class Learning Management System to professional and industry associations in our region. The delivery of education services is a major revenue stream and source of relevance for associations, and TopClass provides a robust platform to grow this important area. The integration of iMIS and TopClass provides a seamless learning and association management solution." Paul Dooley, CEO at WBT Systems said, "This alliance is an important step for WBT to expand its presence in Australia and the partnership alignment is perfect. Both IServices and WBT have deep expertise within the not-for-profit market. While WBT is focused on providing the learning technology, IServices offers the specialised services around the learning offering, including implementation, customisation, support and training. Together WBT and IServices now have the ability to provide a complete and proven learning solution to both iMIS users and the not-for-profit market in general." About IServices IServices is a consulting company specialising in bridging the gap - leveraging information technology to provide seamless integrated solutions and end-to-end processes for Not-For-Profit organisations particularly professional and industry associations. Our specialisation extends to solution design, sourcing the best off the shelf solutions, implementation, software development and integration, and support and training. We can work with you and your partners to build a customised solution or we can use standard templates depending on your need and budget. IServices aim to be the systems integrator of choice for the not for profit sector, see www.iservices.com.au

WBT Systems has just announced that NiUG has selected TopClass to power its online certification program.   NiUG International is the largest independent organization for users of iMIS software. iMIS software helps associations and not-for-profits increase operational and financial performance. NiUG educates and connects over 3,400 iMIS users and offers iMIS certification - a curriculum based program that requires completion of a series of courses and examinations.   With a growing demand for its certification programs and with an additional certification program coming on stream, NiUG came to WBT Systems to discuss the potential of putting its programs online. NiUG chose to implement TopClass, WBT’s Learning Management System (LMS) to manage the certification process and allow iMIS users and solution providers and consultants to download educational sessions.   For NiUG, this means that they will soon be able to offer their members online enrolment for iMIS certification with support for and tracking of Continuing Education Units (CEUs). NiUG members will also be able to complete their certification modules online, participate in webinars and take the examination through a proctored environment throughout the world via TopClass LMS.   The new LMS will completely automate and simplify the administration and examination process for NiUG and will offer significant savings and operational efficiencies. It will also allow them to provide additional education offerings, as NiUG hopes to be able to act as the central repository for all iMIS education in the future.   WBT Systems looks forward to working with the folks at NiUG on this exciting eLearning project.

During our recent "Unlocking the Potential of Learning" webinar, we asked our attendees to answer a number of poll questions. These polls are great for getting an idea as to what’s really going on in the market. The questions we asked focused on a number of topics including LMS integrations, types of training materials used at associations, analytics and mobile learning. Which applications would require integration with a learning system at your organization? (select ALL that apply) AMS/CRM Shopping cart Webinar Finance Event Management Other Response Unsurprisingly the most popular application selected was webinars at 89%. Association Management Systems and Event management systems came next with 78% and 67% respectively. There was a bit of a drop off after these but integration with eCommerce or shopping cart was selected by 45% of attendees. A meager 11% indicated that integration to a finance system was a requirement at their organization. Applications Requiring Integration with an LMS Response Webinar 89% AMS/CRM 78% Event Management 67% Shopping Cart 45% Finance 11%

During our recent "Unlocking the Potential of Learning" webinar, we asked our attendees to answer a number of poll questions. These polls are great for getting an idea as to what’s really going on in the market. The questions we asked focused on a number of topics including LMS integrations, types of training materials used at associations, analytics and mobile learning.   What is your commercial model for learning? Sell courses Members have access to courses (as part of subscription fee) Combination of both   Response 21% of organizations have a purely commercial learning model whereby courses are offered for sale. Almost the same number of organisations indicated that they provide access to learning without charging a fee - in this case we assume that the subscription price would cover the cost. However most popular among organizations was a combined approach where 57% indicated that they do both. In this case we assume that some courses are offered free, while others come at a cost.  

We are excited to be heading to PersoniFest 2015 for April 12-15th this year, in Columbus, Ohio    PersoniFest is a conference that brings organizations who are using Personify360 together to meet and discuss the same challenges that they are facing and to discover solutions and resources that can help to optimize relationships with their constituents. We are looking forward to making the most of our time here, to ask the right questions and hopefully, provide you with some of the solutions you’re looking for.   We are proud to be Platinum sponsors to this year’s conference, and we have Linda Bowers, VP of Services and Support, Mike Bourassa, Director of Business Development and John Roche, VP of Research and Development, representing WBT Systems over the course of the conference.   Our booth is #114, so be sure to stop by and say hi!

We are excited to be heading to the NiUG spring conference this year, in Austin, Texas at the Sheraton Hotel at the Capitol.   NiUG Austin 2015 will have an great lineup of training, general and breakout sessions with the aim to boost your iMIS and iMIS 20 knowledge. We will be there to answer any questions you might have around our iMIS integration with TopClass, our LMS.   We are proud to be Silver partners with NiUG this year, and will have Mike Bourassa, Director of Business Development in attendance representing WBT Systems over the course of the conference.   He will be ready for your questions, so be sure to stop by and say hi!

We have been integrating Personify360 with our learning management system, TopClass, for many years and we understand that it is key for Associations to have their AMS tightly integrated with their LMS.   This prompted us to become a Personify Solution Partner just before the 2014 Personify conference and over the past year we have fully integrated our Product Integration Bridge with Personify360 as a core off-the-shelf component of TopClass.  With the PersoniFest Conference coming up, we thought it was a good time to share how we have gotten on since then. We have successfully launched it with our customers. We see our partnership with Personify as strategic and have invested heavily into having a very tight and flexible two-way integration that can be implemented quickly. We can happily say that we have achieved that.   What does the Bridge to Personify360 offer?   Consistent branding across both portals is easily achieved, leading to a seamless user experience. The automatic enrollment means that members can start their online courses immediately. For learning administrators, the bridge increases efficiency, as it eliminates re-keying of data such as user profiles, completed training courses or CE credits earned.    Below is a video that brings you through an example of a TopClass integration with Personify360.   Click here to learn more about the seamless integration with Personify360   We are getting great feedback from those who have seen the bridge in action and are delighted with being a Personify Partner. We are really looking forward to this year’s PersoniFest conference where we will have three of our best representing WBT Systems: Linda Bowers, VP of Services and Support, Mike Bourassa, Director of Business Development and John Roche, VP of Research and Development. They will be manning our booth, which is #114, and would love to see you there and answer your questions about TopClass, so be sure to say hi!   See you all in Ohio!

AIChE is a leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with over 49,000 members from over 100 countries. As a part of their educational offerings, AIChE offer their members professional and technical eLearning training courses, developed by renowned Chemical Engineers as well as other experts from the industry.   Having recently upgraded to Personify360, AIChE were looking to take the next step in the evolution of their educational programs. The process to look for a new Learning Management System started with 40 potential candidates, and we are delighted to announce that they recently chose TopClass.   Why choose TopClass? AIChE set out with a set of specific requirements that they wanted in an LMS. They have 35 e-Learning courses at present, and with a desire to expand on the horizon they needed a system that could allow them to offer a more robust and scalable service that took advantage of their relationship with Personify. The most important factors in this decision for AIChE were as follows: Speed of implementation AIChE wanted a system that could be set up and running by June 2015, giving only a relatively short space of time of only a few months for TopClass to be set up the way AIChE had envisioned. Aligning with the nature of their business As with all our customers, AIChE were given demos of TopClass, where they saw examples of how TopClass could be made work for them. Aligning TopClass with their business was an essential factor for them in their consideration. They saw enough to convince them that with the help of the WBT team they would get a professional LMS that matched their look and feel. The level of integration with Personify TopClass has a full integration with Personify360, thanks to our partnership with Personify. It is a tight and flexible two way integration that offers a seamless experience between the two systems. AIChE valued this experience as a priority when looking at various LMS candidates.   AIChE will be up and running with TopClass soon. Initially only their current 35 e-Learning courses will be live. In the near future, AIChE are aiming to expand the education content portfolio and leverage TopClass for supporting new engagement models.   "After the comprehensive RFP process, we found that WBT Systems offered a flexible product that could be implemented within our timeline and had the best combination of what we were looking for. We were shown an impressive demo of TopClass working in sync with Personify and it had a more polished commercial look and feel that blew the competition away." Amit Gupta, AIChE

Remember how two weeks ago I attended that Getty Images event that was decidedly so-so? Well, last week I went to an event that was the polar opposite: a fantastic keynote run by the International Game Developers Association. The featured speaker was Neil Druckmann, Creative Director and writer from the game studio Naughty Dog. Edit: a video of the full session is now available on YouTube. To view it, click here.Why is this event something I'm mentioning on a blog that focuses on L&D work? Because Naughty Dog and Neil Druckmann are responsible for creating one of the best examples of storytelling in video games thus far: The Last of Us. The emotional impact of this game, as well as its immersive storytelling, is something that I think people in our industry could learn a great deal from. We know that well-crafted stories help content stick and increase emotional engagement. That said, L&D departments don't always use storytelling as well as they could.So, in the interest of learning more about writing great stories, I spent my whopping $5 to buy a ticket (yes, I still can't believe it was that cheap) and went to this event hoping to live tweet the whole thing and share it with all of you. That plan was quickly thwarted by the fact that the keynote was being held in the basement of the Royal Ontario Museum, which is possibly the only place in Toronto where you can't get a decent wi-fi connection OR a cellphone signal. Yup. No live tweeting for me. They also turned the room lights off for the presentation, keeping me from even taking notes (well, keeping me from taking notes if I cared about not distracting the audience with the bright glare of iPad screen... which I did, in fact, care about... because I'm not a jerk).The event ended, I loved it, and I intended to blog about what I learned... and then The Verge beat me to it with this excellent article. Warning: do not click that link unless you've played the game or have no intention of ever playing the game, because it is chock full of spoilers.For those of you who either want to dodge spoilers or just want a quick synopsis, here are the three key things I learned about storytelling from this event.1) You may have to wade through a ton of lousy versions of your story before you get to the one that actually worksDruckmann didn't have the plot for The Last of Us spring fully formed from his head magically. The story was actually the result of years of playing with several core story elements in a number of different ways. His initial attempt at the story, a game idea he proposed back when he was a student, just didn't have that much depth. However, there was a nugget of a good concept in amongst that unsuccessful game proposal, which he clearly recognized since he spent years reworking the ideas over and over again throughout numerous (and drastically different) iterations. In a clear example of why it's important not to just give up if a story doesn't work right away, after many years of experimenting he finally hit on the combination that worked.2) That said, sometimes you have to just let go of the parts of your story you can't manage to make workIn the midst of all this reworking, Druckmann had a number of ideas he got attached to that were actually holding his story back. He admitted that, while at the time he was rather enamored of these plot points, on looking back these story elements only got in the way of character building and innovative storytelling. Letting go of them was difficult, but necessary. The hard part of storytelling can often be differentiating the ideas that aren't working now but could work eventually from the ideas that aren't working now because they aren't ever going to work. 3) Your life experiences will change who you are as a storytellerWhile The Last of Us was in development something happened that deeply affected Druckmann's perspective: he became a father for the first time. All of a sudden the story he was telling about a man who becomes a father-figure to a young girl became that much more connected to his real-life experience. This event made him think differently about what that kind of relationship was, as well as how to make video game characters (in particular, nuanced female characters) that his daughter could some day grow up to respect.It's not to say that you have to experience an event in order to write about it well. It's more that the more you open yourself up to new experiences, the more of a pool of knowledge you'll have to draw from to craft creative and innovative stories that ring true to your audience.

