2022 Creative Training Techniques^® Conference

Bill Arnold

Bill was a self-made thousandaire by age 30 or 40-ish. He discovered breaking patterns helps to ignite communication and on occasion get you arrested. Breaking patterns will reveal your spectacularness if that is a word. Your pacing and style will always help you getting your point made. Decisive procrastination allowed Bill’s mind plenty of time to wander, again breaking patterns which resulted in co-writing and performing in a theatrical comedy production that has traveled to 100 cities and six countries including London’s West End. People like you and want you to succeed. Break patterns, make friends, be remembered.

Becky Pike Pluth

Let’s be honest, long boring introductions are a missed opportunity in training. By the time everyone goes around the room, nobody is listening and precious time is gone! The Bob Pike Group harnesses those critical moments at the beginning of training with openers that reduce tension and set your training on the right course from the very beginning! Discover several you can use in a variety of training environments.

Rich Meiss

Mind-mapping is a visual brainstorming technique you can use to tap into the power of the brain, look at a subject in its entirety and organize around key learning objectives. It’s a tool that helps linear and lateral thinkers expand their sightlines beyond what comes naturally. Learn to mind-map and you’ll energize your training design and delivery! Rich has even been known to deliver entire 3-day programs with no guide besides a mind-map (ask and he’ll show you).

Collin Carroll

Energy—the underlying power of the entertainment industry—is critical to your learning environment. Not enough energy from the group and you’ll quickly exhaust yourself. Too much from the group and your class risks going off the rails. In this session, you will discover the benefits of physical and mental energizers and how to incorporate them seamlessly into your training.

Kim Zerby

Have you ever been shopping and the label says ONE SIZE FITS ALL? You try it on and it swallows you? Or it’s skin tight? Do you have a diverse group of participants in your training with various backgrounds, a wide range of years-of-service, and different learning preferences? How do you train all participants when one size does NOT fit all! By adding variety to your virtual and classroom training that fits the needs of every learning modality.

Marc Ratcliffe

Discover how to attract and maintain attention so your participants will be ready for the important messages that come from training. This session will explore the importance of taking time to pause and reflect during training and the S.T.O.P. formula of Story Telling, Object lessons and Props. Marc will show you how to construct and frame stories that enable greater impact of a message; demonstrate how to run an object lesson that speaks to content; and model how props can be used to support reinforcement in and out of the classroom.

Buffet style lunch included—feast on Minnesota comfort foods and healthy options together or on your own.

Kim Zerby

I feel the need, the need for ... COMMUNICATION! No one sets out to be a poor communicator. No one sets out to misconstrue information, either. This session explores communication styles to include in every training to reach every learner. Explore how to set up group activities and lead group discussions with crystal clear communication as your wingman!

Lori Haskins-Crook

When the boss says jump! do you say, how high? Even better is to position yourself as a strategic partner in training by taking a consultative approach to the requests you field. In this session, discover a 4-step process to tackle the right problems and prescribe the best solutions. Performance consulting will help you get your ideas implemented, even when you don’t have autonomy.

Amy Saville

One of the most frequent comments we get from BPG clients of 10 or even 20 years ago: “I still have my handouts!” In this session, you’ll learn how to create handouts that add value to your session and can serve as a resource long after your training is done.

Becky Pike Pluth

Be in-the-know on fading practices, latest trends and the future of training. Join Becky and be part of the conversation on how to embrace changes in the training industry and not be left behind. Explore where we’ve come from, what stopped working, and what needs to happen next to meet the rapidly changing demands businesses like yours will face. In this session, you’ll explore new and future trends in training, discover how technology is disrupting the training function, and compare “old” to “new” tips you can set in motion immediately.

Jason Ash

Looking to hit a home run with engaging activities? Sick of missing the shot to create impactful learning? Hoping to score goals with your participants? Using sports metaphors and sports-themed activities, this session focuses on the important roles that preparation, warm-up, warm-down, and peak performance play in sports and relates these lessons to the learning context.

Kim Zerby

Do you wonder why we started this conference sitting with our color team, why we’ll sometimes change table groups in the middle of a session, or why people are somewhat randomly selected team leaders? In this session, discover the intentionality behind these techniques and more and experience quick team building energizers that bring energy and teamwork to training!

Dana Gibilaro

Simplification is a powerful tool across many aspects of your professional career. At the end of this session, you will be able to improve communication in your personal and professional life; efficiently deliver information to colleagues and associates; and better understand any complex topic through the use of simplification. In this working session, you’ll also create your own explainer video using free technology by mysimpleshow. (Must bring laptop.)

Amy Saville

Experience-Awareness-Theory is the foundation on which The Bob Pike Group builds its training, but how exactly can you incorporate experiential learning into your material? In this session, learn a variety of ways to give your participants an experience that opens the door for learning and increases retention of your content.

