ASTD 2010 Chicago, Ram Charan, Charlene Li, & Yoga!
Posted by Kalani Iwiula on Tue, May 25, 2010
ASTD ICE in Chicago was awesome! The American Society of Training and Development is the world's largest gathering of professionals dedicated to helping organizations train and develop their employees, and they're a very smart bunch.
Thank you to our customers and visitors who came by our booth to say hi and to check out our new Management/Impact assessment and other organizational diagnostics -- it was wonderful seeing everyone! According to ASTD numbers, there were about 8500 attendees with 1800 international professionals representing 70 countries.
With 340 booths to visit over 3 days, so many of you were ready for our Yoga session. Thank you so much for attending and learning our Circumplex constructive styles in a uniquely physical way with instructor, Dr. Janet Szumal, Ph.D.
Congratulations to Ram Charan and other distinguished colleagues who won various workplace learning and performance ASTD awards for 2009. A best-selling author and coach to CEOs, Ram's introduction to business came early in life while working in the family shoe shop in a small Indian town where he was raised. That background, combined with decades of observing and working with successful leaders, shaped his belief that business leaders learn best through a combination of experience, feedback, and self-correction.
Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group presented the keynote on Tuesday. If you did not attend, be sure to purchase the keynote audio from ASTD; you'll be glad you did, especially if you're tasked with strategic planning for your company's use of social media. Her new book, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform The Way You Lead, suggests that leaders must gain the confidence to give up the need to be in control while inspiring commitment from people to accomplish goals, and Charlene's keynote included ample business examples to support her claims. I just opened my autographed copy and look forward to sharing more about it later.
If you attended ASTD ICE 2010, please share your experiences or what you enjoyed most.
Thank you!