Today’s guests all serve on the board of the ASTD Greater Atlanta Chapter.
Vanessa Carey/Chapter President
David Adelman/VP of Community Relations
Leighanne Lankford/Senior Advisor
Today’s show is brought to you by TrainingPros.
Today’s guests talk with David Adelman from TrainingPros about the upcoming Greater Atlanta Chapter of ASTD’s Atlanta Conference and Expo 2013. The theme for this year’s ACE is “Learning and Development (L&D) as a Value Creator.” The conference is an opportunity for participants to address two key questions about their Learning and Development function and/or solutions: Are your L&D solutions creating value?; and How do you know?
Brent Darnell/Brent Darnell International
Brent Darnell, a mechanical engineer and a graduate of Georgia Tech, is a leading authority on emotional intelligence and a pioneer in its use in the construction industry. Since 2000, Brent has helped to improve the social competence and leadership skills of thousands of people in over 70 companies in more than 20 countries around the world. He is an adjunct professor at Auburn and Penn State, teaching emotional intelligence to their technical students. His book, The People Profit Connection, written specifically for the construction industry, has garnered rave reviews, and his Tough Guy series of books has been instrumental in teaching technical people to improve their soft skills. He was recently named one of the Top 25 Newsmakers for 2012 by Engineering News Record for his ability to transform alpha males into high performing leaders. He believes in a holistic approach to personal development, creating fundamental and lasting change. He practices yoga, is an avid reader and lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, Andrea Robbins.
Karen Sue Mitchal/McGhee Productivity Solutions
Karen Mitchal joined McGhee Productivity Solutions (MPS) in 2008 after spending 20+ years as a sales executive at Pepsi-Cola. During her tenure, she successfully led and developed teams in account development and new business acquisition in the healthcare, restaurant, education, non-traditional retail, and convenience store channels. She is based in Atlanta, GA and is responsible for the Greater Southeast territory. Karen brings with her a wealth of knowledge around goal setting, strategy implementation and team leadership and development. Her experience in the corporate world provides her with a unique perspective of the productivity obstacles that executives face.
As an MPS consultant, she helps groups and individuals “Take Back Their Lives” by using the proprietary processes and technology that MPS provides. She works in group or individual settings to encourage executives to make the most of their time to achieve their professional and personal goals.
“It’s not about getting things done, it’s about getting the right things done.”
Dave Basarab/Dave Basarab Consulting
Predictive Evaluation is the first and only training evaluation approach that adds the element of prediction. Using the Predictive Evaluation Model developed by Dave Basarab, trainers and business leaders can successfully predict training’s results, value, intention, adoption and impact, allowing them to make smarter, more strategic training and evaluation investments.
The Predictive Evaluation Model is a practical step-by-step training evaluation process that begins where most other evaluations stop. It’s unique because it: Adds the element of prediction to training evaluations, and is the first training evaluation model to do so. Requires student participation, making employees feel invested and engaged throughout the process. Provides recommendations for continuous improvement. Predicts the quantifiable impact of training to forecast training investments, results, and ROI. Can be used with existing or new courses and works equally well with classroom-based training, on-the-job training, on-line learning, workshops, etc. Is appropriate for content across all industries and departments. Is suitable for staff at all levels.
Today’s show is brought to you by TrainingPros.
Trellis Usher/T.R. Ellis Group 
Trellis Usher is an Atlanta learning professional who has worked in the field for over 17 years. She has been involved with ASTD for over a decade, both as a volunteer and volunteer leader. She is the current Director of Chapter Programs for Greater Atlanta ASTD which is the largest local chapter in the nation. In that role, she and a team of volunteers are responsible for planning and executing chapter meetings and the annual ACE Conference. After a corporate career working for companies like Georgia-Pacific, McKesson, and The Coca-Cola Company, Trellis founded T.R. Ellis Group which is a human capital development consultancy. In her role as Managing Consultant, she still gets to work with great organizations to help build individual and organizational capabilities.
Each year, the Greater Atlanta Chapter of ASTD holds a large conference with national speakers to provide Atlanta learning professionals with the opportunity to network, gain new skills, and meet thought leaders without the expense of travel to national conferences. This year’s event, scheduled for Tuesday, August 13, 2013, is focused on Learning and Development as a Value Creator. In addition to 12 smaller sessions, the chapter has brought in Dr. Jack Phillips and Dr. Jim Kirkpatrick to speak.
