Resilient, Fluid & Fearless: The Future of Learning
Oct. 5 – 6 | Virtual Event
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The 2021 Chief Learning Officer Symposium is now complete
Looking back on how the world has changed since early 2020, the words of Winston Churchill come to mind:
“This is no time for ease and comfort.
It is time to dare and endure.”
It is doubtful that anyone will look back on this time with great fondness or a sense of tranquility. These have been months defined by uncertainty, tumult and, for many, sorrow and desperation. But out of chaos often springs resilience: Lack of comfort can bolster innovation and strength and force us to stretch and reach in ways we might not have thought possible. Such has been the case in learning and development.
Join us for the Fall 2021 Chief Learning Officer Symposium, where you’ll meet with other learning leaders in a virtual environment to share and explore the many ways organizations have pivoted to persevere through the toughest of times. Together, we will explore the strategies, tools and practices learning leaders are using to lead with resilience, fluidity and fearlessness in this new world of work.
Inspiring Keynotes
Past keynote speakers include Adam Grant, Gary Vaynerchuk, Guy Raz, Michelle Gielan, Dan Heath, Heidi Grant Halvorson, Charles Duhigg, Troy Carter, Francesca Gino, Steve Pemberton, Gretchen Rubin, Amy Webb and Susan Packard, among others. This year’s keynote speakers will engage and embolden you with anecdotes and personal experiences applicable to your mission in the future of corporate learning and development.
Educational Workshops
Subject matter experts presenting real-world success stories.
CLO Symposium includes a wide variety of intimate workshops, featuring stories from some of the most innovative executives at the top-ranked organizations in L&D. We’ll cover some of the most important issues facing your teams today, including the move toward lifelong learning, leading through change and crisis, establishing equity in L&D, critical leadership qualities for the future, and more.
You’ll also receive recertification credits from both SHRM and HRCI.
Career-Boosting Networking Opportunities
Share stories, ask questions and find new partners in the industry.
Over the course of the past 16 years, networking opportunities at the CLO Symposium have been named the No. 1 reason attendees say they continue to return. What began as a conference is now the strongest network you can join as a learning and development professional.
Speakers
Agenda
Day 1: October 5
“Resilient, Fluid & Fearless: The Future of Learning” delivered by Chief Learning Officer’s chief content officer and editor in chief, Ashley St. John.
Our workforce and our organizations are experiencing ongoing whiplash as we continue to adapt to the challenges and changes presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning is continuously shifting as we deal with the ambiguous and the unpredictable.
Learners have become more self-engineering. Career expectations have shifted. Learning is leveraging more devices, touched by more systems, and starting to embrace AI and smart systems to make personalization an optimization. Traditional leadership and planning models are being challenged by ambiguity and uncertainty about the future. Empathy has emerged as an essential element in our “good forward” plans.
Join Learning COLLABORATIVE founder and Broadway producer Elliott Masie for an interactive discussion, based on interviews with more than 50 chief learning officers and learning leaders from major corporations around the globe, on the immediate futures of learning.
Creativity has dominated the business landscape over the past year. Agile organizations met the moment and distinguished themselves from the competition, cementing market share and propelling their brands to the forefront even during a crisis. As organizations migrate out of crisis mode into recovery, fostering creativity remains ever important. In this moment, creativity not born from necessity or survival, for it to flourish in a sustainable way, needs to have the right environment — the right corporate culture.
As HR and learning leaders, unleashing a workforce that confronts challenges, creatively troubleshoots issues and executes innovative strategies is critical for success. Leaders and their organizations must be able to articulate organizational purpose, have the skills to drive employee engagement, and embody the attitudes and empathy to build a truly diverse and inclusive workplace.
In this workshop we will cover:
- The four phases of the creativity process leading to innovative outcomes
- Key drivers enabling creativity at the individual, team and organizational level
- Managing the “paradoxes of creativity”
- Why purpose, engagement and diversity stand out as critical drivers of innovation
Join us for this workshop and learn the priorities needed to unleash a culture of creativity within your organization.
