Viva Las Vegas

A trip to Las Vegas has a lot of potential to lose your focus, but I would have to say that the attendees at Sharing@LearnShare last week in Sin City did a good job keeping their eye on the ball. I was asked to moderate a panel discussion at the conference featuring chief learning officers (or their equivalent). It is always a lot of fun to grill CLOs on the things that keep them awake at night.

The audience also jumped in with several probing questions on ROI in general, and specifically the argument on why learning is most often seen as only an expense. My thanks to Lois Webster, the CEO of LearnShare, who invited me to lead this kind of panel presentation for a second time. If you have not attended a LearnShare event, I would urge you to check one out in the near future. You are bound to come away with some new ideas.

I also want to thank the panelists who put up with my prep questions and gave generously of their time for not just the presentation but for a week or two in advance of the event. The panelist were, from left, Martha Soehren, CLO, SVP, Comcast University and Comcast Cable Communications; Jeff Oberlin, CLO, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; Susan Shinn, director human resources development, Kerry Americas; and Glenn Phillips, general manager global workforce development, Chevron.