Policy & Practice August 2018

association news

Top Five Reasons for Attending the NSDTA Annual Education Conference

T his year marks the 30th anni- versary of the National Staff Development and Training Association (NSDTA) Education Conference. Scheduled for September 30– October 3 in Columbus, OH, the 2018 conference theme is Champions in Flight: Launching Innovation in Learning. The conference includes keynote presentations and work- shops that promote best practices and forward thinking in diverse areas, including performance coaching, training evaluation and research, instructional design and media, training facilitation, workforce planning, and organizational develop- ment and effectiveness. More than 280 training and organizational develop- ment professionals, representing 40 states and two countries, attended the 2017 conference held in Savannah, GA.

and organizational effectiveness facilitators.

In an effort to ensure NSDTA con- ferences continue to be a valuable resource to attendees and their organizations, the NSDTA Executive Advisory Council recently conducted a survey of former conference attendees. Results from the survey supported the value of the conference for promoting positive change in attendees and training and workforce development programs. Based on the results of this survey, the top five reasons training and organizational development pro- fessionals should attend the upcoming NSDTA Conference are: 1. Positive change in conference attendees’ abilities Ninety percent of survey respon- dents agreed that attendance at NSDTA conferences increased con- fidence in their abilities as trainers

2. Positive change in conference attendees’ job performance Ninety percent of survey respon- dents reported a positive impact on their job performance as a result of attending an NSDTA conference. Changes in job performance included utilizing different mediums for training, applying different transfer of learning strategies, and enhanced training evaluation development. 3. Immediate application of learning from the conference to the job After attending NSDTA conferences, 88 percent of respondents experienced opportunities to apply what they

See Association News on page 44

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