2023 AGENDA

All times in ET

• 9:40 AM

  Registration and virtual orientation

• 9:55 AM

  Opening remarks

• 10:00 AM

  Keynote: Developing Evidence-Informed Corporate L&D Strategy

  The past three years have seen L&D technology and methodology evolve at a rapid pace. What impact has this had on corporate L&D strategy? What are the current limitations? What are the next big innovations to watch? In this session, you will learn how to convert your corporate strategic goals into L&D goals and lead measures using the Learning Strategy Builder©. You will explore: 

  • Determining organization business goals, annual needs analysis and content maintenance   
  • Integrating population, programs, metrics, staffing, technology, capabilities, outsourcing, governance and budget in your corporate L&D strategy  
  • A complete corporate L&D strategy case

  

  Mohamed Elkhouly

  Senior Director, Global Learning & Development
  Amazon

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  Mohamed Elkhouly

  Senior Director, Global Learning & Development
  Amazon

  Over the last 13 years, Mohamed has been leading L&D teams and programs, designing, developing and delivering all kinds of learning solutions and modalities, serving clients in 21 countries and 11 industries. He has built extensive, practical experience in learning experience design, learning analytics and measuring learning impact. As a senior L&D professional, he has been focusing on creating impactful L&D corporate strategies following a data-driven approach, linking L&D activities to the organization’s business goals. In 2022, he launched the Learning Strategy Builder©; a tool that helps senior L&D professionals create their corporates’ 3-year learning strategy including goals, programs, metrics, structure, technology, governance and budget.

  Mohamed is a Senior L&D Manager with Amazon Europe serving a population of 5K Amazon associates across the globe. Prior to Amazon, he was leading the global LXD team in Agoda, a Booking Holdings company, in APAC region.

• 10:35 AM

  Panel: Achieving effective leadership development through L&D

  Developing and retaining high-performing leaders is more important than ever to guide organizations through disruption across multiple industries. Companies need leaders that can adapt to unforeseen challenges and maintain growth.   This session will explore how companies can create L&D programmes that foster leadership talent and promote coaching and mentorship to ensure continuity. 

  • How to identify and then develop leadership competencies to ensure strategic imperatives are achieved  
  • Building critical skills of managers and employees for career growth opportunities  
  • Integrating practical/experiential leadership development and creating a culture that encourages coaching throughout the organization 

  Moderator

  

  Valerie Martin

  Founder, Talent & Culture Strategist
  Genre Humain

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  Valerie Martin

  Founder, Talent & Culture Strategist
  Genre Humain

  Valérie is a strategist and coach with 23 years of experience in thecorporate world, prior to becoming a consultant she served on several executive teams and boards. Over the course of her career, Valerie has been a speaker at numerous international events. Valérie is the Co-Founder and President of Genre humain, a culture-focused boutique agency. Genre humain helps companies clarify or discover their organizational purpose, enabling effective leadership to inspire and empower their teams. They help develop talent by coaching, mobilizing, inspiring, and propelling teams to reach their full potential. Genre humain facilitate the development, transformation, and evolution of leaders, their teams, and their organizations.

  Panelists

  

  Kevin Bishop

  Principal Talent Development Partner
  LinkedIn

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  Kevin Bishop

  Principal Talent Development Partner
  LinkedIn

  Kevin Bishop is a talent leader at LinkedIn with a passion for creating and facilitating transformational development experiences. His coaching, leadership development, team effectiveness, and diversity, equity, and inclusion work have helped hundreds of people unlock their individual and collective magic and grow careers they love.  

  Since starting out as an actor and singer, Kevin’s career has wound through multiple industries and organizations. Prior to joining LinkedIn, he spent time with organizations such as Kraft Heinz, Spencer Stuart, and Aon delivering highly successful development programs for leaders at every level. 

  Kevin’s special interests in joy, humor, and happiness at work and strengths-based development have made him a go-to resource for creating and leading fun and engaging learning experiences. He holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Science in Adult Learning & Leadership degrees, as well as a coaching certification from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC).  

  

  Eric Barney

  Vice President, Head of Instructional Design & Training Delivery
  Goldman Sachs

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  Eric Barney

  Vice President, Head of Instructional Design & Training Delivery
  Goldman Sachs

  Eric Barney is a Vice President and Head of Learning & Development in the Platform Services Segment of Goldman Sachs. Eric has spent his career in banking where he discovered a passion for learning and development starting with facilitation, then instructional design, and now leading a L&D organization. Eric believes in the potential of people and is energized and driven by the role he and his organization play in helping people succeed. Eric also believes in the power of mentoring and attributes his capabilities and success to many incredible mentors. Eric graduated from Utah State University with a degree in Horticulture and an emphasis in business. Accordingly, much of his free time is spent in his garden. Eric is a councilman on the Magna, Utah City Council, and serves on several public and non-profit boards including The Wasatch Front Waste and Recycling District and The West Valley Symphony of Utah (WVSU). Eric loves the performing arts, has played violin since he was 6 years old, and in addition to playing with the WVSU plays fiddle and sings with American Folk Ensemble representing the United States in international folk festivals around the world.  

