Fred L. Otte

Workplaces are in their learning and development era.Imagine This: You walk into the office or log in to your workstation at home, and there’s a noticeable buzz at work. Your team is more engaged than ever, eager to learn, grow, and contribute. Conversations aren’t just about weekend plans—they’re about the latest skill someone’s picked up or a new concept that’s sparked interest. Your organization isn’t just keeping up; it’s thriving, with your learning and development (L&D) program at the heart of it all.In today’s work environment, one thing remains constant: the need to develop talent and nurturing the thirst for knowledge among employees. As employers seek to retain top talent, the spotlight is on L&D like never before.Recognizing the importance of L&D, OverDrive surveyed 150 senior HR and L&D executives in spring 2024 to understand their perspectives on L&D’s future. The findings? L&D is having a moment, and it’s up to organizations to sustain it.How to Make L&D’s Moment LastOrganizations must optimize L&D for their employees. Our research highlights three strategies to ensure the longevity of this L&D moment:1. Reimagine Your IncentivesOver half of HR executives (52 percent) believe that incentives are crucial for delivering top-tier L&D programs. However, 19 percent of companies don’t offer any incentives, and nearly one-third suggest that L&D participation would rise with more incentives. This indicates an opportunity for employers to innovate their incentive structures.Survey respondents suggest various incentives, such as cash bonuses or increased vacation time. One respondent notes, “If supervisors were incentivized for their employees’ success, we’d get more out of L&D.”Social incentives also play a vital role. For instance, creating opportunities for team members to share their learnings within their teams or departments can turn employees into recognized subject matter experts.2. Capitalize on Leadership SupportApproximately one-third of HR executives believe that L&D participation would increase with more encouragement from top management or supervisors and involve themselves as early adopters of programs. For L&D to be effective as a retention tool, senior leaders must be actively involved.In qualitative feedback, survey respondents recommend that management allocate time for learning during the workweek, preventing employees from having to extend their work hours. Leadership can share their L&D success stories through ways listed in our research report.3. Present Fresh Content ContinuouslyNearly one-third of HR executives highlight the importance of continuous learning for the future of L&D. Improved content quality is pivotal, with 36 percent of HR executives stating that better content would motivate their companies to switch to a new L&D platform. The survey and report analysis also identifies newer trends like more user-friendly platforms and some other surprising tactics to further enrich and equalize the learning experience for all to motivate their teams. Choose What Works for Your TeamUltimately, the effectiveness of your program depends on trialing what works uniquely for your one-of-a-kind team. Incentives, leadership buy-in, and frequent updates are the beginning. Find the combination of tools to make your L&D moment last by downloading our free full research report. 

L&D Is Having a Moment: How Your Program Can Shine

What is Demo Day?

This free, half-day event offers you the opportunity to see live demos from five leading learning tech solutions. Each 30-minute demo allows you to see the solution in action, ask questions, and request additional information. Selecting new technologies for your organization is a tough decision and a big investment. Let ATD Demo Day help you learn about the benefits of a variety of options at once.

Who is it for?
Anyone who is currently searching for innovative solutions, interested in transforming their L&D workflow with generative AI, or scaling and automating enterprise training programs.

Demo Day Agenda: (All times below are Eastern Standard Time)

11:55-12:00 pm  ATD Introduction & Welcome:
12:00-12:30 pm  Use Generative AI to Multiply Talent Management’s Impact (Strategy AI)
12:45-1:15 pm    How Siemens Healthineers Automates Instructor-Led Training (Administrate)
1:30-2:00 pm      Content Chaos Cripples AI: Level Up Your Content IQ Now (Xyleme)
2:15-2:45 pm      “Boost!” Sales with Comprehensive Online Learning (Porter Henry)

Session Descriptions:
 
 
12:00-12:30 pm
Use Generative AI to Multiply Talent Management’s Impact
Strategy AI is an industry-leading artificial intelligence platform that empowers talent management teams with private, secure, and powerful AI tools to deliver personalized training to employees within their daily workflow. Discover how to leverage AI to dramatically enhance the value delivered by your team.
Join this session to:

Learn how to use generative AI to deliver a superior learning experience.
Explore how AI can transform the L&D process, freeing up 75% of your time.
Understand how you can deliver AI in the normal flow of work: via Workday, SharePoint, etc.


Speaker: Andrew Leong-Fern, Founder and CEO, Strategy AI
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12:45-1:15 pm
How Siemens Healthineers Automates Instructor-Led Training
Instructor-led training is far more difficult to manage than elearning. You have to manage special equipment, facilities, instructors, staff, and more. Siemens Healthineers uses Administrate to automate instructor-led training across their global training network. In this demo, John Peebles, Administrate CEO shows you exactly how this works and demos powerful automations.
During this session you will:

Understand how Siemens Healthineers automated training management.
Learn the real ROI for automating training management.
Discover why an LMS can’t deliver this sort of automation.


Speaker: John Peebles, CEO, Admininstrate
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1:30-2:00 pm
Content Chaos Cripples AI: Level Up Your Content IQ Now
Is your content ready for AI? AI’s potential to boost efficiency and productivity is portrayed as a silver bullet for content teams. What is getting lost in all the hype is the realization that to fully harness the power of AI, organizations must wrangle their content chaos. Leaving content unstructured and inconsistent only causes further chaos that cripples AI systems. Mitigate the risk of AI hallucination—AI is only as smart as your content!
Join this session to:

Learn how content components can enable AI to curate targeted content for your audiences at the right time and place.
Evaluate ways to retain full governance, versioning, and tracking capabilities to make your content AI-ready.
Uncover AI processes of generation, retrieval, analysis, and assistance centered around learning content.

