One of PRA’s valuable employee benefits is professional development. In coordination with their Vice President, employees select a conference or training to attend that will enhance their work, skills, and knowledge. Our Profesional Development Series highlights the opportunities our staff have taken advantage of and to broadly share their learnings!
In November 2019, Lisa attended the Association for Talent Development – CORE 4 Conference in Miami, Florida and shared her experiences with us!
Describe your professional development opportunity in two to three sentences.
The conference offered sessions in four tracks that were focused on the four core aspects of talent development: instructional design, learning technologies, measurement and evaluation, and training delivery. Important insights and best practices were shared, and you had the opportunity to choose sessions that fit best to where you currently are in your career (i.e., whether you were new to the profession, a subject-matter expert who is now an “accidental trainer,” or an experienced practitioner wanting to polish already acquired skills).
What did you like about the professional development opportunity (e.g., favorite session, a good speaker, a new idea that you learned)?
I really enjoyed the session in the Instructional Design track, “Using Storytelling Strategies to Write Compelling Scenarios.” We learned about distinguishing effective scenarios from ineffective scenarios, explaining the role of scenarios in creating authentic learning experiences, and describing how common writing techniques used in scenario writing can affect the learning experience.
What was something that surprised or excited you?
I was excited by the closing general session speaker, Galen Emanuele. He was dynamic and through simple skill-building activities, he taught us how to create a cohesive team. We all laughed while we were learning and truly saw how it is within reach to drive exceptional culture within an organization.
What will you take from your professional development experience back to your work at Policy Research?
The training delivery sessions provided me as a facilitator with additional tools and resources that are required to deliver training that engages audiences.
Would you attend another event pertaining to this subject? Why or why not?
I would attend another event pertaining to this subject because I am always open to gaining knowledge and insights that I can apply in my career and personal life.
What are some unanswered questions you have?
One question I had was centered around obtaining training on a specific core. The conference offered a lot of choices, and I would be interested in going to a conference/training that focused on one or two of the four core aspects.
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