Demand for the Adobe Learning Summit is High

Registration

Scarcity seems to increase demand. The Adobe Learning Summit Creator Labs Track is sold out, and you can only put yourself on the waiting list. The folks at Adobe probably wouldn't endorse this suggestion, but here is my conference hack for this event. The FAQ for the conference says the following about switching to sessions in another track. Yes, you can build your own schedule with a mix of sessions from both tracks. However, the first preference for sessions on either track will be given to participants registered explicitly for that track due to capacity restrictions. Any additional seats remaining will be available on a first-come, first-served basis based on availability.

So I advise that if you want to go to the Adobe Learning Summit in Las Vegas in two weeks, register for the Design Thinking and Strategy Track but attend the sessions you can. Keep in mind that they have invited additional speakers to accommodate the demand. For example, Joe Ganci and I will deliver the same session, so there will be two sessions on the same topic.

Here is the link to the registration site for this conference: https://adobe-learning-summit.elearning.adobeevents.com/

Recommended Sessions

I don’t need to tell you why I want to attend the Project Charm Test Kitchen or the What’s New At Adobe session, but I think you should make a concerted effort to attend the following sessions, and I’ll tell you why.

Keynote: Digital Persuasion - Ignite your Influence

Erin King will be presenting this session. She is a best-selling author and a successful entrepreneur. The session will discuss how to persuade people in the digital world. I know one of the things I’ve always found challenging is compliance with my online learning. So I want to attend this keynote to learn a thing or two to get more people to put their eyeballs on my material.

Learning Is The Missing Piece Of Your CX Culture Plan

I’m looking forward to learning from Katy Tynan about getting the customer experience mindset into the learning in an organization. CX is a topic that I’m passionate about, and I’m hoping she can provide some insight as to what we can do to improve organizations in this area.

Creating scenario-based learning using Adobe Captivate

Of course, I hope you attend my session. I will be there. In my eLearning developer journey, I learned that creating training that incorporates a storytelling aspect and choices for your learners is more engaging than regular training. Still, I will show you how easy it is with Adobe Captivate. My hope is this session will inspire you to take your eLearning from the same old dull “click next to continue“ type of course into something that will remind your learners of real situations they have encountered in the workplace. Not only that, but they will learn by seeing the consequences of their choices in the safe space of eLearning.

Staying in Vegas

Hotels

In past years I have recommended the MGM MyVegas app. You accumulate points by playing online casino games, which can be exchanged for great bargains in Vegas. I have found this year that the deals are not so great. In the past, I have exchanged my “coins” for complimentary nights in hotels. This time around, I had trouble booking nights as certain days were blacked out, and the price per night was much higher than I remember. This year I got a Groupon for Ballys across the street from the Mirage. Here’s the link if you want to be close but save a few dollars: Bally's Las Vegas Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV

Food

The conference provides complimentary breakfast and lunch for all three days, so make sure you keep your per diem in your pocket for dinner, as there are some excellent restaurants in the area. Besides, the Mirage food is above average for hotel food, so even if you take a break from sessions at the conference, come down from your room and join the rest of us for lunch.

Last year at another eLearning-related conference, I went out for dinner at Carmines, located in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. It was fantastic, with significant portions and real authentic Italian food. Here’s the website: https://www.carminesnyc.com/locations/las-vegas

If you are on a fast food budget, there are several restaurants within walking distance from the Mirage. Do yourself a favor, and try something you can’t just get at home. I’m from the East coast, so In and Out Burger is a treat for me, and I would much more likely grab a meal there instead of McDonald’s or something else similar.

Stuff to do

You will be in Las Vegas for at least three days, and the conference doesn’t run around the clock. If you don’t get to Las Vegas too often, I recommend you get out of the hotel and see some stuff. There is so much you can do in the Vegas area. I have gone to shows, including several of the Cirque du Soleil shows, I already mentioned dining out, which can certainly be a form of entertainment, and of course, gambling.

Overall my message to everyone is to be careful. Be cautious whether you decide to venture out on your own or see if you can double your bank balance before leaving this unique city. Keep your wallets in your front pocket and assume that if a person or character offers to take a selfy with you, they expect a tip.

