By Anthony Dudek, MS, CPLP
President 2018
Chicagoland Chapter ATD
What a great year it’s been and it’s really only half over! We had a great opening night in January with Stephanie Leese Emrich followed by a very well-attended event in February on Subject Matter Experts facilitated by Dale Ludwig and Greg Owen-Boger.
The workshop at Benedictine University with Megan Torrance in March was very successful and many came away with increased knowledge about Instructional Design.
Followed in April with another sellout all-day workshop on e-learning with Diane Elkins where Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate went head-to-head. many came away with the request for more from this Speaker.
The we had our Talent Development Leadership Forum at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in which our community members got to hear from senior learning managers in the Chicago area. To bring it about required a key collaboration with CARA, a learning services provider in the Chicago area and a key sponsor of ours for many years now.
We recently offered our scholarship for both the CPLP and the APTD aspirants in our community again in partnership with CARA.
We have expanded our membership and reached out to area colleges and universities. We have done our research into how today’s learners want to connect with us and with our content. More on that later, but you should start seeing signs that we are listening and that we are changing the format of some of our content offerings.
We’re facing the largest Mega-Networking Event on August 2ndand I hope all of you are making plans to be there at one of the three locations. I’ll be at the downtown location.
This fall season will again feature our Workplace Learning and Performance Institute, which has always been a great way for people new to the profession to learn from some of the very best talent development all-stars in the Chicago area. Come see what all the buzz is about and look into attending the entire series of 7 sessions or only the session(s) you need.
October will feature a very large, all-day event with Trish Uhl on Learning Analytics, sure to be a sellout, better complete your registration early.
And of course, we’re looking at our grand celebration on December 6thto celebrate our 75thanniversary as a professional association dedicated to the learning community in the Chicago area.
The state of the Chapter at this mid-year point is that we are financially sound, we are developing relevant content, we are connecting with more Chicago area talent development professionals than ever before, and we have tons of energy and drive to move the Chapter into new areas.
Our compass is Advance, Build, Connect, and Engage and this is how we continue to live that in the remainder of the year.
Advance
We will continue our work in advancing the science and the art of talent development in the Chicago area. That’s really at the core of what we do. Ensuring that ATD’s Competency Model and its Areas of Expertise is widely understood and used in the Chicago area is a multi-year mission of our Chapter. See our CPLP Scholarship that we offer every year.
Build
We reach out to the larger community in the Chicago area building relationships with companies, our sponsors, our fellow associations through the Chicago Alliance, and of course the universities that we partner with to bring the message home to Chicago’s students.
Connect
We connect on a personal level with our members through a variety of methods. Connecting our Members to ATD national in dual membership, known as Power Membership, is a great way for our members to experience the rich content that ATD national has to offer. If you come out to one of our events this year make sure that you meet our very active Board Members who want to hear about your ideas and needs for our Chapter and for our profession. See Mega-Networking Event coming in August.
Engage
We will engage with our membership and with the larger Talent Development Community by our activities we promote: our Mentoring program, the Events that we design, and the Workplace Learning and Performance Institute.
I have never had the chance to lead such a dedicated group of talent development professionals such as this year’s Board of Directors and the volunteers that make it happen year after year. A fact for which I will always be honored and grateful to have had the chance.
Our goal is to be the Chicago area’s one-stop shop for all things talent development. How are we doing in helping you to achieve your dreams? Drop me a line and let me know what you need from your Chapter: Anthony.Dudek@gmail.com
All the best,
Anthony Dudek, MS, CPLP
President 2018
Chicagoland Chapter ATD
