This year World of Learning returned to Birmingham and as always, The Learning Network was there with a stand and also to sponsor the Learning Design Live. While the previous virtual WoL events were great, there really is nothing like attending these events in person.
During the two days, there were lots of thought-provoking seminars, stimulating conversations, and the opportunity to catch up with people within the L&D community.
Everybody who attends these events has a different agenda. Some people have a list of talks they want to see, I know I usually have a printed table that tells me what, when, and where each of the sessions are. Some people have a list of stands they want to visit, maybe they want to look at an LMS, or maybe they are looking to get a video created or eLearning. Some people go to catch up with people in their professional network.
For me attending this year, it was all about promoting The Learning Network, raising awareness of what we do and offer to our members and Industry Partners. It was also a fantastic opportunity to catch up with the Industry Partners who attended WoL to chat about potential collaboration opportunities in the future.
One of the attendees we spoke to was David Bird. David came to see us on the stand and after a chat, signed up to the LN, joined the Slack channel, and sent over his key takeaways from WoL;
I went to the World of Learning (WOL) as a learner, so my key takeaways are from that perspective.
- It was good to meet the Learning Network; so I joined! I’m looking forward to connecting and learning
- I enhanced my knowledge of software, learning from the gamification companies, both virtual and physical. It was interesting to see that board games like WWYD have their place in the L&D field; how adaptable they can be and how they can be made organisation/sector specific.
- I listened with interest to seminars, including blended learning (Arlo) and LIFLOW (Rise Up). It was interesting to see what was shared, including information that has been debunked by some (the learning pyramid)
I definitely think it was a useful experience for me to attend WOL as a newbie to the profession.
Thank you to everyone who attended WoL this year, you make these events fantastic and we can’t wait to see you at the next event.
