Some notes from the Panel Discussion at NJ ASTD Conference on 11/16

I had the opportunity to participate and attend the NJ ASTD event which included a panel, keynote by Dr. Allen and expo. 

The panel discussed the challenges and current state of learning in each of their companies. The 4 speakers has a wide range of experiences from one who was just entering the web 2.0 to phase to others that had more opportunities (sometimes) to experiment with the latest technologies.  In entering the social learning realm, one spoke about how they announced their new annual meeting and in conjunction a new social tool which would be integrate into the event to get the latest news, information and to share what you learned. Thought this was a great idea for many of us. 

In discussing how they keep up with the onslaught of information and technology there were several great thoughts that you want to make sure you are following:

– attend local and larger events – as budget and time allow

– web reading and research – several mentioned using rss feeds to assist in filtering or focusing on information of interest to them 

– be aware of what’s happening around you, whether thru you kids, siblings or family and friends look to see what they are doing, what games they are playing and how they are learning or hearing about information. Think about how you may apply that concept to what you are doing And for your organization 

– play and experiment with everything 

– vendor day- two of the speakers had a vendor day monthly or quarterly where they invited vendors and developers in to show their latest technology and developments. They described this as a win/win because it gave the a opportunity to learn about what others are doing and what is avaliable today as well as an opportunity for the vendors to learn about how they may fit into solutions.