No, you aren’t hallucinating, that is me wearing a Tux – dressed to the nines for the Annual Training Magazine Gala, celebrating the best in training and development for the year.  I was thrilled to represent Adobe along with many others at the 2023 Learning Leaders Summit and at the Annual Training Magazine Conference.

We kicked things off on Sunday with an incredible Learning Leaders summit hosted at KPMG’s Lakehouse Training Facility in Orlando. The staff and facilities were jaw dropping and the community of leaders gathered for shared discussion, activities, experiences and the chance to enhance our understanding of the industry.

I was excited to do a fireside chat with Heather McMillen Sandusky, VP of Training at Transparent BPO at the event where she wowed us all with the incredible results TBPO has been getting for their opt-in learning initiatives, designed to maximize employee retention and upskilling with a little help from Adobe Learning Manager.

By Monday the training conference was in full swing with amazing keynotes, and a full day of meeting customers and friends on the Expo floor. The marketing team pulled out all the stops with an incredible array of swag – always a favorite of conference attendees. I shared sneak previews of Adobe Captivate Project Charm (and passed out invitations to join the pre-release) throughout the day, and saw wonderful product demos by Jamal Watkins for ALM and by Mark Walker for the Connect team. I even had a chance to sneak down to the other side of the expo hall to see the all-new Adobe Connect Interactive Video Studio! Alistair Lee is blogging about that too – check it out here.

By mid-day I was off to join the elite. There is an AMAZING event hidden among the conference where learning leaders and past hall of fame inductees gather to work on a shared whitepaper that reviews the state of the industry and leans in on areas of increasing importance. The topics discussed will appear in a whitepaper in an upcoming issue of Training Magazine. It is always phenomenal to be in that room and share in the insights of industry leaders.

Later that night I donned my Vera Wang with my fuchsia bow tie and shared in the celebration as hundreds gathered for the prestigious black tie gala to recognize the industries best training teams for 2022. We ate and drank like royalty, danced until late night and marveled at the extraordinary work of our peers.

As the conference continued we were able to meet with incredible friends new and old alike, and share stories about our challenges and opportunities. The expo floor was alight with energy – and it was wonderful to enjoy the kinship of colleagues face to face after such a long separation.

Adobe also celebrated the event with the first of our Experience Maker’s events. I’ve already got more of these fantastic little gems on the calendar – coming soon to cities around the world. This one was centered on creativity, painting and the occasional sip. An Orlando artist joined us to provide Bob Ross style instruction on the creation of seascapes – and we all left with our very own masterpiece!

As the evening wound down I shared the stage for a brief fireside chat with Hugh Rumbaugh, Director of Digital Learning at Transparent BPO. Hugh’s insights were phenomenal and that kickstarted an incredible round of networking for attendees. The opportunity to blend this social experience with new ideas from industry experts creates a great event – I hope you’ll attend one of the Experience Maker’s events if it lands in a city near you this year.

Near the end of the conference event I shared a fast-paced presentation on leveraging skills rooted in recent industry research. It is work that our own Tony Ghosh has been aggregating for some time and I was pleased to be able to add my own twist. There is a copy of the deck here, complete with notes for the curious.

6 Steps to Building a Skills First Learning Strategy

Events like these are so important because they provide us opportunities for networking, professional development, insights into industry trends, and feed our spirits with motivation and inspiration. Congrats to the team at Training Magazine for another wonderful event, and to the Adobe Digital Learning Team for continuing their mission to connect with industry champions.