Conference 2011
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| Never predict anything, especially the future | |||||||||||||
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Jonathan Margolis, Journalist and Author | ||||||||||||
 In this entertaining and thought-provoking keynote, Jonathan Margolis questions how well we can ever predict the future course of technology, and weighs up who is best placed to assess its direction. Is it the experts who know the field intimately, or the outsiders who can see the bigger picture? And right now who is saying what about how technology will look in 3, 5 and ten years’ time, and which voices should we listen to? Jonathan compares the visions of the future we all had in past decades with the reality of how futures work out in the real world. He looks back at some of the hilariously wrong predictions in the past of how we would be living today – and also assesses how some uncannily accurate futurologists actually got things (almost) right. Further details Jonathan Margolis was the first journalist writing in mainstream newspapers on consumer technology, starting in 1985. He is currently a contributing editor of the FT's How To Spend It magazine and writes elsewhere for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, BA's Business Life magazine and Saga. He was the author of a 2001 book on futurology, A Brief History of Tomorrow. Jonathan Margolis has established a national and international reputation for writing and speaking in an informed and extremely witty, accessible style and has been reporting in the mainstream press on technology for longer than anyone else in the UK. He is also a successful author of biographies (John Cleese, Billy Connolly and others) and, more recently, popular science books, including a history of futurology. |
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| Building skills for tomorrow: learning & development and the next 5 years | |||||||||||||
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Professor Mike Campbell OBE, Director of Research and Policy, UK Commission for Employment and Skills | ||||||||||||
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In the frantic rush of today’s world it’s all too easy to be caught up in the present – to get absorbed in tackling a particular training need, or get obsessed by the latest tool that is supposed to solve all our learning problems. Professor Mike Campbell is responsible for advising government on the policies, strategies and targets required to reach the world class skills ambition and for assessing the UK’s progress towards it, and it is his job to take the longer and bigger view. He looks at how well the UK is developing its skills for the future, at the role that we – the country’s workplace L&D professionals – play in this and at the research showing where we are succeeding and where we are falling behind. In this closing keynote Professor Campbell throws startling light on the importance of skills to both organisations and to the UK. He will draw on research demonstrating the impact of coherent, well thought-out skills building activities, and ask crucial questions about today’s L&D functions. |
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| The dilemmas and tough choices facing learning and development today | |||||||||||||
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Professor Chris Bones, Dean Emeritus, Henley Business School, Professor of Creativity and Leadership, Manchester Business School | ||||||||||||
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Chris Bones has seen the learning and development function from both sides. As Cadbury Schweppes’ group organisation effectiveness and development director, he made sure L&D was business-focused across the group. At Henley, and now at Manchester Business School, he deals with a wide range of business issues, of which learning is just one. This experience has led Chris to conclude that there are two types of learning function – and that only the one which makes an impact is likely to survive in the current climate. • The two sorts of L&D function: the quick and the dead. • What makes an L&D function effective – or not. • Why alignment to business strategy and communicating this is essential. • How to get alignment. • Three practical steps to make your department thrive |
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| e-Learning 3.0 Learning with the extended smart web | |||||||||||||
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Professor Steve Wheeler, Associate Professor in Education and ICT, University of Plymouth | ||||||||||||
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As the web continues to evolve we see trends emerging that open up an exciting range of new opportunities for learning. In this session, Steve Wheeler explores new and emerging web features, and speculates on how learners might benefit from the current trends towards smarter, more accessible collaborative web environments. The Semantic Web - or Web 3.0 - is already here, but what are the challenges and opportunities it brings with it as it extends its influence? Steve will examine the development and application of intelligent and context-aware mobile and handheld devices, and offers some discussion on how we may harness the power of these technologies in the near future. This session will feature: • Augmented and virtual reality. • Semantic Web technologies. • Wearable and handheld devices. • Mobile and ubiquitous learning. • 3D visualisation and interaction |
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| Learning and development: changing how, what and where we learn | |||||||||||||
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Ewan McIntosh, EwanMcIntosh.com | ||||||||||||
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Most of the companies and start-ups that we admire for their speed to market and smart solutions to real problems see learning as a crucial part of their DNA. Even if the return on investment of time, energy and opportunity cost comes months and years later, if at all, learning is at the core of every great new idea. Drawing on his experience with large corporations, small start-ups and the education sector, Ewan will examine what can happen when learning ceases to be something that’s done to you and becomes something you live every working day. • Learning is not about training courses, nor is it measured in service days. • What are the working processes that involve learning as a key part of creative work? • What can we learn from the world's most creative and learning-centred companies? • What next steps can you take to transform learning from add-on to core? • The myth of the digital native and why learning fast isn’t just a young person’s game. |
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| Making sure you and your team are performing to your best | |||||||||||||
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Steve Smith, British record high jumper and Olympic medalist | ||||||||||||
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Feeling squeezed between reduced budgets and tighter deadlines? So are plenty in L&D right now – and in these times, delivering performance has never been more important. For both inspiration and some practical guidance in raising our game, we turn to Olympic medallist, British record holder and award-winning speaker Steve Smith. Both by using sport as a metaphor and by drawing on practical examples, Steve will suggest ways of ensuring that you and your team are performing at your best. • Identifying what good performance looks like. • Finding and building on your unique strengths. • Controlling the controllables. • Setting goals that inspire, stretch and produce results. • Focusing on what really matters. |
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