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Learning 2006 Recaps: Jim Louderback, PC Magazine

Perhaps my favorite keynote speaker, and session leader, was Jim Louderback, Editor of PC Magazine. I've never seen anyone with so much energy so early in the morning. The man is a great speaker, but not because of his speaking skills. He truly loves what he does and loves sharing new gadgets with the rest of the world. He is on top of the latest technology.
I was thrilled that I was already in touch with most of the technology he talked about. I suppose I'm not as out-of-touch as I sometimes worry I am.  At one point in his smaller session, he had everyone in the room pull out every gadget they carried. I pulled out my tablet PC, my blackberry, my Nintendo DS Lite (with Nintendogs), and my digital camera. I was definitely in the top 10 of folks with gadgets in the room, but there were several folks with more, or newer, gadgets than mine.
I got several things out of Jim's presentations though. I suppose the most important thing, and perhaps the unintended thing, was how important it is to love what you do. His excitement literally spilled out into the room. I'm definitely going to take some time to re-focus a bit on journalistic writing. Hopefully I can still keep it technical in nature. After all, Jim Louderback was just a programmer when he landed a job as a technology writer. I see that as a hopeful story. (Don't worry folks, I'm not giving up technical writing just yet!)
In my notes after the jump, you can read about Jim's latest technology favorites - everything from bunnies to the Nintendo Wiii.

Learning 2006: Nigel Paine

Nigel Paine recieved one of Elliott's Learning awards during a general session. I was intrigued by this man who used to lead the Learning for the BBC and attended his smaller session. I don't know if I really got anything out of the session (although I'll always happily listen to a British accent) but I did pick up some interesting tidbits.

Nigel focused on collaboration and how use of community within the BBC helped establish and build their internal learning programs. The BBC needs to retain employees throughout a rigourous and extended training process. They now facilitate a collaborative environment with wikis, blogs, and so forth. They depend on, effectively, a culture of sharing.

Internal changes at the BBC led to external changed in dealing with their audience. Internal blogs led to external blogs. Newscasters would blog, recieve audience feedback, and improve their delivery. Internally, information was shared across all levels of learners and across different business groups. The culture of sharing led to emotional engagement, which is necessary to facilitate effective learning.

In addition to the shared community, the BBC delivered small, accessible chunks of learning, which provide the necessary information with the resources to go learn more.

Key thoughts  -

• Shifted from courses to collaborative environments
• Shifted from knowledge material to knowledge sharing
• Moved from lockdown of information to free flowing

Nigel no longer works for the BBC and is in fact an independent consultant. (You can visit his web site here.)

Learning 2006 Recaps: Arch Lustberg

Arch Lustberg was a keynote speaker at Learning 2006, but I also attended his smaller session. Arch's topic was radically different than most of the topics at the conference. Arch spoke about improving your face to face communication, whether in a group or one on one. Why was it so different? It was one of the few (if not the only) session that didn't involve using technology.

Arch has several tips for personal communication, including:

• The art of the pause/effective use of silence
• Making eye contact
• Using information
• Maintaining an open face
• Optimizing gestures

Likability, states Arch, wins every time. This is most often seen in politics and sales. Arch said some great things, and my notes are detailed after the jump. However, I most appreciated what he had to say about information.
Information should be honest, positive, caring, easy to understand, and memorable. People remember stories and anecdotes. I believe this concept of information applies not only to personal communication, but to other means of communication as well, including technical writing and most importantly, learning.

Learning 2006 Recaps: The Speed of Trust

Steven Covey spoke on Sunday night about the speed of trust.

His theory is that if trust goes up, speed (productivity) increases and costs decrease. Alternatively, if trust decreases, productivity declines and costs increase. I had never thought about it in those terms before, but I think Mr. Covey is on to something. Treating trust as a commodity is something a lot of businesses should do. How many employees trust their employer? If they did, would they work happier? If employees were happier, would costs decrease and productivity increase? Of course. The question becomes, how do you foster an environment of trust?

100 Times Better

Last year I did not enjoy this conference. This year is completely different. I've spent time in useful sessions and learned things in the General Sessions. The mini-session on compliance training went quite well. In fact, this evening I'll be posting the results of the discussion on the conference wiki, which anyone can access. Go visit the Learning Wiki to participate vicariously in Learning 2006.

My favorite session thus far has been from Arch Lustberg, an 81-year old dynamo who coaches people on both group and one-on-one communication. I highly recommend checking out his book, How to Sell Yourself.  I was also intrigued by some of the concept presented by Stephen M.R. Covey (the junior, not the senior). He talked about the relationship between trust, cost, and productivity.His book (yes, all the keynotes seem to be plugging a book) is The Speed of Trust. Also worth checking out.

Since I'm blogging from a random Learning 2006 machine, I'm going to sign off for now. 

Off to Disney & Learning 2006

Off on vacation, but first, I'll be attending Elliott Masie's Learning 2006. (Must he put his name on everything?) Last year I was over-prepared and incredibly disappointed. This year I'm approaching it completely different. I'm looking forward to it, and it looks like the speakers are bigger, broader, and more diverse.
Because travel tends to put me in the blogging mood (of which I haven't been of late), I'll try to blog my impressions each day.
See you in Florida!