CELEB Event Coverage on board the HMS President, London

As all of you might already know, I was a CELEB for a day last week on board the HMS President. If you’re still a bit clueless, you can check out the details here in my earlier post last week.

In true CELEB style, me and the @LearningPool team were dressed up to impress! Me and Wendy even went the extra mile and curled our hairs to perfection 😉 So as you can see, we were certainly looking forward to an eventful day.

The weather….

The view was absolutely stunning and there wasn’t a dark cloud in sight! The sun was shinning and we were in high spirits to welcome representatives from London Boroughs that were due to arrive.

As the guests arrived on board the HMS President, they were served coffee and tea as well as their goodie bags (which included the famous little blue Learning Pool piggie) on deck.  There was also a Taichi class in session on deck which was… ermm… I have to say, VERY relaxing to watch! 🙂

The sesssions…

I really liked how the event kicked off with the Clikapad Voting Game, which really engaged the audience as well as a great way to introduce them to the subject.  The PPVOTE managed to make some insightful revelations on how local councils view “new ways of working”.  Check out some of the majority results.

1. What is the main driver behind ur new ways of working project?  A:  Save money and to modernise internal processes 32%
2. What is the biggest BARRIER to achieving ur new ways of working project? – A: Lack of appropriate technology
3. Who do you think in ur org has most influence over new ways of working? A: CEO/Board/Senior Mgt 54%
4. Do u think learning professionals should role model new ways of working within their orgs? A: Yes 96%
5. How likely is it that ur org will have successfully implemented new ways of working by 2012? A: Likely 42%

Interesting results, right? And what a great way to get the party started 😉 If you are interested in using Clikapad at your event, make sure to

The presentations…

To find out the content of each speakers presentations, check out the separate posts via my special interview with both Leon and Ian.

The piggy fight! A chance to network…

We all know that most of the times the real value in attending events is the actual networking that goes on between the attendees. There were a few activities done to make this possible, but what was the most interesting was how current customers and potential customers of Learning Pool discussed and swapped ideas on how London Boroughs can make “new ways of working” possible through e-learning. Though there was also the Learning Pool decorative piggy bank game that made attendees jump for the stickers. Check out the lovely example of piggy creativity here.

My two cents…

Throughout my research, I have come across quite a few London Boroughs throughout my interviews and I was surprised that alot of London Boroughs do not share their resources amongst each other (i.e. their Learning Pool e-learning modules).

Now there maybe many valid reasons that any council may choose not to share their e-learning modules but I feel councils must not forget that there are also many reasons that they should share. Weighing up the pros and cons carefully can make a huge difference in the way councils work and deliver services. And if any cost savings can be made, should it not be considered? Could the open source approach to e-learning be applicable and beneficial to the “new ways of working” that councils are trying to achieve? Is there a business case for sharing within London Boroughs?

Check out the speakers special interview to find out!