Learning Technologies France 2024: A growing international reach
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On 24-25 January 2024, the L&D community saw the return of France’s leading workplace learning event at Porte de Versailles. Over 10,000 L&D experts and enthusiasts gathered in Paris for two days of illuminating conference sessions, insightful live seminars and over 250 exhibitors – all showcasing the latest in learning technologies!
One of the many things that made this leading event stand out this year was the growth of its international reach. The Learning Technologies France 2024 Conference features an English-speaking track, which has expanded by over 25% for its 2024 edition. This proudly resulted in even more speakers, attendees – all due to increased audience demand.
Let’s dive into what this English-speaking expansion brought to Learning Technologies France, and how it will drive the continued growth of this international conference…
Standing room only at LT France’s English-speaking theatre
The English-speaking conference took place at Salle Londres, one of the conference theatres a stone’s throw from the bustling exhibition floor. In just one conference theatre, a wide range of key L&D topics were explored, ranging from building a successful learning culture to what 2024 holds for AI in digital learning.
Kicking off with first session was Eileen Oliver-Free, Principal Talent Partner at LinkedIn EMEA & LATAM. Her session ‘6 Must-Haves for a Successful Learning Culture’ took attendees through the most effective strategy to build a learning culture, tried and tested from LinkedIn’s own culture, and applicable to every organisation. Eileen really focused on the power of your learners, saying that you should ‘…give your employees every single opportunity you can, and they will surprise you.’ She also shared research from MGM that displayed 78% of learners expressed a strong need for course recommendation from their leaders, which reinforced the relationship between leaders and employees to be open with expressing all opportunities available to them.
Armin Hopp, Founder of Speexx, delivered a session on ‘Navigating the Future: Vision and Strategy for L&D in the Next Decade.’ Armin delved straight into one of the biggest topics in the digital world right now: AI. He explored an interesting downside of AI, specifically for workers in the USA: blue collar workers earn less now than they did in the 1980’s. Armin said this is due to the introduction of AI, and how the technology can replace most of the non-manual labour tasks required. Interestingly, he shared that just 14% of adults in the USA have actually tried ChatGPT, as there is still a focus on people as opposed to technologies. Armin said that ‘A fool with a tool is still a fool…Think beyond tools – build behaviours.’
Live drawings at almost every session in Salle de Londres!
Uniting the L&D community with trending topics and common challenges
The early afternoon saw a keynote exploring a simple, yet immediately important question: ‘What’s happening in Learning and Development?’ Delivered by Donald H Taylor, Chair at the Learning Technologies Conference London and Sally Ann-Moore, Directrice des Conferences at Learning Technologies France, this session focused on an overview of what we know about L&D in 2024 so far, and how we can best move forward. Donald shared some insights into his annual Global Sentiment Survey, which led to the breaking down of modes of learning are invented and then implemented. He shared three key steps: Origin, Execution, Evolution. Donald used music devices as an example; radio cassettes were the origin, boomboxes were an execution (doing old things better), and Walkman’s were the evolution (doing old things in a new way).
From this idea, Donald explained that no matter what happens with AI, ‘People will always be the differentiator’. This is because an AI is powerful but doesn’t do what an expert can do, it only shares information already inputted by those experts. Donald also assures the audience to remember that AI is worse that it will ever be today, and this means it can only improve.
Experiential learning is a growing topic in L&D right now, which was the focus of a session delivered by Dr David Guralnick, President and CEO of Kaleidoscope Learning. David opened his talk with a goal to explore experiential learning in a realistic context. He discussed the pros of introducing AI coaches into an organisation; the learner has better control of where and how they’re assisted and advised, which also allows for more detail in tracking their performance. David shared a report Speexx employees interviewed about their top learning experience – and almost all of them were to do with personal milestones associated with happy memories (passing driver’s test with family’s support, favourite teacher’s feedback on school work, etc). David expressed that the need to be meaningful and supportive when coaching learners is important, as well as encouraging experimentation while being respectful to their progress.
Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning, David James, delivered a session all about ‘Performance-Oriented L&D’. David examined the current challenge many organisations are facing with L&D budgets, and how ‘Doing better with less’ is the key for learner’s survival. He shared a case study that he did with Disney, where they look into what would happen if they upskilled their entire L&D team, which resulted in an estimated 11-year tenure for each learner. David then discussed how AI is actually supercharging performance – it collects data for us, automates skills mapping, creates relevant career paths and builds guidance for learners in seconds using internal proprietary software and know-how.
Don’t miss out: Learning Technologies France returns in 2025
Thank you to everyone who participated in Learning Technologies France this year, the undeniable growth of the international conference demonstrates a need for this meeting space in the L&D community. France’s leading workplace learning event will return on 29-30 January 2025, with an even bigger and better English-speaking track welcoming thousands of L&D professionals from all across the globe.
If you want to re-live the magic or see what you missed out on, check out our YouTube channel for the highlights, and session recordings coming soon…
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