It's conference time again, and you know what that means... trying to figure out if sessions are right for you based only on a paragraph or two of description! Now that sounds easy, doesn't it?Oh wait. No it doesn't.Anyway, to do my part to make the choices a bit easier for DevLearn attendees, I thought I'd do my usual summary post to give all of you a bit more info on what to expect from my session.What is it & when it is happening?My session is Not Just For Superheroes: Exploring Comics Through Learning and it's taking place on Thursday from 1:15-2:15pm (I haven't heard yet what room it'll be in. I'll update this as soon as I know).What's it going to be about?As usual, the session description is delightfully accurate.Comics and graphic novels are an engaging and immersive way of communicating information and stories, but not one that we often see used much within learning and development here in North America. Personally, I think we're missing out on a great tool, which is why I decided to talk about how we can use comics effectively for learning.More specifically, I'll be covering the following main topics: These topics will help you think about how you can use comics yourself. First, I’ll show you examples of the specific ways comics have been used as a learning tool, often with examples you can easily pick up and read on your own. Then I’ll discuss some basic rules and tips to consider when you go about writing and drawing your own comics. Finally, I’ll touch on tools that everyone can use to handle the visual aspects of making comics. And yes, I realize that not everyone in the audience will be a trained artist, so we’ll discuss tools and ideas for every level of comfort with drawing, from people who have been drawing for years to people who couldn't draw a stick figure if their life depended on it.Who's the right audience for this session?Do you love storytelling and are looking for new ways of doing it? Do you have large amounts of dense content you want to distill down to the essentials? Do you have scenarios and case studies that just aren't cutting it in text form? Do you want the immersiveness of video but just don't have the budget? Do you need a training solution that works well on mobile?Well, then this is the session for you!Also, this is a great session to check out if you don't have a sense of how comics could fit into L&D, or if you already love comics and need to build a business case for how you can use them at work.Do I have to already "get" comics in order to enjoy this session?Not at all. This session will make sense to you even if you haven't read a comic since the Sunday strips you might have enjoyed as a kid. I planned this talk so that it would be useful for anyone, regardless of their experience (or lack thereof) with comics.If I'm already a huge comics geek then will this session bore me senseless?Nope. We're going to looking at comics from the more unusual perspective of how they can be used for learning. Chances are you'll still get some good pointers on how you can use comics in training and performance support. Plus, it would be super helpful to have some fellow comic fans in the audience to give recommendations for what the newbies should read.What if I'm still not sure if this session is for me?Definitely feel free to ask me more about it. Email (BiancaRWoods@gmail.com) and Twitter (@eGeeking) are great ways to reach me, but I'm also happy to chat about it if you happen to bump in to me at the conference.

It's DevLearn time again and so, as usual, I'll be livetweeting and blogging the entire experience. If you're interested in seeing what specifically I'll be contributing to the backchannel, here's the schedule of sessions I'm planning to livetweet. Just an FYI: All times are listed in Las Vegas time (PDT).*Also, this year's DevLearn is a bit different for me as I'll be presenting a concurrent session of my own (Not Just for Superheroes: Exploring Learning Through Comics on Thursday from 1:15pm-2:15pm) and well as showing a project at DemoFest on Thursday night. If you happen to be attending DevLearn this year, definitely stop by either of these sessions and say hello.Wednesday, October 238:30am-10:00am Keynote: Unlocking Cool - Jeremy Gutsche10:45am-11:45amFeatured Speaker: Exploring the Learning and Performance Possibilities of Google Glass - David Kelly1:15pm-2:15pm Sketchnoting—How to Capture Ideas and Concepts with Visual Narratives - Kevin Thorn2:45pm-3:45pm Storyboarding Your Videos and Animations - Cory Casella4:15pm-5:15pm Keynote: The Real Power of Games for Learning - Ian Bogost  Thursday, October 248:30am-9:45amKeynote: The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You… and Your Learners - Eli Pariser10:30am-11:30amPutting the Smart into Smartphones with Performance Support - Ruth Haddon*1:15pm-2:15pmNot Just for Superheroes: Exploring Learning Through Comics - Bianca Woods*4:00pm-6:30pmDemofestFriday, October 25 8:30am-9:30amTips for the Successful Learning Practitioner - Panel: Trina Rimmer, Jane Bozarth, Tracy Parish, Connie Malamed, and Cammy Bean9:45am-10:45amDesign 3.0 for Learning and Performance Professionals - Thomas Spiglanin11:00am-12:15pmKeynote: HackLab: Pursuing Progress Through Deviation - Jason Lauritsen and Joe Gerstandt

It's Day 1 of DevLearn and somehow I'm already terrifyingly tired. Not quite sure how that happened. Ah well... at least it's the happy kind of tired.Before I pass out from exhaustion, here's my summary of the sessions I saw today.1) Keynote - Unlocking CoolSpeaker: Jeremy GutscheThe morning started with a speaker with substantially more energy than I had at that hour. Let's be honest, though, that's not always a bad thing in an opening keynote.As others have mentioned, keynotes at conventions like this tend to be more high level business advice than anything else, and this session was no exception. This isn't a criticism... just an observation. The premise of Gutsche's talk was the question of "Why should I choose you?". And by "you" he seemed to mean "your company or product".Umm... because I have an awesome lamb hat?The way we sell products and ideas has changed drastically in recent years. In the past doing things the same way you always have was the best way to succeed; now it's often the best way to get left behind. Gutsche noted several companies like Blockbuster, Kodak, and Encyclopedia Britannica who just couldn't adapt to changing times (although, to give them credit, the social media people from Britannica actually tweeted a challenge to that statement mere minutes after I tweeted Gutsche's claim. Delightful!). It's in this changing chaos, though, that some of the best innovations can take place. What's important is for businesses not to rest on their laurels (as it can be so easy to do when you're successful... I'm looking at you Blackberry!) and instead to continue to look for new opportunities and markets.Another important thing we need to do is make a cultural connection with our customers. Instead of talking at them, we need to talk with them. It's this distinction that can make the difference between a message falling on dead ears or really resonating with an audience. We also need to stop trying to be all things to all people and instead focus on identifying and serving your message/product/service to a narrow but passionate audience. It's in doing this that we can better answer the question of why someone should choose us.2) Featured Speaker: Exploring the Learning and Performance Possibilities of Google Glass Speaker: David KellySo what do a modem for a game system from the 90's, Friendster, and the original brick cell phone all have in common? Well, namely that they all sucked, that's for sure. But beyond that, they also all eventually opened the door for better, less sucky products later on.Sucky trailblazersAnd this was how Kelly opened his talk on Google Glass. Throughout the session it became clear that he felt that this was, in it's current stage, a product that was a door opener rather than a game changer. A Friendster rather than a Facebook. It was also clear that he felt that this was entirely suitable. Google Glass is, honestly, still in beta. He didn't expect it to be fully realized when he received it. It's got lousy battery life, vaguely unfinished apps, and has the potential to fly off your face when biking (don't ask), and yet it's clear Kelly sees it as full of currently-unrealized potential. The potential to provide in-the-moment training. The potential to allow for making immersive tutorial videos. The potential for hands-free learning. The potential to be another great tool for us to have in our training and performance support arsenal.Google Glass isn't remotely there yet, but you have to admit... a product like it could get there eventually.3) Sketchnoting - How to Capture Ideas and Concepts With Visual NarrativesSpeaker: Kevin ThornWith my passion for comics and infographics, this was a session I was giddy about attending. Sketchnoting is a type of visual notetaking that's been becoming more popular as of late. In this session, Thorn talked about some of the core basics of how you can get started with this note taking technique.There are some general formatting ideas, but these are just suggestions, not templatesI could cover his session, but his own words speak better about this topic than I ever could. For that reason I'll just direct you to his in-progress series of blog posts about the various parts of sketchnoting. They're delightfully full of great tips and tricks. Another great resource is The Sketchnote Handbook, a book Thorn himself recommended. I bought a copy specifically for this trip and can't recommend it enough.There is one thing I'll note here that will comfort the non-drawers: Thorn made a point of stressing that sketchnoting is not about creating a perfect piece of polished visual art. It's merely about adding creative style and emphasis to your notes. It's a technique that anyone can pick up, regardless of their art training (or lack thereof).4) Storyboarding Your Videos and AnimationsSpeaker: Cory CasellaSeeing Casella speak is guaranteed to be enjoyable because he's always looking at the practical "how do I actually get stuff done" aspect of our work. I love sessions like this.This particular talk was about how you can create storyboards for videos (like this hilarious example he showed in class). First off, Casella recommended checking to make sure a video is actually the right solution. Just because you can make a video, doesn't mean you always should. If a video is the right choice, then you next move on to a creative brief. This is essentially a high level document outlining the project (always good for making sure everyone is on the same page). Next up is the scripting. While a script isn't as flashy as the visuals, it's the gas that will power your video's audio and visuals. Without a great script, you can't have a great video. We were given some quick tips on creating good scripts, most important of which was to keep them short and simple.Then comes the actual storyboarding itself. Casella shared a template that worked for him: a 5 panel page that had a field each for:a scene summarya rough sketch of the visualsa voiceover scripta list of information needed from the clientand a spot for client feedbackIt's seriously just this simple. My cat could learn how to do this.Sets of these pages become the video storyboard itself. These pages are ever changing living documents that you'll pass back and forth between you and your client until you get the storyboard fully fleshed out and signed off on. Casella made sure to set expectations: scripts don't just magically write themselves perfectly. They take many revisions and edits to get right.As much as we all joked in the session that this was too hard, it's actually ridiculously easy to put together, even if the best you can do for the visual sketches is stick people.5) Keynote: The Real Power of Games for LearningSpeaker: Ian Bogost The day wrapped up with Bogost's talk on games for learning. This ended up becoming one of those "gamification vs games" discussions that I see a lot from game designers. Bogost clearly felt that gamification could provide a surface level benefit (particularly because so many examples of it these days are just content in a game-like wrapper), but it was only actual games that could provide a deeper, more mindset altering experience in which the player felt they were able to craft their own success.The eternal struggle between games and gamificationI'll give him that a lot of gamification only adds in superficial game aspects that don't actually alter the content. That said, last year I saw a spectacular DevLearn session on a gamified course created by Google where I felt the gamification was also tied to meaningful changes to the course content. The gamified system hinged on content that was optimized for the system and was a success because of this. Gamification doesn't have to be fully divorced from the content itself.As well, Bogost's examples of why games are superior to gamified systems were all, as expected, stellar examples of games. In the real world, though, this isn't always the case. I've gone on record as noting that not all games are actually... you know... good. Not everything can be Animal Crossing. There's a lot of ETs and Fantavisions out there too. I honestly believe that a good gamified system, even if it just effects the surface level, is a better learning experience than a lousy game any day.I don't want it to sound like I thought Bogost was all wrong: I actually thought he made some great points about the value of deep games over shallow gamification. I just wish he hadn't taken the approach of "games > gamification" always and forever. That's not always the case.So, beyond the sessions themselves, DevLearn has been both fabulous and a bit frustrating. As always, the people who attend this conference are just delightfully curious about the world. It's refreshing being around that all day. Also, I've been able to meet a bunch of people I only knew through Twitter as well as reconnect with others who I only see at conferences. This has been fabulous.On the other hand, the conference has had distressingly patchy wi-fi all day... something I've never experienced at an eLearning Guild conference before. They tend to really "get" how we all lean heavily on the wi-fi for live tweeting and the like, so it was a surprise to be constantly kicked off the network and have wide spans of time where wi-fi access was just suddenly unavailable. Not fun at all.So that's it for Day 1. Day 2 includes my concurrent session on comics for learning as well and my DemoFest presentation... so let's see if I get ANY sleep tonight at all. *laugh*

