Copyright © 2006 The Learning Forum
WORKFORCE PLANNING
January 13-15, 2010
San Diego, CA
INNOVATION
February 23-25, 2010
San Francisco, CA
E2.0
February 24-26, 2010
San Jose, CA
HRIT
March 24-26, 2010
Charlotte, NC
HEALTH STRATEGY
May 5-7, 2010
Atlanta, GA
Hosted by the CDC
The Learning Forum brings together senior executives and thought leaders for direct, peer-to-peer dialog and research.
These high trust and high content forums allow peers to share concrete experiences and examine new business implications and opportunities for growth.
Our members want a private, confidential learning environment with other leading firms. Peer networking with informed, successful colleagues is the most valuable takeaway.
The Councils are limited in size to 20 firms to ensure a private, collegial and candid set of meetings. Vendors, consultants, and the media are excluded, unless the group invites them. The Councils meet three times a year at locations convenient to members, with online collaboration and learning in-between.
Membership is by invitation only. The annual fees are between $5,500 and $8,500 per Council with a sliding scale for multiple memberships.
Councils:
< members click to enter >
Innovation, Workforce Planning, Total Rewards, HR Strategy, HR Technology, Web 2.0, Health Strategy, Leadership Development
Members Include:
Allianz, Alegent Health, American Express, Assurant, Avaya, Bausch & Lomb, Best Buy, BD, Cargill, CDC, Clorox, Diageo, DHL, Deloitte, GAP, GE, Hallmark, ITT, John Deere, Microsoft, MITRE, NASA, Nike, Plantronics, Qualcomm, Scripps, State Farm, Steelcase, Unilever, UPS, Wal-Mart, Weyerhaeuser
Recent meetings have included visits to:
< click to visit venue>
Two Seats on each Council
Member firms nominate two delegates for direct Council participation. This arrangement builds cross-learning and diversity in the Council, facilitates greater transfer back to the workplace, and keeps us grounded in reality.
Three Face-to-Face Meetings per Year
Virtual meetings have their place, but the maximum learning bandwidth is still found in full-spectrum human interaction in a safe, confidential dialogue. The format of a typical two-day meeting is outlined below.
Guest Speakers
Adding new thinking and inspiration from outside, the Council invites one or two guest speakers to a meeting who are drawn from leading researchers, business authors, and provocative voices from around the world. The membership again directs the Council in selecting the topic or domain of expertise for our guest speakers.
Typical Meeting Agenda
There is a blend of structured exchange, presentations, open forum discussion, and plenty of time for less formal interaction over breaks, meals, and social time. The content for each meeting is member-driven, but reflects the objectives of the Council and emergent trends in HR, Marketing, Technology, Innovation and Sustainability.
Our members tell us that the peer networking with informed, successful colleagues is the most valuable takeaway. In our Councils, we have practicing managers, with very limited time frames, so talking about real work challenges is imperative.
Online Collaboration and Learning
In these fast moving times, the members need to keep learning and sharing insights beyond the limits of the three meetings per year. Informal peer networking occurs in private channels (phone, email, IM) in any case, but the Councils as a whole also benefit from a shared-learning platform that shares our knowledge, makes it persistent, visible, and searchable. The Councils have private online community with documents, polls, surveys, templates, wiki pages, favorite web links, tagging, RSS news feeds. This supports ongoing connections allowing members to drive emergent features and functionality. In the spirit of emergence, we provide only what is used; we weed our garden annually.
