Two months ago, I wrote about the L&D Conference we were designing. In all fairness, I reckon I should report on how it went, now that it’s finished. There are some definite learnings, which we hope to bring forward, both for the conference (should we run it again, which we intend), and for the Learning & Development Accelerator (LDA; the sponsoring org, of which I’m co-director with Matt Richter) activities as well. So here are some thoughts on the conference outcomes.

Our design was to have two tracks (basic and advanced) and a limited but world-class faculty to cover the topics. We also were looking not just to replicate what you get at typical face-to-face conferences (which we like as well), but to do something unique to the medium and our audience. Thus, we weren’t just doing one-off sessions on a topic. Instead, each was an extended experience, with several sessions spread out over days or weeks.

The results of that seemed to work well. While not everybody who attended one of the sessions on a topic attended all, there was good continuity. And the feedback has been quite good; folks appreciate the deep dive with a knowledgeable and articulate expert. This, we figure, is an important result that we’re proud of. If someone misses a session, they can always review the video (we’re keeping the contents available for the rest of the year).

Our social events, networking and trivia, didn’t do quite so well. The networking night did have a small attendance but the trivia night didn’t reach critical mass. We attribute this at least partly to it being a later thought, and not promoting from the get-go.

We struggled a bit with scheduling. First, we spread it across changes in countries that switch to/from daylight savings time. The platform we used didn’t manage that elegantly, and we owe a lot to a staffer who wrestled that into submission. Still, it led to some problems in folks connecting at the right time. On the other hand, having the courses spread out meant we didn’t collide, you could attend any sessions you want (the tracks were indicative, not prescriptive).

The platform also had one place to schedule events, but it was as web page. As a faculty member opined, they wished they could’ve loaded all the sesssions into their calendar with one click. I resonate with that, because in moments when I might’ve had spare bandwidth to attend a session, I’m more likely to look at my calendar rather than the event page. Not sure there’s an easy solution, of course. Still, folks were able to find and attend sessions.

We also didn’t get the social interaction between the sessions we’d hoped, though there was great interaction during the sessions. Faculty and participants were consistent in that perspective. There was a lot of valuable sharing of experiences, questions, and advice.

One thing that, post-hoc, I realize is that it really helps to unpack the thinking. The faculty we chose are those who’ve demonstrated an ability to help folk see the underlying thinking. That paid off well! However, we realize that there may be more opportunities. An interesting discussion arose in a closing event about the value of debates; where two folks who generally agree on the science find something to diverge on. Everyone (including the debaters), benefit from that.

We’re going to be looking to figure out how to do more unpacking, and share the ability to do the necessary critical thinking around claims in our industry. The LDA focuses on evidence-based approaches to L&D. That requires a bit more effort than just accepting status quo (and associated myths, snakeoil, etc), but it’s worth it for our professional reputation.

So those are my reflections on the L&D Conference outcomes. Any thoughts on this, from attendees or others?

It’s been more than a decade (and probably several), that folks have been busting myths that permeate our industry. Yet, they persist. The latest evidence was in a recent chat I was in. I didn’t call them out at the time; this was a group I don’t really know, and I didn’t want to make any particular person defensive or look foolish. Sometimes I will, if it’s a deliberate attempt at misleading folks, but here I believe it’s safe to infer that it was just a lack of understanding. I’ll keep calling them out here, though. However, the myth persistence is troubling.

One of the myths was learning preferences. The claim was something like that with personalization we could support people’s preferences for learning. This is, really, the learning styles myth. There’s no evidence that adapting to learners’ preferred or identified styles makes a difference. Learner intuitions about what works is not well correlated with outcomes.. So this wasn’t a sensible statement.

There were several comments on unlearning. There is some controversy on this, some people saying that it’s necessary for organizations if not individuals. I still think it’s a misconception, at least. That is, your learning doesn’t go away and something replaces it, you have to actively practice the new behavior in response to the same context to learn a new way of doing things. It’s people, after all, and that’s how our cognitive architecture works!

Gamification also got a mention. Again, this is more misconception perhaps. That is, it matters how you define it. We had Karl Kapp on the LDA’s You Oughta Know session, talking about gamification (and micro learning). He talks about understanding that it’s more than just points and leaderboards. Yes, it is. However, that term leads people quickly to that mindset, hence my resistance to the term. However, the chat seemed to suggest that gamification, in combination with something else (memory fails), was a panacea. There are no panaceas, and gamification isn’t a part of any major advance. It’s a ‘tuning’ tool, at best.