Ah DevLearn Day 2. You were completely exhausting, but entirely enjoyable. This was a day that I didn't actually get to attend many sessions, but I had so many fantastic conversations with fellow attendees that it completely made up for it.1) Keynote - The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You... and Your LearnersSpeaker: Eli PariserThe opening session of the day took apart a major perception we have about the internet: that we all think we're seeing the same information on it as everyone else. Little do many know, this isn't actually the case. What we see in our searches and social media is actually a filtered version of the world, be it filtered by our own choices of who to follow (or not follow) or by the algorithms that are used to make many of the online sites and services we use function.This invisible filtering causes a number of serious problems. It can make diversity of opinion invisible and cause the internet to reflect you instead of the actual world. It can also make it rarer to discover the kind of content that challenges you. This filtering make it easy for the "junk food" of the internet to rise to the top, since it's likely to be enjoyed by everyone, and the more uncomfortable or complex issues to be simply swept under the rug. Nothing against fluff... goodness knows I enjoy a hilarious cat video as much as the next girl... but when we only see the trite and uncomplicated then we aren't challenged to think about topics that are hard, depressing, or even meaningful. We also don't grow as much as people if we're always in an algorithm-enhanced comfort zone.That said, Amazon is pretty darn good at choosing books for me...If you're curious to know more about the actual content covered in this session, William Chinda did a fantastic job of covering it on his blog here.  Beyond the content (which I enjoyed immensely), I thought this was the perfect example of a great keynote because of what happened on the backchannel and after the session: debate. I had a fantastic conversation with my co-workers afterwards about what in the talk we agreed with, what we didn't, and why. This session sparked a level of conversation with us that no prior session had managed to reach. Even when everyone in the discussion disagreed with a few of Pariser's points (in particular, we thought algorithms were made out to be, unfairly, a bit of a super villain in this story), we each had our own perspective on why that was the case. The session itself was great and the chatting it sparked was just as informative.2) Putting the Smart Into Smartphones with Performance SupportSpeaker: Ruth HaddonHere's the awkward thing about conferences: sometimes you attend a session and it is excellent, but you're just not its intended audience. That's what happened here for me. Haddon did a spectacular job of outlining the basics of why mobile is particularly well-suited for performance support and the specific ways you can consider using it for this task... it's just, what I personally needed was something that went beyond the basics. She also said a great deal about the importance of structuring your resources in a way that people can actually, you know, find them when they need them (or even know they exist in the first place). While this is something I already knew, it's always lovely to hear other people confirm an idea that's near and dear to your heart. What can I say... I very nearly decided to become a librarian instead of an instructional designer. Organizing content in the optimum way for your audience is something that makes me giddy in a dorky sort of way.So I quite quickly figured out I wasn't going to learn much that was new from the session, but decided to have a "make it work" moment and spent most of the session studying the design of Haddon's lovely slide deck. The layout, colour palette, and font selection were all completely harmonious and consistent. A particularly good example of what session decks should aspire to be.Seriously, my photos aren't doing this deck justice.I've got to add, is it just me or is the design quality of the slide decks at this year's DevLearn higher than years past? I've been so happy at the lack of bullet point slideuments over the past two days.Edit: You know what's really classy? When you complain about wanting a session to go beyond the basics and the company that put together said session sends you a link to more in-depth materials. So kudos to Haddon and Epic Learning Group for going above and beyond what's required of a confernce session. I couldn't appreciate it more.3) Not Just For Superheroes: Exploring Learning Through ComicsSpeaker: Me! Hey look! It's my own session!Hello beefy superhero silhouette!I'm more than a bit anxious about public speaking, so the lead up to actually presenting this content was more than a bit stressful for me. Thankfully, when I actually got in the room and settled in, the nerves calmed down substantially.As expected, the crowd at DevLearn was friendly and inquisitive. I thought everyone in the session asked great questions and seemed legitimately interested in figuring out how comics could fit into their bag of learning tools. They also were happy to chime in with their own suggestions and examples. I couldn't have asked for a better group.In my usual spirit of sharing, my full session resources, slide deck, and even speaker's notes are all available online. To check them out, just click here. 4) DemoFestOkay, so this wasn't just my first time presenting at DevLearn. It was also my first time presenting at Demofest as well. I was in love with the project I brought, a series of branched simulations on successful career conversations, but I wasn't sure if anyone else would be curious to check them out. I was vaguely terrified that I'd end up sitting sad and alone at my table the whole night. Thankfully, though, I don't think I had a moment's rest for the entire Demofest time period. Once again, the level of questions people asked were stellar. This is one of the the things I love so much about DevLearn on a whole: how curious we all are about what each other is doing and how we're all doing it. That's what makes something like Demofest such a spectacular resource for us to learn from.My little corner of DemoFestThere were only two sad things about Demofest. First, as the lone person representing my table, I had no time to check out all the other projects that were on display. I really would have loved to see what everyone else brought to show. Second, they ran a live #LrnChat during Demofest that I wasn't able to participate in. Yeah, those are some first world problems there. Otherwise, it was a fantastic experience that I'd recommend everyone try out at some point.I am ridiculously tired and am probably losing my voice but, body pain aside, I am also so thankful for all the people who stopped by my session and/or Demofest table... and even the people who weren't at DevLearn but sent questions and words of encouragement via Twitter. You guys are absolutely the best and you completely made my day today.

Conventions like DevLearn are fantastic for bringing together people from across the globe to share ideas. They're, unfortunately, also fantastic for bringing together people from across the globe to share germs. Yup, I caught Con Plague this year (thankfully just a cold rather than a full-blown flu), which is why this post is more than a smidge late.Ah well. DevLearn was fantastic, so I've decided the cold was worth it.1) Tips For the Successful Learning PractitionerSpeakers: Trina Rimmer, Jane Bozarth, Tracy Parish, Connie Malamed, and Cammy BeanUnlike the other concurrent sessions I attended, this one was an informal, off-the-cuff Q&A session with a number of seasoned professionals. No slide deck, no prepared speeches. Just answers to real time questions. Honestly, it had more in common with a Morning Buzz session than most other concurrent sessions, which actually turned out quite well as far as I'm concerned. Having a number of experts with a wide variety of experiences meant that every question got answered from a number of angles and the panelists did a great job of building off of what each other had said.Now, I could try to describe the session further, but I thought it would make more sense to just show you all my notes on the questions and answers from the session. I didn't capture every answer, and I also didn't manage to note who said what, but it should give you a good sense of the gist of the session anyway.Q1: What methods/questions do you use to gather info from SMES?"Tell me what these people do all day?" "What training have they already have?" "Where do people make mistakes around this area?" "What do you need people to actually do?" "Tell me more about this subject" "What are the 3 or 4 main points they need to remember?" "Does it really need to be eLearning/classroom/_______?"Remember to say please and thank you to the person who is answering your questions.How to find a great SME? Find one who is newer to their skillset. They'll have an easier time remembering a beginner mindset.Get the stories and examples that AREN'T in the content slide deck(s) they give you!Q2: How do you help learning practitioners grow (especially those who have gaps in their skills)?Pre-conference workshops. Books. Blogs. Doing things with them that help them diagnose and solve problems, not just build a class. Help them define their role as NOT an order taker. Encourage them to build a PLN. Help them look to other industries for ideas. Get them up-to-speed on learning theory. Find out what they're passionate about and have them work on that. Make sure the branding of the job title doesn't limit it too much in the minds of some employees. Match people up with mentors (or have them mentor others). eLearning Guild online forums. Cathy Moore's eLearning blueprint.Do you have people who only want to be order takers and have no interest in continuing to learn new skills? Maybe they aren't the right people for your team.Find something that they're doing that you can value and praise. They'll feel less threatened in a changing workplace.Q3: What can you do when your SMEs disagree... particularly when there are many correct options?Build learning so that it shows multiple perspectives, not just one absolute correct answer. Reflect several correct options. Look to how people create learning for areas that don't have absolute right and wrong answers. Video multiple experts talking out how they'd solve the issue so people can see multiple solutions.Q4: What happens when your audience insists they don't need as much training as you're convinced they need?Are they right?If they're so sure they can do this and really can't, let them make mistakes or even fail. That might be the best option.Make the learning in-the-moment performance support so that they can learn as they go instead of getting a content dump.Q5: Is there a best team structure for a growing team?Go through all the individual tasks your team needs to do and figure out how best to chunk those tasks into roles.Q6: What can you do to entice people to take training that isn't mandatory?For competitive learners, tie in to leaderboards. (Note: I'm not sure I love this answer for everyone, especially based on what we know about how leaderboards can actually demotivate some people)Q7: How do we get people to move away from designing traditional learning experiences and towards more informal learning? Make the people in your organization in charge of the information. Ask does it need to be a class or a conversation? Help people build PLNs. Identify great mentors. Look how we can help people talk to each other, not talk to them. Don't push your own agenda: pull them in to the conversation instead. Understand your organization's tolerances/gaps (e.g. If people don't talk to each other now, creating an internal social network might not help).Q8: What beliefs/principles do you fight for when designing solutions? Learner 1st. Make sure you're solving the right problem. It's human beings that have to do this. Keep things streamlined. Never think your first design is perfect. Make things attractive and well-designed. Get to the point!2) Design 3.0 for Learning and Performance ProfessionalsSpeaker: Thomas SpiglaninThis session began with an intriguing question: if we can't possibly know everything ourselves, how do you choose between your options and know you've made the best choice? The beginning of the answer was another question, a quote from Dan Steer: "There are 7 billion people in the world. Maybe somebody has a better idea?" This is where Design 3.0 comes in. This concept is a social, collaborative, and iterative way of designing. And here's how your typical Design 3.0 process cycle works:Share early! Share often! As you can see, using Design 3.0 means you design using not just your own skills, but also the skills of your extended personal learning network (PLN) as well. Of course, this means you need to build up a great PLN long before you start designing. To do this, Spiglanin recommends tapping in to social networks as well as, perhaps even more importantly, online communities. The broader and well-curated your set of connections is, the better the feedback and advice you'll receive during the design process.So how do you find communities? Places like LinkedIn, Yammer, Google+ are good places to start, as are vendor websites like eLearning Heroes and professional groups such as ASTD and (of course) the eLearning Guild. Once you join a community, there are four important ways to share and get feedback: follow the culture, be polite, make it easy, and don't create barriers. One key point that came up repeatedly in discussion of all of these tips was that being a part of a community is a give and take relationship. You can't just be that person who shows up to the community when you personally need help. You need to give others help too.If you're interested in finding out more about the idea of Design 3.0, you're in luck: Spiglanin did a fantastic job of creating a resources site for this presentation that you can check out here. 3) Keynote - HackLab: Pursuing Progress Through DeviationSpeaker: Jason Lauritsen and Joe GerstandtDevLearn finished up with a talk on hacking. No, not computer hacking... the speakers were actually referring to the original meaning of hacking: it's not about breaking (or breaking into) things, but more about building things and finding new ways of tweaking existing things to do something different. If you're my age, you probably use a slightly different term for this same idea: MacGyvering.Regardless of what term we're using, hacking is essentially identifying a system or problem, deciding how it could be better, breaking it down into its constituent parts, and then figuring out what you can change or tweak to make it do what you need it to. These hacks can be major changes, but more often than not they're just little tweaks that add up to a bigger result. This kind of hacking requires nothing more than curiosity, experimentation, courage, and the ability to view failure as just feedback rather that a sign to give up.So what does your typical hacking process look like? Well, here's a handy flowchart:In my opinion "Is it awesome?" is a question you should ALWAYS be asking yourself.Hacking isn't just a process you can use to to help you escape being tied up in a burning building using only your wits and a tuna fish sandwich (and no, I can't stop making MacGyver jokes). It's something you can use to try and fix or improve anything in your life, be it the dreaded office meeting (the example we tackled in the session), trying to make a mandatory course less tedious, or even managing a relationship with a difficult co-worker.So that's my final day of DevLearn. If you'd like to see the session handouts and resources for all the conference sessions, don't forget that they're all available on the conference handout site.I'll likely make a final blog post later this week summarizing my overall feeling about the conference. In short, though, I can say this: DevLearn was delightful and inspiring as usual and I continue to be grateful I was able to go again this year.

