Start your morning with a continental breakfast served in the Ballroom Foyer.

Breakfast is included in your registration!

Artificial intelligence is already transforming how knowledge is created, accessed, and delivered. For learning professionals, that reality brings both excitement and uncertainty.

AI is dramatically accelerating content creation, personalization, and information access. But faster access to information does not automatically produce insight, growth, or leadership.

In fact, as AI takes on more of the informational work of learning, the uniquely human dimensions of development become even more important: judgment, courage, collaboration, trust, and the ability to navigate uncertainty.

That shift creates a defining opportunity for learning professionals. The future of the field will not belong to those who simply adopt new tools, but to those who elevate their role in helping organizations build the human capabilities technology cannot replace.

AI may power the future of learning. But the future of learning will always remain profoundly human.

Looking polished on screen is only the beginning—the best virtual presenters know how to optimize their environment, work the platform, and design content that lands with a remote audience. This session gives you tangible, immediately applicable strategies for taking your virtual presenting skills to the next level. From camera angle and lighting to purposeful platform features and audience-centered visual design, you'll walk away looking more professional and presenting more effectively—whether you're on Zoom, Teams, or anywhere in between.

• Optimize your digital stage through camera angle, lighting, and background setup for a polished, professional presence
• Use Zoom and MS Teams features purposefully to drive interaction and engagement with a virtual audience
• Design visual content with a virtual audience in mind to enhance clarity and impact

You've meticulously planned a 60-minute session—and 30 minutes in, you've only covered the introduction. Or you're halfway through with 40 minutes left and nothing left to say. Poor timing causes panic, erodes credibility, and ruins the learning experience. But experienced trainers know timing issues are rarely disasters—they're opportunities. This session shifts you from a content-driven to a learner-driven mindset, equipping you with practical, in-the-moment techniques to navigate both over-planned and under-planned sessions without breaking a sweat.

• Evaluate learner needs in real time and adapt your session to keep learning participant-centered regardless of time constraints
• Compress or expand content on the fly while preserving the integrity of your core message
• Differentiate "must-know" content from secondary material and prioritize rapidly when time is short

AI is already reshaping how training is designed, delivered, and assessed—the question is how to use it confidently and responsibly. This practical session cuts through the hype and focuses on what trainers and assessors actually need to know. You'll explore real-world examples of AI in action, build an understanding of where AI adds value and where it doesn't, and walk away with strategies you can apply in your training context immediately—without compromising quality or replacing professional expertise.

• Identify practical AI tools that support training delivery and assessment development
• Use AI to improve efficiency in planning, feedback, and resource development without replacing professional expertise
• Identify opportunities to enhance learner engagement through AI
• Make informed decisions about when and how AI should — and shouldn't — be used in your training environment

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

What if your classroom felt less like content delivery and more like cultivation? Gratitude and recognition aren’t “extras,” they’re evidence-based drivers of motivation and performance. This session offers space to explore the science behind appreciation, audit the hidden signals in your training environment, and design simple recognition rituals that spotlight effort, growth, and contribution. Leave with a practical template you can embed into any session to grow engagement, ownership, and excellence.

• Translate key brain science findings into practical classroom recognition strategies that increase motivation and engagement
• Audit your training environment for subtle cues that either reinforce or undermine appreciation, inclusion, and psychological safety
• Design a simple, scalable recognition system you can embed into any workshop format, virtual or in-person
• Practice and refine appreciative language that reinforces effort, risk-taking, and growth

Blanchard research shows 69% of organizations rank building leadership bench strength as their top priority—yet leaders themselves are burning out faster than ever. When every quarter brings a new initiative or restructure, how do you sustain your own energy while keeping your team engaged? This activity-driven session moves past self-care platitudes to give you evidence-based strategies for building adaptive capacity. You'll identify your burnout triggers, practice recovery techniques, and design a resilience rhythm that fits real life.

• Pinpoint your top energy drains and apply targeted strategies to manage them before they escalate
• Practice two adaptive techniques that help you and your team respond to disruption with flexibility instead of fatigue
• Design a personal resilience plan with daily and weekly rituals you can implement immediately

Chicago-style improv games aren't just high energy—they lower tension, build a safe learning environment, and create the conditions learners need to engage and retain information. In this session, you'll learn techniques for weaving games directly into your training, take your Energizers and Revisitors to the next level, and walk away ready to infuse endless fun and energy into every session you deliver.

