During its 2011 International Conference & Exposition held here, the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) presented the Excellence in Practice Awards and Citations to 71 organizations from 11 countries: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, India, Ireland, Spain, The Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States.

The Excellence in Practice awards recognize organizations for results achieved through learning and performance solutions. Out of 182 submissions, 16 awards and 78 citations were given in 10 categories: career development, diversity and inclusion, integrated talent management, learning technologies, managing change, organizational learning, performance improvement, training management, technical training, and workplace learning and development.

"The winning organizations advance the knowledge of the workplace learning and development profession and contribute to increasing workforce capability and organizational competitiveness," says Tony Bingham, ASTD President and CEO. "Their accomplishments demonstrate how learning increases the performance and success of organizations worldwide."

The Excellence in Practice Awards are presented to organizations with proven practices that have delivered measurable results. The organizations and their partners selected to receive Excellence in Practice Awards are:

• Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia and Kaiser Associates, Washington, D.C. and Blueline Simulations, LLC, Tampa, Florida

• Clarkston Consulting, Durham, North Carolina

• Farmers Insurance Group, University of Farmers, Agoura Hills, California and Allen Communications Learning Services,

  Salt Lake City, Utah

• Farmers Insurance Group, University of Farmers, Agoura Hills, California

• Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio

• Hong Yip Service Company Limited,

• Hong Kong SAR, China

• InterContinental Hotels Group, Atlanta, Georgia and Phil Dourado Business Communications, Banbury, United Kingdom

• Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC, Glen Burnie, Maryland

• Midas International, Itasca, Illinois and Raytheon Professional Services, Garland, Texas

• MTR Corporation Limited and Hong Kong SAR, China

• Naval Education and Training Command's Surface Warfare Officers School

• Newport, Rhode Island and Naval Air Warfare, Training Systems Division, Orlando, Florida and UCLA, National Center for Research on Evaluation Standards and Student Testing (CREST), Los Angeles, California

• Reliance Industries Limited, Hazira Manufacturing Division, Gujarat, India

• Reliance Industries Limited, Nagothane Manufacturing Division, Maharashtra, India and M/s Dupont Safety Resources, Wilmington, Delaware

• Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. Mumbai, India

• Sodexo, Gaithersburg, Maryland and

• American Research Institute, Morrisville, North Carolina

The Excellence in Practice Citations are presented for practices that carry potential to make a business impact through appropriate design values and strong evaluation plans. The organizations selected to receive Excellence in Practice Citations are:

• Abbott, Abbott Park, Illinois

• Accenture, Dublin, Ireland

• Accenture Services Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, India and Mind Matters, Pune, India and BTS Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd, Singapore and Anand Kasturi, Bangalore, India AchieveGlobal, Tampa, Florida and Xyleme, Boulder, Colorado

• Amway (China) Co. Limited, Shanghai, China

• Aon Hewitt, Chicago, Illinois (Two Citations)

• Banco Santander, SA, Madrid, Spain and Overlap Consulting, Madrid Spain

• Banesto, Madrid, Spain and Overlap Consulting, Madrid, Spain

• Barilla America, Ames, Iowa

• Bexar County, San Antonio, Texas

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts - Sales Division, Boston, Massachusetts

• Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia (Two Citations)

• CA Technologies, Islandia, New York (Two Citations)

• CenterPoint Energy, Houston, Texas

• China Telecom, Beijing, China

• Citigroup North America Collections and Learning & Performance Solutions Group Irving, Texas

• Cognizant Technology Solutions, Teaneck, New Jersey

• College of American Pathologists, Northfield, Illinois

• E\*TRADE Financial, Jersey City, New Jersey

• E\*TRADE Financial, Sandy, Utah

• Farmers Insurance Group, Agoura Hills, California

• Farmers Insurance Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan

• First Horizon National Corporation, Memphis, Tennessee

• FM Global, Johnston, Rhode Island

• FM Global, Johnston, Rhode Island and The Brookside Group, Acton, Massachusetts

• Greeley and Hansen, Chicago, Illinois

• HealthSouth Corporation, Birmingham, Alabama

• Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, California and Imparta, Ltd., London, United Kingdom

• Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon and BTS USA Inc., San Francisco, California Hewlett-Packard Financial Services, Berkeley, New Jersey

• IBM Corporation, Armonk, New York (Three Citations)

• IBM Sales Learning, Armonk, New York

• Infosys Technologies Limited Bangalore, India

• Invesco, Atlanta, Georgia

• Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

• Knology, Inc., West Point, Georgia

• Learning@Cisco, San Jose, California

• Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Boston, Massachusetts

• Lifetouch National School Studios, Chesapeake, Virginia and Trainin

• Modernization Group, Spotsylvania, Virginia

• LM Wind Power, Kolding, Denmark

• McCain Foods Limited, Toronto, Canada and Clear Skies Communications, Inc., Green Bay, Wisconsin

• Annuity Product Wholesaling, MetLife Investors Distribution Company, Irvine California and The Next Level Sales Consulting, El Segundo, California

• Microsoft Health Solutions Group, Redmond, Washington

• Midas International, Itasca, Illinois and Raytheon Professional Services, Garland, Texas

• Moses Cone Health System, Greensboro, North Carolina

• MTR Corporation Limited, Hong Kong SAR, China

• North Florida Shipyards, Jacksonville, Florida and Training Modernization Group, Spotsylvania, Virginia

• Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, California

• Regional Civil Service Development Institute of Central Personnel Administration, Executive Yuan, Taipei, Taiwan (Two citations)

• Reliance Industries Limited, Hazira Manufacturing Division, Gujarat, India

• San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California and Sonoma State University, Sonoma, California

• Shape Corp., Grand Haven, Michigan (Two citations)

• South Carolina Federal Credit Union, North Charleston, South Carolina and Kelly Hall, Ellenboro, North Carolina

• Telstra, Sydney, Australia and Lisa Kay, Balgowlah Heights, Australia

• Teradata Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia

• The Home Depot, Atlanta, Georgia

• U.S. Navy - Naval Education and Training Command's Center for Naval Engineering, Norfolk, Virginia

• U.S. Postal Service, Washington D.C.

• Verizon, Basking Ridge, New Jersey

• Verizon Wireless, Basking Ridge, New Jersey and Strayer University, Newington

• Virginia and Bellevue University, Bellevue, Nebraska and ITCAP, Tucson, Arizona

• VF Asia Limited, Hong Kong SAR, China and Clothing Industry Training Authority, Hong Kong SAR, China

• Western and Southern Life, Cincinnati, Ohio and The Last Word, Xenia, Ohio

• Western and Southern Life, Cincinnati, Ohio

• WPP Group, New York, New York

• Zorgentra Pantein, Boxmeer, The Netherlands and Tulser, Maastricht, The Netherlands

• Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri, A.S., Istanbul, Turkey (Two citations)

• U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Petaluma, Petaluma, California and L-3 Communications, Petaluma, California (Two citations)