The first day of TechKnowledge is officially over. I'm completely exhausted, but also delightfully full of knowledge. I also reek of smoke, but this is Vegas. I suppose such things are expected.As usual, here are my thoughts and feelings about the sessions I attended (for even more detailed notes, definitely check out the live tweeting I did earlier today).1) General Session 1Speaker: Jeff DyerTypically what I look for in an opening general session is a speaker and topic that get people thinking in a new way. Dyer's session on how to be a better innovator definitely fit the bill nicely.He opened with a discussion on whether creativity comes more from nature or nurture. People typically think of creativity as an inborn talent, but research says it's not. It's something you build. And yes, as a former art teacher I'd most thoroughly agree (my rants about the perception that creativity comes from some sort of stroke of luck rather than years and years of hard work will have to be saved for another full blog post some time in the future). This rest of this session was designed to give people ideas for how they could actually go about the process of building their own creative abilities.To do the talk a bit of a disservice and give you guys the Cliffs Notes version, Dyer feels that there are several skills that are vital for being a creative innovator:Associating: The ability to connect ideas in new ways. Dyer recommended two ways to build this skill. First, he suggested a thought exercise where you brainstorm ways to combine two seemingly unrelated products, which forces you to think about things in a flexible, innovative way. Second, he talked about ways to use questions to help groups think differently. Depending on the situation, asking questions that impose constraints, completely eliminate constraints, or create substantially more questions can be incredibly useful for helping a group to innovate together.Observing: The name really sums up the task here. Too often people go about creating things based on assumptions or because it's the way it's always been done. True innovators do lots of observations and look for things that surprise them. What can help you think about solving a problem in a new way is to do these observations from the perspective of focusing on the task, not the tool used to accomplish the task. On a related note, Dyer also suggested that doing observations outside of your typical work environment can be incredibly helpful. Your newbie eyes may see issues those close to the task would miss.Networking: Most of us have an informal list of people we tend to go to when we want ideas for how to solve a problem. However, for many people that list is filled with individuals who are just like them: the same industry (maybe even with the same job title), the same age, the same work experience, the same socioeconomic group. The thing is, when you're always bouncing ideas off of people with the same experiences as you, you're probably always going to get the same answers. That's why you need to build a network that also includes people with substantially different experiences from you too. To do this, Dyer recommends tapping in to experts who have solved problems like yours before, attending networking events, and joining a networking group. I'll also add that Twitter is an amazing place to meet fantastic people with a wide range of experiences and interests, but all of which share the love of simply sharing knowledge. Seriously: getting hooked up with Twitter was one of the best things I ever did for my own creativity.Experimenting: Test ideas, seek new experiences, and take things apart. Challenge yourself to learn skills that, at the surface, seem unrelated to your work because you never know what these new skills might be able to inspire in your work, now or in the future. Try prototyping to test out your ideas and see if they actually work (and if some work better than others). Don't be afraid to make a mistake, particularly if that failure means you learned something important that helps you do better later or gives you new insight. I also recommend doing the mental equivalent of going around and poking new things/ideas with a stick to see what happens. It's a fun way to learn.Overall this session did a great job at framing exactly why no one can get away with saying "I'm not a creative person" anymore. It also was pretty much exactly the energy booster I think a first session should be.2) The Special Sauce of Social Learning Speaker: Marc RosenbergThe premise of this session was simple: social learning isn't anything new. It's something we've actually doing for ages. What is new, though, is the technology that we're using for it and the way we're trying to integrate it into learning situations. L&D is, as a group, quite behind the curve on both social learning and social media and we need to catch up to how society on a whole has already started using it. Now, this doesn't just mean we should shove everything into a social media tool and call the job done (no surprises: this doesn't work at all). It means we need to really grasp social learning as a strategy and then understand how to leverage things like social media to enable this kind of learning.Rosenberg then went on to talk about what he sees as the next generation of learners: impatient, multi-tasking, more purposeful, not "clock-bound", tech savvy, and social. And here's where I'm going to disagree a bit and say that's not a set of learners that's coming in the future... that's many of the learners we have now. Heck, it's me, and I'm by no means super young. So maybe what's more realistic to say is that these are the preferences of more and more of our learners now.So if these are the learner needs we need to get better at responding to, and social learning can better help us address those needs, what should we do to incorporate legitimately good social learning in the work we do? Well, here are the suggestions Rosenberg had:Make your social tools and technology extremely easy to use. That way the user sees the tools as a natural way of doing things (Apple, we're looking at you here).Nurture authorship. Let people contribute. You'll need to walk a fine line between not putting too many barriers in their way but also acknowledging that not everyone who creates content creates good (or even accurate) content.Support mobility. Sharing shouldn't only happen in restricted situations (like only when you're at your work laptop... AND it's connected to the corporate intranet). It should happen anywhere.Identify clear, meaningful goals for your social learning that are actually important (both to the company and to the learners).Make membership in your social learning meaningful. Give people an answer for the question "Why do I want to participate?"Put effort into facilitation. Sometimes social learning needs the help of certain people who work to guide the conversation or push it in new directions. This doesn't mean this role has to be be filled by specially trained official facilitators, though. You can even ask one or more of the learners themselves to take on this task.Get leadership on board. A great way to do this is to talk about social learning from the perspective of how it benefits the business (rather than fussing about the tools you'll use). Also, start small with easy to implement tiny pilot projects rather than massive, full scale ones.Remember that management can't be all "Big Brother" about social learning. People need to know that they have a safe place to share or else they won't share at all. Keep management at bay and remind them that this isn't the appropriate place to monitor employees closely.Align your social learning with more formal learning. This is a good way to ease people into social learning habits and techniques.Develop a knowledge-sharing culture. People need to see the benefit of sharing knowledge rather than hoarding it (and the business culture needs to reflect this change in mindset too).Make sure your learners know how to learn. Many people have gotten into the habit of expecting learning to be a passive experience where all the content is pushed out to them. Social learning requires them to become more comfortable with the idea of seeking out and sharing information themselves, which can take some adjusting to (depending on your audience).Using these tips you can begin to build a work environment that fully utilizes social learning. That said, I do wish Rosenberg had spent more time directly addressing the problems corporate culture can create when trying to integrate social learning into a workplace. I personally see this as one of the biggest hurdles most L&D folks will encounter when trying to increase their use of social learning. Because of this, I would have liked to have gotten more of his perspective on how you can reshape corporate culture in a way that's more friendly to the habits you need to have to make social learning work3) Choose Your Own Sim-venture: Branched Simulation Basics Speaker: Bianca WoodsOh look! It's my own session!Okay, obviously I'm not going to review my own content. However, because I always share my full slide deck, presenter notes, and resource links, you yourself can review this content on your own. Yeah, it's more fun when it's actually me presenting it, but it's the next best thing.  ;)Here's the link to my full session materials.4) Leveraging Devices to Create Amazing Mobile Learning Speaker: Chad Udell This was my last session of the day and, while I quite enjoyed it, it's nearly impossible to capture with a blog posting. Basically what happened was Udell talked about how we need to become better at designing for the specific affordances of mobile devices. And what exactly is an "affordance"? It's a quality or feature of an environment or object that allows you to perform a a task. For example, three of the affordances of binoculars include magnification, a dial to adjust focus, and an adjustable size.Mobile devices have their own unique affordances (an overview is captured in this blog posting from Float Learning), but when we design mobile content many of us don't fully take advantage of these fantastically useful features. So what the rest of this session was designed to do was to help us become more aware of what these affordances of mobile devices are and what sort of ways we can consider using them for learning. Udell took advantage of a tool called Poll Everywhere to let the entire audience text and message our thoughts about the learning application of specific mobile device affordances (like a camera, device sensors, and geolocation) into one big brainstorm. Udell is planning on collecting all the ideas from this session later in the week, and I'll post that link here and on Twitter as soon as I have it (Edit: here's the link). Suffice it to say, there were a lot of creative and useful ideas proposed.So, this session was all about pushing people to see mobile in a more accurate and broad way. For those of us who routinely push the boundaries of what our mobile devices can do, this didn't really shock us. That said, I still really enjoyed the exercise of it. For others, though, that had previously thought of mobile in a more limited fashion, this was a great way to see mobile in a new way. I thought Dan Steer did a fantastic job of summing up the session from that perspective on his blog.So, overall, a good first day. I'm still looking for that session that completely shakes up my own thoughts about some L&D-related topic. While today I found a number of sessions that reinforced my own beliefs, I haven't seen one yet that makes me question them. Crossing my fingers that I come across that in the next two days.

Well, it seems Thursday was my big day for sessions as I managed to fit in 5 today. Hooray! On one hand, there was a ton of great content today. On the other hand, all the live tweeting has made my right arm HATE me. Ah well... it was worth it.1) General Session 2Speaker: Amy Jo MartinThe day started with a talk on how to humanize our social media brands. The spin was on doing this to monetize our social media presence, which, to be honest, made me feel like this specific talk didn't quite fit in with the overall conference. Martin was an enjoyable speaker though, so there was a lot to be gained from her session even though the angle she took on the topic wasn't ideal.She started by referencing a Simon Sinek quote: "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it" (I highly recommend this TED talk in which he elaborates on this idea). This is a core component of building a compelling brand, both from a company perspective as well as from a personal one. It's even more important when you're dealing with social media. Social media isn't a one-way media... it's collaborative. Because of this, your presence on social media needs to have a real personality and presence in order for people to want to follow and interact with you.Unfortunately a lot of companies and people new to social media don't get this. They just push out content, are confused when that doesn't seem to lead to any results, and then write off social media as a fad. This is why, Martin suggested, social media education is so important these days. Really "getting" a social media tool is like trying to learn a new language... and just because you've mastered one tool doesn't mean you're a master of all of them. To make her point Martin shared this video from Jimmy Fallon where he and Justin Timberlake hilariously speak in hashtags. Sure, it's funny, but it also points out how drastically different the way communication on social media can be from real speech.Social media education can help a person or company learn to communicate in the "language" of different social media tools. It can also reduce social media mistakes, help employees become brand ambassadors, be a professional development tool, save companies money, and make social media seem less scary (and more valuable too).2) Transmedia Storytelling: A Hero's Journey Through New Media Speaker: Anders GronstedtGronstedt started off by immediately sharing the link for the Prezi presentation he was sharing in the session (you can check it out here). Hooray for showing your work! I'd recommend checking out the full presentation if you get a chance, but here's the high level summary for now.Transmedia storytelling is simply using multiple types of media to tell a single story. Each media channel should contribute to the overall story, but also be able to stand on its own. Want to see a fantastic example of a deep and effective transmedia story? Check out The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice told using YouTube, Twitter, and Tumblr (my love for this series is epic).While transmedia storytelling comes from the entertainment industry, there's no reason this technique can't also be leveraged for L&D as well. But why use stories to teach information? Because our memory is itself so story based. Stories are exceptionally memorable and persuasive because of this. That means you can make training that's both easy to follow AND easy to remember.But how do you structure telling a story this way. Gronstedt suggested a tried-but-true structure that humans have been using for ages: the hero's journey. Thanks to a recommendation from @oxala75 (hooray for Twitter!), you can learn more about this story structure with this fun (and short) video. Another great video introduction (also from @oxala75) that will appeal to my fellow gamers is this intro from Extra Credits.Once you've figured out your compelling story, what media is appropriate to use with transmedia storytelling? Why, any and all of it... from paper posters to videos to podcasts to written stories and so on. Just make sure each story component plays to the strengths of the media you're choosing to create it in.3) Apply the Skills of TV Directing to Your Learning Video Speaker: Jonathan HallsHalls opened with a rather grand statement: "The future training professional will be a media producer." Essentially, he feels that video is going to become even more important in L&D in the upcoming years, so if you don't get how to produce it (and produce content with it that's actually useful) now, you're going to get left behind.Hall was yet another speaker who made his slide deck and resources available online (and for that I'm grateful), so rather than retell the whole session I'm going to recommend you check out his site for all the details and I'll just fill you in on the highlights.First off, not all media is great for all situations. Because of this, you need to know the strengths (and weaknesses) of video to help you decide if it's the right fit for what you're trying to teach or show. Second, video is primarily a visual medium, so take advantage of that to make the story you tell with it is both easy to understand and compelling. Use techniques like camera angles, shot types, and framing appropriately in order to help your audience's comprehension and keep things interesting (related note: for an example of how making mistakes with basic framing can completely derail the story you're trying to tell, check out this scathing review of Les Miserables from Film Crit Hulk). Third, create visual tension to keep your audience's attention, for example through the Rule of Thirds.Hall emphasized how important it is to pre-plan both your individual shots as well as your sequences of shots. Doing this assures that you get all the shots you actually require, and also keeps you from filming more than you need or recording less effective versions of shots because you didn't quite know what you wanted beforehand.But all these tips are useless if you don't get one thing straight right at the beginning: don't start creating videos until you actually have a learning objective. This helps you know exactly what story to tell.4) Making Time Lapse and Stop Motion Video Speaker: Stephen HaskinWhile this session was supposed to be about making both time lapse and stop motion videos, we spent nearly all the time on time lapse techniques. Fair enough... I'm not really sure how you could tackle both effectively in only an hour and 15 minutes.So what exactly are these video styles? Well, time lapse is a type of video that's created by using still shots taken over time with an interval between them (for instance, one image for every 4 seconds of time) that are then stitched together as a video to show a sped-up version of events. You've probably seen this kind of video used in science and nature documentaries (here's a great example from YouTube). Stop motion, on the other hand, is created from shots taken over time with a deliberate movement between shots that creates an animation of sorts. The most likely place you've seen stop motion is in movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas or Coraline (my favourite example of stop motion animation is this music video for the Kenna song Hell Bent).So how do you create these types of videos? Well, we only got in to time lapse because of the short amount of time we had, but here are the details on that...MathThis is the math you can use for figuring out how many shots you need to take for the time lapse project you want to make:Start by determining the total number of frames you need: (time in seconds) x (your frame rate)Then calculate your frames per minute: (total frames)/(# of minutes)Finally, use all this to calculate your length of time between shots: (frames per minute)/60Here's the example we got in the session: to make a 30 sec time lapse of a 1 hour event, you would take 900 frames over the 1 hour event. This equals 15 frames per minute, which will mean you need 4 seconds between each frame.Production So that's the math for the timing and number of shots. But how do you go about taking the shots? Haskin recommended using the Interval Timing settings on a DSLR. This makes it easy to set up the camera to take just the right number of shots of the right length of time without you having to monitor it the whole time. Also important: keep your camera stable for the whole shooting period by using a simple tripod.Once you have your shots, keep the file names as the camera has created them (the camera will thankfully number them in chronological order for you), and move them all into a single folder. From this folder you can use Photoshop or Premiere Pro to compile them into a video. Here's the process you can use for each tool:Photoshop: Open Photoshop and use it to open your image folder. Select the 1st image. Check the Image Sequence box. Click Open. Set your frame rate. Click OK. You now have your time lapse video set up. To publish your video click File, then Export, and then Render Video. Choose your settings and you're good to go. Cool bonus: you can use Photoshop filters to add visual effects to your video. Obnoxious downside: Photoshop takes a long time to render video. Premiere Pro: Open Premier Pro and press Ctrl+N to create a new project. Set the preset to Digital SLR and choose either 720p or 1080p. Click Import, navigate to your image folder, click the 1st image, click the Image Sequence box, and then click Open. You've now got your time lapse video. When you're done, just publish as you would any regular Premiere Pro project. Plus side of this tool: it has a MUCH faster render speed than Photoshop. Minus side: it doesn't have filters like Photoshop does. 5) Keepin' It Legal: Free Stuff to Spice Up Your Training Speaker: Michelle Lentz Surprise, surprise... this was my third session of the day where the presenter, much to my delight, decided to share their full slide deck online. You can check out Lentz's excellent presentation here. It's definitely worth spending some time with if you want to find out more about Creative Commons licensing and/or are looking for a large number of useful links to free media resources. Because you can see the whole deck yourself, once again I'm going to go with the key points review for this blog post.To start, in order to use something legally you need to understand copyright. But when is something copyrighted? Why, when the idea is committed to paper/screen (not when the idea comes to your mind, but when it's actually created in a physical or digital form). A term you might have heard regarding copyright is fair use. Fair use is the idea that you can use something within copyright if you're parody it or critiquing it (this is the legal way, for instance, that shows like SNL can get away with their spoofs).When it comes to free resources you can legally use without violating copyright, there are two groups of media you'll want to be keenly aware of. First is public domain. This refers to both old media where the copyright has expired as well as some government materials as well. You can use anything in the public domain for free.The other group is the kind of licensing this session focused on leveraging: Creative Commons. What exactly is Creative Commons? It's a type of license creators can release their creations under if they want to allow it to be used for free (but possibly with some limitations). If you want a simple overview, I recommend checking out this comic explanation. This type of licensing structure was created by a group of people who were passionate about sharing information and content for free, but also wanted to give content authors a simple way to have some say over how that free content was used by others.There are currently 6 easy-to-understand types of Creative Commons licenses a content creator can choose to use for their creations. The licenses are all in plain English and the differences pretty much centralize around whether the author needs to be attributed, if the content can be altered, if it can/can't be used for commercial work, and if the content user has to also share their work under a Creative Commons license too.So, long story short, this means that there are a ton of people online who are making and sharing content that you can use for free (as long as you respect the easy-to-follow license they're sharing their stuff under). If you want to find Creative Commons media to use yourself, there are thankfully a bunch of services that can help you locate this type of content easily, and Lentz cataloged many of them in her slide deck. I've used quite a few of her website suggestions in the past and can vouch for the fact that they're a great resource to have at your disposal.One final word based on some of the questions asked in the session. Creative Commons licensing works on a lot of trust, particularly in the case of attributing the content you're using to the original author. While you could usually easily get away with not attributing content, I think it's important to keep to the spirit of Creative Commons when thinking about attribution. Remember, someone was nice enough to share that content for free. The very LEAST you can do is credit them as a thank you.That was one full and productive conference day filled with a bunch of content on learning media! I had a lot of takeaways from today, but none more than this: I am so glad more and more presenters are sharing their slide decks and resources online. It makes it so much easier to review the content and share it with others, which is what many of us come to conferences like this for.