• Incorporate improv-based games that increase trust and create a safe learning environment
• Elevate your Energizers and Revisitors with new techniques and approaches
• Infuse fun and high energy into every session you deliver

You walk into someone else's house and immediately catch a whiff of "puppy smell" — something they stopped noticing long ago. As trainers, we do the same thing. We grow so comfortable with our favorite slides and go-to activities that we stop smelling the stale engagement, seeing the cognitive overload, and hearing the pacing traps buried in our own sessions. This session is a full sensory audit of your training. You'll put on a fresh pair of glasses, tune your ears to what learners are actually experiencing, and use a new lens to uncover the invisible habits and design quirks quietly sabotaging retention. Leave with a clear-eyed perspective on your own style and a toolkit of breath-of-fresh-air adjustments to make your very next session stick like never before.

• The Sniff Test: Identify the common classroom blind spots that quietly kill retention
• New Spectacles: Apply cognitive science principles to see exactly where learners are dropping the ball
• The Deep Clean: Evaluate your own materials through a structured reflection lens to sniff out the errors hiding in plain sight

Stuck in a training rut? Bring your toughest design or delivery dilemma and step into the clinic. This session harnesses the collective expertise in the room to diagnose real-world challenges and apply practical tools that lead to stronger design, sharper facilitation, and greater impact. You'll practice structured peer coaching, active listening, and rapid problem-framing techniques you can take back to your own team. Leave with a prescription for your current challenge and a repeatable triage process to pull out whenever your training flatlines.

• Leverage collective expertise to diagnose common training design and delivery challenges
• Apply a structured active listening framework to accurately define peer challenges before offering solutions
• Use practical peer coaching techniques to foster clarity, confidence, and forward momentum
• Develop a repeatable training triage process to troubleshoot future facilitation or design roadblocks

Every trainer has more stories than they realize — the trick is knowing how to find them, shape them, and use them. This session puts storytelling at the center, guiding you through the process of building a personal story bank you can draw from in any training context. You'll practice structuring stories with clear stakes, emotional connection, and meaningful takeaways, then perform your stories and receive feedback from the group. Leave with a ready-to-use framework for weaving narrative into your training — and a bank full of stories to pull from.

• Turn everyday moments into powerful, memorable narratives for use in training
• Structure stories with clear stakes, emotional connection, and meaningful takeaways
• Build a personal story bank and develop techniques for inviting learners to share theirs
• Apply a ready-to-use framework for weaving stories into your own training content

Your organization invests in leadership development—but are leaders actually changing how they lead? Most programs fail because they're designed to check a box, not change behavior. In this session, you'll discover how to apply participant-centered design principles and the C.O.R.E. model to build leadership training that sticks. Through hands-on practice, you'll redesign a piece of your own leadership content so it drives real on-the-job behavior change—not just good evaluations.

• Apply the C.O.R.E. model to transform passive leadership content into participant-centered experiences that drive lasting behavior change
• Redesign one leadership training activity using the 90/20/10 rule to maximize engagement and retention
• Build a transfer strategy that bridges the gap between classroom learning and on-the-job application

To say we're living through challenging times sounds like both a cliché and an understatement. The events of the last several years have triggered real anxiety and fatigue—for staff and students alike.

And yet, when people look back on their lives, it's often the most difficult seasons that produced the greatest growth. In the middle of a crisis, that's hard to see. But there are concrete steps we can take right now—grounded in positive psychology—to shift our perspective and move forward with greater resilience.

This session explores how to close in on the G.A.P. by focusing on Gratitude, Attitude, and avoiding false Platitudes. You'll leave with specific, practical techniques to shape your thinking and behavior so you can show up more productive, more effective, and yes—happier.

• Identify four ways to apply gratitude to daily life
• Outline seven methods for boosting a positive attitude
• Recognize and overcome the platitude vs. attitude trap
• Explain how to proactively close in on the G.A.P.

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

Pack your walking shoes and join other conference goers for an early morning hike through the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge (across the street from the hotel). It’s the trifecta of a great conference experience—move your body, meet new friends, and inhale some fresh air! Your brain and body will thank you.

