A couple of weeks ago I attended the ASTD 2010 International Conference and Exposition in Chicago, Illinois at McCormick Place. Hosted by ASTD’s local "Chicagoland" Chapter, this year’s theme was “Find Your Value.” And with a wealth of learning and networking opportunities, I for one certainly did just that!
First, some numbers, as reported from the official ASTD blog:
- Total attendance: 8,500
- Total international attendance: 1,800
- Attendee countries: 70+
- Sessions: 350
- Exhibitors: 340
My sense from both personal experience and from talking with many others was that this year's event was larger than recent years. And it certainly had more of an international feeling to it (at the Element K booth, for instance, I think we had more international visitors than previous years.)
I attended two of the keynote sessions: Daniel Pink who spoke on upgrading employee motivation practices, and Charlene Li who spoke on the topic of her new book: Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead. These were both worthwhile, as were several of the concurrent sessions I attended. The one I probably found most interesting was Sean Dennehy of the CIA. I've long known that the CIA uses wikis internally to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and so on. But Sean's presentation went much further than discussing their internal "Intellipedia" platform, as the CIA by now actually uses a broad range of Web 2.0 technologies including video sharing, micro-blogging, social bookmarking, internal social networking profiles, and more. It was great to learn more about an organization that is "getting it" in this area (similar to other leaders such as IBM, Best Buy, Pfizer, and more.) And as I often say to L&D organizations struggling (e.g., with security concerns, or culture-change concerns) with blending Web 2.0 and social learning with traditional formal learning, if the CIA can do it -- even with their significant security concerns and regulations -- then your organization can too!
Another highlight for me was attending David Allen's presentation on Getting Things Done, his well-known personal productivity methodology that I've adopted and have obtained immense value from. Having read so much of his material and heard him via so many podcasts over the years, it was a real pleasure to see him speak in person -- he is a master of his craft.
Overall, the program had a nice range of sessions to choose from. Out of curiosity, I went through the program and attempted to categorize the sessions as best I could, and here are the areas that seem to have the most attention this year:
- Leadership development
- Training measurement and evaluation/learning transfer/ROI
- Web 2.0/collaboration/social learning
- Global learning issues
- Sales training
- Traditional ILT-related topics
- Coaching/mentoring
- Webinars and virtual classrooms
Of these, I found that the top three had significantly more sessions than even the others in this top-eight list, let alone the other topics that had only a few (or one) sessions each.
The exhibition hall was impressive as it always is. I'd like to thank everyone who stopped by our Element K booth -- we had lots of folks interested in the learning solutions we offer, but also many who simply made a point of stopping by to say hello and say "we love your stuff!" or "I've used your courses…thanks!" As with any conference, the traffic at the booth ebbed and flowed, in conjunction with the program events. But I felt it was noticeably heavier this year than the recent past; a good sign for the L&D industry?
Another exhibit hall highlight for me was talking with Julie Groshens of Training magazine. It was great to chat with her to get more details of the return of this long-standing L&D industry publication -- much thanks to Lakewood Media Group for stepping up and purchasing the magazine and its affiliated assets (like the Training conferences and the Training Top 125 program). But while we were talking, Julie and I were approached by none other than industry luminary Don Kirkpatrick, who proceeded to tell us wonderful stories and even entertain us with a rendition of the Green Bay Packers fight song. That was an experience I won't soon forget!
Overall, I felt there was more positive energy at this year's ASTD ICE conference than the past two. That is understandable especially when comparing with last year, since the Washington event in 2009 was a mere two months off the lows of the stock market, and while many would argue the economic fundamentals aren't particularly bright or strong right now, perceptions at least are more positive than they were a year ago. Also, technology advances helped to bolster this event. For example, many vendors had drawing for the hot item of the day: Apple's new iPad device. And the use of Twitter was much stronger this year than last year, and Twitter by its nature spreads buzz about the ideas people are learning in the sessions and increases the dialogues that conferences like this can create. This year it was hard just to keep up with the #ASTD10 Twitter hashtag, I wonder what it will be like next year if even more attendees give Twitter a try?
Many others have written post-conference reports at their blogs as well, so I'll link to a couple here. First up, Aaron Silvers shares his insightful and candid comments about the conference. And then Cammy Bean who does the same, and also includes some great event photos and videos. How did I manage to take photos of downtown Chicago, but forget to take photos inside the conference?!
Lastly, it;s not too late for you to experience at least some of the high value that the ASTD ICE 2010 event provided! You can register for their "virtual conference." According to the ASTD website, the virtual conference "will feature 12 live webcast sessions plus over 50 recorded sessions that you can view at any time from May 26 through June 26."
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com and on Twitter @ThomasStone)
Wow! Sounds like a great conference and very worthwhile. You make me want to try and find funds to attend the virtual conference.
Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Holly Magnuson | June 08, 2010 at 11:27 AM