The final day! It's kind of a relief that the last day of the conference is only a half day, since everyone is so tired at this point. Of course, it's also a bit sad that it's just a half day because the creative wheels in my head where only just getting spinning this morning and then the conference was over.Well, now's the time to take advantage of the last of the free conference wi-fi and get some blogging about today done.  :)1) We’re All in This Together: Team Collaboration Tools Speaker: Koreen Olbrish PaganoPagano did something really fun in this session: she gave us a bunch of recommendations for free team collaboration tools to check out and then basically let us all poke at the links with a stick together to see what they all did. It was a morning of guided play through a curated list of tools and I can't think of a more perfect way to start off the last, exhausting morning of the conference.So what specific tools did we play with today? Here's the list (compiled into three handy, dandy categories):Project collaborationProducteev https://www.producteev.com  Podio https://podio.comRedbooth http://redbooth.comTrello https://trello.comWiggio http://wiggio.com  Design collaborationRed Pen https://redpen.ioMarqueed https://www.marqueed.comGoVisually http://www.govisually.comInvision App http://www.invisionapp.com/m/Easy Proof http://www.easyproof.comRedmark http://redmark.comMural.ly https://mural.ly Real-time collaborationScribblar http://www.scribblar.comKollaborate.io https://www.kollaborate.io We also got a list of great (but not so free) tools to check out as well:  Project collaboration - Basecamp, BinFire, Projecturf, Zoho, Google Apps, ApolloDesign collaboration - Cage, MindmeisterReal-time collaboration - Flow, Conceptboard, GroupZap These products are all so different, so it's hard for me to make a grand declaration that one is better than another. However, there are definitely a few that I suspect will be worming their way into my heart (and workflow). For projects, Redbooth's user interface made me pretty happy, so I think I'll take it out for a proper test drive when I get back to work. For serious design work I'll likely end up using the mood board-like features of Mural.ly. For making joking annotations on pictures, though, Red Pen is a clear winner (here's the delightfully riduclous thing the group put together in the session). As for real-time collaboration, Kollaborate.io might just be the thing for times when my brainstorming buddies and I can't all be in the same place.Anyway, I thoroughly recommend that, if you're curious about these tools, you go and click on every single one of those links and see which might work best for you.2) How to Engage Learners With Digital Stories Using Free Tools Speaker: Kenneth HubbellIn this session Hubbell talked about a number of free tools you can use to put together an animated story. While we briefly touched on software like Audacity (sound recording/editing), MovieMaker (video editing), and Celtx (script writing), the vast majority of the presentation centered on an animation tool called Muvizu. This tool uses a suite of pre-created set pieces, characters, and settings that you can arrange, tweak, and light to your own preferences to create animated scenes. Add in voice over work (Muvizu does the hard work of syncing character mouth movement to your audio), stitch a bunch of these animated scenes together in sequence, and you've got an animated movie.So what does the finished product look like? Well, here's a super slick example that Muvizu linked to on their website. So you can do that with a lot of work, but you can also make stuff that's a lot clumsier (and, sadly, visually dull as dirt) too. There seem to be two secrets to using this tool in a way that doesn't look crummy. Obviously you need to figure out all the ins and outs of the camera/lighting/animation features so you can incorporate them in to your work as needed. But even if you get all that mastered, your animation will still look lousy and boring if you don't understand the basics of film making before you begin even scripting your story.What I'd suggest you do is get up-to-speed on film making techniques first (perhaps through some of the resources I talked about from the Day 2 sessions) and only try out a tool like Muvizu once you've gotten a good hold your film making basics.Let's say, though, that you know your stuff when it comes to cinematography, script writing, and directing. Is Muvizu a tool you might want to try? Well, I'm not sure. To my gamer eyes the characters and set pieces looked a bit dated. Plus, the user interface (particularly for moving your design elements and camera around the stage) was terrifyingly odd. I've never played a video game that controlled as awkwardly as this. I think it's something that you'd vaguely get used to though, so don't let the initial uncomfortableness of control completely stop your from trying out this tool.At the end of the day I might play around with this tool for fun, but don't think it's the right fit for the audience I'm designing content for. The look and feel of the final product has a rough and cartoony aesthetic that I didn't love. However, you might be in a situation where that will still work for you, so check out a few example videos and decide for yourself.3) General Session 3Speaker: Kate HartmanAs far as I'm concerned, if a conference opening session should get you excited, then an ending session should make you ponder new ideas that you'll need to mentally chew on during your journey home. By this standard, Hartman's talk about wearable technology, particularly from the angle of using it as "social prosthetics", was a perfect fit.Hartman has spent years experimenting with how technology can communicate with people. An early project she worked on was Botanicalls: a device that monitored the water levels in a potted plant's soil and actually phoned you, posing as the voice of your plant, to tell you if the plant was thirsty or overwatered. Cute, right? Well, the project morphed from phone calls to giving your plant its own Twitter account and enabling it to tweet its status to you and any of its other followers. Yes, your plant can have Twitter followers. *laugh*Since then Hartman has continued exploring alternative ways in which we can use technology to alter the ways we communicate. And through this exploration she's been focusing on communicating through wearable technology, in particular with her work as a professor of Wearable and Mobile Technology at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) and as a member of their Social Body Lab research group.Her projects have included getting her students to push the boundaries of wearable technology (check out some fun examples of past student projects here. The telepathic motion-sensitive cat vest is a personal favourite). She's also experimented with new ways to let people communicate using wearable tech, particularly through simple and cheap components like Arduino and LED lights. She shared an amusing project called Nudgeables which was designed to create a subtle way for people to communicate in a tactile way with someone else in the same room (check it out here). The challenge with this project wasn't just designing the mechanical aspect of this tool, but also to shape the design of it so it would be something people would actually want to wear too (fancy that... people don't want to walk around looking like awkward cyborgs?! *laugh*).So what does this mean to us in L&D? Well, wearable technology is likely something that's becoming a reality in our world... and not just with obvious examples like Google Glass. For instance, think about how many people you know who regularly wear a Fitbit or Nike FuelBand nowadays? I don't know about you, but I know a lot (all of which took to these devices in the last year or so). So why not stretch your brain to think not just of how to use the existing wearable tech that's out there for learning, but also contemplate the possibilities of wearable tech that could become a reality in the future?So that's it for the sessions I attended at ASTD TechKnowledge this year. Right now I'm going to track down some well-deserved lunch before I have to scamper back to Toronto on the red eye, but definitely expect a final conference post in the next few days where I'll review the conference on a whole and talk about the "joys" of staying off-site at the Flamingo.

It's Learning Solutions time again, and I'm happy to say I'm back in Orlando this year and all set for three days of live tweeting and blogging about the conference. And, natural shyness aside, I'm also giddy about getting to hang out with all the attendees and meet more of my online Twitter buddies (Twitter PLN FTW!).If you're curious about what I'm planning to cover this year, here's my (tentative) schedule:Wednesday8:30-10:00 AM - Keynote - Leapfrogging to Learning BreakthroughsSpeaker: Soren Kaplan10:45-11:45 AM - Featured Session - Subscription Learning: A Fundamentally Different Form of eLearning Speaker: Will Thalheimer1:00-2:00 PM - Where Does the Learning Occur In Games?Speaker: Rick Blunt2:30-3:30 PM - Reality TV Training as an Onboarding ProgramSpeaker: Gail Griswold and Samuel Weber  4:00-5:00 PM - Gaining Altitude: Sustaining Ed Tech CultureSpeaker: Mark Sheppard and Luc Blanchette Thursday8:30-10:00 AM - Keynote- Big Data Demystified for Learning: What's Important, What's Not, and What's NextSpeaker: Douglas Merrill10:45-11:45 AM - Doing Things With Words: Words That Work in eLearning Speaker: Lisa Russell1:00-2:00 PM - Best Practices For Enlivening the Virtual ClassroomSpeaker: Pandora Bryce3:45-4:45 PM - Telling Your Story With InfographicsSpeaker: Bianca Woods Oh look... it's my own session! I should hope I'm planning on being there.  ;)4:45-6:45 PM - SolutionFest 2014Friday8:30-9:30 AM - BYOL: Awesome Audacity - Tips and Techniques for This Free ToolSpeaker: Don Bolen9:45-10-45 AM - Today's Visual Design Trends: What Non-Designers Need to Know Speaker: Bianca WoodsYes, I'm actually doing two sessions at Learning Solutions this year. Hope to see you there!11:00 AM-12:30 PM - Keynote: Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and LearnSpeaker: Cathy DavidsonHope to see you there, either in person or on the backchannel!

