World of Learning has become one of those fixed points in my calendar, the sort of event I look forward to not just because it’s professionally valuable, but because it feels right in ways that are harder to quantify. This year’s event in Birmingham reinforced why it’s remained my favourite of the big conference expos, and it also gave me a chance to reflect on where we are as an industry and where we might be headed.
The comment to my wife, Rebecca, the night before, about how nice it was to attend without presenting turned out to be spectacularly premature. A phone call, as we were leaving the house the following morning, asking if we could step in to replace an interactive roundtable session, changed that particular plan rather quickly. It’s the sort of opportunity you say yes to even when you’d rather not, and whilst it meant preparing a workshop in under 24 hours, it turned out to be a great experience. I’ve written separately about that particular adventure in time pressure and what it reminded me about working under constraints, so I won’t repeat myself here, but suffice to say it was a useful reminder of what happens when you strip away the overthinking and just build something that works.
The venue and its quiet importance
Birmingham gets this right in ways that central London venues often don’t. The NEC isn’t quite at the level of the Karlsruhe Exhibition Centre where LernTek takes place, but it’s one of the better locations we have available for large events in the UK. There’s something important about having green space outside, water features, natural light streaming through the halls, all of these elements that we don’t always acknowledge as significant, but fundamentally change how we experience these gatherings and communicate with each other.
These aren’t trivial aesthetic preferences. When we’re asking people to expose themselves to new ideas, to think differently, to reflect on their practice, the environment matters. Quiet spaces matter. Natural light matters. The opportunity to step outside and breathe actual air rather than recirculated conference centre atmosphere matters. Birmingham offers this in ways that many central London venues simply cannot, and whilst it’s easier for me personally to travel to Birmingham than to navigate into the heart of London, I’d argue the environmental benefits extend well beyond my own convenience.
Conversations at the Learning Network stand
I spent most of my time at the Learning Network stand, which meant I had the luxury of extended conversations with both existing members and people discovering the Network for the first time. These conversations are always fascinating because they reveal what’s preoccupying people right now, what challenges they’re wrestling with, what they’re excited about, and what’s keeping them up at night.
We also spoke to quite a few people about Connect, the upcoming Learning Network conference on 14th November in London. My company Evolve L&D is sponsoring the event, and this will be the last year I’m organising it behind the scenes. It’s keynoted by Julian Stodd and Amy Brann, and if you don’t have plans for that day and fancy attending a phenomenal full-day conference, drop me a message as I have a few tickets that need a home.
What struck me most about the conversations at the event, beyond the merely social exchanges, was their substance. We spoke very little about AI, which represents a huge improvement from previous years. I was pleased to see this echoed on the exhibition stands themselves, where very few vendors were screaming about their new AI-powered this or that. Instead, I saw interesting applications of what was obviously AI technology, but it was simply the background technology rather than the headline feature. This, I believe, shows a real maturing of the AI conversation within the L&D industry, something that is long overdue but which I’m genuinely hopeful will allow us to power forward and continue to escape the “AI on everything” approach to product development.
Note: I am aware that there has been some criticism of the exhibition this year. I understand people’s frustrations, but it’s important to remember the limitations of the format. You are ultimately attending a free opportunity to learn. Events cost phenomenally large amounts of money to put on, and that money has to come from somewhere. When you go to a free event, the money is almost always coming from corporate sponsorship. Corporate sponsorship is predicated on the idea that there is an opportunity for them to sell to you. That is the deal. If you don’t want that deal, then you need to attend a conference rather than an exhibition.
The return to fundamental challenges
I was also hearing a return to some of the longer-term challenges that L&D faces, the ones that don’t have neat technological solutions or quick fixes. How to make social learning an effective part of the L&D offering came up repeatedly, both in casual conversation and within the main conference sessions, and it was even the topic of the end-of-day Learning Exchange roundtables. The variety of approaches people were and weren’t taking was fascinating, as was the difficulty many perceived in measuring the benefits and impact of social learning. There’s probably another article just on that topic in the very near future.
Budget constraints and headcount reductions came up frequently, as did the inevitable conversation about having a seat at the table. This particular conversation annoys me no less now than it ever did before. There is no table. There are no seats. I don’t think it’s a helpful way to look at the modern workplace, and I also don’t think it helps us to bemoan our lack of a seat at a non-existent table. It leads to arguments about needing to put more effort into showing the value we generate, whilst forgetting the part of the conversation where we ask ourselves whether we’re generating value in the first place and whether that might be why people don’t pay attention to us.
