By: Sam Russell – July 2015

Given that there is a large number of people that have joined the network since the results of the most resent networking events were emailed, we thought it might be worth posting the overview of the session outcomes to give the new members a idea of what’s been discussed, and what will be included in the future events.

Here’s the original message (if you wanted to add anything, please feel free to do so in the ‘comments’ section at the bottom of the article):

Australian Learning & Development Network – July Events Report

Dear all,

As you may be aware, the sessions (held in Perth and Brisbane) were aimed at discovering what issues/topics the members of the network would most benefit from covering in future sessions, in order that we can plan ahead and ensure that the events are focused on dealing with relevant issues. We’ve collated the results of the sessions and they look like this (the most desired topics listed first):

Brisbane:

1. What tools/resources do we subscribe to?
2. Proving ROI
3. L&D case studies
4. Better embedding/transferring of learning
5. Strategic workforce planning
6. What does a future leader look like?

Perth:

1. Instructional design concepts
2. Real-world examples (case studies)
3. LMS/L&D technologies – e.g. What is there? What does it do? What are the benefits? What works?, etc
4. Developing a culture that embraces change
5. Influencing upwards (how to get approval for L&D programs, etc)
6. Competency, career pathway, and accreditation

One of the other things that was mentioned in both sessions is properly structured training programs for L&D and OD professionals (as you’d all be aware, there’s no shortage of training for every other role out there, but precious little (if any) for people working in the L&D/OD space)…I’m already looking at some ways we can address this and will let you know more ASAP!

As mentioned earlier, this information will help us shape the future sessions, so a big thank you to everyone involved – also, we’ve already had very generous offers from some of our members to run/deliver these topics – with that in mind, I’ll be in touch with those that put their hand up soon.

Lastly, a number of people suggested that, whilst an hour gave enough time (just) to run a session, it didn’t give much time for actually networking…given that networking is one of the main reasons for the group (hence the name of course), we’re going to try out 90 minutes for the next sessions, the idea being that we have a good half an hour for discussion after the main workshop.

Lastly, I’d like to once again say a very big thank you to everyone who’s been involved with the network so far and, of course, thank Christine Tiyur and John Scotland for doing such a fantastic job of running the last sessions.

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