  

  Katie Schaber

  Owner
  KS Learning Design & Consultation

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  Katie Schaber

  Owner
  KS Learning Design & Consultation

  About ks learning design & consultation:

  Learning sparks growth and innovation – critical components for employee, team, and organizational success.

  If you’re looking for an experienced learning and development professional to help facilitate that growth and innovation through needs analysis, course design and development, editing, quality assurance, knowledge management, or other means, ks learning design & consultation is here to help.

• 11:25 AM

  Case study: Developing a skills-based approach to recruitment and L&D

  With tech playing an increasingly important role in the workplace, companies need to find talent with key skills, and the ability to learn new ones when the need arises. This session will look at how HR teams can move beyond traditional recruitment models to prioritize relevant skillsets and learn what skills can be developed later. 

  • Developing skills taxonomies to ensure your company has what it needs to compete 
  • Identifying which skills are needed, and where to find them 
  • Putting critical skills first when developing L&D programmes 

  

  Lara Prospero

  Global Director, Delivery Excellence
  Microsoft

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  Lara Prospero

  Global Director, Delivery Excellence
  Microsoft

  Lara Próspero is passionate about how human beings learn and develop, and how they interact in communities both real and virtual. Lara leads a global team on the L&D space and has been acting as a strategist on learning and cultural change processes, with her major focus on the definition and implementation of programs and initiatives that allow the attraction and retention of top talent individuals to act on the new digital world.

• 11:55 AM

  Interactive networking break

• 12:20 PM

  Panel: Creating effective hybrid L&D models to deliver a great learning experience

  With the continued rise of the hybrid workplace, L&D practitioners need to ensure that both remote and in-person teams have engaging learning experiences to meet the needs of a global workforce. This session will identify new methodologies and tools that L&D leaders can use to train and upskill teams in a hybrid environment. 

  • What are the pros and cons of facilitating learning in a hybrid work model? 
  • How are recent advances in tech supporting hybrid L&D? 
  • How can facilitators keep learners motivated in a remote or hybrid environment? 
  • Measuring results and tying them to increased performance 

  Moderator

  

  Emily Douglas

  Executive Editor – HRD in Editorial
  Key Media

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  Emily Douglas

  Executive Editor – HRD in Editorial
  Key Media

  Panelists

  

  Megan Anderson

  Senior Enterprise Account Executive
  BetterUp

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  Megan Anderson

  Senior Enterprise Account Executive
  BetterUp

  I’ve worked as a McKinsey consultant, a musical theater performer for Disney, led a revenue team at a VC backed AI startup and today I bring the power of BetterUp to Canadian employers. Through these experiences I have learned one thing: people power change but only if they have help to be their best.  

   As a performer I experienced what coaching can unlock for me personally.  

   At McKinsey I specialized in digital transformation working across 5 continents. Here I learned that having a strategy for digital transformation is only part of the solution: operationalizing that strategy requires developing people and their mindsets.  

   At integrate.ai building a team from 2 to 100, scaling from 0 to millions in revenue and building products that drive business results I learned that anything is possible when people are engaged and working as a team. I also learned the value (and limitations) of data and AI.  

  Now I get to pull all of these threads together at BetterUp. We are a human transformation platform that helps 750+ customers drive measurable business impact by developing people at scale through 1:1 coaching, personalized micro-learning, coaching circles and specialist coaching. I love what I do but don’t take my word for it – many of the speakers today are customers so you can ask them.  

  When I’m not working I’m momming, running or musical theater-ing (sometimes all at once)!  

  

  Anella Bertan

  Senior Learning Specialist
  Google

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  Anella Bertan

  Senior Learning Specialist
  Google

  Anella Bertan is a Senior Learning Specialist at Google who is passionate about creating engaging and inspiring learning experiences that help people fast-track their success. With her learner-first mindset, Anella ensures that the curriculum she designs is not only informative but also enjoyable and effective. She believes that learning should be an experience that empowers and inspires individuals to achieve their goals and grow their careers. 

  

  Raquel Binder

  Senior Manager, Coaching & Development
  Jobber

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  Raquel Binder

  Senior Manager, Coaching & Development
  Jobber

  Raquel is a Toronto-based Learning & Development Leader with over 10 years of experience in creating innovative learning opportunities. Coming from a background in education, leadership, and program development, Raquel uses a creative approach to her mission to help develop, support, and retain great talent – aka, help awesome people keep being awesome. After working in the non-profit sector for 8 years in various roles, Raquel made the leap into tech. She leads the Coaching & Development Team at Jobber, one of Canada’s Top 10 Great Places to Work and a Deloitte Fast 15 winner. She is proud and grateful that every day she gets to listen to people’s stories and help set them up for successful careers. Outside of work, you can find Raquel cooking up a storm, working out, or planning her next trip. 

