I posted yesterday about the Learning Technologies conference and exhibition and mentioned a few points to prepare beforehand. Here are mine.

Know what problem you’re trying to solve. For me it’s a live problem. I’m working with organisations on AI capability right now, and the consistent gap isn’t technical knowledge. It’s whether L&D has the diagnostic capability to distinguish between AI adoption that changes performance and AI adoption that just changes activity. I’m going to LT looking for evidence, experiences, and effects.

Set your agenda. I have a full itinerary: sessions I’m chairing, catch-ups with people I want to think with and leaving a few deliberate gaps to follow where the day goes. Unplanned conversations at LT are often the most useful ones, but you need a plan to deviate from.

Talk to other practitioners. I expect to run out of words by the end of Day 2. That’s fine. The best use of LT isn’t broadcasting; it’s listening to people working in contexts you don’t normally see. That’s the intelligence that doesn’t make it into the keynotes. I’ll also be recording plenty of audio, so let me know your thoughts.

Come with a position on AI. Mine is simple: the question isn’t what AI can do. It’s whether your organisation has the performance framing, the diagnostic capacity, and the structural conditions to know if it’s actually working. My experiences so far suggest most don’t, and that’s the conversation I want to have this week.

Find me if you want to talk.