ATD-Orange County Chapter Suggest A Speaker

Calling All Canva Experts! Share Your Design Secrets

Paul Venderley — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 00:02:56 GMT

ATD-Orange County is seeking a dynamic speaker to lead a practical, hands-on session for our members on leveraging Canva to create impactful graphical assets for training programs. Our community of L&D professionals, instructional designers, and trainers are eager to unlock the full potential of this powerful design tool.

We're looking for someone who can guide our members through:

Designing Visually Engaging Training Aids: How to create professional-looking slides, job aids, quick reference guides, and more.
Crafting Compelling Infographics & Visual Summaries: Techniques for simplifying complex information into easy-to-digest visual formats.
Building Brand Consistency: Tips for maintaining a cohesive look and feel across all training materials using Canva's features.
Time-Saving Tricks & Best Practices: Shortcuts, templates, and strategies to streamline the design process in Canva.
Creating Interactive Elements (where applicable): Exploring any features within Canva that can enhance learner engagement.

If you have a knack for design and a passion for teaching others how to use Canva effectively for talent development, we want to hear from you! Help our members elevate their training programs with stunning visuals and practical design skills.

Designing Infographics

Paul Venderley — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 00:09:20 GMT

Do you create infographics that do more than just look good?

We're seeking TD professionals who will share their best practices in designing infographics that enhance learning and align with instructional objectives. Whether you're turning complex data into digestible visuals or guiding learners through processes with smart design, we want to hear your strategies, tools, and insights.

Topics of interest include:

Using infographics to reinforce learning outcomes
Visual hierarchy and cognitive load in design
Tools and templates that streamline infographic creation
Case studies: infographics that made a measurable impact
Do’s and don’ts when designing for comprehension

If you’ve cracked the code on visual storytelling for learning, help others do the same.

Scenario-based training

Paul Venderley — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 23:37:11 GMT

We're seeking skilled facilitators to lead engaging sessions that explore the design, delivery, and impact of scenario-based training. We want to hear how you've used real-world challenges to build better learning experiences.

Ideal sessions will highlight:

What makes scenario-based training effective
How to design scenarios that drive engagement and performance
Tools, templates, or frameworks that support scenario development
Real-world examples, results, and lessons learned

Whether you’ve built immersive branching scenarios, used low-tech storytelling techniques, or created simulations that changed behavior, we want your insights!

Inside the Design

Paul Venderley — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 03:29:58 GMT

We're inviting authors, program designers, and thought leaders to go beyond the final product and share the story behind their work. This series explores the creative process, design decisions, and real-world challenges faced when developing programs or writing books that support leadership and team development.

Ideal For:
Speakers with a signature program, framework, or book who are open to discussing:

What inspired their big idea
How they structured and refined it
The decisions they made along the way—and why
What obstacles they encountered and how they overcame them

Format:

15 min presentation of the core concept or program
15 min guided conversation about design and development
15 min audience Q&A
15 min wrap-up and peer learning

If you're ready to share not just what you built—but how you built it—we'd love to hear from you.

Training Hacks: Facilitation Techniques That Improve Learner Engagement

Paul Venderley — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 06:45:33 GMT

The science of learning research has made tremendous leaps in how we understand the brain and learning. Learning science is one of the capabilities in the Professional Capability domain of the ATD’s Talent Development Capability Model™. Organizations with impactful learning processes use the key principles from this interdisciplinary field to be more innovative in their methodologies and delivery of learning.

Potential topics:

Top Training Hacks to Keep Learners Engaged Throughout Your Sessions

interactive activities, gamification in training, storytelling techniques, hands-on learning, group discussions

The Role of Technology in Enhancing Facilitation Techniques

online training tools, virtual facilitation tips, multimedia use in training, educational technology innovations

Make Training Sticky with Memory Hacks

mnemonic techniques, exercises that help transfer short term memory into long term memory

Building a Positive Learning Environment for Greater Participation

safety in learning spaces, encouraging feedback and questions, establishing rapport with participants

Tips and Tricks Every Facilitator Should Know for Successful Training Sessions

pre-training preparation tips, time management strategies for facilitators, handling difficult participants effectively.

Got this topic covered? Let us know! Complete our Speaker Form with your session details.

The Learning Professional’s Relationship with a Project’s Subject Matter Expert: Key to Success and Overcoming Challenges

Paul Venderley — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 05:06:27 GMT

The learning professional’s relationship with a project’s subject matter expert (SME) is key, but it can bring difficulties to the project. We're looking for a speaker who can share their experiences and insights on establishing strong, professional relationships with their SME that gets results.