Start your morning with a continental breakfast served in the Ballroom Foyer.

Breakfast is included in your registration!

Your chairs are lying to you—it's time to leave them behind. Physical space is one of the most underused tools in any trainer's kit, and movement isn't just a fun add-on—it supports attention, retention, and engagement at the brain level. This session makes the case for spatial learning and then proves it, walking you through gallery walks, stations, and kinesthetic activities you can steal immediately. You'll evaluate your own session designs through a new lens and leave with a toolkit that works in any room, on any topic, with any group.

• Explain at least two ways physical movement supports attention, retention, and engagement in adult learners
• Facilitate a gallery walk or station-based activity and identify the key design decisions that make it effective
• Adapt at least one movement-based structure to fit a topic from your own training context
• Evaluate a current session design and identify one opportunity to incorporate intentional learner movement

Feedback is one of the most powerful tools a trainer has—and one of the most misused. This session explores three types of feedback: Appreciative, Coaching, and Evaluative. Participants will examine the realities of both giving and receiving feedback, understand the dangers of using labels, and practice applying each feedback type in context. Walk away with language and tools that make your feedback conversations more intentional and effective.

• Discover three types of feedback
• Understand the realities of both giving and receiving feedback
• Acknowledge the dangers of using labels
• Practice the various feedback types

In fast-paced training environments, slides and spoken words alone rarely make information stick. Sketchnotes—a visual notetaking method that blends words, simple drawings, symbols, and layout—give the brain multiple ways to process and retain information. In this interactive session, you'll experience sketchnotes as a learner first, then unpack the why behind the practice. Grounded in neuroscience and adult learning principles, you'll explore how visual notetaking activates multiple areas of the brain, reduces cognitive overload, and strengthens memory and recall. No artistic talent required.

• Explain how sketchnotes support learning and memory by engaging dual coding, attention, and cognitive load systems in the brain
• Demonstrate basic visual notetaking techniques using simple shapes, icons, containers, and visual hierarchy
• Apply sketchnotes intentionally to increase learner engagement, focus, and retention during training sessions
• Design at least one sketchnote-based activity that aligns with adult learning principles and supports transfer to practice
• Address common learner resistance to visual notetaking and build a climate of confidence and openness around integrating sketchnotes

Trust and professionalism in the training room aren't just about what you know—they're about how you show up when things get uncomfortable. This session focuses on the practical techniques that help you manage difficult dynamics with confidence: the dominant participant who derails discussion, the disengaged learner who's checked out, the moment you lose your place or make a mistake in front of the group. Walk away with tools to own the room without overpowering it—and the confidence to handle whatever comes your way.

• Manage dominant participants without shutting down group energy
• Redirect disengagement and draw reluctant learners back into the session
• Own the room with presence and authority without overpowering the group
• Recover from mistakes in real time with composure and professionalism

Half of organizations report that managers lack the support to facilitate employee development—yet coaching is the single most requested leadership capability. The best leaders don't just tell people what to do; they build people who know what to do. In this session, you'll learn and practice a simple, repeatable coaching model for everyday leadership moments. Through paired practice and real-time feedback, you'll experience the shift from directing to developing and discover how coaching conversations accelerate performance and ownership.

• Demonstrate a 4-step coaching conversation model applicable in both formal and informal leadership moments
• Practice asking powerful questions that shift team members from dependency to self-directed problem-solving
• Identify three opportunities this week to replace directing with coaching and commit to a specific plan

A well-chosen activity can do more than entertain—it attracts attention, maintains interest, and reinforces learning. Activities are not the opposite of content; they challenge, persuade, refocus, and reassure participants. The key is finding the right balance between content and the activities that support it. If they're not playing, they're straying. This session introduces 13 engaging activities you can use immediately to support learning transfer.

• Identify activities that build enthusiasm and reinforce learning
• Build a toolkit of practical activities that engage participants and support learning transfer
• Use activities strategically to hold attention and maintain control of your session

Compliance training has a reputation—and it's not a good one. This session is dedicated to changing that. You'll uncover the common pitfalls that make compliance training ineffective and disengaging, then learn creative strategies for improving content, designing visually compelling slides, and building purposeful activities that actually hold attention. By embracing unpredictability and dynamic delivery techniques, you'll walk away ready to transform your compliance training from a checkbox exercise into a learning experience people remember.

