LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Announced

We've put up a preliminary schedule for LearnTrends 2009. You can find the conference description, preliminary schedule and session descriptions at:

LearnTrends 2009 Conference Agenda

Topics and Speakers include:

• Introduction: Convergence in Learning - George Siemens, Tony Karrer & Jay Cross
• The Immernet Singularity - Tony O'Driscoll
• Extending Learning to the Edges of Organizations - Charles Jennings & Andy McGovern – Thomson Reuters
• Reinventing Organizational Learning - Clark Quinn & Jay Cross
• Enterprise 2.0, Convergence, & Innovation - Deb Schultz & Jerry Michalski
• Building a Social Learning Environment - Jane Hart
• Breaking Down Walls - Laura Overton
• Convergent Learning and Web Squared - Jon, Jay, Clark, Charles, Jane, Harold
• Merging Information, Learning and Social Media - Christy Confetti Higgins - Sun
• Microlearning - Janet Clarey
• Personal Knowledge Management - Harold Jarche
• Challenge of Convergence - Pam Borios – Skillsoft – Books 24x7
• Tools for Diverse Communities at Xerox Global- Jack Merklein & John Smith - Xerox
• eLearning Outside the Training Box - John Smith & Nancy White

Register Now – Its Free - To register, you must first register on the LearnTrends community and then register on the Conference Event Page.

Innovation Awards - The conference will also include the LearnTrends Innovation Awards 2009. Please see that post for details.

Win the Twitter Content - And don't forget that you have until tomorrow to help promote the conference and win a free copy of Nancy and John's book. Contest - Win a Free Copy of Digital Habitats via LearnTrends 2009. Please help promote the conference and maybe you'll get a great book as a result.

I think this is going to be a really great online conference and discussion.

One of the things we are doing this year is asking speakers to keep their presentations to 25-30 minutes so that we have lots of times to have discussions.

I'm particularly looking forward to discussions around:

• How information services and enterprise 2.0 are intersecting with Learning / eLearning?
• Where does social really fit? Are social features really heading in the right direction or do we need to be thinking about stitching things together?
• How are people thinking about structuring organizations with all of the stuff going on?
• How and where do networks and communities fit in?
• How the heck am I supposed to come up with an eLearning strategy when there's so much change going on?

One thing I should remind people is that a big part of the genesis of this conference was George, Jay and myself lamenting that while we go to conferences all the time, the presentations and discussions were most often aimed at broader audiences and more introductory topics. The purpose of this discussion is to dive into meatier topics that the three of us are interested in exploring. If you are a beginner, this may be a bit of a fire hose. If you've been in the industry for a while, but are grappling with some of the questions I've listed above, then please join us in the discussion.