I've got to say, it's nice to be at Learning Solutions in Orlando right now. Yes, obviously it's great to hear fantastic speakers and catch up with industry friends, but, as I'm sure anyone from the northeast will agree, it's even more exciting to actually be without snow for awhile! *laugh*Okay, all kidding aside, I really am happy to be back here for my second Learning Solutions. As this was a particularly session-packed day (and I have a presentation tomorrow and need my sleep) I'm going to cut to the chase and get right down to the session reflections.1) Keynote - Leapfrogging to Learning BreakthroughsSpeaker: Soren KaplanI've said this before and I'll say it again: I feel like the first session of a conference needs to focus on getting you energized and open to learning more. In this case, Kaplan definitely hit the right note with his talk of creating breakthroughs using surprise.Kaplan became interested in finding out how business leaders had made major breakthroughs, and what he found was this: many great breakthroughs involve an element of positive surprise for the customer, and sometimes even the business too. In fact, brain science confirms the benefits of this as well. When people experience a positive surprise, the pleasure centres in their brain actually light up.But how do you go about finding the right surprises? And how do you broaden your view so your focus on one issue or thing doesn't get in the way of your seeing other options? Kapan suggested there are three things anyone can do to become more innovative and find the surprise in their business or role:Rethink what your role actually is. If you're making drills, you're not really in the drill business. You're in the hole making business. If you can see what your real role is, it's easier to find surprising solutions.Fall in love with problems, not solutions. If you get married to what you think the solution should be, you're not going to be able to tell when there's an even better problem to solve.Go outside to stretch your inside. Staying inside your organization/role isn't going to challenge you to think of things in new ways. You can't just play it safe and expect to be able to find surprise. You have to step outside your comfort zone and go outside your organization/role to get new, surprising ideas. You also have to be open to trying new ideas out and possibly failing for awhile until you find an idea that sticks.Sure, I'll agree that much of his content wasn't rocket surgery or anything new, but it was a good reminder to all of us that we need to not just know these things, but actually act on them on a regular basis.2) Featured Session - Subscription Learning: A Fundamentally Different Form of eLearning Speaker: Will ThalheimerSubscription learning is a pretty simple concept: it's smaller packages of learning that you sign up to receive and get on a regular basis. It's like the magazine subscription of the learning world. While it isn't exactly a brand new idea, it is much easier to implement today than even just a few years ago (both from a tool and a cost perspective).Many L&D groups put out one-time learning events or a handful of multi-session lessons. Unfortunately, what we know about how content is actually retained tells us this isn't the best way to ensure the people actually learn the information we're trying to teach. The forgetting curve tells us that learners unfortunately don't remember much content in the long-term from one-time learning events. However, if you regularly repeat and build on content over time, people remember substantially more. Subscription-based learning is an excellent option for training in the way we know people actually retain content.When it comes to how you teach your information in a subscription situation, there are a few tips to keep in mind. First, repeated content is good, but don't repeat it the exact same way each time. Studies showed that paraphrased repeated content was much easier to remember than the exact same text repeated over and over. Also, space out your learning. Give people time in between learning content, repeating it, and adding on. This gives them some time to process.When it comes to actually delivering this content, there are numerous ways to push it out to your subscribers. Email is a simple, yet effective, option. Apps and bite-sized eLearning are other delivery method too. Even texts can be a reasonable choice in some situations. And, while we didn't discuss it in this session, there are tons of other alternatives (both tech enabled and not) you can try. How about podcasts, interactive PDFs, or videos, just to name a few?3) Where Does the Learning Occur In Games?Speaker: Rick BluntYou know, I had actually sworn off sessions on learning and games (long story), but this one pulled me in with an intriguing concept and a Twitter buddy (@rblunt81) as the speaker... particularly because I hadn't realized this friend actually had a background in games for learning (the more you know). So, I went anyway and was glad I did.To really get this session it's important to first establish what exactly a game is. Blunt's definition was simple: a game is an engaging activity in which players seek a goal by overcoming challenges within a given set of rules. That definition applies as much to a simple game of tic-tac-toe as it does to a modern videogame. Game-based learning (in this case, serious games) is just an extension of that, where the game's main purpose is learning. Games like this aren't just fun, when designed well they give nearly all types of learners a noticeable boost (the only group left out: most learners over 40... sorry guys!). Now, just like any tool, you can't use games for learning in all situations, but for the circumstances they work well in they're a good option to consider.When you're designing a game for learning there are three goals you need to consider: the business goal, the learning goal, and the game goal. Only when you've considered all three of these goals (and made sure your solutions for each aren't working against each other) can you create a game that actually teaches content in a meaningful and successful way.Then Blunt showed us an example of a serious game done right: Re-Mission. This game was designed for adolescents with cancer to both teach them about the disease, as well as prepare them for how it would affect their day-to-day life. And what was interesting to see was that, by structuring the game missions and elements around what you want players to learn (in this case, how to live with cancer) while also not forgetting the fun, you could create an engaging game that would also manage to teach players content as they played.  Game-based learning also allows for something we know is a powerful learning tool: failure in a safe environment.Now, this isn't to say that all game-based learning is effective. Goodness knows any kid from the 80s can tell you about all the well-intentioned, but content-devoid learning games they played as kids (I'm looking at you The Oregon Train). But it does mean that there are ways to make games that can lead to actual learning.And if you only take one lesson from this session, let it be this one: a game will resonate with people if you make sure to give players the opportunity to make meaningful choices.4) Reality TV Training as an Onboarding ProgramSpeaker: Gail Griswold and Samuel Weber I'll admit, other than an affection for the early seasons of Project Runway I'm not that in to reality TV. But, based on the sheer number of different reality shows available right now, it's clear that many people are attracted to this genre, so I thought it was worth taking a peek at how one team had created a reality TV-inspired onboarding program for their company.The project started out in a way that loaned itself well to an eventual session at this conference: they actually came up with the concept while attending Learning Solutions two years ago. Their old method of doing onboarding was the usual suspects: lecture and PowerPoint. The team thought it could teach the content in a more interesting way by leveraging the style of reality TV... the episodic content, the in-the-moment revelations, the confessionals, the true-to-life situations and scenarios, not to mention the drama... all of that could be a package for showing the content that new employees needed to know as they began working at this company. While the "reality" would be fully scripted (not, let's admit, unlike some current reality TV), the situations would still be written to feel as true to life as possible.However, the team hadn't created anything like this project before, so the first thing on their list was to make a proof-of-concept video. The goal of it was to both have an example of what they were trying to accomplish to show stakeholders, as well as prove to themselves that they could actually create this thing in-house for a reasonable cost. So, they made the proof of concept with the barest of bones resources and used themselves as the actors. Because they were just creating a proof of concept it didn't need to be perfect and polished, it just needed to show the gist of the idea. The video worked, they got buy in early on in the project, and even managed to acquire a bit of a budget for better tools too.Then came casting. They knew they wanted to make episodic content revolving around a few major characters, they knew they needed to find in-house employees to be their actors, and they most assuredly knew they didn't want to be the actors themselves. So they did the equivalent of a casting call and screen test. They asked for people to audition using a short script with three mini-scenes, recorded it all on video, and then focus tested the results to land on the best choices for the job. In this case, once they had the cast settled, only then did they start deciding what their characters would be like (a great option if you're using amateur actors: work around the talent and range your people have to offer). In the end they put together 5 characters who represented the various average new employees in their workplace (read: not just new graduates!) and got ready to film.The setup for filming was relatively simple. They wrote a detailed script that included many of the standard reality TV tropes; picked up a decent DSLR camera for filming; added a microphone, 3-light set up, and green screen as supplies; and started filming their main footage as well as b-roll. They then used Adobe Premier Pro, Flypaper, Camtasia, and Adobe After Effects to edit and add in effects, and then packaged the results (along with some accompanying eLearning) in Articulate Storyline. And there you have it: a reality TV-style training program.Here's one final thing they did that I found interesting: they created buzz around the project even in its early stages by sharing a music video, trailers, and sneak previews with the organization. By the time the episodes were ready to share, people were already excited about the project and itchy to get their hands on it. This isn't the first time I've heard of learning projects successfully using an ad campaign to drive interest, and I really hope it's a practice that we consider using more often in L&D on a whole.5) Gaining Altitude: Sustaining Ed Tech CultureSpeaker: Mark Sheppard and Luc Blanchette Here's another session I attended both on the appeal of the topic as well as the appeal of seeing a Twitter buddy present (this time it was @MarkLearns). What can I say, it's my duty to heckle... um... I mean "support" my fellow Canadian presenters, right? Okay, all joking aside, I work in a conservative and heavily regulated industry (banking & finance) and I was curious to see how Sheppard and Blanchette had managed to encourage and sustain ed tech culture in an equally strict industry (the Canadian military).The school Sheppard and Blanchette design training for is the Canadian Forces School for Aerospace Technology and Engineering. You'd think that a school with the work "technology" in the name would be all on top of using technology for training. Alas, you'd be wrong. The typical method of training is your standard one: lecture and (often bad) PowerPoint. Training aids are surprisingly old. Instructor turnover is, for a multitude of reasons, incredible high (1/3 per year) and many people selected to be instructors have little to no experience as formal teachers. Not a comfortable situation, but one that was most assuredly ready for some revamping.I loved that, at the end of the day, Sheppard and Blanchette came up with a flight-related analogy for how you make ed tech culture thrive in this, or any other, environment. They suggested that there are four forces at work on ed tech culture: lift, thrust, weight, and drag. You need to achieve balance between all four in order to succeed, and to do that you need to do the following:Improve lift: Find ways to be cost efficient and align your work with corporate objectives. As well, be sure to make the "trifecta of advocacy" happy: the buyer, client, and consumer.Reduce weight: Make due with less. Be responsible with funds. Get approval from the myriad of people you need to get approval from and go through all the hoops required. (While this wasn't directly stated in the session itself, I have to imagine that reducing both the number of people who need to approve decisions/content and the number of hoops that you have to jump through would also reduce weight).Increase thrust: Focus on project success. Make sure your projects are able to fulfil a need and/or solve a problem. Look for easy opportunities to meet a need too.Decrease drag: Alas, a main source of drag seems to be people who are disinterested in change. Decreasing drag could involve helping them to become more accustomed to change (and get them to buy-in to the plan), addressing their fears directly, or even just waiting for these people to choose to leave on their own.These forces aren't ever going to go away, which is why it's so important to acknowledge them and work to keep them as balanced as possible.This is the part where I'd write a wrap up... except it's super late and I need to sleep or I'll end up walking into walls tomorrow. So, to summarize quickly, yea Learning Solutions Day 1!

Day Two of the conference featured absurdly good weather, yet again. Seriously, it is making me so happy to not be wearing a big, bulky coat (and, even with that, STILL be freezing to death). *sigh* I don't want to move back to FL anytime soon, but it's definitely great to visit at this time of year.So here's what I was up to today...1) General Session- Big Data Demystified for Learning: What's Important, What's Not, and What's NextSpeaker: Douglas MerrillI feel like most conferences have at least one session these days that focuses on a buzzword topic (not a complaint, just an observation). So this was our LSCon trend topic session: big data.Big data is something we hear about constantly, but often without much context other than "Look at all the info we can capture! More info must mean we'll do better at _____." But Merrill made the point that there's no guarantee that'll actually happen. In fact, he made some very sensible challenges to the idea that big data is an automatic game changer.On one hand, big data isn't this magical, mystical thing it's sometimes made it out to be. Many people get stressed out at the very mention of the word "math", and so they buy in to this religion of data because it's a way of dealing with the potential for data and math to help us, without going into the actual details of how exactly it can do that. You don't have to understand the data... you just have to have faith that it works.Except there are so many ways to manage and interpret data, so if you don't understand how that process works, you're going to just mangle what all your data actually means. Be aware of how outliers can warp results in weird ways. Acknowledge that data isn't independent, it's always connected to other factors ("No data is an island..." *laugh*). Understand how the real world can be messier and more chaotic than mere data can represent.Or, to summarize, ignore your anxiety and go take a great Stats 101 class (seriously, stats is the best kind of math for people who hate math)!On the other hand, if you can learn to interpret data properly, it can empower you to do some fantastic things. It allows companies to pay better attention to what their customers are actually doing, not what they think they're doing. For instance, take the music industry back when they were in the early days of dealing with pirated MP3s. They thought the solution was to sue the people who were illegally downloading the most of their music. But, as it turns out, these exact same people were also the users who were spending the most on legal downloads as well. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot instead of looking at the bigger picture. Now, this doesn't mean you only listen to what your customers want and do. That mindset gets in the way of innovation (sometimes customers can't actually conceive of the new thing they might someday want),. That said, it's definitely worth paying attention to data for interpreting what your customers are actually doing.Crowdsourcing is another angle on using big data smartly. Done right it allows you to use a wide array of sources to do things as different as building a spell correct system for Google searches or hiring more effectively.At the end of the day big data isn't the magical solution that some people think it is, but if you use it smartly (and stop being so darn afraid of math) it can be more effective than skeptics would lead you to believe.So overall the session was enjoyable. However, there was one thing that, while it may have seemed small to others, stuck out to me. Merrill made this crack during his talk about the CEO of Zappos and what exactly it said about him that he spent so much time around women's shoes. I'm sure he wasn't intending to be a jerk, but, you know, that's not the kind of comment that would be likely to make a transgender Guild member feel particularly welcome. It's more often the repeated little things, like those kinds of jokes, that make people feel like they're not a part of a community and I would have thought a lot more of the session had that one thoughtless joke not been there.2) Doing Things With Words: Words That Work in eLearning Speaker: Lisa RussellIn this session we talked about the nuts and bolts of the words, phrasing, and sentences we choose to use in our training.Words, even a small number of them, have the power to move people. Take, for instance, Ernest Hemingway's famous 6-word story:"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."It's just a few words, but because they're so cleverly chosen they can still stir a surprising amount of emotions. And yet, when most people write they pad out their content, using filler words and sloppy sentence structure to convey information clumsily. But in training, we don't have the luxury of letting our writing meander. If you don't grab people in the first few words, you may have lost them for good. So you need to make your prose snappy, and you need to figure out what your specific audience will actually respond to.So how can you fix this? First, pay attention to your phrasing. Arrange your words for emphasis, keeping in mind that the first and last words in a sentence will get special attention. Next, don't be a word hoarder by padding your writing with filler words. If you can't tell your information simply, you don't know it well enough. Also, use active, not passive words. Passive language kills the action in what you're writing.Finally, use the framework of the MEAL plan to balance your paragraphs:M: Your main ideaE: Your evidenceA: AnalysisL: Link back to the main idea or lead out to the next oneKeeping these tips in mind can make your writing clear and concise.3) Best Practices For Enlivening the Virtual ClassroomSpeaker: Pandora BryceYou know what's a bizarre but amusing experience? Live tweeting a session lead by a coworker where she's presenting a case study involving your own workplace. Not bad... just a bit surreal. *laugh*Bryce used this session to talk about two aspects of virtual classrooms (VCs): a summary of some of the ways we use VCs at BMO Financial Group and a selection of VC roadblocks (plus suggestions for ways around some of them).So, for context, we run about 110 VCs per week at BMO and have 50+ certified VC facilitators. That is a lot of VC content. On the plus side, VCs have no travel costs, don't require a physical classroom, enable broader access to training, have features that are difficult/expensive to replicate in classrooms, allow anonymous knowledge checks, make it easy to capture questions and output, and are, no surprise, relatively cheap. On the other hand, all of them suffer from the same problem: it's a challenge to maintain learner attention.So there are a few VC best practices that can help attract and keep people's attention in them:Bryce then followed this with a description of two programs at BMO that use VCs in engaging ways, one for Customer Service Representatives (bank tellers) and another for first time leaders. In both cases the VCs were just one part of the program, with eLearning, manager 1-on-1s, and group work (obviously done via conference calls) included in the overall experience. The VCs themselves were used not for basic content that was explained by a talking head, but instead for facilitated group discussions and debriefs on the more complex, grey areas of the content. And using VCs for discussion and talking through tricky issues tended to get people to buy in to the learning experience substantially more than just asking them to put on a headset and listen to a live lecture.As for VC roadblocks (and a few suggestions for solving for them), Bryce mentioned 3:Human Obstacles: What if people don't do their prework? What if they haven't figured out their tech setup before the session. Solutions can include giving them training and support on the tech side of things long before the session starts. Also, set their expectations for the VC early, so they get why the prework is important.Organizational Obstacles: In the case of the new customer service representatives, when they began their training many of them didn't have access to corporate email or the company intranet yet. Plus, many bank branches only had a single computer available for employees to use for training, which meant you couldn't schedule more than one person at a branch at once for a VC at any given time. Because learners didn't have remote access to the intranet either, they couldn't do their training remotely from home. As well, there was a culture of text and content-heavy slides for VCs that didn't work well for learners.Technology Issues: What if the technology doesn't work as planned? Obviously doing the pre-session tech test first helps, but sometimes things just stop working in the session itself. What should you do then?If you can figure out your own team's solutions to these barriers, it makes running VCs much easier.4) Telling Your Story With InfographicsSpeaker: Bianca Woods Oh look... it's my own session!Obviously I'm not going to review my own talk. However, I am going to to do the "share your work" thing and give you a link to my session resources page. It's got links to all the tools I talked about in this session (plus a few more I thought were worth sharing), the session slide deck, and my full speakers notes.Enjoy!And this has turned into yet another terribly late night for me. So I'm going to keep this wrap up short by saying this conference continues to be excellent in all ways.