Skill data can provide valuable insights and unearth unique opportunities for your people and your organization. Join Janice Burns, chief people officer at Degreed, to find out how you can harness and apply skill intelligence to reap the benefits of a successful learning strategy and ensure you never miss an opportunity to help grow your company.
Teamwork has never been more crucial to a workforce than it is today, especially as specific challenges become more prevalent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this virtually hands-on session, attendees will be grouped into teams, banding together to create and present a strategic approach for tackling an outlined challenge. Feedback will then be shared on the community wall.
Enjoy a 30-minute lunch break, and return ready to continue learning.
Reconvene for an afternoon of thought-provoking conversation as we examine the issues driving enterprise education, share best practices and discuss strategic plans for the future.
A longer, more unpredictable work life characterized by multiple career transitions and technological advances is quickly requiring people to become lifelong learners. This will necessitate rethinking the existing infrastructure we have in place for learning, from K-12 to post-secondary education to corporate learning and development, and establishing better connections between those systems, allowing for improved career navigation and identification of transferable skills. Join this panel discussion focused on the lifelong learner of the future — and what our part is in supporting their journey.
In learning and development, we have unprecedented access to tools and technology to drive self-directed learning; associates can look up what they need without leaving their desks or setting down their mobile phones. But as we maximize our automated tools and artificial intelligence, one thing remains: Humans are social beings. We are wired to connect. Human connection enhances our sense of community; it fuels our resilience and ability to thrive; and it correlates directly with our overall health and well-being.
What does that mean for us, as L&D professionals? How do we simultaneously support learning in this post-pandemic, work-from-home world, while enabling human connection? In this interactive session, we will:
- Discuss the business case for human connection, most notably in light of the increased popularly of remote work arrangements.
- Experience a “social connectedness” learning activity.
- Identify ways to use resources already available to you to increase human connection at your organization.
Many organizations aim to build learning cultures where employees can continuously grow and hone their skills to achieve high performance and career goals. To become a learning culture, organizations need to first address how people learn (and how this is different in the “real world” versus in formal education settings). The science behind how people learn questions the model for traditional courses as being “king” in a learning strategy. To develop and evolve their skills and capabilities in a fast-paced corporate environment, employees need to learn new ways to learn.
We all know the 70/20/10 model for learning, but employees don’t really know HOW to learn on the job. During this session, Arin will review a Learn & Grow campaign and program that she engineered while at Expedia, which was designed to help shift their company culture to one where development is a critical part of employee role expectations and to teach them how to learn on the job.
During this session, you will:
- Learn how to create a toolkit for managers for learning on the job.
- Learn how to create an internal rotation program to enable short term “gigs.”
- Take away tips for how you can shift your organization’s culture to one that embraces learning and growth as a key part of role expectations.
In this time of rapid change and uncertainty, it’s critical that leaders have the skills necessary to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. From preventing The Great Resignation to adapting to the hybrid workplace, leadership coaching offers a proven way to upskill/reskill your people to enable them to further contribute to the goals of your organization. But how can we ensure coaching individuals leads to organizational impact?
In this session, we will discuss how to build cultures of coaching to accelerate your L&D outcomes by helping individuals, teams, and organizations lead and thrive through change.
In this session, Vivek Ravichandran will share insights on how an unwavering focus on enabling a great learning experience, aimed at providing just-in-time, just-enough knowledge, can produce multiskilled digital ninja programmers.
Learning is a journey. It can also bring us together.
In this session, we will discuss how organizations can leverage learning experiences as a vehicle for creating meaningful connections between their people to not only build applicable skills but also nurture a culture of trust, participation and engagement. We will explore:
- How to create environments that encourage participants to embrace the “mess” and engage as they are.
- The value of exploring many ways of applying learning to reality — with a bit of fun.
- The unique opportunity for facilitating personal connections and networking within the learning experience.
Details: Coming soon
This day closes with a quick recap from Chief Learning Officer’s chief content officer and editor in chief, Ashley St. John, followed by open networking.
Ashley St. John, Chief Learning Officer’s chief content officer and editor-in-chief, introduces the event theme, “Revolutionary Learning in Transformative Times.”