Speakers: Chris Kocher, Senior Solutions Architect, Xyleme and Kathy Bernardino, Enterprise Account Executive, Xyleme
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2:15-2:45 p.m.
“Boost!” Sales with Comprehensive Online Learning
Everyone is exploring options for online blended learning these days. How do you make this purchase decision confidently and mitigate the risks of online training? This session will explore and pros and cons of blended learning and preview SalesAbility “Boost!”, a new sales training program for sales newbies and veterans alike. “Boost!” is based on years of validated customer research with over 70 top global sales organizations and, unlike many other programs, is easy and straightforward to administer.
Join this session to:

Discover why simpler yet comprehensive online sales training is the best option.
Explore why selling your solution’s “total value” outweighs traditional product benefits training.
Identify how and why cost-effective “Boost!” training is supported by Sales and Coaching Playbooks.


Speaker: Will Voelkel, Senior Sales Consultant, Porter Henry & Company, Inc.
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ATD DEMO DAY: Emerging Technologies in L&D

What is Demo Day?
This free, half-day event offers you the opportunity to see live demos from five leading assessment tool providers. Each 30-minute demo allows you to see the platform in action, ask questions, and request additional information. Selecting a new technology is a tough decision and a big investment. Let ATD Demo Day help you learn about the benefits of a variety of options at once.
Who is it for?
Anyone who is currently looking for assessment tools to administer employee feedback, measure post training outcomes, or evaluate behavioral influences in your organization.

Demo Day Agenda: (All times below are Eastern Standard Time)

11:55-12:00 pm — ATD Introduction & Welcome
12:00-12:30 pm — Behavioral Elements: Analyzing Behavior, Drives, and Decisions (Behavioral Elements)
12:45-1:15 pm — Gamify Post-Training Assessments: Score Points, Not Tests (ELB Learning)
1:30-2:00 pm — The Platform for Measuring People Development (Halo Feedback)
2:15-2:45 pm — The Road to Failure is Paved with Well-Intentioned Behaviors (Harrison Assessments) 

 

Session Descriptions:

12:00-12:30 pm – Behavioral Elements Demo
 

Behavioral Elements: Analyzing Behavior, Drives, and Decisions

We have all experienced conflict, underperformance, failed projects, and poor leadership resulting from unmanaged behavior. Our mission is to empower people and organizations to improve behavior and accelerate success. Behavioral Elements uses the 4-Drive Framework, making it unique in using modern behavioral science as its core methodology. Understanding the drives supports people in quickly and accurately assessing communication styles, decision-making preferences, workplace values, and more.
During this event, you will learn:

How biological drives influence our everyday behaviors and choices.
How assessment can help people grow and overcome common behavioral challenges.
How organizations can deploy the Behavioral Elements Program to build the culture that we all want to work in.

Speaker: Jay Johnson, Co-Founder and CEO, Behavioral Elements
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12:45-1:15 pm - ELB Learning Demo
 
Gamify Post-Training Assessments: Score Points, Not Tests

Think back to last Wednesday. Did you drink coffee or tea? What did you wear? It’s easier to remember if Wednesday was yesterday (recent), a special occasion (meaningful), or if you wear the same outfit every day (repetitive). Training is the same way. No matter how engaged learners are, they often forget what they learned—known as the “forgetting curve.” ELB Learning’s game-authoring tool, The Training Arcade®, helps you build games that assess and minimize the impact of the forgetting curve.
During this session, you will learn:

Why engaging in short, repetitive games can help minimize the impact of the forgetting curve.
How to align the right game with your training objectives.
Understanding game metrics and how to measure effectiveness.

Speaker: Katie Kinsella, Learning Solutions Architect, ELB Learning
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1:30-2:00 pm – Halo Feeback Demo
 
Halo Feedback – The Platform for Measuring People Development

Halo Feedback is the most innovative, user friendly and powerful competency assessment platform available today. Using client-custom competencies or selecting from our leadership library, organizations can:

Create a fully branded and customized competency assessment solution.
Improve the feedback process with online, interactive user reporting, links to development resources, post-assessment ‘pulse’ check-ins, & AI-driven ‘Virtual Coach’ to debrief results.
Analyze trends in group data with interactive ‘Data insights’.
Quickly translate into any language with our AI-translation manager.

Halo Feedback stands apart from traditional assessment technologies and is used by organizations and consulting & development firms worldwide to drive meaningful difference to employee feedback processes.

Speaker: Tom Power, founder and CEO, Halo Feedback
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2:15-2:45 pm – Harrison Assessments Demo
 
The Road to Failure is Paved with Well-Intentioned Behaviors
Think about the last time you called a customer service line - how did that experience impact your future buying behavior? Think about your last interaction with your leader - how did that affect your motivation at work? Join us to explore the power of measuring the right behaviors to shape employee and client experience. Discover how leaders can adapt to each workplace situation and conversation to craft an environment that fosters exceptional employee performance and engagement. This positive employee experience serves as the cornerstone for delivering unparalleled client satisfaction. The Harrison Assessment measures the behaviors that matter and gives the company and each leader the insights they need to leverage key strengths, overcome blind spots, and develop new levels of adaptability.
During this event, you will:

Understand how leaders influence the working environment to shape employee experience and ultimately impact client satisfaction.
Explore the concept of personalized leadership development and its role in increasing retention and profitability.
The impact of well-intentioned, counterproductive behaviors on leadership effectiveness and creating resilient organizations.

Speaker: Luke Carter, Consultant, Talent Matters and Harrison Assessments