ASTD TechKnowledge What a Great Experience!

I just got home last night from attending the ASTD TechKnowledge Expo.  What an amazing experience!  ASTD is the American Society for Training and Development.  

I had the opportunity to listen to Jane McGonigal and Stuart Crabb.  These two keynote speakers transformed me.  I realized that I was stuck in a rut of just completing training to tick off a box and I really need to consider the future of my learners.  

Jane McGonigal is a game designer who designs socially-conscious games that can bring about social and political change.  Which would you prefer to do, go to class, listen to lectures, and take a test; or, would you like to play a game where you can fail and learn and figure out to succeed?  I know my answer is the latter.  What is nice, is that it doesn't have to be overly technical to begin this process in our own training lives.  This woman's games have generated new ideas and predicted future problems.  I am looking forward to reading her book "Reality is Broken."  If she writes as well as she speaks, I am in for a treat.

Stuart Crabb is the head of Learning and Development for Facebook.  He appears to be about my age and lives a life that inspires.  Facebook's company model is definitely something to consider when taking on the challenges and collaborative needs of learners and employees.  No one, not even Zuckerberg, has an office.  They don't even have cubes.  Everyone works collaboratively and their basics needs are managed.  When staff feels empowered, they give much more to their organizations.  One of the newest innovations delivered by Facebook was suggested and designed by an Intern!  The latest generation of learners and employees will need a different paradigm and companies that disregard that paradigm shift will end up behind and could end up lost completely.

One course I took shared with us a list of free training and collaboration tools.  It was eye opening and here it is two days later and I am already using and hoping to fully implement these features within my own company.  

Several other courses inspired me to change the whole way I look at delivering training. Now, the task is to convince others.  I hope that my management team will see how excited I am about delivering this new style.

If you aren't a member of ASTD, join.  If you are a student the cost is not overwhelming and it is worth every penny.  This one event more than paid fo my investment.