I have heard from a few folks already about the plans they have to celebrate Employee Learning Week in their companies, organizations, and ASTD chapters. It is so exciting to see folks getting psyched about promoting the value of learning! Remember there are lots of tools on the Employee Learning Week website - including downloadable logos, public service announcements to send to your local radio stations, and press release templates to announce your activities to your local press. You'll find everything at www.employeelearningweek.org. Remeber to send me an email, letting me know what you've done to celebrate ELW and we will send you a Champion of Learning certificate to recognize your efforts! You can email me at kfyfe@astd.org.

Tags: employee learning week, chapters, champion of learning, astd, elw

Categories: ASTD in the News | Chapters | Government | International | Membership

Came across this great story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that talks about the value of belonging to associations. The article is targeted at healthcare workers, but the reporter states that professional associations outside your given industry add value to your career too. Laura French's story "Associate with Success" states:

"Training and education is another career track of interest to healthcare professionals. The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) has more than 130 chapters in the U.S. as well as members in more than 100 countries. ASTD offers the only certification in the training and development field: Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP). Visit www.astd.org for additional information."

Nice to see a reporter making the connection that professional associations add real value! And the reference to the CPLP credential by a reporter indicates that certification is growing in prominence and recognition.

Tags: astd, cplp, training, development, chapters

Categories: ASTD in the News | Chapters

Love it when our local chapters make news! It's great exposure for them and increases the brand value of ASTD as a whole. Read the article "Rochester networking becomes important business talent" in the Democrat and Chronicle!

Tags: astd, chapters, genesee valley, networking

Categories: ASTD in the News | Chapters

ASTD is at the forefront on a lot of issues and leads on a lot of trends - especially on the technology front. Under President and CEO Tony Bingham's leadership ASTD started a virtual conference initiative with this year's TechKnowledge conference. The virtual offering was a hit and led to an expanded virtual offering for the International Conference & Exposition held this spring in Washington, D.C. We put out a press release about the virtual conference which led to call from a reporter from Association Meetings during the conference. Lo and behold the publication found the idea of virtual conferences so intriguing they called back and wanted to know more about it since ASTD is definitely at the forefront in using this platform to meet member needs.  The result is this story "Six Elements of a Virtual Conference" which features Anthony Allen, ASTD's Director of Digital Media, very prominently. The very cool photo in the article is courtesy of our friends at The Photo Group.

Tags: astd, tony bingham, techknowledge, international conference and exposition, virtual conference, digital media, anthony allen

Categories: ASTD in the News | Conferences | TechKnowledge

ASTD announces that 39 organizations from Canada, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and the United States are winners in the 2009 ASTD BEST Awards competition. Sun Microsystems, of Santa Clara, California, holds the first place ranking. The 2009 ASTD BEST Award winners are recognized in a special section of the October issue of Training + Development (T+D), ASTD’s monthly magazine, and were honored during a reception on October 1 in Washington, D.C. Many of the winners participated in the “Learn from the BEST” event on October 2 to share best practices during roundtable presentations and networking time.

The BEST Awards recognize organizations that demonstrate enterprise‐wide success through employee learning and development. According to Tony Bingham, ASTD’s president and CEO, “The ASTD BEST Award winners set the standard of excellence for exceptional learning practices, and demonstrate that a skilled workforce is vital to
achieving results. They use learning as a strategic tool and have the support of senior leaders who champion a learning culture.”

Through an online application, the 2009 BEST Awards received entries from 93 organizations in 10 countries. These organizations submitted quantitative and qualitative information to ASTD about their learning and development practices and programs. Their applications were assessed by members of the BEST Awards advisory committee, a group of experts in the learning and development field.

More information about the 2009 ASTD BEST Award winners may be found in the October 2009 issue of T+D magazine and online: www.astd.org/best. ASTD would like to thank the following sponsors of the 2009 BEST Awards: Platinum Sponsor: Booz Allen Hamilton; Silver Sponsors: General Physics Corporation, Learn.com , and SkillSoft.

