ATD Footer Logo

BEST Award Winners

2025 BEST Winners

Become an Expert AI User and Strategy LeaderArtificial intelligence (AI) and performance expert Josh Cavalier shares his in-depth knowledge and skills to help L&D professionals master learning experience design by using generative AI in their employee learning and development efforts. More than just a technical manual on generative AI or a collection of best prompt practices, this book explores how AI is reshaping jobs, skill development, and human performance. Josh provides his L&D AI Ecosystem framework as a practical road map for integrating AI into your day-to-day work and your organization.Discover how to seamlessly incorporate AI into your existing L&D processes and broader L&D ecosystem, optimizing workflows and driving measurable results. Explore how AI-enabled L&D platforms can facilitate personalized learning paths, automated performance support, and real-time skills gap analysis. Learn how to craft effective prompts for learning design and use chatbots and AI assistants for help in the moment of need. And importantly, dive deep into the ethical considerations, from maintaining data privacy and security to mitigating bias in AI-powered learning solutions.No matter how advanced artificial intelligence becomes, L&D professionals must remain focused on performance—of humans and now machines. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting your AI journey, this book is your essential resource to unleash the power of AI in L&D.

Applying AI in Learning and Development

The ATD SELL conference focuses on bringing together the best practices and strategies across sales training, tools and technology, and processes needed to drive incremental sales performance. 

ATD SELL Registration

ATD OrgDev will provide you with the skills needed to develop employee programs at all levels and throughout their employment lifecycle. You’ll learn innovative methods at all levels to manage the ever-increasing rate of change in today’s workplace.

ATD OrgDev Registration

This three-day event features sessions from our best and most popular speakers on the most essential topics for all learning and development professionals: Instructional Design, Training Delivery, Measurement & Evaluation, and Learning Technologies.

ATD Core4 Registration

Transform Your L&D Team Into Your Organization’s Trusted Business PartnersMost L&D pros dream of the day when stakeholders will stop viewing them as mere order takers and consider them critical, strategic partners in shaping the future of the organization. But how do you get there? In this book, veteran talent development leader Jess Almlie introduces her formula for becoming the valued strategic business partner (SBP) stakeholders need and want.Partnering effectively with stakeholders requires a new mindset and behavior, a keen understanding of the business, and targeted tools. Jess provides detailed guidance on how to succeed in each of these areas and invites you to start by taking an in-depth assessment of your strengths and gaps in working as an SBP. She shares her own wins and failures along with wisdom from three dozen other L&D pros who work in small, medium, and large organizations.This step-by-step guide will help current and aspiring L&D leaders understand business basics, create a playbook for their teams, work productively with stakeholders, and teach others to work in harmony with L&D. The final chapter offers practical advice for those who need to take small steps toward becoming SBPs because their organizations resist big changes.This book includes questionnaires, worksheets, and other tools that will help L&D leaders understand business terminology and needs, their stakeholders’ points of view, strategies for creating effective partnerships and measuring impact, and a plan for developing a support team.

 L&D Order Taker No More!

Get an immersive experience focused on accessible design learning to equip you with interactive sessions, expert guidance, and practical application.

ATD Intensive Registration

Accelerate your readiness for the Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD®) certification exam and earn the credential that proves your talent development capability.

APTD® Certification Preparation Bootcamp

Join our hands-on workshop to identify and reduce bias in your materials, use inclusive language effectively, and create accessible content for diverse audiences.

Writing for Inclusivity and Accessibility Workshop 

Transition from K-12 teaching to instructional design with hands-on guidance, skill mapping, and career planning to build your brand and start applying with confidence. 

Teacher to Instructional Designer Workshop

Get the A to Z Resource on Training Evaluation Fully revised and updated, ATD’s Handbook for Measuring and Evaluating Training is the comprehensive go-to reference for talent development professionals in need of immediate measurement and evaluation (M&E) guidance. Edited by M&E powerhouse Patti Phillips, with contributions from 30 expert practitioners, this handbook provides an essential roadmap to developing effective processes to prove the value and impact of your learning and development programs.Training measurement and evaluation is one of the top frustrations of a talent development professional's job. At first glance, it appears to be a drain on precious time and resources, yet it is a critical function for understanding the results and proving the value of L&D programs. If not conducted properly, it can yield questionable results, lack of accountability, and stakeholder skepticism. All to say, TD professionals must have a solid foundation in measurement and evaluation to do their jobs effectively.With this handbook, you’ll feel confident each time you face an M&E challenge, from planning the evaluation and collecting and analyzing data to optimizing results and making evaluation efforts work in your organization. You will use the data to improve your training programs and meet the standards your organization strives for.The updated edition includes new chapters on how to tell the evaluation story to business leaders, visualize data in reports, and leverage artificial intelligence smartly as well as refreshed chapters on all the M&E fundamentals. Rich in real-life application, it offers practitioner tips, knowledge checks, and support resources and references. Your advisors along the way are an impressive array of experts from the field, each chosen for their knowledge, experience, and actual results in specific areas.Whether you’re a trainer, manager, professor, or student of training evaluation, this handbook has been designed to meet your needs. 

Congratulations to the 2025 BEST Award winners!