Adobe Learning Summit 2023, Las Vegas, Nevada

Adobe is once again hosting the Adobe Learning Summit 2023 at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas on October 2nd and 3rd, 2023. Adobe's online events during the pandemic were a good substitution for in-person conferences. Still, there is no substitute for attending these conferences in person. One of the conference's most important benefits is meeting my fellow Adobe Captivate users in person. I have developed business and personal relationships with many people I've met at these conferences, and I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything.

My experience

Being a YouTube creator is often a one-way experience; I put out content each week on Adobe Captivate or other learning technologies, and while your comments on the videos are a great way to get your feedback and find out what's happening in the industry, seeing, and hearing your feedback in person is tremendously valuable to me. I also love meeting each of you who supported me and allowed me to grow my YouTube channel into what it is today. Remember, I'm just another user of Adobe software. Please don't be shy; walk up and say hello if you see me.

Las Vegas

One of the remarkable aspects of this event is that Adobe holds this conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Adobe has negotiated a reasonable rate with the resort, and you can book your room directly through the conference website. Remember that other hotels are in the area, many within walking distance of the Mirage, so research what is best for you. I like to book with websites that can find you a combined rate with your flight to save some extra money.

Adobe could hold this conference anywhere in North America, but a genuine benefit of this conference is that they have it in Las Vegas. You'll want to attend as many sessions as possible during each of the two days of the conference, but that leaves you with lots of time to get out and explore all that Vegas has to offer. Even if you don't gamble, there are unlimited dining and entertainment options for you to enjoy.

Conference snapshot

There are two tracks of learning - the Creator Studio Track for creators of online learning and the Learning Strategy Track for people like learning and development managers and those in either customer experience or sales and marketing roles.

On both days, there will be more extensive sessions where everyone gathers for presentations from the Adobe eLearning team. Take advantage of these, as there tend to be incredible keynote presentations from industry leaders, cutting-edge information, and sneak peeks on upcoming updates to the software.

Remember that Adobe provides breakfast and lunch with your conference pass. If you are convincing your boss to send you to this conference, that's an important consideration to ensure they are aware of.

Creator Studio Track

Being an eLearning developer isn't just one set of abilities. You must often be adept in many of the creative skills. Adobe has arranged plenty of sessions and workshops for you. There will be sessions on:

• Needs Assessment

• Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Express

• Course design documentation

• Adobe Illustrator

• Animation

• Storyboarding

• Video editing

Not unexpectantly, there are Adobe Captivate sessions on the following topics:

• Custom design options

• Course building

• Interactive simulations

• Custom interactions

• Game-based learning

• There will also be an opportunity for you to showcase your content.

My Session

I will conduct “Create custom interactions using the all-new Adobe Captivate,“ a one-hour session with a 30-minute Q&A. I intend to help new and previous users who want to script their actions to do a little more than just clicking next to go to another slide. I haven’t designed my session, but I’m considering teaching how to build a scenario-based interaction with click-to-reveals that include audio and multi-state objects. Don’t hold me to that, but I promise if you like getting under the hood of the software you use, you will enjoy my session.

Learning Strategy Track

If you decide to inform your manager ;) about the Learning Strategy Track, here is a breakdown of what Adobe's has for them:

• Unlocking your organization's potential with continuous learning

• How AI Innovations are impacting organizational learning

• Creating impactful employee experiences

• Connecting employees and learning for total experience excellence

• Evolving into a business-driven learning function

• Skills to ride the wave of digital in L&D as an L&D leader

• Drive high-velocity business performance in a hybrid world

• Accelerating performance through engagement strategies

• Leveling up knowledge quotient for channel partners with gamification

• Virtual engagement studio

• The missing link in your CX: customer training

• individualize training to enable the workforce of the future

• Building informed strategies from comprehensive learning data

Adobe Professional Certification

One tremendous benefit of the Adobe Learning Summit is that each participant will get access to the online curriculum for the Adobe Professional Certification. Once ready you can complete the proctored exam and gain this certification. Not only will you have the knowledge and skills to expertly navigate Adobe Captivate but you will have the certification to prove it. Adobe normally sells this course and exam for $499. Considering what you would pay for the conference fee, this certification doesn’t end up costing you or your organization anything at all.