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.

Update on Adobe eLearning Conference and Adobe Captivate Specialist Certification

I wanted to make sure I had something on my website that directed each of you to where you can get answers to all the changes that have occurred to the schedule live events for Adobe eLearning. 

First of all the Adobe eLearning Conference in Washington DC has been cancelled due to the concerns related to the coronavirus. Please visit the Adobe eLearning Conference website for the latest information about this event.

https://carahevents.carahsoft.com/AdobeELConf/

The Adobe Certified Professional (ACP): Adobe Captivate session (previously Captivate Specialist) for Washington D.C., as well as the following other sessions, have been cancelled as well.

• Seattle

• San Fransisco

• Houston

• Salt Lake City

• Denver

To learn more about your options please see the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Adobe eLearning Conference website.

https://carahevents.carahsoft.com/AdobeELConf/Custom?id=3124

What I Learned Going Freelance

I got a request from another professional on LinkedIn to provide some advice to someone considering going freelance in the learning industry. I don't know if I have any secret formula for making it on my own, but I can share my personal experience.

I was working at the Toronto International Airport as an eLearning Designer, Developer, and after five years, my contract concluded. Rather than looking for the next company to work for, I decided to start my own consulting business. I knew that my employment was ending about three or four months beforehand, so my wife and I had time to save up some extra money. You won't always have the foresight that I did, but if you think you might want to go freelance, this is something you need to consider. The day you start your freelance business will be the scariest of all. Your bank balance will likely not increase, and it will probably get sizably smaller.

Here are some of the expenses I had upfront that I can recall. I'm sure I forget some of them, but these were the main ones.

• new laptop

• software for a new laptop

• office furniture

• equipment to make YouTube videos (more on that later)

• website

• domain name registration

• government sales tax registration

• master business license (differs depending on your location)

• business cards

Of course, I still had all the various household expenses that a typical family has to continue to pay.

My first problem was that I didn't know where I would find potential clients. I had worked for precisely two companies in learning and design, but the rest of the world didn't know who I was. I figured I needed to become well known to be successful in this industry. I started making YouTube videos about Adobe Captivate, the eLearning authoring tool that I use. I intended to clearly show that I knew the software well enough to have expert tutorials on YouTube. I hoped that someone looking for an eLearning developer would find my videos and reach out to hire me to have me build their eLearning for them.

This strategy did work, and I started to get clients to reach out to me for eLearning design and development jobs. There were two problems upfront. The first was that while I was working for the first client, I wasn't looking for client number two or three and so on. When it's just you, momentum can be a problem. The second problem was that my YouTube videos were generating questions from all these viewers. They had every conceivable question about the software you could imagine. I tried my best to help each person, but it was getting in the way of getting more paying clients. What I didn't realize right away was there was an opportunity to pivot my business model, if only slightly. I realized that some of these people asking questions might be willing to pay me to provide one-on-one instruction. I changed my website from https://paulwilsonlearning.com to https://CaptivateTeacher.com and started promoting that I offered both design and development services as well as the one-on-one instruction.

As I approach the fifth year of my freelance eLearning business, I feel comfortable enough to not worry too much about where my next client will come from. A couple of things of note is that while I was not the first person on YouTube to teach people about Adobe Captivate, I am the most consistent. I have posted at least one video per week for five years, and my audience has grown from just a few views to over 1.5 million views. Each year that I have been freelance, Adobe themselves have invited me to attend and speak at the Adobe eLearning Conferences in Washington DC as well as Las Vegas. For the last several live events, I have been an instructor for their Adobe Captivate Specialist certification class.

So I guess my main message to anyone starting their own business is that some of your opportunities might be disguised as something else. Please don't ignore these other opportunities. I quickly learned that ignoring these other opportunities could be overlooking a potential new revenue stream. It might seem at first that these other opportunities would get in the way of your main goals, but I can attest that your primary goals will still be there. My main goals might not be my main goals anymore. I now have revenue streams from teaching classroom courses, one-on-one classes, design and development work, and the YouTube channel has become very profitable as well. I used to say that the ad revenue from YouTube was enough to buy a pizza every couple of weeks, but I can no longer say that. Today I now measure it in vacations to Mexico for my wife and me to enjoy.

