I’ve just returned from attending the Adobe Learning Summit 2011, and from being both presenter and attendee at the eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions 2011 conference. I had a fantastic time. Both conferences had excellent keynote speakers: Steven Berlin Johnson on the collaborative nature of innovation, John Medina on applying “brain rules” to learning, Nancy Duarte on visual impact, and Michael Wesch with a moving final talk on the implicit social responsibility behind social media. There were also some very good peer-led sessions as well at both conferences. Plus, it’s always exciting to see the new eLearning products from the vendors at the Expo. Articulate’s upcoming “Storylines” and Michael Allen’s long-awaited “Zebra” are both coming to market this year, and you should keep an eye on both of those software applications; they have enormous potential.
At the Adobe Summitt, I was delighted to meet Shameer, Akshay, RJ, Allen, and a lot more of the brilliant folks behind Adobe’s wonderful Captivate software. They were great to talk to, and extremely responsive to everyone’s suggestions for future enhancements. I’m sending them a list!
It was fantastic to have the two conferences co-located in the same week; I hope that becomes an annual plan. The perfect Orlando weather didn’t hurt, either.
In addition to my full-day pre-conference certificate program on voiceovers (see my next post for a write-up!) as part of the Learning Solutions conference, I also led a one-hour Presentation Skills 101 class each of the three days of that conference, helping e-Learning professionals overcome the classic roadblocks to delivering an engaging and inspiring presentation, regardless of the topic or medium. The attendees participated actively, contributing great examples from their own experiences, and gave me great reviews afterward. I like to think that there are a lot more e-Learning professionals out there now who can get up in front of any audience with confidence and really make a difference. I was very pleased that Nancy Duarte’s conceptual talk about the importance of “resonating” with an audience was a perfect companion talk to my own sessions, which provided hands-on ways to do it!
I also met a lot of great people from all over the place, and hope a lot of us can stay in touch here, on LinkedIn, and on Facebook, now that the conferences are over. My only regret: I couldn’t fit the gorgeous Orlando weather into my suitcase to bring home with me! 😀
NOTE: If you attended one of my Presentation Skills 101 sessions, I’d love to hear from you about how you’re implementing the tips & tricks I shared. I’m always happy to bounce around new ideas, or offer suggestions, if I can be of further help. If you didn’t attend, but this sounds like coaching you need, please see my Coaching tab.
My thanks again to Heidi Fisk of the eLearning Guild for inviting me to present these sessions, and to Juli Balding, Ina Brasher, and the rest of the gang at the eLearning Guild for the fantastic support throughout. Well done, all!