Choose the solution that best suits your professional needs and attend either of our two simultaneous 20-minute presentations followed by 10 minutes of Q&A.
Choose the solution that best suits your professional needs and attend either of our two simultaneous 20-minute presentations followed by 10 minutes of Q&A.
Choose the solution that best suits your professional needs and attend either of our two simultaneous 1-hour presentations with Q&A.
Choose the solution that best suits your professional needs and attend either of our two simultaneous 1-hour presentations with Q&A.
Join these TED-style talks, where learning leaders and executives will discuss the challenges and opportunities of these revolutionary times.
The day concludes with a note from Ashley St. John, Chief Learning Officer’s chief content officer and editor-in-chief, followed by open networking.
Day 2: October 6
“Resilient, Fluid & Fearless: The Future of Learning” delivered by Chief Learning Officer’s chief content officer and editor in chief, Ashley St. John.
Over the past year and a half, more than ever before, we’ve all been called to do our best to provide innovative learning and training opportunities to address the challenges that our employees and colleagues have faced and to keep people engaged and supported. Certainly, we all have much to celebrate and much to contemplate — about the choices that we’ve made, the challenges ahead and the opportunities that we have to meaningfully contribute to our communities and organizations.
In times of great change, it is wise to maintain a laser focus on who we want to BE as we navigate our future, use that to direct our learning, and then to determine the next best action.
Join Kraft Heinz Chief Learning and Diversity Officer and author of “Let’s Learn Our Way Through It, Shall We?” Pamay Bassey as she shares lessons learned from her experiences creating, nurturing and transforming her personal and organizational learning culture, and how those lessons can help us to inform how we navigate our future — both as strategic learning professionals and as learning evangelists.
Mitsubishi Electric is a market leader in heat pumps and air conditioning units around the world. To ensure a consistently high quality of service, they need to train thousands of customer engineers. This is already a tough job, but the COVID-19 lockdown made it even harder.
For Mitsubishi, meeting this challenge meant finding a new way to scale its training, capture expert knowledge and stay flexible despite the shift to remote work. The company also needed a way to quickly create courses, ensure quality content and track training completions.
The answer? Flexible online training delivered with Collaborative Learning.
Join Lance Hitchins, head of training at Mitsubishi Electric, in conversation with Lina Garcia, customer success partner at 360Learning, to hear how Mitsubishi:
- Trained 2,500 customer engineers in just one year.
- Achieved a 99 percent customer training satisfaction rate.
- Reduced course costs by 65 percent.
- Turned its 12-month training waiting list into a 30-day wait.
- Lowered its training carbon footprint.
Have you ever felt powerless to affect meaningful change in your business? Are you seeking ways to have increased impact and influence in your organization? Come hear how your content strategy can help you gain the attention of the C-suite.
This session introduces a three-step approach that helps you target critical areas of impact in your business and increase your influence in the organization to earn that seat at the strategic table. We’ll explore how microlearning, nanolearning and other content approaches can help you demonstrate the critical nature of the work you do.
You’ll learn how to:
- Establish and effectively promote strategic learning programs across your entire organization, including at the executive level
- Discover the areas of business impact you should address to bring meaningful change to your organization
- Identify root cause behaviors that are impeding your organization’s ability to achieve its strategic priorities
The recent urgency of diversity, equity and inclusion training may have left you little room for strategizing a long-term plan. Now that the hard work of initiating DEI learning in your organization is done, are you ready to build on that momentum? Are you ready to start incorporating a DEI perspective into the planning, development and implementation of all learning in your organization? In this session, we will discuss building DEI competencies within instructional design to avoid the pitfalls of exclusion in your learning programs.
The old ways of providing training to employees, such as through performance support learning, are not sufficient to prepare today’s workforce, and more robust learning and development solutions are needed. Join this FastTalk to hear Theuns Botha and Jenn Henry of 2U, Inc. unpack insights from GetSmarter’s recent Future of Work research combined with their own shared experience and shed light on how the future of work is impacting the workplace, the trends that are being experienced and how these trends are creating gaps across the workplace. They will also discuss why upskilling and reskilling are so valuable in today’s changing workplace and what types of learning and development need to be offered to help bridge the current skills gap. Through data-backed solutions, this talk will offer you practical steps that will ensure your workforce thrives in an ever-changing, complex environment.