• Identify the key pitfalls that make compliance training ineffective and disengaging
• Design visually compelling slides that enhance learner engagement in compliance contexts
• Build purposeful activities that make compliance content interactive and memorable
• Implement innovative delivery strategies that increase retention of compliance requirements

No one sets out to be a poor communicator—and no one sets out to misconstrue information either. Yet it happens constantly in training rooms. This session explores the communication styles, verbal and non-verbal strategies, and group facilitation techniques that help you reach every learner in the room. You'll examine what works, what doesn't, and how to set up group activities and lead discussions with the kind of clarity that leaves no one behind.

• Recognize the communication patterns that most impact learner understanding and engagement
• Apply a framework of do's and don'ts to sharpen communication in your training
• Identify the communication skills that have the greatest impact in a training environment
• Leverage both verbal and non-verbal communication to reinforce your message and connect with learners

Empathy isn't soft—it's a brain-based leadership skill that directly impacts trust, performance, and workplace wellness. This session explores how empathetic leadership reduces threat responses, strengthens accountability, and improves communication. You'll practice empathetic language in real business scenarios, discover how leading with empathy calms the nervous system and reduces conflict, and walk away with practical tools to build healthier, more resilient teams—without lowering expectations or avoiding tough conversations.

• Explain how empathy impacts the brain and nervous system to reduce threat responses and support focus and engagement
• Demonstrate empathetic language in common business scenarios—conflict, performance challenges, and change conversations—while maintaining clarity and accountability
• Apply empathy as a leadership strategy to reduce stress, build trust, and increase team resilience
• Use a structured checklist to observe and assess empathy in leadership interactions for self-reflection and peer feedback

Busy is not the same as productive. If your plan to redesign keeps sliding to "tomorrow," it's time for a reset. This practical session helps you examine how you're actually spending your time, align your energy with high-impact work, and build a repeatable system for managing priorities with intention. You'll explore proven prioritization models, uncover common time drains, and apply decision-making tools that sharpen your focus on what truly moves the needle.

• Distinguish between activity and impact to clarify what true productivity looks like in training and design work
• Identify personal and organizational time drains and implement strategies to minimize or eliminate them
• Apply prioritization frameworks to make intentional, values-aligned decisions about workload and focus
• Develop a personalized action plan to redesign how you allocate time and energy

Spoiler: the end-of-session evaluation form is too late. By the time participants rate your session a 3 out of 5, the damage is done. Real assessment happens in the moment—and this session shows you how. You'll learn low-tech, high-impact strategies for reading your learners in real time, designing check-ins that feel natural rather than intrusive, and knowing exactly what to do when engagement goes flat. Leave with tools that make learning visible without making it weird.

• Distinguish between formative and summative assessment and know when to use each
• Design at least three formative check-in activities appropriate for an existing or upcoming session
• Apply a decision-making framework for responding when check-ins reveal confusion or disengagement
• Integrate pulse-check strategies into a training design without disrupting overall session flow

The best trainers aren't just skilled—they're generous. Generous with their attention, their responses, and the environment they create. This session introduces a simple, repeatable 5-point framework for bringing generosity into every aspect of your training—from how you listen and respond to how you design experiences and handle challenging moments. Walk away with a model that builds trust, elevates impact, and makes your training room a place people genuinely want to be.

• Apply the 5-point Generous Trainer Framework to your training practice
• Recognize generosity as a deliberate and powerful training tool
• Practice generous listening techniques that elevate learner experience
• Encourage and facilitate participant-to-participant generosity in your sessions
• Respond generously in challenging moments to maintain trust and momentum
• Design training experiences that reflect generous values from the ground up

One of the more frustrating experiences of being a trainer is witnessing the reoccurring tragedy of “forgetting” play out right before your eyes. You spend hours prepping, give your all during the lesson, only to have learners forget what you taught within days. Studies show that learners retain information better when they reengage with the content periodically. Just like a workout, retrieval exercises our “memory muscles” and strengthens learning.

• Define retrieval practice to improve learning
• Compare retrieval practice with other learning strategies
• Explore training activities to make retrieval effective

Conflict is inevitable—how you handle it doesn't have to be a guess. This session uses the Thomas-Kilmann model to help you identify your primary conflict-handling mode, understand all five modes, and develop the judgment to know which approach fits the moment. Walk away with a clearer picture of your own tendencies and a practical framework for navigating conflict more effectively in any training or workplace context.