There were, however, a couple of really great conversations around career progression within our industry and the lack of clear pathways currently available. The reduction in headcount isn’t just putting highly experienced leaders, senior practitioners, and CLOs out of work; it’s also stripping away the entry-level roles that we rely on to feed us a steady stream of talent for the next generation. The entry-level instructional designer, trainer, facilitator, or developer roles which form the foundation of our industry’s future are disappearing.
We need to be thinking about how we fix this as an industry. How we ensure we don’t end up with a massive talent gap in just a couple of years’ time. Yes, some departments may have become slightly bloated during the COVID years when money was flowing more freely to L&D, but that’s no reason to overcorrect and rob our industry of its future foundation to save money today. The short-term thinking here has long-term consequences that we’ll all be dealing with eventually.
The generosity of our community
As always, one of the things that strikes me about L&D events is how giving everyone is of their time and expertise. Whether someone is senior or junior, self-employed or employed, owns a company or works internally, these distinctions really cease to matter at these events. I had conversations with people who had literally just started in their L&D careers alongside teachers wanting to join the industry, and then with CEOs, CLOs, and Heads of Department from all over the country. All of them were passionate, interested, and there to learn something they didn’t already know.
The event also proved to be a great testing ground for some of my future ideas, including the Evidence-Informed Practice Conference planned for May next year. More details will be revealed on this very soon, but I’m exceptionally excited about it. There was also strong confirmation of interest in the return of the virtual IDTX conference in February, which people confirmed they had enjoyed and would like to see again.
What I didn’t do
I didn’t record a single podcast episode. I’d planned to, I’d taken the equipment, and what I quickly realised was that it was going to get in the way of having good conversations. I might try live podcasts again in the future, but right now I’m not feeling it, and I could see that other people didn’t really want to take part either. Folks at events are busy, and whilst some of us have the luxury of taking 5 to 10 minutes out for a recording, others are under time pressure to gather valuable insights and take them back to the office to demonstrate that this wasn’t just a jolly.
To be honest, I didn’t find myself missing it. Whilst I enjoy podcasting, I think I’m going to give the live recordings a rest for a while and instead focus on producing episodes here in the studio where I have more control and can create something more considered.
Final thoughts
Another great event. Hats off to all the organisers, particularly Robin Hoyle and Joe Cook for chairing the sessions so ably, but also everyone in the background at Venture Marketing Group, including Tracy Shah, Eve Cummins, John Hancock, Sarah Hughes, Vanisha Patel, Karen Baylis, Neelam Luggah, Georgia Lambert, Wendy Yeonman, Matt Serember, Jessica Kesby, Chris Short, Sarah McConnell, Annie Blinkhorn, and Lorenzo Wareham and the rest of the team who never get enough credit for what they do. These events are almost impossible to get perfect. The balance between the expo being a sales opportunity and being valuable to attendees, the free seminars having the right topics from the right mix of vendor and non-vendor sessions, the conference offering the right balance of different but linked conversations, these things are excruciatingly difficult.
No one gets everything 100% right, but there are all the telltale signs at every World of Learning event that there’s passion behind it and people striving to get it as close to perfect as possible, to offer as many people value as they can whilst keeping the event viable. These two objectives, unfortunately, often sit at loggerheads with each other, but having organised a few smaller events myself over the years, I’ve learned just how hard this job is, and I have enormous respect for those who do it at this scale.
My broader reflections are really about where we are as an industry. We seem to be finally, at least for now, getting away from the hype of AI and the idea that those two little letters can sell us anything. The promise of robots wandering around the workplace solving all our problems seems to have been rethought, and instead we’re asking much more meaningful human questions about social learning, about interpersonal relationships, about the cultures we contribute to in the workplace, about accessibility, about the balance between digital and face-to-face existences, and about what the future of work and the future of our industry look like.
These questions are all far more interesting to me than what AI has done this week. They’re the questions that will shape how we work, how we learn, and how we support performance in organisations over the coming years. And if World of Learning is any indication, they’re the questions our industry is finally ready to wrestle with properly.