In conclusion

I hope to see you there at the Adobe Learning Summit 2023, and if you decide to go there, I hope you attend my session on the all-new Adobe Captivate. I promise you will walk away with more knowledge and skills than when you started.

Adobe eLearning World 2021

The 2021 Adobe eLearning World is a three-day series of sessions that are available to everyone who registers. I will be conducting a session on Mobile Responsive eLearning Workshop – Create Courses That Work Across Devices.

My session is as follows…

Every day more people want to use their mobile devices for work, education, and entertainment. The demand for eLearning to be available on mobile devices continues to increase. Having the knowledge and skills to design and develop eLearning that works on a wide range of devices and screen sizes is becoming an essential skill for developers. In the future, eLearning design and development jobs will go to those who have these skills. In the competitive job market, you need these skills. In this workshop, users will learn:

• the correct way to decide on your layouts so that your content arranges itself correctly on different-sized devices.

• how to design and develop Fluid Box master slides to have Captivate do most of the work for you.

• to select the correct number of fluid boxes and what settings need to be applied to each fluid box to get the results you want.

• to have optional content, such as purely aesthetic elements, drop off when there is not enough room for them on smaller devices.

Here is the link to download the project file if you wish to follow along with the session: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y4NXl2SsEsIsTyb3_AGO5QTwwOueaIBB/view?usp=sharing

The Risk of Online Only Conferences in the eLearning Industry

Now that the Adobe eLearning World 2020 online conference has concluded, I’m very interested to see what the future looks like for Adobe eLearning conferences. For over a decade, Adobe has hosted live events like the Adobe eLearning Conference and the Adobe Learning Summit. I have it on proper authority that they have cancelled the Adobe Learning Summit, initially scheduled for October 26-27th at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas. They are official sponsors of this year’s DevLearn conference, which the eLearning Guild has planned for October 21st-23rd. The organizers of DevLearn have asked me to speak at this event, but it’s clear from the DevLearn website that there is a possibility that they may move to an entirely online format if COVID-19 persists into October.

I suspect that with the success of Adobe eLearning World 2020 that Adobe may be less inclined to hold live and in-person events in the future. For me, one of the most significant benefits of these conferences was networking and social activities. Sure, you can learn a similar amount of material online as you can from in-person sessions, but the side discussions out in the hall is a great way to learn as well. I enjoy meeting new people, and these conferences have also opened additional work opportunities that would otherwise not be there. Perhaps Adobe could create additional chat rooms that serve a less formal component of the conference, such as giving participants a live forum to have conversations and share ideas and best practices.

As a business owner who has very few business expenses to write off at the end of the year, these conferences have allowed me to have a relaxing time and promote my business as well. I’ve certainly enjoyed the entertainment part of staying in a Las Vegas resort. Relaxing by the pool while back at home my neighbours are already wearing winter coats is extremely wonderful. I’ve also gone to dinners with existing and potential business colleagues. While we do discuss the eLearning industry, we also enjoy having a great meal together and discussing other topics of interest as well. I’ve even done a little gambling. It’s nice to enjoy your work and get a tax write off as well.

One such interaction that has proven to be very successful in my business was meeting James and Susan Kingsley from ReviewMyElearning.com. Review my eLearning is a service that allows eLearning developers to share prototypes of their eLearning with stakeholders and other reviewers before you upload it to your organization’s LMS. Without Susan and James, I may not have learned about this invaluable service and just as importantly I may not have met two wonderful people I now consider my good friends and business colleagues.