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

eLearning Livestream - Adobe Captivate Upcoming Update & AMA | March 18, 2019

Join me on Monday for this eLearning Livestream, I will be taking your questions from the chat but also discussing the Adobe eLearning Conference and sharing with you what I know about what's coming for Adobe eLearning.

Watch it live over on YouTube to get the full YouTube experience: https://youtu.be/N9rKFR78vg0

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

The Best Deal in eLearning Conferences

When I participate in these sorts of events we call them speaking engagements, and that's certainly part of it. I like to think about this as really an instructor-led classroom session. My YouTube tutorials are often five to ten minutes of instruction, but what I do at the Adobe Live Events is a full hour of demonstration (I don't use PowerPoint). What you will see from me is one hour of me demonstrating how to do a bunch of things in Adobe Captivate.

This year my topic is Getting Started with Adobe Captivate (2017 Release). If you are new to eLearning, new to Captivate, or just new to this release, I will be showing you how you can quickly develop eLearning that works across a variety of different device types, and how easy it is to setup your eLearning to have a unique look and feel. While other developers will be messing around with their first eLearning modules, attending my session will help you rapidly pump out content for your organization. Or, if you are a learning and development manager, I will show you how your design and development team can rapidly get your organization trained up on what they need to know and do.

I refer to the Adobe eLearning Conference in Washington D.C. as the best deal in eLearning conferences and I mean it. Other conferences will cost you or your organization hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to just register, Adobe offers this event completely for free. All you need to do is convince your manager or director to foot the bill for your transportation and lodging.  Still not convinced? Well, breakfast and lunch are included as well.

2018 Adobe eLearning Conference - View

Attendees will get updates and insights that will put you ahead of the curve, connect you with experienced members of the community and do wonders for your network, and allow you to be an active participant in the community that is at the forefront of eLearning creation, delivery, and management.

Adobe eLearning Conference

I know this article is somewhat last minute as there are only two weeks to go until the conference but I wanted to gather all my thoughts about this upcoming event and why I think you should go.

I'll just say it...

If you use Adobe Captivate every day, like I do, you have to be at this event. This conference will be discussing the future of eLearning at Adobe. You will learn things at this conference that were previously unknowable. This is especially true if you plan on attending my session. My session is called What's New in Adobe Captivate? I personally wouldn't have added the question mark because I would want people to expect answers from my session, not questions. Seeing as Adobe Captivate 9 has been out for over a year and a half you can guess what I'll be talking about. My session is one of the first sessions of the day, which I'm glad about. I like the idea of getting my stuff out of the way and then enjoying the rest of the day.

After my session, you will have a choice of learning about rapidly building mobile learning from fellow Canadian Phil Cowcill, the basic tenets of instructional design with Brian Duck, and getting into custom interactions with Joe Ganci. If I was going to pick just one of these events I would likely pick Joe's session but it might be a little more advanced for some.

Lunch!

After lunch, you will have an opportunity to learn about video-based eLearning from Damien Brundonckx. Don't worry I can't pronounce his last name either. He's from Belgium but a really great guy and very knowledgeable about Adobe products. 

You could also attend Anita Horsley as she talks about responsive design. She's awesome. I attribute half of my knowledge about Adobe Captivate responsive design to her. If your organization is making the switch or even thinking about switching to responsive design you will want to be in her session.

You might want to attend EJ LeBlanc's session on 3D game-based eLearning. I've read some of his stuff and listened to a podcast on what he's been up to recently and EJ is really cutting edge. He's the kind of guy who won't sit still. He's always trying to break and reinvent eLearning.

Once all the sessions are complete we will be getting back together as a larger group and listening to Tridib Roy Chowdhury speak. I've heard him before and he is very inspirational. He  leads the worldwide business for the Adobe eLearning Solutions and is like the Indian Steve Jobs as far as I'm concerned.