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Brian oversees new business development, partnerships, client engagement, and the strategic direction for Unboxed Technology. Brian often mentions the relationships that have shaped him, from the people he’s worked with to the family and friends that keep him grounded. He’s the first to admit that his success stems from partnering with great people who share a passion and a vision for excellence, just like the team at Unboxed.

Brian Leach

Brian Leach outlines five essential skills sales managers need to know so they can lead their teams to success.

5 Skills That Will Turn Your Sales Managers Into Leaders

Microlearning, gamification, innovation: Everyone’s looking for the next big thing to make training better. While each is good in its own right, they have to work together to be great.
In this webcast, the presenters will share the top three requirements for effective training: great content, simple technology, and dedicated leadership. This webcast will help you:

Define the qualities of great training content.
Identify technologies that will support—not get in the way of—your training.
Describe how dedicated leadership drives results.


How to Achieve the Training Trifecta: Great Content, Simple Technology, and Dedicated Leadership

Brian Moffitt has been helping individuals, teams and organizations make positive change through training, facilitation, and consultation for 25 years. He teaches communication at Keiser University in Florida, and leadership online for graduate and doctoral students with Drexel University and the University of Phoenix.

Brian Moffitt

Brian Nairn, PhD is an educational developer and contract faculty member at York University. He is the liaison developer for the Faculty of Science, but also works closely with all faculty members and graduate students in supporting their teaching, with the aim of providing the best student experience possible. Brian is particularly interested in the areas of experiential education, eLearning, and curriculum development. He also teaches a large, first-year course in the Faculty of Health at York University.

Brian Nairn, PhD 

Brian Castro is national ombudsman and assistant administrator for Regulatory Enforcement Fairness at the U.S. Small Business Administration. He can be reached at  ombudsman@sba.gov.

Brian Castro

What is Demo Day?
This free, half-day event offers you the opportunity to see live demos from five leading AI-augmented 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 using AI, 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 a.m.–12 p.m.— ATD Introduction & Welcome
12–12:30 p.m.—Practical AI Solutions for Real Business Impact (Strategy.AI)
12:45–1:15 p.m.—Critical Reskilling: AI Workforce Transformation (Ascendient Learning)
1:30–2 p.m.—Be An AI Ninja – Must Try Tips! (Get Control)
2:15–2:45 p.m. —The Human Side of AI: Building Resilience Through Change (ELB Learning)
3–3:30 p.m.—AI & Learning and Development: Beyond the Button (MadCap Software)

Session Descriptions:
12–12:30 p.m. ET – Strategy.AI Demo
Practical AI Solutions for Real Business Impact

Transform your L&D function with AI! Discover how to identify skills gaps, personalize training, and measure impact to prove your value to business leaders. Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your capabilities!

Join this session to:

Discover how, in just 15 minutes, you can use AI to identify skill gaps and recommend personalized solutions for thousands of employees—scaling L&D impact faster than ever before.
Uncover how AI fosters cross-department collaboration, transforming siloed teams into knowledge-sharing powerhouses.
Use AI to transform how learners engage with PowerPoint presentations—what used to be a boring reading exercise can now become a personalized, two-way experience!

Speaker: Andrew Leong-Fern, Founder and CEO, Strategy AI
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12:45–1:15 p.m. ET
Critical Reskilling: AI Workforce Transformation
AI is creating change across the workforce, with the World Economic Forum estimating that 59% of workers will need significant upskilling or reskilling by 2030; however, most organizations lack the training resources or strategies to adapt to these challenges. Ascendient Learning leverages over 60 years of IT training experience to deliver instructor-led training solutions customized to your business needs, ranging from company-wide awareness training to highly technical multi-week bootcamps.
Join this session to:

Understand the impact that AI will have on the technical workforce.
Identify key skills needed for AI-enabled job roles.
Learn how to develop and implement an upskilling strategy that develops in-house talent to fill these growing requirements.

 
Speaker: Brian Carlson, Alliances and Strategic Accounts, Ascendient Learning
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1:30-2:00 p.m.
Be An AI Ninja – Must Try Tips!
Unleash your inner AI Ninja with our action-packed session for L&D professionals! Join bestselling author Mike Song and the Get Control Training team as we countdown the top 10 AI tips for ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and more. Discover hidden features, best practices, and essential tools embedded in MS Teams and Windows, including time-saving tricks like using Collections for prompt templates. Boost efficiency, streamline workflows, and maximize the potential of AI in your organization. Trusted by 20% of the Fortune 500, this session delivers high-impact insights designed to empower you and your team. Don’t miss this game-changing experience!

