Reflections on the Association for Talent Development (formerly ASTD) - Kansas City 2014 Conference

Yesterday, I attended the day-long Kansas City ATD 2014 Conference in Overland Park, KS. Being my first ATD-KC conference, here are some of my observations through the lens of someone who has spent many years in higher education:

1. Corporate training and development professionals seem to be keenly interested in finding ways to create a healthier, happier workplace. Paul White's keynote, Using The 5 Languages of Appreciation to Detoxify Your Work Environment highlighted this interest.

To my higher education colleagues: When was the last time someone from your college/university displayed any concern for your workplace happiness or genuinely recognized you for your contribution to your organization? (Other than the obligatory X years of service certificate/pin, complete with a PPT flashback showing the most popular movies, songs, celebrities, and news stories X number of years ago).

2. Corporate training and development professionals seem to be genuinely interested in helping their organizations' employees make successful transitions, whether it's joining the organization as a new employee, making a lateral move, accepting a new role, changing offices, or even transitioning to retirement. The Transition Coaching session by Mickie Schroeder and Jeffrey Jans highlighted this.

To my higher education colleagues: When was the last time someone from your college/university provided quality support (orientation program) for joining the university as new faculty or staff member, or quality support for you transition to another role at your college/university? (Most of us fall into 1, the complete the paperwork in HR, 2. here are your office keys, 3. welcome to X university category, I suppose?)

Other conference topics included Coaching, Integrated Talent Management, Performance Management, Knowledge Management, Leadership Development and Supporting Engagement and Retention.

All-in-all, it was a refreshing look at workplace issues that are too-often overlooked in the world of higher education (pay attention university administrators and HR professionals). In addition, I met some extremely bright and talented individuals, and I look forward to meeting more at future KC-ATD meetings, as well as at next year's conference. Many thanks to the KC-ATD board and conference planners for their hard work on the 2014 conference!