Some possible topics to pursue:

The Importance of Clear Roles and Responsibilities in Collaborative Projects

clear communication, project roles, responsibilities matrix, teamwork dynamics, effective collaboration

Common Challenges Faced in SME-Learning Professional Relationships

relationship challenges, miscommunication issues, conflicting priorities, knowledge gaps, project delays

Strategies for Establishing Effective Communication with SMEs

effective communication strategies, active listening techniques, regular check-ins, feedback loops, collaborative tools

Setting Boundaries: Defining Roles to Enhance Project Efficiency

role definition strategies, boundaries in collaboration, project efficiency tips, task delegation methods

Got this topic covered? Let us know! Complete our Speaker Form with your session details.

Share Your Expertise: How-To Achieve World-Class Webinars

Paul Venderley — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 22:22:51 GMT

The workshops that we've held for webinar best practices have primarily focused on designing a webinar that engages the audience. But what about its Development? Its implementation? What do we need to do, behind the scenes to get all those design elements to work?

For example:

How do you set up a poll in GoToTraining?
What do you need to get your WebEx Breakout Rooms working?
How can you navigate all those Adobe Connect pods?

If you've got expertise in one (or more) of the common web meeting platforms listed above, we'd love to hear from you.

We'll look for you to share not just what makes your webinars best-in-class, but a behind-the-scenes tour of the top webinar features you use to get them there.

Wanted: Team Builders

Paul Venderley — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 07:52:38 GMT

This June we’ll be holding the ATD So Cal Family Picnic, and we’re all set to send out the invitations to you and your family, but before we can...

We’re looking for new and interesting team-building activities. Something that can be done outdoors, in small groups, in between handfuls of subway sandwiches and potato chips. Does something come to mind?

If so, we’d like to learn more! Send an email to
Programs@atdoc.org, or complete our Team Builder Activity Form, linked here.

If your team building activity is selected, you and one family member will receive admission to the ATD So Cal Family Picnic this June.

We look forward to hearing from you!

https://goo.gl/forms/E3kqJl1dfbRQcHyB3

Speaker Wanted: Next-Level One Evaluations

Paul Venderley — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 06:54:11 GMT

"Asking questions about things you can't do anything about to improve the effectiveness of a learning program wastes participant time and may eventually lead to participant frustration."

Kenneth Phillips

An ASTD Research report found that the percentage of organizations who measured the reaction of participants to a training initiative was 91.6%. However, the percentage of organizations that believed the evaluation had a high or very high level? 35.9%.

These numbers aren't surprising. What may be surprising is that we continue to utilize the same tool.

Dr. Will Thalheimer points to research studies that indicated that the information gleaned from Level One evaluations is virtually uncorrelated with learning results. He challenged that we change the evaluation focus from training specific to learner specific, suggesting that the questions should target:

ability of learners to successfully apply what they learned to their work
learners’ full comprehension of what was presented to them
learners’ capability to remember what they’ve learned
level of motivation that learners will bring to implement what they’ve learned
post-training resource that will guide and enable learners to persevere in putting their learning into practice

This is the proposal for our evaluation-focused Learning Event. What best practices can we include in our Level One evaluation to provide actionable training measurements?

At the end of the event, learners will apply these best practices by updating an existing Level One evaluation.

ATD-Orange County Chapter Suggest A Speaker

Calling All Canva Experts! Share Your Design Secrets

Designing Infographics

Scenario-based training

Inside the Design

Training Hacks: Facilitation Techniques That Improve Learner Engagement

Top Training Hacks to Keep Learners Engaged Throughout Your Sessions

The Role of Technology in Enhancing Facilitation Techniques

Make Training Sticky with Memory Hacks

Building a Positive Learning Environment for Greater Participation

Tips and Tricks Every Facilitator Should Know for Successful Training Sessions

The Learning Professional’s Relationship with a Project’s Subject Matter Expert: Key to Success and Overcoming Challenges

The Importance of Clear Roles and Responsibilities in Collaborative Projects

Common Challenges Faced in SME-Learning Professional Relationships

Strategies for Establishing Effective Communication with SMEs

Setting Boundaries: Defining Roles to Enhance Project Efficiency

Share Your Expertise: How-To Achieve World-Class Webinars

Wanted: Team Builders

Speaker Wanted: Next-Level One Evaluations