HRD07, London

I’ve been bouncing around more than usual, not recovering from Boston before heading to London and now off to North Carolina tomorrow.

Here’s the port hole in my cabin on my boat hotel next to the London Excel Center. The five-floor yacht was built in Finland. The buttons on the phone were in Finnish. I tried to call Reception. I pushed every button on the phone and hung up. Reception called back. They acted as if I were the first guest to inquire about the strange phone. I asked for internet access; a steward brought me a tube of toothpaste and a remote for the telly. Eventually I got online.

HRD07 was ASTD ICE replayed through the Twilight Zone. My home base was the Learning Light booth. We were on yellow carpet because we were classified as learning technology. Most of the hundred other exhibitors were on green carpet they were in the training village.

 Adventure learning as hit the UK big time. You could learn by learning to drum, by climbing tall trees, by producing video commercials, by learning to cook, or by doing something connected with a contest for the best photograph of goats. Outward Bound was here, but it seemed lackluster compared to its zany competitors.

 This delegate works at the headquarters of a bank in Sardinia.

The U.K. is where old U.S. buzzwords are recycled.

HRD07 is produced by CIPD, the U.K. equivalent of ASTD. My pal and CIPD advisor Martyn Sloman gave a dead-on presentation on effective eLearning that used BBC case studies to teach journalistic ethics.

CIPD’s signage and booth were head and shoulders above any other exhibitors. Note to ASTD: get an ad agency. Aren’t these attractive?

Jon Ingham, my fellow research associate at Learning Light and the Learning Light exhibit at HRD 07.

No relation…