LearnTrends 2009 is going to be awesome.

Yesterday I drew up the tentative agenda. Our theme is convergence in corporate learning. We aim to explore how to corral the loose pieces of learning technology, both on the web and off, in order to come up with a unified, targeted strategy for moving forward.

These people…

…will be addressing these topics:

Convergence in Learning
Extending Learning to the Edges of Organizations
Building a Social Learning Environment
Merging Information, Media, and Social Learning
Personal Knowledge Management
The LearnTrends Innovation Awards
The Immernet Singularity: How the Immersive Internet Will Redefine Learning and Collaboration
Reinventing organizational learning
Breaking down walls
Microlearning: Beyond Learning Objects and Just-in-time Performance Support
The Challenge of Convergence – Approaches for Getting Learning and Support Where Its Needed
Enterprise 2.0, Convergence, and Innovation
Convergence and Web Squared
Common tools for diverse communities at Xerox Global Services
E-learning outside the training box

Registration is free. Sign up to receive a few email updates. Check the Agenda on the LearnTrends 2009 tab. Put this on your calendar today.

#learntrends

Sometimes things go so far off the rails that all you can do is chuckle at life’s absurdity. Today at Learn Trends, I demonstrated my ability to screw up everything technical within reach.

Harold Jarche, Clark Quinn, Jane Hart, and I had planned to lead a session at noon today to explain the thinking we’ve gone through to develop a lightweight, turn-key social learning platform.

Reading the enthusiasm around the more experimental presentations this week, I decided it would be cool to have a four-way conversation, sort of an online fishbowl. Instead of a presentation, we’d have lots of pieces of content on my desktop ready to call up in response to specific questions and topics. That was the theory.

What happened? First off, the computer with all the assets died right before the session. Not a problem; I have other computers hereabouts. Then we got a report that Jane was stuck in terrible traffic on the way to Oxford. The moderator I had hoped to have running the software was trapped in a low-bandwidth environment and couldn’t join us. Screen-sharing didn’t work for rapidly changing slides. Voices sounded like we were gulping helium. The screen exhibited Op-Art designs. People who wanted to ask questions found they couldn’t.

Harold managed to app-share my wiki, which contained some of the day’s presentation graphics. I encouraged him to speed up the pace. Bad idea. Comment from our backchannel: “guys, playing around so much is really hammering app bandwidth: audio suffers, typing suffers, settle down!” and “I’m finding audio is WAY behind the slides/chat.” Toward the end, “going to go get bandages, pain killers.” Then “what do you want?” Reply: “A drink.”

In the post-session discussion, I wrote “Asking Elluminate to do what we wanted was akin to inviting 70 people into a classroom for 30, gagging the teacher, using spray paint instead of chalk on the board.” I also wrote, “No regrets. Joni: ‘Life is for learning.’ Some of us won’t forget this un-session for a while.”

Years ago, I learned to face trying situations by asking myself, “What am I supposed to learn from this?” Harold, Clark, and I jotted down some lessons learned:

1. Pre-load the slides
2. Don’t trust the stuff that works at night to work the next morning.
3. That app sharing and slamming through big graphics can break the system.
4. Know what the system does and doesn’t do well.
5. (Maybe) stick to asynch and only go live with small groups; large groups get one-to-man presentations.

We’ve begun experimenting with more net-robust software.

Oh, and in the interest of history and full disclosure, I posted the script of the chat during our meltdown. …. I just read it. Closing down the session this afternoon, I said it reminded me of Stephen Stills at Woodstock, saying “You people have got to be the strongest people anywhere….” From the transcript, I see that the audience didn’t understand the reference. Woodstock? Some 60s thing.

Many paragraphs back, I made reference to Joni. For you youngsters, I was referring to Joni Mitchell, who sang, in the song Woodstock, “I don’t know who I am, but life is for learning.” My anthem. Give it a listen.

As a co-host, I am hardly without bias, but I found this morning’s opening of the free Corporate Learning Trends event fantastic. In spite of some childish hacker-vandals and a few sound issues, each of the three sessions this morning worked.

• Despite the fact that Jane Hart and I work with one another on togetherLearn, I had never used — or even heard of — VoiceThread, nvu, or Yugma. The proliferation of free learning tools certainly comes at the right time.
• Robin Good ran a daring experiment, inviting the audience into MindMeister to collaborate on a living mind map of collaborative technology. A play within a play. Captivating.
• George Siemens just moderated a discussion on complexity and strategy that raised deep questions in an accessible way. His slides were technological minimalism. (I’ve got to cut back my upcoming slide decks. Lots.)

As expected, the 100:10:1 participation inequality factor kicked in. Of 1000+ registrants, slightly north of 10% took part in real time. If history is a guide, a similar number will visit the discussion boards or listen to the recordings. (We are recording everything.)

I’ll give periodic reports here for those who have yet to adapt to the Twitterization of events. You could just follow the tags.

Tomorrow, more than a thousand learning professionals will join the free, online party at Corporate Learning Trends and Innovation 08.

Tony Karrer, George Siemens, and I set out to provide a platform for voices you haven’t heard at other conferences. We approached people we personally wanted to hear. We’re looking forward not only to live events but also the ongoing discussions that follow.

(Click for agenda)

What a group! George Siemens will be interviewing David Weinberger, author of Everything is Miscellaneous and co-author of the seminal Cluetrain Manifesto. Tony Karrer is kicking off the week with updates from the two foremost experts on learning technology, Jane Hart and Robin Good. Mid-week, Nancy White, David Wilkins, and Mark Sylvester are covering communities and networks. I’m interviewing Kevin Wheeler, the talent management guru, and the amazing Alvaro Fernandez, CEO of SharpBrains.

Dave Pollard, the knowledge management wizard out to change the world, will talk about Working Smarter. Marcia Conner, Fast Company’s learning columnist, will address Learning when the Money Runs Out. Allison Anderson, a surprise guest, and I will discuss corporate learning ecosystems. Dave Gray, today’s Leonardo of meaningful graphics, will boost our visual literacy.

George, Tony, and I will each bring what’s hottest with each of us.

Harold Jarche, Clark Quinn, Jane Hart, and I will describe the thinking that went into the development of our new social learning platform, togetherlearn.

Please join us.

And tell your friends. Tag your posts learntrends and your Tweets #learntrends

See you there!

As a sponsor, I am totally biased, but I predict this will be a kick-ass event and suggest you mark you calendar now.