As the future of work unfolds, there are several signals that are already indicating what would be the ask of learning leaders from CEOs. In this session, let’s explore a few (science) fictional scenarios from the future and how learning leaders can help businesses thrive in these imagined circumstances.
Details to come.
Enjoy a 30-minute lunch break, and return ready to continue learning.
Reconvene for an afternoon of thought-provoking conversation as we examine the issues driving enterprise education, share best practices and discuss strategic plans for the future.
Many of the learning programs and structures that are put in place by L&D are not equally accessible to all, especially those working on the front lines. Join this panel of learning leaders for a discussion about how organizations can focus on developing talent while making sure opportunities for advancement and resources for growth are accessible to all prospective and current employees.
On November 9, 2020, the SEC-mandated public reporting on human capital in an organization’s 10-K. The rule calls for disclosure of all material information and metrics regarding human capital with development, attraction and retention of personnel specifically mentioned. The hope was that the rule would lead to much greater sharing of key human capital metrics to benefit both investors and employees.
The results thus far have been disappointing, but more rule-making is likely in the near future to elicit greater disclosure. Join this session to learn about the rule, how organizations have responded, and what the SEC is likely to do next. Dave and Jeff will also share the very important 2018 ISO guidelines for public and internal reporting, which can serve as a starting point for your own reporting strategy. Special attention will be paid to the eight L&D metrics recommended by ISO.
An increasing number of learning and development professionals have been utilizing virtual learning simulations as an efficient, learner-embraced delivery tool. As today’s learning leaders evaluate these innovations, however, some core questions emerge: Are learning simulations effective? Can they be easily and cost-effectively adapted for new uses and applications? What are the considerations and components necessary for simulations to be effective?
A 2021 survey conducted by Chief Learning Officer, in combination with research from LinkedIn Learning and Accenture, suggests there is ample evidence of simulations’ ability to effectively deliver meaningful, engaging, impactful learning content to virtually any targeted audience. To be successful, though, correct measurement and reporting tools must be incorporated into the simulation structure from the beginning.
Join this panel discussion, featuring Theresa E. Zeller and Jennifer Iannetta of Merck & Co. Inc., who will share their simulation learning experience, and David Denz of Leieren Performance Learning Systems LLC, who will review some of the key takeaways from the CLO study, and learn best practices for maximizing an investment in simulation learning.
This intimate and relaxed conversation, hosted by CLO’s editor in chief, taking an in-depth look at the career journey of Jodi Rabinowitz, head of talent and organizational development for Zoom Video Communications, and what is top of mind for her today in both her current organization and other endeavors.
This day closes with a quick recap from Chief Learning Officer’s chief content officer and editor in chief, Ashley St. John, followed by open networking.
Ashley St. John, Chief Learning Officer’s chief content officer and editor-in-chief, welcomes you back for Day 3 of the CLO Symposium, “Revolutionary Learning in Transformative Times.”
Choose the solution that best suits your professional needs and attend either of our two simultaneous 1-hour presentations with Q&A.
Choose the solution that best suits your professional needs and attend either of our two simultaneous 1-hour presentations with Q&A.
Choose the solution that best suits your professional needs and attend either of our two simultaneous 1-hour presentations with Q&A.
Choose the solution that best suits your professional needs and attend either of our two simultaneous 1-hour presentations with Q&A.
Join these TED-style talks, where learning leaders and executives will discuss the challenges and opportunities of these revolutionary times.
The day concludes with a note from Ashley St. John, Chief Learning Officer’s chief content officer and editor-in-chief, followed by open networking.
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Frequently Asked Questions
About CLO Symposium
What is the CLO Symposium?
Developed and driven by the editors of Chief Learning Officer, the CLO Symposium is where learning, training and development professionals come together to learn from each other. By connecting with people and teams who have faced similar challenges and goals, you can learn practical applications that will help you and your team achieve the results your organization expects. This conference isn’t just for CLOs, though. Get the most out of the experience by bringing your team so you can all learn together.