Most of my work these days is teaching other Adobe Captivate users the skills that I’ve learned over my fifteen years as an eLearning developer. It was through the conferences that I met Kevin Siegel. Kevin is the Founder and President of IconLogic. Iconlogic is the leading provider of online software training in North America. Kevin is also the Founder and President of the International Council for Certified Online Training Professionals. Meeting Kevin led me to discover the Certified Online Training Professional (COTP) certification. I enrolled and successfully completed this program. The certificate and badge that goes along with this certification are great, but the real benefit is that I am now a better online training professional for all my clients. I highly recommend that you complete this valuable certification if you do something similar to what I do.

Of course, the benefit of an online event is more inclusivity. First, people from all over the world can participate. With past Adobe Learning conferences, located in Las Vegas and Washington DC, only a limited number of people are close enough to these events to make them worthwhile. Washington, DC, is about an hour flight from where I live, and Nevada is only about a four-hour flight for me. However, I know that most of the Adobe eLearning team are from India. I can’t imagine what their flight time experience must be like. Additionally, though, there are many other would-be participants in remote locations who have been asking for years for additional conferences closer to their homes. I understand Adobe’s reluctance to host events in certain countries. Certainly, in North America, there are hundreds of thousands of Captivate users. I’m sure not all regions can say this. An online conference can be attended by everyone, even if it means getting up earlier or staying up later than what you would normally.

Additionally, there is no cost associated with these live events. I’ve always said that the Adobe conferences are the best deal in eLearning conferences since they are complimentary. When you compare that to most of the conferences, I’m aware of in our industry, registration alone is well over $1,000, not to mention the expenses associated with travel and accommodation. The only cost of attending an online conference is one of your time. You need to block this time on your calendar. If you are a freelancer like I am, time spent on professional development is a time when you are not earning. Of course, do not forget what industry we work in. Professional development is what we do. To borrow from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, if we are not “sharpening our saws,” in other words, if we are not upgrading our tools and increasing our knowledge, our effectiveness goes down.

So, I’m all for online conferences, both as a speaker and as a participant. I do hope that Adobe and other organizations that host online conferences consider what they can offer to ensure there are opportunities to network and interact in an informal way. One that can facilitate meeting the wonderful people I’ve met by attending these conferences in the past.

Adobe eLearning World 2020

I'm pleased to let you know that I will be speaking at the Adobe eLearning World 2020 conference this week, but I'm not alone. There are a bunch of Adobe Captivate and other eLearning professionals that will provide you with a myriad of knowledge on the industry and this powerful tool. I'm planning on sitting in as many of the following sessions that I can.

June 23, 2020

On Tuesday, there is an exciting session with Nathan Finley and my pal Andrew Hughes. We all know that learners learn best when they are having fun. How can you do that? Nathan and Andrew are going to be talking about Game Design and creating game mechanics with Adobe Captivate. Andrew and Nathan's session is sure to be a game-changer (pun intended).

June 24, 2020

On Wednesday, there is the keynote not to be missed with Josh Bersin. Publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review and the Wall Street Journal have all featured Josh. He presently has over 800,000 followers on Linkedin. I think he'll be worth listening to. If you miss the keynote on Wednesday, it’ll be repeated on Thursday.

Also on Wednesday is Anastasia McCune. You might know her if you've taken Adobe Captivate Software training on Linkedin Learning. She'll be teaching all of us how to convert any on-screen content into interactive eLearning. I'm looking forward to hearing her speak and seeing what she has to show us. Afterwards, you can add an assessment using the options taught to us by Joe Ganci. I've known Joe for a few years now. Assessment is a staple of Adobe Captivate, but if I know Joe, he'll have some secrets to share that will make your question slides excellent.

June 25, 2020

Thursday is my session. It's called Create Basic "Mobile-First" Responsive Projects Using Templates or as I prefer to call it Customize Adobe Captivate Responsive Quick Start Projects. In this session, you will learn how to customize slides from the Adobe Captivate responsive, quick-start projects from the Assets Store. This session will help you to rapidly build an eLearning course that not only looks great on your desktop but functions correctly on a mobile phone or tablet.