• 1:10 PM

  Case study – Developing a new culture through leadership development

  With multiple challenges facing employers in today’s workplace including skills shortages, high turnover, and uncertain economic conditions, it is critical for companies to develop comprehensive frameworks to grow both employee and leadership capability. This keynote will examine success factors leading to organizations shifting culture and increasing innovation.   

  • Creating a pull vs push strategy in learning and growth 
  • Scaling a program and swarming to support delivery  
  • Iterating and evolving the program through time as adoption increases and culture shifts 

  

  Nancy Drab

  Global Leadership and Organizational Development Lead
  Roche

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  Nancy Drab

  Global Leadership and Organizational Development Lead
  Roche

  Nancy lives by a fundamental core belief that genius lies within everyone. This, along with Roche’s clear purpose, brings her day-to-day contributions to life with meaning. With over 15 years specializing in organizational development, Nancy has gained experience in various industries including service, manufacturing, aeronautics, and currently Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals. She joined Roche in 2015 supporting Canada’s Diagnostics organization. As the business and human resources practices evolved, Nancy represented the needs of the Canadian organization within global teams. With further and ongoing changes across the business, in 2019 she was then assigned as Interim Lead for the local Commercial transformation. Her mandate was to shift the organization towards a more agile operating model allowing for greater customer and patient focus and innovation. In 2021, Nancy moved into her current role where she now oversees the delivery of foundational leadership programs focused on evolving mindset to meet the challenges of today’s complex environments. Nancy holds a MA in Educational Technology, a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching and recently became an accredited Professional Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation. 

• 1:45 PM

  Case study: Collecting and analyzing L&D data to measure skill development

  Collecting data on L&D and evaluating the outcomes in real-time are key to ensuring ROI and meeting the needs of the business. This session will look at how organizations can optimize this process and make a direct link between learning results and increased performance. 

  • Identifying opportunities to increase L&D efficiency 
  • Performing gap analysis to determine how L&D offerings can be updated 
  • Receiving actionable feedback from end-users to optimize programmes 

  

  Klaus Scheile

  Vice President, Learning & Development
  T-Systems

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  Klaus Scheile

  Vice President, Learning & Development
  T-Systems

  With over 15 years of experience in telecommunications engineering and technology, Klaus is driving the skill development at T-Systems International. His team reimagines learning strategies from upskilling, re-skilling, upskilling, career mobility, talent acquisition to the self learning organization. 

  Klaus is passionate about the experience of learning, creating learning journeys that engage – and deliver on their promise. Such as the digitize program – a program that delivered over four thousand certified future tech skills in 2022.

• 2:20 PM

  Interactive networking break

  Interactive breakout session: Unleashing the Power of Personality Assessments: A Guide to Effective and Ethical Use in the Workplace 

  Personality assessments have become a common tool used by companies to evaluate job candidates and employees, but their use can be controversial if not used ethically and effectively. So common that studies show on average, 68% of companies use personality assessments during the recruitment process. In this session, we will discuss best practices for administering and interpreting personality assessments to ensure their responsible and effective use in the workplace. Join us to learn how to unleash the power of personality assessments (responsibly) and achieve success for your organization! 

  

  Kendra Johnson

  Director
  The Venned Group

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  Kendra Johnson

  Director
  The Venned Group

  Kendra is a leadership development expert who knows firsthand the daily challenges faced by mid-level leaders. Her unrelenting, inquisitive nature has driven her lifelong passion to understand what motivates people and drives success in the workplace. With over a decade of experience growing, leading, and motivating teams, Kendra has honed her innate ability to reframe perspectives and naturally mediate situations through communication. She believes that self-awareness is the driving force behind successful collaboration and has made it the foundation of her proprietary program, The S.P.A.R.K. Method, which focuses on the five pillars that influence behavior, communication, and motivation. 

• 2:45 PM

  Panel: Leveraging human-centered, personalized L&D design

  With increasing workloads and demands inside and outside of the workplace, training & development can sometimes feel like an added burden for employees; companies need to find ways to balance the need for skills development with the wellbeing of the workforce.  This session will examine how L&D can be designed to be compatible with work-life balance and can be adapted to fit within the flow of employees’ work. 

