Potter,” I explained, “numbers definitely make it easier to identify which point you may be talking about, but there are more engaging ways to present.” “Enumerate!” he shouted, and a bolt of light shot from his wand and transformed the bullet points on the slide into numbers. The next student to step up was a young man with round spectacles and a funny little scar on his forehead. The red haired boy ran after it as the class burst into laughter. A little rat hopped out of his pocket and ran out the door. “Who’s next?” A red haired boy stepped up and as he was about to try his spell he suddenly became distracted. ![]() “Keep working on the Interactive Charm, young master Neville,” I said, “animated gifs can be fun creatures, but more often than not, they’re nasty little beings that simply make poor slide design worse.” Suddenly the clip art on the slide was transformed into… well, into an animated gif file. “Interactivius!” shouted one of my pupils as he pointed his wand at the PowerPoint slide that was being projected on the screen. The Dark Arts being poorly designed learning experiences (obviously). I can’t quite recall the formal title of the position, but I kind of see it as a modern day, Seattle-based Defense Against the Dark Arts sort of position. This fall I’ll begin working as an instructor in a new Workplace Learning & Professional Development certificate program at the University of Washington. ![]() Know someone who might be interested in this type of initiative, please pass this along! My Next Job: Defense Against the Dark Arts Instructor (Eat Your Heart Out, Snape!) What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Let’s hear it in the Comment section. While I know large national conferences are organized for specialized groups that make up their membership, are they completely serving their members’ best interests with such a narrow focus across all conference programming? ![]() If you’re someplace else in this world, I’d love to hear from you – have you found similar opportunities to engage with your counterparts from other areas of the human performance spectrum? If you’re in the Seattle area, I’d like to invite you to attend ( here is the registration information) and I’d love to hear what you’re working on. I’m looking forward to it because it is the one night of the year when people from across these specialized areas – learning & development, human resources, coaching and organizational development – can all come together, spend some time networking and discussing what’s on their minds, and then listen to some of the region’s rock star executives in both HR and business operations speak to the impact of human performance initiatives on the people within their organizations. Recently, as I got involved in my local ATD chapter, I was given an opportunity to work on an annual program called the Allied Professionals Event, which will take place on June 9th in Seattle. On the other hand, none of these initiatives can be successful if professionals from across the human performance spectrum don’t have opportunities to cross-pollinate. These conferences, after all, are for specialized segments of the greater human performance field. ![]() I imagine it’s similar at major conferences for professionals in coaching or organizational development. The SHRM conference was primarily HR professionals – business partners, generalists, department heads and consultants. The crowds I’ve encountered at the ATD conferences have primarily included instructional designers, training program managers, classroom instructors and some independent consultants. I’ve been to several ATD conferences and a SHRM Talent Development conference over the past few years and they all seem to be missing something. ATD’s annual international conference and expo began yesterday, and I have a feeling it’s missing something (and I’m not necessarily talking about me… although really, what good is a conference without me?).
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