What to Expect at the Adobe Learning Summit 2019 | Sept 2, 12:00 PM EDT | 16:00 UTC

Sorry for the short notice. Originally I wasn't going to livestream on Monday because of how much work I needed to get done before the Adobe Captivate Specialist session on the 11th, my vacation on the 18th and the Adobe Captivate Specialist session on October 2nd and the Adobe Learning Summit on the 3rd, but I figured this would be a fun topic to cover about one month before the actual summit. 

 Many of you may be attending the Adobe Learning Summit in Las Vegas for the first time this fall. You may also be undecided if you want to go. In this eLearning Livestream, I'm going to talk about my experience as a presenter but more importantly, I will be discussing my experience as an attendee. I can give you some hints and tips for making it a truly rewarding and productive experience. Also, I will answer any questions in the live chat. 

Join the livestream here if you wish to use the live chat: https://youtu.be/hRwbvQl7Zi0

Look What I Found

I was updating my Linkedin profile this morning and I wanted to include the conferences I attended and participated in this year. I searched for the Adobe eLearning Conference in Washington D.C. so I could record the exact dates. I clicked on the link and was surprise the site was still up since the event happened six or seven months ago. Turns out I wasn’t on the previous 3rd annual Adobe eLearning Conference site but in fact the upcoming 4th annual Adobe eLearning Conference site:

https://carahevents.carahsoft.com/adobeELconf/

Now I haven’t been invited to participate yet but I expect that will be included in some capacity. Here is what I’ve been able to learn from the site so far…

Adobe eLearning Conference

The 2019 Adobe eLearning Conference is scheduled for Wednesday, March 13th, 2019 at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel on 999 Ninth Street NW, Washington DC, 20001. The conference itself is complimentary (as in FREE!). It’s scheduled for 8 AM until 4:45 PM. If you wish to attend this event, the only expense to you or your organisation is your travel and accommodation. As far as I’m concerned this makes this eLearning conference the best value in learning and design conferences anywhere in North America. In addition to the typical focus on Adobe Captivate, there is a dedicated Adobe Connect track. Of course with Adobe Connect just getting a major update you will want to learn about all that is new with Adobe Connect. You can expect to hear from Adobe Captivate experts (like myself) providing you hints and tips that you can take back to the workplace and implement in your eLearning designs.

Adobe Captivate Specialist

On Tuesday, March 12th, 2019, Adobe will be conducting sessions for the Adobe Captivate Specialist. These sessions are $499 per person. Upon completing the post-assessment, you will gain the certification of Adobe Captivate Specialist. It’s a rigorous one-day session but if successful this certification looks excellent on any eLearning resume.

Get your boss’s approval now

In the weeks and even days leading up to the Adobe live events, I hear from many of my YouTube channel viewers as well as from those right here on the Adobe eLearning Community how they weren’t able to attend the event because they found out too late. Here is my advice. Get approval from your boss right now. Don’t wait until they have spent their training budget for 2019. I don’t believe its ever too early to begin talking with your manager about your professional development.

Here are the key points to help sell it to your boss:

• Inspiring keynote presentations

• Multiple learning tracks for each level of expertise

• Sneak peeks into new technology from Adobe

• Networking opportunities

• Complimentary registration!

You can also point out that the Adobe Captivate Specialist classroom sessions the day before the conference are only $499. When you return to work, you will be coming back with an industry-recognised certification that will have a direct impact on the quality of eLearning you produce.

Here is the link to the site: 

https://carahevents.carahsoft.com/adobeELconf/

Here is the link to register for the Adobe Captivate Specialist program:

https://carahevents.carahsoft.com/Event/Register/71456-website

Adobe Captivate - Allow Learners To Select Their Own Avatar

In this video tutorial, I show you how you can create an avatar selection screen where users can select their own characters for their eLearning experience.