Today’s show is brought to you by TrainingPros.
In this show, Richard Fletcher and Doug Samuels will discuss what’s new in the programming offered by the Greater Atlanta Chapter of ASTD this year, along with what is staying the same.
Richard Fletcher/Zaxby’s
Richard Fletcher, CHT is Sr. Director, Learning and Organizational Development for Zaxby’s Franchising, a franchisor of gourmet chicken restaurants with 550+ locations and 20,000 employees throughout the Southeast. He has been with Zaxby’s since 2003. Richard has responsibilities for overseeing the structures, systems, and processes within the organization to improve organizational effectiveness and is also responsible for identifying, recommending and implementing short and long term strategy for design development and delivery of leadership, team-related, professional, and interpersonal skills development programs.
Richard has over 25 years of executive level experience in sales, operations, organizational development and training with other national companies such as Wolf Camera, Zaxby’s and Sprint PCS.
Richard is a national member of ASTD and President-Elect for the Greater Atlanta chapter. He is an active member of the Council for Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART) and Regional Director for the CHART’s Atlanta Regional Training Forum.
Richard received a Bachelor of Science degree from Auburn University. He is a certified EQ-I, EQ-360 administrator and has received the Certified Hospitality Trainer (CHT) certification from CHART. When he isn’t busy developing people, he loves hitting the links and traveling.
Doug Samuels/Georgia State University
Doug Samuels is Manager, Organizational Development & Consulting Services at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. His focus is on developing leadership bench strength and improving employee engagement throughout the university and across the University System of Georgia (USG). He uses the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence as a process framework.
Doug’s professional career in learning and development has taken him around the world. After flying KC- 135s (Boeing 707) for many years, he served as a Master Instructor at the USAF’s Navigator Training School and later created and delivered the military’s first software engineering training program. He was selected to direct the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Ada Software Engineering Education and Training Program, created to ensure the Ada programming language was used in all mission-critical software development across the military. He received the DOD Meritorious Service Medal for his efforts.
Previously, Doug served as the Director, Training and Development in a Fortune 50 company and Director, Organization Development at a burgeoning Fortune 1000 company. He holds a BS in Mathematics from Valdosta State College, a BS in Computer Science from Chapman University, an MEd in Adult Education from the University of Southern Mississippi, a BA in Psychology and MS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Valdosta State University.
Today’s show is brought to you by TrainingPros.
In this ASTD Social Media Special Edition we heard from two experts on using Social Media to build your own brand and achieve your career goals.
Adam Karwoski/Social Brand U
Adam Karwoski is the CEO of Social Brand U. After 17 years in senior leadership positions with AT&T Mobility and Nokia USA, Adam formed Social Brand U, a social media consultancy that partners with technology companies, with a B2B sales model, to extend their product and brand strategies via social media.
Their mission is to work with their clients to leverage social media to build value for the customer, a brand for the business and growth for the company. At Social Brand U, they show their clients how to use social networks to develop relationships with clients that produce long term, sustainable growth and profitability while creating evangelistic customers.
Sarah Gilbert/Greater Atlanta Chapter of ASTD
Sarah Gilbert is the Vice President of Communications for the Greater Atlanta Chapter of ASTD. She is a workplace learning professional in instructional design, facilitation, and implementation. She specializes in e-learning development and social media communications. For the past two years, she has organized and deployed the communications strategy for the ASTD Greater Atlanta Chapter’s CPLP Study Group. In 2011, she used this strategy to support an asynchronous multi-chapter CPLP Study Network. Sarah is also contributing to a chapter-wide communications plan to improve the connection to members using various forms of social media: Facebook: Greater Atlanta Chapter of ASTD | twitter: @astdatlanta | Linkedin: ASTD Greater Atlanta
Sarah was published in ASTD’s The Book of Road-Tested Activities by Elaine Biech, and is now working with Darin Harley as a contributor to an upcoming book on social media best practices. She has over 12 years of experience in training and development, project management, and call center consulting. She has a BSBM, MBA, and is studying for the CPLP.