• Assess your primary mode of handling conflict using the Thomas-Kilmann model
• Identify all five conflict-handling modes and the situations that call for each
• Determine the appropriate time and context to apply each mode effectively

Start the morning with an extra dose of self-care in the form of sunrise yoga. Flexibility, balance, and intention are important in training and on the yoga mat. This non-traditional yoga class will provide a comfortable place to move into the uncomfortable space of stretching, balance, and being present. Bring your yoga mat (or a towel from your room) and join other conference goers for 45 minutes of “you time.”

Start your morning with a continental breakfast served in the Ballroom Foyer.

Breakfast is included in your registration!

Connection and reflection aren't warm-and-fuzzy extras—they're learning superpowers backed by neuroscience. This interactive session explores how the social brain, emotional safety, and reflective pauses strengthen attention, memory, and transfer. You'll learn how to intentionally activate neural pathways that help adult learners feel connected, engaged, and ready to apply what they learn—and you'll experience the connection and reflection strategies firsthand, not just hear about them.

• Explain how connection and reflection activate key brain systems that support attention, memory, and retention
• Explain why emotional safety and social connection are prerequisites for cognitive engagement in adult learners
• Apply at least three neuroscience-informed strategies to enhance connection and engagement in your sessions
• Use guided reflection tools to help learners consolidate and transfer new knowledge to memory
• Design a short learning segment that intentionally integrates connection and reflection moments

Roleplay can feel scary—we're here to fix that. In medicine, simulation is how professionals prepare for their most challenging moments. The secret isn't the roleplay itself; it's what happens right after. In this session, you'll experience a low-stakes roleplay scenario and a structured clinical debrief, then get the full behind-the-scenes breakdown of exactly what just happened. Walk away with a debrief framework you can use on basically anything.

• Explain why structured debriefing increases learning transfer compared to activity alone
• Analyze a clinical debrief framework from the learner's perspective
• Design a low-stakes roleplay scenario appropriate for a training context in your own work
• Formulate open-ended debrief questions that drive insight without leading the learner

When training is fun, learning feels effortless. Learners stop clock-watching, engagement rises, and retention follows. This session explores five FUNdamental principles for creating well-structured, engaging face-to-face training—then goes deeper with more than a dozen strategies you can apply immediately. From setting up your learning space to managing timing, encouraging collaboration, facilitating networking, debriefing activities, and capturing evidence of engagement, you'll leave with a practical toolkit for making every in-person session work harder.

• Identify the five FUNdamentals for creating well-structured and engaging face-to-face learning
• Apply five strategies for setting up your learning space for success
• Use three key techniques for managing timing effectively in face-to-face sessions
• Facilitate collaboration and networking opportunities that maximize learner involvement
• Identify key considerations for debriefing learning activities effectively

Where John's opening session established that the qualities AI cannot replicate—judgment, trust, courage, and collaboration—are precisely what make learning professionals irreplaceable, this closing session puts those qualities to work. Because knowing that the future of learning is human is one thing. Knowing how to lead the humans around you through one of the most disruptive shifts of our time is another.

AI is reshaping every industry—and the people around us are watching to see how we all respond. Only 25% of employees say their company has a clear vision for AI, yet 90% of organizations report a leadership skills gap. That gap doesn't just belong to those at the top—it belongs to all of us who influence, teach, train, or work alongside others navigating this shift.

In this interactive closing session, Becky Pike Pluth explores what it looks like to champion AI integration at every level—whether you're setting organizational strategy or sitting in the room where change is being rolled out. Because the human side of AI adoption isn't just a leadership problem. It's a people problem. And people like you are the ones who solve it.

Through real-world scenarios and guided practice, you'll leave with practical tools to help the people around you move forward with clarity and confidence—set up to embrace what's next rather than brace for it.

You'll walk away able to:

• Apply a step-by-step process for introducing AI tools in ways that build trust rather than erode it—regardless of your role or title
• Facilitate conversations that surface real concerns and convert anxiety into productive, forward-moving action
• Draft a personal 30-day action plan for guiding your next AI integration with intention and confidence