Join this session to:

Build More Effective Prompts.
Discover Hidden ChatGPT & Copilot Features.
Save 20 minutes a day.

Speaker: Mike Song, Get Control
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2:15-2:45 p.m.
The Human Side of AI: Building Resilience Through Change

ELB Learning can help you empower your team to thrive in an AI-driven world. This session will explore how we can help you raise your team’s AI literacy, craft custom AI solutions, and guide your organization through change with tailored adoption plans. You’ll learn how we can help you create AI roadmaps, deploy cutting-edge tools, and foster a culture of innovation. By understanding the human side of AI adoption, you can seamlessly integrate technology into your workflows and align it with your business goals for lasting success.

Join this session to:

Discover practical ways to integrate AI tools into daily workflows and upskill teams.
Learn how to design and deploy AI-enabled solutions to meet your unique business needs.
Identify effective change management strategies for smooth AI adoption and sustained growth.

Speaker: Josh Penzell, VP of AI Innovations and Solutions, ELB Learning
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3:00-3:30 p.m.
AI & Learning and Development: Beyond the Button
AI is more than a simple tool for generating text—it’s reshaping how organizations manage, control, and deliver their content. As learning and development teams navigate the challenges of content proliferation, consistency, and proprietary control, they must carve out a strategic role in the enterprise AI ecosystem. Join us as we explore a smarter approach to AI—one that goes beyond automation to empower organizations with vetted, reliable, and controlled content. Discover how MadCap’s intentional AI strategy is rethinking learning content's role in an accelerating AI environment.

Join this session to:

Explore how AI is transforming how organizations manage, control, and deliver content.
Discover why learning and development teams must take a strategic role in AI adoption to address content challenges.
Learn why a smarter AI strategy goes beyond automation to ensure vetted, reliable, and controlled content.


Speaker: Chris Kocher, MadCap Software

Demo Day: Augment L&D with AI

Lighten Up! Fostering Levity and Connection in Virtual Events

These days, meeting online is the only option. But how can you help people feel connected to each other? We will explore some ideas for how to bring levity to your regular meetings as well as create online events that will help you make personal connections with colleagues. Bring your ideas and success stories too. There will be time for sharing with the group. Less a presentation about and more of an experience of, this will be a workshop you won't want to miss!

Participants will:

Experience how connection is fostered among meeting participants.
Gather new ideas for online events focused on fostering interpersonal connections.
Have the opportunity to share their ideas and best practices.