The 2009 ASTD BEST Award winners and rankings:

1. Sun Microsystems, Santa Clara, California
2. MTR Corporation, Hong Kong, SAR, China
3. SCC Soft Computer, Clearwater, Florida
4. DPR Construction, Inc., Redwood City, California
5. BB&T, Winston‐Salem, North Carolina
6. VF Asia Limited, Hong Kong, SAR, China
7. Highmark (an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
8. BJC HealthCare, St. Louis, Missouri
9. Datatel, Fairfax, Virginia
10. Trust Company of the West, Los Angeles, California
11. Luxottica Retail North America, Mason, Ohio
12. La Quinta, Irving, Texas
13. Robert W. Baird & Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
14. Gables Residential, Atlanta, Georgia
15. Wipro Limited, Bangalore, India
16. T. Rowe Price, Baltimore, Maryland
17. LarsonAllen, Minneapolis, Minnesota
18. University Health System, San Antonio, Texas
19. CSC, Falls Church, Virginia
20. Reliance Industries Limited, Jamnagar Refinery Division, Mumbai, India
21. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, New York, New York
22. Infosys Technologies Limited, Bangalore, India
23. Reliance Industries Limited, Dahej Manufacturing Division, Mumbai, India
24. CIGNA Corporation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
25. Suzlon Energy, Ltd., Pune, India
26. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Mumbai, India
27. Prescription Solutions, Irvine, California
28. Whirlpool Corporation, Saint Joseph, Michigan
29. Barilla America, Inc., Bannockburn, Illinois
30. Fallon Clinic, Worcester, Massachusetts
31. InterContinental Hotels Group, Atlanta, Georgia
32. Mayer Electric Supply Company Inc., Birmingham, Alabama
33. TELUS, Vancouver, British Columbia
34. G4S Wackenhut, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
35. sanofi‐aventis U.S., Bridgewater, New Jersey
36. Brown‐Forman Corporation, Louisville, Kentucky
37. United Overseas Bank, Singapore
38. Grant Thornton LLP, Chicago, Illinois
39. Cbeyond, Atlanta, Georgia

In addition, nine companies on this list have been BEST ASTD Award winners for three years or more. They are: BB&T, CSC, Gables Residential, Infosys Technologies, MTR Corporation, Reliance Industries, sanofi‐aventis U.S., TELUS, and Wipro Limited.

Tags: astd, best awards, training and development, workplace learning, best practices, learning culture, tony bingham, t+d, skilled workforce

Categories: ASTD in the News | Chapters | Membership

I love this quote: "Today we examine one of the foremost organizations for learning professionals - ASTD. "It's found in an article from Examiner.com titled "Organizations for learning professionals - ASTD". My handy-dandy PR service, VOCUS, puts the Examiner's circulation figure at 140,000 -- which is great. That's a lot of folks seeing a story about the value - and leadership - of ASTD in the training and development field.

Tags: astd, workplace learning and performance, training, development, professional development, conferences, research, networking, membership

Categories: ASTD in the News

Ok. We'll blow our own horn here. Last week, at the annual awards dinner for the Public Relations Society of America National Capital Chapter, ASTD won a certificate of excellence for our 2008 Annual Report. Any organization doing business in the metropolitan D.C. area can submit their work for categories ranging from Public Service Campaigns to video productions to website design. And there are some BIG companies that compete for these awards, like Booz Allen Hamilton and Ogilvy Pubic Relations Worldwide. So, yeah, we're proud to have won a Certificate of Excellence Award for the hard work that went into the 2008 Annual Report titled "The Value of Belonging." For the full story, as reported on the news wires and picked up by the Associated Press, among others, click here. And Congrats to the amazing team of creative professionals for their hard work on this report!

Tags: astd, annual report, public relations

Categories: ASTD in the News

The Examiner franchise of papers can be found in urban areas across the country. The DC Examiner ran a story called "Strategies for marketing a training event" which cited findings from ASTD related to how many people never put into practice what they learn! Article includes some interesting tips for how to create buzz for your training.

Tags: training, learning, astd, job performance

Categories: ASTD in the News

So, this isn't your average media "hit." In cataloging the places ASTD has popped up in the news this week, I ran across a mention in the NY Daily News. It's a story on workplace violence and it cites information from our flagship magazine T+D. Right as I happened across this, Paula Ketter, T+D's awesome editor strolled by my office and I showed her the clip.  She remembers someone blogging on T+D's blog about the study on workplace violence that is mentioned in the NY Daily News article. Here's the relevant paragraph from the story:

"The Workplace Violence Institute says workplace violence is 'any act against an employee that creates a hostile work environment and negatively affects the employees, either physically or psychologically,' according to T D magazine."

While I would never have expected to see T+D in a story about a murdered college student, this does go to show the rising influence of blogs as sources of information for reporters.

 

Tags: astd, workplace, t+d, paula ketter, blogs

Categories: ASTD in the News

Marcus Buckingham's live webcast for new and renewing ASTD members starts and 2 p.m. today and we will be tweeting as it happens. Several hundred folks took advantage of this terrific membership offer and we're looking forward to some great insights and content. If you're interested in some nuggets, follow us on Twitter @ASTDPR starting at 2 p.m.

Tags: astd, membership, marcus buckinham, webcast

Categories: ASTD in the News | Membership