This week saw Cognota back in Las Vegas for one of the most exciting L&D events of the year – DevLearn 2019!
If you haven’t been before, DevLearn is all about embracing the frontier between learning and technology. Learning professionals from across the globe come together to hear about latest developments, what the industry can expect for the near future, and to network with their peers.
Although we were exhibiting at the expo, we also took some time to soak up the atmosphere and listen in on the fantastic line-up of keynotes at the 15th anniversary of DevLearn. Here are our highlights!
Wednesday – Robots, AI, and the Future of Learning
Keynote with Sophia the Robot
Wednesday kicked off with one of the most fascinating keynotes around – an interview with Sophia the Robot!
As Sophia took the stage, David Kelly of the eLearning Guild posed questions to her about how AI would continue to shape our world and whether we should be worried.
Thankfully, Sophia assured listeners that learning professionals have nothing to be concerned about – the robots are not coming for our jobs! The discussion focused on how AI will be more about helping workers in their day-to-day roles rather than replacing them.
Gamificiation for Sales Enablement (with Karl Kapp & Mary Nicholson)
This engaging session explored the fast-paced environment in which sales enablement takes place and how techniques like gamification can help keep learners engaged through fast, effective, and impactful learning strategies.
Karl Kapp and Mary Nicholson discussed how gamification impacts real bottom-line results for sales teams, gave fascinating examples (such as VR tracking of sales behaviours), and presented case studies to highlight the key message of the session.
Visual Design and Engaging eLearning with Tim Slade
Award-winning designer Tim Slade provided invaluable insight in this authoring and design-focused session. He talked about the importance of good visual design for eLearning, not just to make your courses look pretty, but because of its positive impact on the learning experience.
Focusing on Powerpoint, Articulate, and Adobe Illustrator, Tim went on to provide concrete tips and tricks for translating eLearning content into visual storytelling.
Thursday – Augmented Humans, Learner Engagement, and Analytics
Keynote: Augmented Human – How Technology Is Shaping the New Reality with Helen Papagiannis
Carrying on the theme of AI, VR, and all things digital, this fascinating keynote aimed to help us understand the significance of these advances.
Technology evangelist Helen Papagiannis used real word examples such as Facebook’s recent acquisition of VR headset maker Oculus to illustrate how close these technologies are to becoming part of every day lives – and the impact this will inevitably have on we live, work, and play. This truly eye-opening keynote was one to remember!
Meaningful Measurement: Getting Greater Value from Learning Analytics with Kate Pasterfield
With a topic that’s close to our hearts here at Cognota, Kate Pasterfield delivered a session that exposed the real value of capturing learner behaviour.
She urged the learning leaders in attendance to go beyond one-dimensional reporting such as tracking adoption and completion rates. There is a whole wealth of behavioral data to be captured that can help L&D departments streamline their strategies and approach learners with a more human-centric approach to capturing and interpreting the learning experience.
L&D Mystery Series: The Case of the Disengaged Learner
Learner engagement is a sore spot for the vast majority of L&D leaders, and we all know it when we see it. The prevalence of this problem and the unique presentation of this session drew a crowd for Cara North’s “murder mystery” experience.
Attendees were invited to join Detective Knowles in solving the L&D mystery of the disengaged learner. The session went much further than describing the research and tools; listeners were able to participate in “solving the mystery” in an interactive experience that provided practical resources and tips for increasing learner engagement in face-to-face, blended, and virtual settings.
The Cognota stand at DevLearn 2019
As always, for us, the best part of the event was exhibiting at the expo! We had such a blast distributing swag and chatting to L&D leaders at the forefront of learning innovation in their respective industries.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat and see live demos of our Training Requests platform and Learning Design System.
If you’ve never been to DevLearn, we highly recommend making attendance at the 2020 session a priority. If you’re a regular attendee, we hope you enjoyed DevLearn 2019 as much as we did. Either way – we’ll see you there next year!
