Day 3 of ATD: “WOW, What a Community!”

    

Advantexe is pleased to share with our Learning & Development colleagues our third in a series of thoughts and insights from the floor of the ATD International Conference and Exposition.

Day 3

1) The Community of Learning and Development

Sadly, it was the last day of the ATD Conference in New Orleans. What a great week to reconnectATD-blanchard-zengar with clients and colleagues as well as meet exciting and new people who have the same interests in talent development.

One of our many conversations from this morning really stuck out and is worth a topic of conversation for this blog. We met an up-and-coming L&D leader who shared that this was his first show. He was extremely impressed, excited, and a little overwhelmed.

“I am so happy to be here with all of these amazing people. What an incredible chance to meet new people and share ideas about an industry and job I am so passionate about. You can never underestimate the impact of building a community as you build your career of developing the best training and development for your internal stakeholders.”

As we continue to evolve our new reality of the post-COVID world, it is important to remember that building a community promotes a supportive and dynamic learning environment where individuals can thrive through collaboration, shared resources, diverse perspectives, and mutual encouragement. This collective approach to learning not only enhances individual knowledge but also builds stronger, more resilient learners equipped to tackle complex problems.

2) Suggestions for the Future of ATD

During the last 3 days, we had the chance to interact with hundreds of attendees who stopped by our booth, attended sessions with us, and ate lunch with us. It was interesting to hear some fresh perspectives and ideas about the conference.

The comment that we heard from nearly every attendee was that the entire conference is now too overwhelming. One really smart suggestion that Advantexe endorses is to segment the exposition by category. For example, put all the LMS providers together, all of the authoring tools together, and all of the content providers together. That way participants can target their areas of need, explore when they want to, and actually remember where a booth is when they want to go back for a follow-up.

  3) Ken Blanchard and Jack Zenger

As we come to a close on this year’s ATD, a final word on industry gurus, Ken Blanchard and Jack Zenger. I had two major highlights of the week. First, the smile on Ken’s face when I went over to see him at his booth before his book signing. He gave me a warm embrace, wished us good luck for a great show, and thanked me for our partnership.

The Second was running into Jack Zenger. I met Jack over 20 years ago when I conducted a simulation project with him. I ran into him on the trade show floor and it’s been a while since I last saw Jack but he remembered me and my brother Jim from the work we did. We caught up about the old days and how much the industry has changed. It was so great to reminisce with him about the old times.

Ken Blanchard is an icon of leadership development and is one of the most influential leadership experts in the world. His years of groundbreaking work in the fields of leadership and management have earned him a position as one of the greatest of all time. He is truly a GOAT and although the travel has become too difficult, I am sure he will still be a prolific researcher and developer of leadership training for many years to come. What a tremendous human being.

Jack Zenger is also a leading figure in the field of leadership development and organizational behavior. Jack’s work focuses on evidence-based leadership development, emphasizing the importance of leveraging individual strengths and providing actionable feedback to enhance leadership capabilities.

Cheers to Ken and Jack. True icons of the industry!

Cheers to the Talent Development Industry for helping individuals and organizations reach their fullest potential!

Cheers to ATD for making it happen once again! 

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Robert Brodo

About The Author

Robert Brodo is co-founder of Advantexe. He has more than 20 years of training and business simulation experience.