A final one was really about tech excitement; with all the new tools, we’ll usher in a new era of productivity. Well, no. The transformation really is not digital. That is, if we use tech to augment our existing approaches, we’re liable to be stuck in the same old approaches. Most of which are predicated on broken models of human behavior. The transformation should be humane, reflecting how we really think, work, and learn. Without that, digitization isn’t going to accomplish as much as it could.

So, there’s significant myth persistence. I realize change can be hard and take time. Sometimes that’s frustrating, but we have to be similarly persistent in busting them. I’ll keep doing my part. How about you?

When I agreed to join as co-director of the Learning & Development Accelerator, I’d already attended their first two conferences. Those had been designed to reflect the circumstances at the time, e.g. the pandemic. In addition, there was a desire on the part of Matt Richter & Will Thalheimer (the original directors) to reflect certain values. Matt and I are running the event again, but times have changed. That means we have to rethink what’s being done. So here’s my thinking about designing a conference.

First, the values Matt and Will started with included being as global as possible, and being virtual. The former was reflected in having presentations given twice, once early in the US day, and then again later. That supported everything from Europe, Africa, and the Mideast to Asia and Australia. The virtual was, at least partly, a reaction to the lack of desire to travel and meet face to face, but also to provide options for those who might struggle.

We’re definitely still focusing on being virtual. Folks who would find it challenging to arrange travel for whatever reason can attend this event. There’s also the environmental considerations. Yes, technology requires resources, but not as much as collective travel. While there’s also a desire to meet different time needs, we’ve found less demand for multiple times. However, we will be recording sessions that are synchronous, so they can be viewed at convenient times. We also are spreading it over six weeks, so that there’s time to consume as much as you want. Further, faculty can choose when they’re offering ;).

The original design was focused on evidence-based L&D (which remains a key guiding principle for the LDA). Matt & Will solicited their presenters based upon their representation, but the agenda was largely what those folks wanted to present. Which, in many ways, reflects what other conferences do. In this new era, we wondered what would make a compelling proposition when you can travel to F2F events. We decided that we wanted to step away from ‘what we get’, and focus on ‘what the audience needs’.

This event, then, has a curriculum, across two tracks, designed to address specific needs. There’s also a different pedagogy than most conferences.We also have specific faculty, rather than presenters based upon submissions. Of course, there are tradeoffs. At least we can share our thinking.

The faculty are folks we know and trust to present evidence-based content. You won’t hear promotion for snake oil, like learning styles. We have a pretty impressive lineup, frankly, of people we think are world-class. This includes folks like Ruth Clark, Mirjam Neelen & Paul Kirschner, Karl Kapp, Julie Dirksen, Kat Koppett, Stella Lee, Nigel Paine, Will Thalheimer, and Thiagi. On top of, of course, Matt and myself. Reality means that a few folks we would’ve liked to have couldn’t commit, but this is a a broad and reputable group.

The tracks are basics and advanced. We want to be able to serve multiple audiences. The intent is that the basic track has the core knowledge an L&D person should know. As best we can, as we negotiate with the faculty, of course. Then, the advanced topics are things that are emergent and need addressing. Of course, there’s no commitment that you have to stay in one or another. As with other conferences, you can pick and choose what to view.

We’re also not just having presentations; we’ve asked the faculty to provide development. That is, we’re intending several rounds of content, activity, and feedback, spread out over several days or weeks. We don’t want people to hear good ideas, and maybe take them back. We want folks to take action! We’re also designing in the opportunity for mentoring.

Of course, there’ll be some social events, and other ways to not only hear content and apply it, but to mingle with faculty and other attendees. We want to foster some community. Also, we’re intending to somewhat front load stuff so that we can adapt. If we hear that we need to do something we haven’t planned, we’re looking to have leeway to address it. The nice thing about being small is the ability to be flexible!

None of this is saying you don’t get much of the same from conferences (except, perhaps, the design). I’ve been on conference program committees, and know conference organizers as well. They typically get more proposals than they can accept, so they can choose a suite that reflect things for various ranges of experience and cover important topics. They may not, however, know all the submitters, and take chances on a few. I laud that, actually, because we can’t know if a new approach or person is worthwhile without experimentation. Still, there is the chance for gaps, and for bad presentations/presenters. They’re also, except for the pre-conference workshops (e.g. my Make It Meaningful one at the upcoming DevLearn), one-off events.

We’re taking a chance on our format, too. We haven’t done it before. It may not work, though we have good reasons to believe it will. So, we hope to see you at the Learning & Development Conference, Oct 10 – Nov 18, if the above thinking about designing a conference sense. We think it does, we hope you do, too.