“For all the risk involved, this is a great time to be involved in learning.”
Donald H Taylor

The 2010 Irish Learning Showcase (ILS), Dublin, Ireland, July 22-24 was kicked-off with an enthusiastic opening address by Donald H. Taylor; chairman, Institute of IT Training and Learning Technologies Conference. Taylor’s comments provided an ideal opening platform for the presentations, sessions and interaction that followed over the next three days of the ILS. (Mr. Taylor’s full remarks are available here)

An over-arching theme of the 2010 ILS was “informal learning and social learning“.

Taylor’s talk illustrated the dynamic changes – economic, technological, cultural, leadership- that shaped the Learning and Development (L&D) field over the last three decades. Today there is greater recognition by organizations and executives of the importance of education, training and skills development. Yet, the industry sits at a cross roads with significant opportunities to deliver new products, solutions, services, software and results that meet today’s dynamic and diverse learning and development needs and demands.

Now in its fourth year, the ILS brings together executives, thought-leaders, educators, technologists, vendors, and L&D professional from throughout the EU, the Americas, Asia and Africa to discuss, collaborate and highlight the increasing need for specialized software, services and expertise in the field.

PREVIEW: Ireland’s eLearning Competence Centre
Along with formal and informal presentations, networking and opportunities to meet with vendors and service providers; Enterprise Ireland gave ILS participants a special preview of the Ireland’s eLearning Competence Centre.

EXTENDING THE REACH
2010 Irish Learning Showcase was huge success for everyone involved. It yielded a wealth of new connections, networking, insights, collaboration and sharing. Over the coming weeks we’ll be compiling data, feedback from participants, speaker presentations, follow-up blogs and publications and more. In doing so – and with your involvement – we’ll extend the reach of the Summit; its learning and outcomes, community, and ideally connection and collaboration. Stay tuned!

If you’ve got stories or information to share please let us know.