Top names lined up to speak at World of learning confrence 2004

A highly impressive group of leading industry speakers will provide valuable insight into the latest trends in business learning and development at the World of Learning Conference 2004. The event takes place at the NEC, Birmingham on 17 & 18 November 2004.

Focusing on the key strategic issues facing training professionals, as well as the practicalities of implementing integrated solutions, the World of Learning conference programme has been specifically formulated following extensive research to identify the most pressing issues in the industry today.

Each day opens with a high profile address with an international perspective:

Free Opening Address: 17 November 2004
How can you maximise business performance through training and development? Dr Dean Spitzer, Managing Consultant - Learning & Performance, IBM Corporation USA, will consider how organisations can gain competitive edge through investing in people development.

Free Keynote Address: 18 November 2004
How can you demonstrate correlations between skills investment and company performance? Jane Massy, Workplace Training and Performance Consultant and leading industry analyst, will discuss global developments in measuring return on investment, identifying how benchmarking techniques are changing, and how to ensure that the right measurement methodologies are employed.

The conference programme covers a wealth of crucial learning issues including: Transferring learning back to the workplace Securing staff buy-in to training Establishing a true blended solution Developing an effective learning and development function How to improve soft skills through drama-based training

Constructing a learning culture
Developing managers and leaders

Among the host of leading-edge companies presenting case studies are the Child Support Agency, BBC, Sun Microsystems, the Royal Air Force, the Cabinet Office, Centrica, ICI Paints and Royal Mail.

The programme concludes each day with free addresses:

Free Closing Keynote: 17 November
Clive Shepherd, Director of e-Learning at The Training Foundation, will share his expertise on the role of e-learning within the context of blended solutions and considering questions such as ’can e-learning really stand alone?’ and ’does e-learning suit all learners?’

Free Event Closing Keynote: 18 November
Susan Pember, Director of the Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit at the Department for Education and Skills closes the event with an outline of the government’s action on improving basic skill levels in the UK

Alison Church, Senior Conference Producer at World of Learning 2004, said, The World of Learning Conference addresses the most important learning and development issues facing businesses today. For example, research has shown that training departments continually have to meet the challenge of proving the business benefits of people development and how it transfers back to the workplace- these are just two of the key topics being focused on at the event.