Angel Green, senior instructional strategist
@learneradvocate

The second day of ASTD ICE 2013 was once again all about connecting! The day started with the keynote speech by John Seely Brown. His advice to us, as learning professionals, is to organizationally embrace the culture necessary for learning today. Through a series of examples ranging from surfers learning tricks from online videos to organizations, like SAP, creating networks and communities of practice; Dr. Brown drove home the point that learners today are entrepreneurial. They seek information from their personal learning networks and learn best in reactive, experiential educational environments. 

After the keynote, the sessions began and Dr. Allen gave the Leaving ADDIE for SAM presentation to a packed house. In fact, they were turning folks away ten minutes before the session start time. Those who were in attendance flocked to our booth excited about SAM and anxious to learn more. We are thrilled at the buzz around SAM and the iterative design process. 

Speaking of SAM, we were visited by JD Dillion from Kaplan and had a great conversation about the benefits of the iterative design process. JD and I recorded this chat, and if the audio turns out okay, we hope to share it during our next episode of Iterations. 

The audio may be loud because our ZebraZapps demos at the booth were packed! Each time we gave a demo, a large crowd gathered and watched with awe at the ease and speed at which you can create interactions. We had a number of folks sign up for a ZebraZapps account at our booth. If you did, be sure to check out the great resources, including Ethan Edward’s ZebraZapps Challenge series available on the ZebraZapps blog.

As the day progressed, our existing clients would drop into the booth to say hi. We build such great bonds with our clients, but often our work is done virtually (after the SAVVY Start), so it is such a treat to get to see them in person. You all make us the successful organization we are today, and we appreciate the opportunity to work with each of you.

In the afternoon, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Lou Russell’s session “Iterate and Innovate: Success With Agile, Lean Six Sigma, SAVVY and ITIL SMF Development.” Lou’s lesson for all of us is that bad news early is good news. We couldn’t agree more! The benefit of iterative design, like SAM, is in the ability to identify mistakes early and work to solve them long before they become expensive. But perhaps the biggest takeaway from her session is that regardless of the methodology you follow, the key to project success is knowing how to communicate and connect with the stakeholders, the project team and the subject matter experts. Thus, the common thread of connecting continued!

We hope to continue networking, connecting and communicating today as we wrap up what has been another amazing ASTD ICE conference. Be sure to stop by the booth and say hi!