Higher Ed: Lighten Up! Fostering Levity and Connection in Virtual Events

Sales enablement is becoming a force to be reckoned with.In the past several years, it’s grown from an offshoot of sales operations or training, tucked away in some corporate corner and shouldering all the responsibilities sales leaders and reps just didn’t have time for. Today, it’s increasingly seen as a mission-critical group. In our work, we see a correlation between the highest-performing sales organizations and sales enablement leaders who have a seat at the table.Every sales enablement function lives somewhere along a maturity curve. Understanding where your team is on that curve is an anchor point for any planning effort. To set priorities for 2019, it’s important to understand where you are today. What are you dealing with? What are you trying to accomplish with the team you currently have? Where can you go?Below are the four stages of sales enablement we see:Stage One: Ad Hoc. The sales enablement strategy doesn’t really exist in any coherent way. It’s just a collection of (often random) activities.Stage Two: Collaborative. Sales enablement activities take on a more programmatic feel, but are still only loosely aligned to overall sales objectives.Stage Three: Integrated. Sales enablement is a core component of the sales strategy, with an emphasis on improving sales productivity and supporting field sales execution.Stage Four: Transformative/Strategic. Sales enablement is seen as a strategic driver for sales success. It owns activation of field behavior change and is mission-critical for sales performance.Obviously, the goal is to get to the Transformative level, where sales enablement is tightly connected to the sales strategy, and the sales leadership depends on sales enablement for execution of that strategy. But first you must determine where you are—realistically—before deciding how far you can go. It’s not possible to make the leap from Ad Hoc to Transformative, or even Integrated, in one jump. It needs to be a journey, building a solid foundation at each level to continue steady growth.To do that, ask yourself questions about your sales enablement strategy, execution, technology, and impact to help understand your current sales enablement maturity. Each of the elements below help determine what’s critical to your organization to help you make progress along your journey.1. StrategyFirst, consider how well aligned the sales enablement goals are with the sales strategy. If there isn’t a sales enablement strategy (or strategic goals), the alignment isn’t very strong among the leadership. Ask:How well aligned is the sales strategy among your leadership – not only the CEO, CSO, and COO, but also across the various sales leaders?Do your activities connect under a strategy? If so, how would you define the core elements of that strategy?Are there defined sales enablement goals? How do these goals map to the overall business objectives? Are there metrics? Do these metrics assess leading or lagging indicators?2. Improve Rep PerformanceWhether your sales enablement strategy is tightly connected to the sales strategy or there’s a lot of guesswork, the ability to improve rep performance can tell a lot about the maturity stage as well. Ask:How are your seller enablement programs supporting the sales strategy? Is it reactive enablement or are you working with the sales teams to offer planned support?How are you supporting sellers throughout their career lifecycle, from new hire to veteran status? How does your enablement approach change?When are your programs being executed? Are these considered “sales enablement initiatives” or sales priorities? Sales enablement programs should not be seen as separate from sales initiatives; they should be interwoven into the broader sales strategy through common touchpoints and communication channels.3. Activate Sales ManagementAny rep enablement strategy is dead-on-arrival if management isn’t supporting it in the field. Mature organizations have specific enablement strategies for frontline leaders. Ask:What is the expectation of the sales manager in the enablement ecosystem? How do they ensure accountability and deliver on the last mile of any program or initiative?Is there a separate enablement focus for frontline sales managers? What enablement are they receiving to support their teams in the field?How are managers engaged as a part of the enablement process? How are they equipped to lead change management in the field? High-performing organizations engage field leadership from enablement ideation through execution.4. Build a Smarter Tech StackThe enablement tech stack is constantly evolving, and the allure of the next shiny object is strong. Therefore, tech investment is sometimes used as a measurement for how invested the organization is in the sales enablement function. Ask:Has your company made the necessary investments in sales technology to support your initiatives? If so, are there too many tools? Do they distract from valuable selling time? If not, what are the essential tools that will help the reps at key stages of the sales motion?How are data and insights from the technology being used to inform business decisions?How do sales leaders use data from sales enablement to make decisions?Are you measuring the success of the sales enablement strategy, including the use of leading, lagging, or behavioral metrics? Which of these measures are most firmly within your control? What happens if you don’t measure it?5. Integrate With MarketingSales does not operate in a silo. Enablement needs to serve as the organizational integrator to the field. To do so, engagement, collaboration, and alignment with marketing is critical. Ask:How does marketing gain input from enablement (and vice versa) to develop marketing initiatives?What role does enablement play in the launch and delivery of key marketing programs, including messaging, product launch, or competitive intelligence?How aligned is sales, enablement, and marketing on the key objectives that will truly drive rep performance? Is the focus too broad or too narrow? What success metrics are shared among the three functions?If you answered No more than Yes, you’re probably not as far along on the maturity curve as you’d like to be. Consider where your opportunities are to deliver support and have an impact on the sales organization. What challenges exist that you can rectify? What challenges do you see in the near future (or long term)? How can you prepare for those challenges and even get ahead of them?Consider any risks involved with accomplishing your sales enablement goals, including aligning people who may not understand your function. The success of sales enablement requires alignment across multiple functions and stakeholders to be successful. Identify those stakeholders (including sales, finance, IT, marketing, and product development) and the role they’ll play in your process. Turn them into champions by letting them know ultimately your goal is to help them to realize their objectives.Whether you're an army of one or you've got a dedicated global function with many resources, aspire to move one level at a time toward becoming—and remaining—a transformative force in your sales organization.

The Stages of Sales Enablement Maturity

When looking for a new learning management system, there are a multitude of questions that must be asked, starting with: What do I need my LMS to be able to do to allow us to reach our e-learning goals? However, one consideration that people often overlook is the type of technology that an LMS uses, which is important when evaluating whether an LMS will be able to provide the type of functionality you’ll need to meet your goals.
Therefore, when beginning the LMS evaluation process, one of the first questions you should ask yourself is whether an open-source LMS (like Moodle or Totara) or a closed-source platform (like SumTotal or Cornerstone) will be better suited to meeting your needs.
During this webcast, you will learn:

the fundamental differences between an open-source LMS and a closed-source platform
why the technology your LMS uses is important, including significant considerations regarding data ownership, security, LMS customization, product updates, and support
the advantages and disadvantages of both types of platforms.
 


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