Okay, it's taken me a bit of time to get this up here (I blame a terrifying wave of post-conference exhaustion) but here's your wrap up of Learning Solutions: Day 3 (AKA: the half day in which everyone is both ready to fall over from tiredness AND still sad the conference is almost over).1) BYOL: Awesome Audacity - Tips and Techniques for This Free ToolSpeaker: Don BolenThis was a walkthrough of the basics of using Audacity, so it's a bit hard to give you all a rundown of what happened other then yes... we did get a great introduction to the tool. Instead, here are a few links that will help you get up to speed with this tool:You can download Audacity for Windows, Mac, and Linux (yes, Linux!) here.Learning the keyboard shortcuts in Audacity will speed up your workflow a lot. Here's a handy dandy keyboard shortcut cheat sheet I found.One of the first steps in getting used to Audacity is figuring out what everything on the Control Toolbar actually does. Here's a quick guide to it.Finally, here's the Audacity help manual. Among other things, it also has a number of tutorials.I'd actually never used Audacity before this session, but had previously had friends tell me it was a great tool. By the end of this session I'd have to say I agree. While it's not remotely as easy for newbies to just pick up and go the way Garageband can be, once you have someone show you the ropes it's pretty simple. It's also substantially more powerful in a lot of ways than Garageband. I honestly wish there was some way to mesh the ease of use and friendly UI of Garageband with the power of Audacity.2) Today's Visual Design Trends: What Non-Designers Need to Know Speaker: Bianca WoodsYes, I actually did two sessions at Learning Solutions this year.I'm going to do the exact same thing I did with my Thursday session: show my work by giving you the link to my session resources website. It's got links to all the tools I talked about in this session (plus a few more I thought were worth sharing), the session slide deck, and my full speakers notes. Enjoy!3) Keynote: Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and LearnSpeaker: Cathy DavidsonAwww... the last session of the conference. It's always a bit bittersweet.In this session Davidson explored the idea of attention, in particular how our perception of how well we pay attention to the world around us doesn't typically mesh well with reality. In our heads we think we're fantastic at paying attention, but as it turns out we're rather rubbish at noticing things outside of what we're focused on.To make matters worse, it's incredibly easy to manipulate our focus. Take this famous video: the Monkey Business Illusion (AKA: the Gorilla Test). Don't read any farther... just go watch this video and come back.Did you watch the whole video? Great.So did you notice all the other stuff going on in the video? Chances are you missed most or even all of it beyond the basketball. Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with you in particular, this is just a demonstration of how human brains tend to focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. Our attention can be influenced by others (such as the directions in the gorilla video telling you to focus on the basketballs), but it can also be influenced by our own experience. Yes, your expertise can actually make you less inclined to notice some things because your attention is guided by your expectations and past experience. This is why sometimes a newbie can notice things that experts can't, particularly if that thing is surprising.Yes, our brains sometimes betray us. So what can we do? Well, we need to leverage tools and partners to help us see the whole picture and catch the things we miss. Here are a few ways you can do this:Like I mentioned before, think about including thoughtful non-experts (or people who aren't close to a project) in some of your reviews and discussions. Their lack of expert focus will actually cause them to see things and expert might miss. Of course, thoughtful is the key word here in choosing who to ask to be your non-expert in the room. Don't do everything alone. Team up with other people who have different skills and experiences from you. These differences will help your group pick up on different things (this is one of the great arguments in favour of team diversity).Just simply talk about ideas/problems with others.Everyone has different things that help them focus their attention. Do some reflection and think about what things work specifically for you, then remember to use these techniques regularly.The session wrapped with Davidson talking about how our current education system is rooted in the Industrial Age mindset of just teaching kinds to have singleminded focus and punctuality... the exact skills required to work in a factory. However, these skills don't prepare us for our world today, a world in which it's much more important to be able to see topics both deeply and broadly. A world in which it's not just important to know how to learn skills, but also know how to unlearn and relearn skills too. A world in which we're lifelong learners. Changing how we teach (and the values our teaching methods imply) is the best way to strengthen our ability to notice more and come up with better solutions.And so Learning Solutions 2014 came to an end. As always I found myself happy I had attended, but really ready to take a nap for about three days straight.As a final side note, this year the conference was helpful not just for learning from sessions and other attendees, but also for this spectacular reveal about DevLearn 2014:Oh HECK yeah!!!Yeah, the fangirl squeeing will be non-stop until October.  :)

Hello and welcome to my very first ASTD ICE! Thankfully, the weather in Washington DC has decided to make my first ICE conference (and my first trip to DC) just stunning. I got in early on Saturday, which meant I was able to spend a day checking out the Air and Space Museum as well walking around to see all the major monuments. That was over 6 hours of walking, not including my trip to in to town earlier in the day, so needless to say my legs were more than a bit sore today. Of course, I didn't let that stop me from walking over to the Dupont Circle Farmers Market early this morning (I can't recommend it enough if you're in DC for a weekend).I regret nothing!So, how about the conference? Well, Day 1 was a good day, but a short one too as there were only three sets of sessions today. Here's what I saw...1) Four Ways To Use Digital Curation In LearningSpeaker: Ben BettsCuration is a pretty big buzzword in learning right now, but it's one of the ones I actually think is worth the fuss. What exactly is curation? Well, to hyper-simplify a bit, curation is the process of carefully sifting through information and then thoughtfully putting together just the pieces that contribute to a specific story or theme. Museums do this when they put together exhibits and collections. I do this when I make Pinterest boards on cheap design assets or things I think are cute. There's probably less of an audience for my cute things Pinterest board than there is for the work the Smithsonian does, but it all still counts as passionate curation where the sum is greater than the individual parts on their own.But what makes a person a great curator? This question was posed to the audience and got back answers such as:having enough knowledge to ask good questions about content (but not so much specialized knowledge that they can't see things from other points of view)being able to evaluate content wellcuriositypassionan understanding of their intended audiencethe ability to see the big picture of how content comes togethera knack for building collectionsanalytical skillsstorytellingBetts had his own answer to this question. He believes a good curator stores items, transforms them through context, and shares them with others. They add value by aggregation, distillation, and reflection.So curation clearly has to be done with skill and purpose for it to work well. It's not just mindlessly collecting everything in a certain theme like a Pokemon trainer. It involves finding just the right pieces of content and enthusiastically putting them together in a way that brings even greater meaning than the pieces had on their own.So, back to learning and curation. Many companies have this mindset that in order for our learning content to be good, we have to make it all ourselves (and cover it entirely in our own branding to boot). The thing is, as Betts put it, that the world is actually full of content, so we should move away from constantly creating content and consider curating it instead. Why do we always have to reinvent the wheel? Why can't we leverage the hard (and valid) work others have done using curation skills?As well, Betts says the work we do in training has changed and is now more focused than ever on finding new solutions rather than using existing ones. And what better way of doing this than collaborating with others through curation?!So what does this "curation for learning" actually look like in practice? Well, Betts suggests four starting points to try out:Inspiration: Use curated content to spark learner curiosity and thoughtsInstruction: Take a look at how you can leverage curated content in your formal coursesIntegration: Have learners curate content themselvesApplication: Encourage learners to create their own content from their real life experiences that can be curated by othersAnd what's the best way to get a handle on curation? Why, by curating content yourself!As a complete side note, the slide deck used for this session was stellar. The slides were clear and to the point, and the hand drawn chalk graphics were delightful. See for yourself:How charming is this?!2) Calibrating Your Confidence Meter!Speaker: Barbara RocheHave you ever been to a session that just doesn't livetweet well? This was one of those sessions. I rather enjoyed it, but with the more touchy-feely topic and the large number of activities, I get the sense it came across as more flaky and dry than it actually was. I'm hoping I can blog about it in a more engaging way, but if I can't, just know this: I felt it was well worth attending.So, confidence. Some people have it in spades, some people really struggle with trying to have any at all. Full disclosure, despite appearances I often fall pretty far into the latter camp. Distressingly far.We also can have varying levels of confidence in different situations. One of the session activities was to look at a list of ten situations, ranging from public speaking to taking on a project that requires skills you don't yet have, and rate your confidence in them. When my table discussed our results our numbers were wildly different. Some of us were rather self assured in the work situations, and terribly unsure in the social ones, and then some of us were the polar opposite. It really is an individual thing.But, regardless of whether you get into a crisis of confidence about taking a vacation by yourself or while asking for a raise, that crisis can really get in your way. And a crisis of confidence can happen to anyone, no matter how outwardly successful you may be. If you want to overcome whatever your personal confidence barriers are, there are a number of general tips that you can apply to help you along the way.First, you have to actually have a growth mindset: a belief that you're continuously learning, are willing to try, and your qualities are malleable (terrible related joke - Q: How many therapists does it take to change a lightbulb? A: One. But the lightbulb has to really want to change). You also have to become more aware of you inner monologue and what it's telling you. The things you tell yourself can frame how you interpret your own abilities, so you have to be careful not to accidentally sabotage yourself with beating yourself down.Next, you need to become more aware of what makes you awesome (my words, not Roche's) and get comfortable thinking of yourself (and presenting yourself to others) that way. This is essentially figuring out what your personal brand is: what awesomeness you bring to the table. To get started on this, Roche put up a huge list of potential words you could use to describe yourself and then asked us each to select the three that we felt described our skills the best.I picked passionate, humorous, and expressive. How about you?Those words are the start of being more mindful of what you actually have to offer the world. Use them to figure out how to play to your strengths in a situation you're less confident in (or consider using the broader list to try and figure out where you and another person might be having a disconnect because of drastically different skills).Next up is taking a look at the people you surround yourself with. Roche mentioned the Jim Rohn quote "We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with." That can be a scary thought if you look around you and see yourself regularly in the presence of people who tear others down, don't support anyone but themselves, or always see the world as out to get them. It's no wonder that people in that situation don't feel overwhelmed with confidence. So what can you do? You need to change the people you're around the most. In some cases that may be as extreme as leaving a job or a relationship, but it doesn't always have to be. You can simple refuse to let those people be whiny, mean, insufferable, and/or energy sucking around you. You'd be surprised how well just shutting down negative conversations right when they start can be for changing how people talk to you (or encouraging negative people to go whine somewhere else).Next is how you project yourself to others. Your body language does a lot to shape how people view you. It also subconsciously shapes how you view yourself too. So stand up straight and use confident body language. Even just faking-it-til-you-make-it can change how you feel about yourself and how others interpret you. As well, be thoughtful about what you say and how you say it. Things like mitigated speech and upspeak can lead people to believe you're confused or unsure of what you're saying. Trying to correct yourself out of those habits can do a lot to convince others to see you as someone who knows what they're talking about.So that was the session in a nutshell. If you want more information on becoming more confident, then I recommend checking out Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. Yes, it's technically a business book, but she talks a lot about how to overcome a lack of confidence (in particular, how to cope with one of the bigger confidence disruptors I know of: impostor syndrome).3) User Experience Design for LearningSpeaker: Julie DirksenDefining user experience is reasonably simple (at least, if you forgive some massive oversimplification): it's the experience someone has through the journey of interacting with a thing/product/service/etc. User experience is somewhat subjective (my experience may be different than yours simply because we're different people with different expectations and experiences), but there are ways to craft great user experiences based on what we know, on average, about our target audience. There are also some broader best practices in user experience design that pretty much apply to everything.The remote on the right is, no matter what the audience is, just plain crummy user experience designSo, and here's what appears to be the question of the day, how does this apply to learning? Well, whether we realize it or not, we all design user experiences on a regular basis, be it with designing eLearning lessons, putting together participant guides, or making resource websites. The thing is, if the design gets in the way of how your audience wants to interact with it, then a bunch of their brain is being used to figure out how they're supposed to interact with it instead. Want to bet that this means less of their brain is available for... you know... the actual learning?!And so, we need to be aware of when we're designing or influencing user experience in our training and put our end user in mind when we make design choices. This can be tricky when you're in the dreaded "order taker" position, where your SME, stakeholder, or client just tells you what they want you to do and expects you to simply comply. But hey, who said our job was easy and stress free? We need to convince these people (and, let's be honest, ourselves too sometimes) that thoughtfully creating an experience that focuses on the audience's needs makes for better, stickier content. And what better way to do that than to learn from the industry that's been tackling this problem for ages: user experience (UX) design.So here are a bunch of the tips you can learn from UX:First, don't design in a tunnel. You need to go outside of your own experiences when you make something for others or else you may end up blinded to the problems it has (the whole "it's hard to edit your own work" issue).Next, if you have the opportunity, go out and actually observe your users in their real world setting and simply talk to them. Often subject matter experts are great at telling you how things should happen, not how they actually happen. Observations and conversations with your users will tell you a lot about how things actually work in the real world. Observing also provides another benefit: people sometimes leave out telling you about the steps/tasks they've personally automated. This is like most of the math teachers I had in school: they know how to do the task they're trying to teach you, but they skip steps because they're so knowledgable that they don't even think about those parts anymore. So they tend not to tell you some things just because they're second nature to them now.Observing has one additional benefit: it shows you the triggers that tell a person when they actually need to use the content you want to train them on. Knowing that can help you better decide how to present that content. It also tells you how to make sure your training resembles the real word application as much as possible. Never let it be forgotten that the closer a practice experience is to the real thing, the better that practice translates into being able to use that skill or knowledge in the real world.Another thing that UX does that we in L&D could stand to leverage is personas (or, as we call them at work, learner profiles). These are documents that summarize one or some of the different target audiences for what we're creating. Obviously not every one of our learners will be exactly the same, but it's worthwhile to figure out what things most of them have in common so that you can build your user experience with them in mind. Remember, good design isn't the same for everyone, so you need to have general understanding of your audience in order to build something that works well for them.Something else to try is prototyping and user testing. Build mockups of what you're creating, then let a small group of potential users (always make sure they come from your target audience) try it out and give you feedback. Observe what was easy for them, what didn't work well, and where they got confused. Reflect on that feedback, suggest changes, make those changes, and test again. You'll be amazed at what will seem easy and straightforward to you and your team, but will make your audience stumble.At the end of the day, the simple truth is that design changes behaviour. Bad design can lead to flawed learning. But great, audience-centred design can make mastering your content so much easier for your learners.On a related note, I felt like a lot of what we talked about in this session related back strongly to great product design. Dirksen acknowledged this by recommending we all read The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. I also suggest checking out the documentary Objectified and the podcast 99% Invisible.So that's it for the first day. I actually kind of liked this more mellow start to a conference. It makes it a bit easier to ramp up and get into conference mode than the ones that just fill the first day up to the brim with sessions and content.Join me tomorrow for more blog coverage of this event. Also, shameless plug, if you're at ASTD ICE and looking for a Monday afternoon session, definitely consider popping over to my talk on infographics at 1:00pm in room 144BC.