Janice Horne

On-the-job training (OJT) is the single most used (and misused) of all approaches to training. It happens whenever an experienced person shows an inexperienced person how to do a job. While there is no prescribed best way to teach a skill, the two most common approaches are showing and telling. Discover Creative Training Techniques® that will ensure repeatability, reliability, standardization, and consistency – critical factors for OJT training success.

Adrianne Roggenbuck

Whether performance dips, deadlines move, ideas get scrapped, budgets get cut, or you hear that’ll never work, sticky situations are easier to navigate with the right tools. Come to this session to explore five different styles for negotiating conflict, and how to pick the best approach to reach the ideal conclusion.

Join The Bob Pike Group team for an informal time to mix and mingle with other conference attendees and presenters.

Bill Arnold

Whether you are entertaining or training, focused attention is essential to the presenter and critical to delivering the message and making it stick. Knowing when to relax ... when you feel the need to panic ... learning how to use body, voice, eyes, and pacing to move a group into a joy laughter emotional state. Learn how magicians conceal right in front of you and you happily believe it. It is all done with unabashed confidence and bold risks. Every trainer can learn about dealing with what a magician would call a “dirty” hand, and how words are not the biggest part of talking. Learn some cool stuff you can try back in the training room!

Janice Horne

Have you ever found yourself thinking your content is too complex to make it participant-centered and interactive? All complex systems are made up of simple parts. In this session we will explore techniques for breaking down complex content and giving participants opportunities to interact with the content in a way that will increase enjoyment and learning retention.

Collin Carroll

Want a surefire way to energize any content? Learn how to gamify your sessions to increase fun while simultaneously upping retention. In this session, you will experience a framework to promote friendly competition, recognize achievement and reward learning. From no-tech to low tech, you’ll leave with new tools to add variety to your training without expensive software or equipment.

Becky Pike Pluth

If you think finding a needle in a haystack is difficult, try finding an e-learning program that holds people’s attention and affects behavior change. Now there’s a challenge! We know too much lecture is a no-no, yet most live-online learning programs are lecture heavy and interactive-light. Join Becky to explore the 7 worst mistakes that make virtual learning drag, and what to try instead. You’ll experience easy fixes you can apply to your own content—tips to make your job easier and training better. Your participants thank you in advance!

Adrianne Roggenbuck

Formative assessments provide feedback to the learner without feeling like a test. Join this session to engage in several formative assessments that are easy to replicate and see just how fun assessment can be!

Kim Zerby

If you need to change a flat tire, are you more likely to sign up for a course on auto-mechanics or search YouTube for a quick solution? We’re in an age where short bursts of content rule. Discover how you can create timely and convenient microlearning lesson on your own (it’s easier than you think!). In this session you will explore 5 tips you never knew about making microlearning work for you; identify 4 ways to incorporate microlearning into new and existing training programs; and discover video hooks to make microlearning content memorable.

Rich Meiss

Research shows that your audience is 69% more likely to remember a story over anything else you communicate. Stories capture attention in a way that boring PowerPoint cannot. Discover the key elements to good storytelling in this fast-moving session. If you want to make a lasting impact on your audience, tell a story.

Lori Haskins-Crook

Revisiting content is a powerful way to supercharge retention through spacing and repetition. Discover Creative Training Techniques® that will help your learners remember more of what you cover in class. Experience ideas you can R&D (ripoff and duplicate) back in your training setting to avoid end-of-day boredom and cement important concepts into learners’ minds.

Becky Pike Pluth

A recent study by Deloitte reveals the number one trend in organizations is changing the way people learn. Why is learning trending on top? Because 86% of respondents ranked it ahead of teamwork, leadership, and talent mobility! What are you doing to change the way people learn inside your organization? This session will explore how to harness presentation techniques to increase engagement and upskill talent.

Jason Ash

All successful workforce teams have a common purpose, strong communication skills and a degree of mutual respect. This just doesn’t happen by accident; it needs to be facilitated and learned. In this session, we will look at how Tuckman’s Team development model influences team learning cultures; explore and participate in a range of activities designed to challenge and build teams; and select team-building activities to try back in your workplace.

Kim Zerby

Whether spinning the Wheel of Fortune or battling for the Bachelor, Hollywood knows the power of games and contests. Explore how you can tap into the appeal of games and contests to motivate learners while also encouraging an active and fun learning environment. Examine nine steps to facilitating activities and applying game and competition strategies to both virtual and classroom content.

Janice Horne

Never seem to have enough time to devote to training design? Does instructional design ever intimidate or overwhelm you? In this session you will explore a method of design that will help you quickly align content and activities to the behaviors necessary to reach your business goals. Teams win more with a playbook—and training makes a bigger impact with intentional design.

