Recently, I reconnected online with a colleague from the past. It was a typical “hello, how goes it” greeting. However, shortly into the conversation I was shocked and surprised. He had experienced a devastating life event in the last 18 months. As the messaging developed without prompting, my colleague told me about his lessons learned and his coping strategies, such as engaging in projects and hobbies. Then, he said, “I am now determined to live my best life—it was a wake-up call not to put off anything. I am doing my best to accept invitations, make new friends, and renew old friendships.” As I heard this, I thought to myself, How might we learn to live our best lives without being catalyzed by tragedy?

During the next few days, I was working on various things related to talent development and learning. As I thought about creating user and learner experiences, I kept thinking about how we can be our best learning selves every day. We know so much about the science behind learning and the how tos; what keeps us from doing those things every day in every situation?

Many of us are thrilled to be able to attend ATD21 in Salt Lake City in August. For some, this may be extra exciting because it could be their first time traveling by plane since 2019. The experience of a large professional conference is different for those who have attended before and those attending for the first time. But for all attendees, it is an opportunity for massive learning. So how may we be our best learning selves in Salt Lake City?

Start by addressing your personal BIG WHY for attending the conference and subsequently the specific sessions. This needs to be clearly articulated. Responding to this WHY is part of what Britt Andreatta calls priming. In her latest book, Wired to Grow 2.0, priming with questions is a type of implicit memory. It “creates a placeholder and when you do learn it becomes more memorable” (page 125). She suggests using this question: “What will I do with what I learn about xyzzy?” For example, how may it \[the learning\] help me accelerate the creation of a learning asset to meet the demands of changing business challenges?

As talent professionals, we know the importance of learning by doing. Think of ATD21 like visiting a multibrand car dealership with all the latest models. Would the best experience be just walking around and viewing the cars from a distance? What if you pushed the experience a little and sat in a few of the cars and played around with the gadgets on the dashboard? Or better yet, what if you drove several of the cars and were allowed to take one or two for a spin around town?

As you clarify your purpose and consider what you want to be able to do differently as a result of your participation in the conference, think about what you will do there. How may you use the conference to expand your network, gain skills for collaborative decision making, and be more prepared for solving your current business challenges as well as those unexpected ones down the road? Will you select sessions where you can go into the room and view from a distance, or will you select options where you can “test drive” ideas, tools, and techniques?

For 10 years, ATD Forum members have been hosting interactive sessions at the conferences. This year there are four interactive sessions (two unique sessions, both offered twice) and a leadership panel.

The interactive sessions focus on relevant topics, including identifying business challenges and designing excellent learning experiences in the new normal. These sessions also include makerspace for small groups of peers to put their ideas into action, thus moving from a consumption to a creation mode. Using design-thinking tools, small groups expand their understanding of topics by experimenting and sharing their thinking using various techniques.

These sessions include peer-to-peer learning, one of the most effective experiences. Regardless of industries, talent developers face many of the same challenges. However, the perspective on these challenges differs. In Forum sessions, you will engage with peers and listen to their perspectives. This can expand your point of view and may even enable you to reframe your issue.

Networking for professional connections is extremely valuable—and much easier when you are in a small group and work collaboratively. Some of the tangible benefits include the comfort of knowing someone at a large conference and possibly having lunch with them or just seeing them in the hallway and having their friendly smile greet you and hearing your name in a gathering of strangers. While expanding your LinkedIn account is nice, connecting through a small-group collaborative experience can lead to relationships for future sharing.

Leadership is a journey, and there are many ways to continually get better at getting better. However, the first step is understanding how you show up to others. In the leadership experience panel session, you will be able to hear the stories about how senior talent developers use various techniques to up their leadership game, the specifics about being more resourceful, the ways to operate when you are uncomfortable, or the approach to expand personal learning capability by doing new activities.

Many times the excitement of a conference wains as you return home and get back to the dailiness of your work and life. Consider a few ways that participating in Forum sessions allows you to keep the momentum going:

• In learning terms, reflection is a diagnostic tool for pausing to assess and unpack actions and the component pieces from an experience. It includes intentionally synthesizing, abstracting, and articulating key ideas from an experience. This allows you to put pieces back together in a different way. The Forum sessions provide placemats to use for notetaking and reflection. These guides have trigger questions for steering your thinking. Review and reflect on your notes on the flight home. Continue to document some of your takeaways or thoughts from the session.

• The Forum sessions make it easy to act on the ideas once you return to your home base. It is simple to provide a report to your colleagues because of the collateral provided and the actual story of your personal experience. Developing a teach-back session for your team to learn a tool is facilitated by job aids and a resources list. All this is reinforced with the photos on your phone of the product your small group developed.

• Reconnecting with peers from the conference is facilitated in the Forum sessions. These may include the peers at your table, the Forum coach for your table, the facilitators at the interactive sessions, or the panel contributors who shared their leadership habits.

Participating in a professional conference with peers from an array of diverse industries is one of the best ways to learn for both today and for what the trends are in the future. It can be a dynamic playground for self-directed learners. However, it can also be an overwhelming cognitive overload. Just like when we design a learning experience for others, we need to keep these question top of mind:

• Why am I engaging, and what do I want to be able to do as a result of this experience?

• How will this experience help me accelerate organizational performance capability?

To live your best learning life, get started with ATD21 early and participate in the Forum sessions. Prime the pump for learning what best fits your needs for solving today’s business challenges. Choose the interactive sessions with makerspace to provide opportunities to work with peers in a collaborative activity using a design-thinking tool you can reuse. Attend the leadership panel to hear personal examples and stories. Be open for unplanned learning, especially from peers within your small work groups. Then, most importantly, use the collateral for further reflection and use the content and the tools within your own portfolio to advance performance in your organization.