The Symposium is held in the spring and fall in different locations each year, so if one event doesn’t work for your learning department, consider attending the other. We look forward to seeing you there!
How is the CLO Symposium connected to Chief Learning Officer?
The CLO Symposium is the ONLY conference series produced by the editors of Chief Learning Officer. Don’t be fooled by the surplus of copycat events with the words “Chief Learning Officer” or “CLO” in their title.
How long has CLO Symposium been around?
The CLO Symposium launched on Valentine’s Day Weekend in 2003. We have been hosting the event annually ever since.
Can I subscribe to receive special announcements and updates?
Why should I attend this event?
- Access to unparalleled learning opportunities focused on the key trends in learning and development.
- Walk away with actionable strategies and ideas that can be applied to your organization immediately.
- Participation and recognition in the community of leading thinkers and practitioners.
- Develop strategies for effective leadership development and seamless succession planning.
- Align development with organizational needs and priorities to deliver measurable results.
- Discover the latest trends and technology for enabling improved workforce performance.
- Create and refine your strategy for learning and development to lead in the new business environment.
About Agenda & Speakers
What types of sessions are offered?
Keynotes: The highlight of every CLO Symposium are the main stage keynote presentations. The editors of Chief Learning Officer begin researching and evaluating potential keynote speakers over a year in advance. Past headliners have included such trailblazers as Adam Grant, Michelle Gielan, Gretchen Rubin, Jonah Berger, Gary Vaynerchuk, Steve Pemberton, Bill Rassmussen, Charles Duhigg, Adam Braun, Geoff Colvin, and many more.
CLO Power Hour: Our take on TED Talks, these rapid-fire practitioner narratives are delivered in 15-minutes or less. We conclude the series of talks with a brief Q&A with the audience for a deeper dive.
Panel Discussion: Lively debates deliver knowledgable dialogue and unique perspectives on topics of keen interest to L&D leaders.
Spotlight Workshops: Ripped from the pages of Chief Learning Officer, these editorial driven breakout session dive deep into the issues that matter to you, and are presented by CLOs just like you.
Partner Workshops: These one-hour breakout sessions add rich content and value to the agenda. CLO event partners co-present with their corporate clients to share success stories about implementing a new program and/or solving a business issue for their client’s organization. You will have your choice of up to 16 case-study style presentations to choose from throughout the conference.
Where can I get a schedule of the workshops taking place during the conferences?
The workshop details are generally posted approximately 6-weeks prior to the event. Most of these are client case-studies presented on behalf of our event partners and often take a while to firm up. You’ll find everything we have so far listed in the agenda above.
However, you may review the completed program from our Fall 2020 event to get a better idea of what you can expect.
Can I earn Professional Development Credits (PDC’s) for attending CLO Symposium?
The workshop details are generally posted approximately 6-weeks prior to the event. Most of these are client case-studies presented on behalf of our event partners and often take a while to firm up.
HRCI
Earn up to 12 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute. For more information about certification or recertification, please visit the HR Certification Institute website at www.hrci.org.
SHRM
BetterWork Media Group is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CPSM or SHRM-SCPSM. This program is valid for 12 PDCs for the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP. For more information about certification or recertification, please visit www.shrmcertification.org.
ATD
BetterWork Media Group has been pre-approved by the ATD Certification Institute to offer programs that can be used towards initial eligibility and recertification of the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) and Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) credentials. This program has been approved for a maximum of 11points.
How do I submit a proposal to speak?
Better workplaces create better lives. That’s our vision at Chief Learning Officer, digging into learning solutions for enterprise productivity. While we showcase stories monthly in print, we believe that gathering communities of leaders to share best practices and innovative approaches in employee learning and development, both in person and online, is equally important. This process begins with you.
Click here to submit your proposal.
If you are a vendor, consultant or solution provider who helps other organizations improve their workforce development initiatives, please request a copy of our sponsorship brochure to see how you can participate.