Amy Saville

Ever wonder what technology, apps, tools, and tricks The Bob Pike Group trainers use to keep tabs on all that participant-centered content? In this session, learn about Leader’s Guides, “flow” spreadsheets, apps, and gear that will keep your content organized so you can concentrate on your participants. Share some of your own tips, too!

Adrianne Roggenbuck

Marc Ratcliffe

Delivering an effective and powerful presentation is critical in supporting learning messages and maintaining the attention of the audience. To avoid slideshow overkill, presenters need to evaluate how to get the most from their slides and create the best impact from their slide presentations. This session will provide seven principles that can be used to create more powerful slideshow-based presentations (e.g. PowerPoint, Keynote, Haiku Deck) and deliver a better learning experience for participants.

Collin Carroll

Oh no, not another boring webinar! Sick and tired of sitting through talking head video sessions? Have you ever found yourself checking social media pages, taking selfies with Snapchat filters and shopping on Amazon during a webinar? The majority of webinars are considered sit and gets and participation is usually never a factor! If you are looking to create the same level of interactivity online as you see in classrooms here at the Conference, it’s easier than you think!

Rich Meiss

Non-productive meetings cost organizations untold thousands of hours. Strong facilitators consider what types of meetings matter, how often to meet, and who should attend. In this session, discover 10 deadly sins of meetings and how to avoid them. Walk away with a checklist of what to do before, during and after a meeting to make it highly productive and even refreshing!

Lori Haskins-Crook

As a result of pre-established filters, we see, hear, and interpret differently than other people around us. Our perception is so deeply buried in our unconscious, it’s difficult to see its impact on our thinking and what we see as real. This session will challenge you to shift your perspective and become more inclusive of other people’s perspectives. You’ll explore 5 steps to identify and address unconscious bias and discuss how it influences ADDIE.

Adrianne Roggenbuck

The pros make presenting look easy, but the reality is it involves hours of preparation and practice. Discover 25 tips for designing and delivering powerful presentations. Borrow ideas from the best so you can confidently present to handfuls, room-fulls, or even conference-fulls of people.

Janice Horne

How can you maintain the energy and excitement of learning beyond the classroom? By remembering the who, what, how of making training sticky! After the action plans, evaluations and certificates, what will make training continue to produce results well after the class has ended? Come to this class to get practical guidance on how to sustain learning.

Collin Carroll

Be in on the discussion as The Bob Pike Group and companies all around the world navigate changing expectations and new norms for classroom F2F training. This is your chance to grab tested ideas and share what people expect in your workplace or industry. In this session you will compare what worked before with what’s expected now, explore practical, creative ways to bring your classroom into compliance, and discuss how to decreases tension so learners can increase retention.

Rich Meiss

Whether you work in healthcare, finance, engineering or other technical fields, subject matter expertise can help you deliver what the professional learner is after. How do you stay true to the participant-centered model when someone else is delivering the message? Explore how to set expectations without stepping on toes, create learning outcomes without tragic slide decks and focus guest faculty on the needs of learners (not just on the presenter’s expertise).

Lori Haskins Crook

Connecting with your audience in a meaningful way is challenging enough without unnecessary barriers like being too formal or relaxed. Nothing sets the tone or makes a bigger first impression than how we present ourselves. In this session, we’ll discuss how to match your attire and how you carry yourself to every audience and environment. Your confidence will soar when you discover what looks best on you beyond a smile.

Amy Saville

The biggest challenge to behavior change is believing wholeheartedly in it. Once learners are sold and become a believer in the change that is required of them, then they become advocates, champions and promoters of their own development. In this session, explore how to write the best discussion questions that will lead learners to self-discovery and transformation. Leverage one of The Bob Pike Group’s 5 FUNdamentals: “People don’t argue with their own data” (opinions, ideas, plans)!

Marc Ratcliffe

Breathe life back into your e-learning. Centered around the acronym L.I.F.E., the session will: explore methods to engage (L)earning with unique approaches to build learner confidence, create participation and generate fun; highlight key (I)nstructional design principles and pitfalls to consider when designing an e-learning pathway; discuss how to integrate (F)eedback to create critical opportunities to support, guide and encourage e-learners; and identify methods of (E)valuation to check how things are going and create a conduit for growth.

Jason Ash

Sometimes learners need some respite from the content and a well-placed energizer can help to boost their connection to the training, refocus their attention or simply refresh them so they are ready for the next topic. This general session reveals the five secrets of effective interactive training. During the session, attendees will rapidly explore and participate in more than a dozen 60-second energizers that will help them to get the most out of the energy of their groups. These activities will be suitable for delivering training for face-to-face and online learning.