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january 2010 show guide
preface
Another year, another Learning Technologies Exhibition and Conference. But this year, something has changed.
It’s not just that the event will be the biggest ever, or that you have an exciting new exhibition to visit in Learning and Skills 2010 taking place on the ground floor. It’s not that we have a vibrant online community of over 2,500 learning and development professionals – the Learning and Skills Group. These changes are timely, but there is something more fundamental at work.
The Learning and Development profession itself has changed.
For a long time – possibly for too long – L&D, or training, was something that took place in the background. It was something organisations had to do. That is, they had to do it until things got bad and then, like other costs training was slashed until times got better.
But things changed. Yes, some L&D teams were badly hit by the economic downturn, but overall, we missed the slash-and burn responses of previous recessions. The reason: executives now know that skills matter.
In a couple of decades, developed economies have moved from a position where labour was a commodity to one where ability is a vital differentiator. This should be a great moment for L&D, but this recognition of the importance of what we do, brings with it both opportunity and threat.
The opportunity is clear: at last L&D should be able to take the initiative and prove its value to the organisation. It should be able to embed learning in the fabric of daily life.
The threat is simple: if we don’t do this, others will. Others less able, with less understanding of learning, people who believe that anyone can facilitate learning, because after all, we all went to school, didn’t we? That’s like saying that anyone can be Shakespeare because we can all write.
It may be only barely perceptible, but 2010 marks a watershed in the history of organisational learning. The moment is ours – it is up to us to seize it.
Donald H Taylor
Chairman of the Learning Technologies Conference and Learning and Skills Group