Day 2 was a busy day for me. Not only was I all set to watch a bunch of sessions, but I was scheduled to give one of my own too. On top of that, I promised a co-worker that I would hit the Expo hall on her behalf. All and all, a good, but exhausting day.1) Keynote: Arianna HuffingtonDid you know that Arianna Huffington was funny? I sure didn't until this session. Always a nice surprise to find that out about a speaker, don't you think?Anyway, the point of this session was how do deal with change and succeed in life in a healthy way. Huffington pointed out that society typically recognizes two measures of success: power and wealth. Trying to achieve those two, though, can come at a pretty pricy cost to ourselves though. Huffington saw this happen to her, when her drive to burn the candle at both ends actually caused her to pass out at her desk from exhaustion.And so, she wondered if there might be a third way we could start to recognize success. One that wouldn't require us to work 24/7 until we burn out. And so, she proposed a new measure of success. One with the following four pillars:Well-BeingScience falls pretty strongly on the side of "less sleep makes you more dumb," and yet so many workplaces push people to work as much as possible. Huffington compares this to encouraging people to come to work drunk. It's not safe and the work tired people make is not terribly dissimilar to the junk they'd crank out if they were hammered.To do our very best work, we need to start by being very well rested. Make sure to get a full night's sleep, take time for naps, and for the love of god keep your smart phone away from where you sleep. Beyond catching some winks, you also need to rest your brain. Our world is full of input, and our attempts to multi-task often just leave our brains overworked. Take every opportunity to be in the moment and just concentrate on one thing at a time. You'll be surprised at how much less exhausted it makes you.WisdomWisdom isn't just knowing facts. It's being able to see the big picture, avoid obstacles, make intuitive jumps and create a vision for how things could be.WonderStep back and just connect with the mystery of the universe. I think sometimes we take for granted just how spectacularly cool our world is. It's healthy and refreshing to tap back in to that wonder at everything around us that we had as a kid.Personally, when I'm in need of a bit of a wonder jump start, I always watch this video. It really is my happy place sometimes.GivingYou know what's cool? Research currently shows that giving time and/or money can give you the same boost in happiness as an increase in income. So we need to remember to make giving a priority. It's good for other people, and it's good for us too.To wrap up, Huffington insisted that we all have a place of strength, peace, wisdom, and joy and it's time we live life connected to that place... time to choose to live life not with stress and burnout, but with compassion, creativity, and rest.2) Telling Your Story With InfographicsSpeaker: Bianca WoodsI had an awesome time facilitating this session, in large part due to a fantastic audience who was willing to participate (and ignore the occasional odd flickering of the room overhead lights). If you weren't able to make the session, you can still check out the in-depth session reference website I created. It's got links to the tools and sites I talked about in my session (plus a few more I thought people would like), my PowerPoint deck, and all my speaking notes. Enjoy!3) Train Like a Rockstar: Speaking Tips From a Stand-Up ComedianSpeaker: Jeff BirkWhen you think about it, it's not surprising that presenting to a group and doing stand up have more than a bit in common. Sure, the content is different, but the set up is the same. In both cases you have an audience (in some cases, a hostile one) that is counting on you to keep their attention and tell them something they didn't already know. And so Birk, a professional comedian, decided to share his tips for leveraging the skills one needs in stand up to make you a successful presenter.I should start by pointing out that Birk mentioned early on that this didn't mean that in order to learn from stand up you had to make your content funny. Some content just doesn't hit right if you make it into jokes. Make light of something like diversity or sexual harassment and you're likely to make your audience ticked off, not engaged. But there are other techniques comedians use that you can try out in even the most serious of classes (and you can always pull out the jokes and light heartedness in the right occasions). Here are some of the key tips he mentioned:Find a good balance between not being dull, but not being over the top either.Don't make the session about you (the facilitator). Make it about the audience and the content.Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse... especially your first 3 minutes of the presentation so you can be sure to start out solid.Rehearse enough where your presentation is so second nature that you can actually riff and improv off it based on the room.What can often work better than just straight humour? Mentioning something poignant that's strongly related to your topic.Have trouble memorizing things? Use visualizing to connect images with what you need to say. Then recall that imaging when you need to present.Use self-deprecating humour to connect to your audience.Don't let intimidation get to you. Always remember that you are the expert! There's a lot of power in memorizing at least a few audience member names and using them throughout the session. Repeat people's names to commit them to memory.You've got to have a little ego as a presenter.Nobody cares about your product or service: they care about what it means to THEM.Use light banter, both before your session and at the beginning, to get people comfortable and friendly.Be aware that if people are tuned out, it's not always because of you. You don't know what else is going on in their life that could make them not feel engaged at the moment.Audience is unattentive? 1) Stop talking. 2) Light-heartedly call them on it. Every great speaker still has quirks/tics. Have someone watch you speak and let you know about yours.Know your audience so you can connect with them. Also remember that knowing your audience requires emotional and cultural intelligence. Not everyone reacts/converses/interprets everything the same way.Finally, Birk made a strong point that I think he did a great job of following in his own talk: use humour to make impact, but be careful not have it override what you're trying to teach.4) Even a Duck Can Drown: The 6 Keys to Building Career ResilienceSpeaker: Maureen OreyDid you know that ducklings aren't born able to float? It takes a bit of time for them to develop the skills they need to stay buoyant. In a similar vein, none of use are born magically able to be resilient. That's a skill that takes time to build too. And, from the stories I heard in the room about layoffs and job cuts, it's a skill that you'll want to hone fast.So how do you go from an easy-to-drown newbie to a seasoned veteran whose career can stay afloat no matter what challenges they face? These 6 steps!Build a supportive networkStaying connected to others, both in our industry and outside of it, will help you stay inspired... and also help you out when you have a problem. There were a lot of people in this session who mentioned how the power of a great network can help you find a new job rapidly, but it can also help you in smaller ways too, like fixing an issue on a project or hearing about a new tool or technique to try out. I adore my network so, no surprise, I just maybe have written about the value of a strong personal learning network in the past.Develop new skills and resourcesYou can't just do things the way you've always done them and expect to continue to succeed. Things change, and you need to change with them. Learn to adapt by developing new skills, being open to new ideas, identifying new resources, being flexible, and changing your mindset.Apply and practice your new skills dailyIt's not just enough to learn new skills, you also need to use them on a regular basis or they'll atrophy. How can you do this? Make it a priority to practice your new skills, be proactive, take risks, believe in yourself, then REPEAT!Take care of your healthThis seemed to be a bit of the the theme of the day, now didn't it?! No surprise, though, because personal health is so vital to keeping us sharp and energized. Of course, this isn't just our physical health that we need to take care of, but our emotional health too. So take care of yourself (physically, emotionally, and financially), eat right, exercise, avoid toxic people, get rest, and stop any negative self-talk.Follow your instinctsThis is the one that, personally, I think a "your mileage may vary" warning needs to be applied. I agree that you need to push yourself outside your comfort zone and be brave enough to trust your instincts once and awhile. But don't do it to the point that you don't take logic and/or research into account too. As well, this ability to take a risk on a gut feeling requires having a certain amount of privilege, don't you think? For instance, someone with no nest egg and dependants has a lot less wiggle room to take big chances than a single person with a decent savings account.And, as always, don't let the mantra of "follow your instincts" feel like it gives you permission to violate Wheaton's Law.Work hard and use gritBe tenacious and scrappy. Sometimes, let's be honest, life is kinda crummy. When things get hard, work even harder to keep them from getting you down.But was that the end of Day 2 for me? Not a bit. I did what was one of my favourite things from the entire conference: I went out for dinner with a few other attendees and just chatted for the rest of the night over tasty food. Really, is there anything better than great company and nerding out about learning? I think not!Plus, I got some great tips for how I can start learning to play that ukulele I've been neglecting. Who would have guessed?!