Scaling the Summit: a retrospective

Friday, March 10 was all about connecting, sharing knowledge and networking during the NLV Summit. At our client RadarVertige in Amstelveen we went from the valley to the top of the mountain under the guidance of Expedition Leaders. The future of L&D, learning automation, change management and skills-based learning: it all came up during this crazy summit. In this blog we share the highlights for everyone who was not there, and for all attendees who want to relive the day.

You can't get inspiration on an empty stomach, we think, so we started the day with a sumptuous lunch. Expedition Leader Ben Betts kicked off the day and shared his vision for the future of L&D. Ben is the CEO of our partner Learning Pool. He dared to put his finger on the sore spot and explained where he thought L&D had fallen short, but also where there were gains to be made, such as better alignment with both strategic goals and individual needs.

Marianne Klein, training consultant and trainer at RadarVertige, was the only home-playing Expedition Leader. She emphasized once again that innovation and development takes time. "Time you don't have, time you make," Marianne said. She also talked about the lessons learned and the importance of making the implementation plan fit the organization and its dynamics. Nice that RadarVertige and NLV found each other in this!

NLV's own Max and Aksel got everyone thinking big time when they presented their nerdy thirty began with the question, Are you part of automation or are you the subject? Max: "Just playing with what could be automated in an hour made both the potential and urgency abundantly clear."

After the first nerdy thirty which was followed by all participants, one could choose another two of four nerdy thirties. The topics:

• Increasing the learning capacity of the organization
• Skills-based learning
• Change management and implementation plan
• Social and personalized learning

The last two were active sessions with room for open discussions, a puzzle hunt and chocolate cigarettes. Kim: "It was tremendously cool to talk about organizational change in an open setting. And what change is more appropriate when your session takes place in the pub? Right, the smoking ban. It was interesting to hear different opinions, and to discuss with each other how we can learn lessons from this for the changes that are happening or to come within our own organizations."

Between sessions, there was plenty of room for networking. We paired up organizations facing similar challenges and there was a lot of chatter and laughter. Just like at the closing drinks. "We look back on an incredibly valuable day," says owner Jos. "We really went into depth and enjoyed the interaction with all the participants involved. That has only inspired us to organize even more great events."