  • Developing L&D that is personalized and delivers critical skill development 
  • Integrating micro-learning to achieve continuous skills development while minimizing impact on daily routines 
  • Harnessing the benefits of LXPs to focus on the needs of each employee 

  Moderator

  

  Mohamed Hammoud

  Executive & Leadership Coach
  Desire2Lead

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  Mohamed Hammoud

  Executive & Leadership Coach
  Desire2Lead

  Mohamed Hammoud is a dedicated father to three beautiful children and a partner of 23 years to a wonderful wife. A leader with a tech company since 1999, in 2017, Mohamed founded Desire2Lead, a boutique consulting agency, to offer small and mid-sized organizations customized solutions to design inclusive cultures and build next-generation leaders. 

  Mohamed is an engaging and experienced facilitator and keynote speaker who combines a unique background in adult education, coaching, and transformative leadership development.  

  with numerous contributions to volunteering and community activism, bringing a unique lived perspective to the conversation of nurturing inclusive communities through a celebration of diversity, equity, and belonging. In 2018, he gave a TEDx talk on the topic of Islamophobia at the Awake and Aware TEDx Conference in Traverse City, Michigan. 

  As an executive coach and expert facilitator, Mohamed works with entrepreneurs, business executives and senior leaders to help them master habits to develop their emotional intelligence so they can maximize their influence and thrive. As a seasoned trainer, he combines a rich understanding of various content creation and facilitation techniques to address critical growth opportunities individuals and teams need in a hybrid work environment. 

  Mohamed’s academic background in Modern Languages and Comparative Literature and fluency in Arabic, English, French and Spanish enables him to connect with a diverse audience and a client list including business executives, senior leaders, and entrepreneurs. Mohamed most recently gave a keynote and training session to Data Science technology leaders at The Home Depot headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. 

  Mohamed is also a dedicated community member who has served on various not-for-profit boards, the Chief Learning Officer at New Canadian Media, and a member of the Professional Advisor Committee Member to Seneca College (Canada) School of Journalism. A regular contributor to the London Free Press, the CBC, and New Canadian Media, Mohamed is also a two-time Toastmasters 1st place winner in regional and national contests. 

  Panelists

  

  Jesse Kemp

  Learning & Development Specialist
  Western Forest Products

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  Jesse Kemp

  Learning & Development Specialist
  Western Forest Products

  Like many of us, I wanted to be Indiana Jones. If you recall Mr. Jones was a professor and used his educational position to help facilitate his many adventures, I have mimicked that. I taught ESL in Beijing, trained teachers and business professionals in Malaysia, spoke at conferences in Bangalore India and Jakarta Indonesia, and currently reside on Vancouver Island as the L&D specialist for Western Forest Products. 

  I love the complexity of learning and development and it has become my life’s work. I believe that everyone has the capacity to learn and grow, and that’s what I specialize in helping people do. I love to see my clients succeed and reach their goals, and I work hard to make sure that happens. If you are interested in my credentials feel free to review my LinkedIn profile. 

  Outside of work, I’m an avid lacrosse player and coach, and if you don’t know the unbelievably rich history of the sport stop reading my bio and watch a youtube video about it! I am also trying to learn how to parent teenage girls (it’s a work in progress), if you have any pointers, I’m all ears! 

  There are some fundamental things organizations need to know about L&D as we move into 2023 and beyond, but there is no way I’m going to share them in my bio, those are artifacts waiting to be discovered in my panel session. 

  

  Andre Viergas

  Cluster Director, Learning & Development
  Hyatt Hotels Corporation

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  Andre Viergas

  Cluster Director, Learning & Development
  Hyatt Hotels Corporation

  Seasoned Human Resources Professional with 10 years experience in the Hospitality field and most recently in Aviation. Having worked in the Middle East mostly, André has catered to a multi-cultural world of training activities through best practices and learning opportunities. 

  

  Helen Ashton

  Vice President
  People & Culture, Grand & Toy

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  Helen Ashton

  Vice President
  People & Culture, Grand & Toy

  Helen joined the Grand & Toy family as a Vice President, People and Culture in April 2022. In this role, Helen provides leadership to the areas of Human Resources, Total Rewards, Communication, ESG, Loss Prevention and Health & Safety.  Helen’s 20+ year career in Human Resources includes senior level roles in some of the most loved and admired brands such as Ferrero, Colgate-Palmolive and Campbell’s. Her career also includes military service, small business ownership and teaching at a college level.  

  Helen is passionate about the impact that People and Culture brings to the organization and how it impacts personal and professional lives of the associates and drives the business strategy forward. She is most passionate about creating a culture of belonging, two-way communication, and she is focused on talent and leader development and ESG initiatives.  

  Helen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Information Technology and Economics from York University and Master’s degree in Industrial Relations and Human Resources from University of Toronto. She is a Governing Body member of the Toronto chapter of Evanta CHRO community and a proud mentor with Toronto chapter of the Network of Executive Women.  

  Helen’s personal passions outside of the office include humanitarian work, yoga, martial arts and travelling. She lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario with her husband Michael, their son Zachary and rescue cat Jack. 

• 3:30 PM

  Closing remarks