Learning 2005 – Recap
Looking back over last week’s conference, I have mixed emotions. On one hand, I’m disappointed with the sessions. They either didn’t live up to my expectations or were "old news" for me. (I realize the technology was new to a lot of people there, but I was also hoping for a few, more advanced sessions.)
Some of the discussions were great. My very last session, on Wednesday morning, was on Blogs & Wikis. While I was ahead of the curve as far as the topic, the discussion on incorporating blogs and wikis into the corporate world was still well run with many participants and viewpoints.
A lot of sessions, as I may have mentioned before, were frustrating because they were product ads in disguise. I made a point NOT to attend any sponsor-sessions. But other sessions, including case studies and perspectives, ended up being ads for products as well. I believe that the session summaries were not wholly accurate and were sort of misleading.
I was thrilled with the keynote speakers. I really enjoyed Bob Pike, Malcolm Gladwell, and Steven Johnson and carried away new knowledge. However, a good portion of the general sessions I found sort of uninteresting. (I did enjoy listening to the gentleman from NAM though.)
I wasn’t the only one to be disappointed in the conference. I ran into a lot of people who were disappointed. For me, this was a huge investment. I’m a small business and there were a lot of other things I could have done with that $1000 + travel expenses. I was very personally invested in this conference and came out sad (especially based on all the pre-conference hype).
On the other hand, I met a lot of great people and had some fantastic conversations. I also am really looking forward to the use of the tools we’ve been given, including the IBM messenger, the social networking system, and most importantly, the wiki. There is a fantastic opportunity for networking and discussion within the next few months and I can’t wait to participate.
I don’t know if it’s worth it for me to attend next year’s conference. My money might be better spent on an ASTD conference instead. We’ll see if I use what I learned. In the meantime, I’m already spouting information I learned from Bob Pike’s session in my current training classes.
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