Three things really struck home from the two days of arranged and ad hoc meetings which typify any attendance at trade exhibitions. 

The first was what a great opportunity an exhibition presents to catch up with people who you haven’t seen for a while. Former clients and collaborators alike added new insights and new opportunities to think about issues from a different perspective. I wondered if the organisations supporting social learning have ever suggested to one of their clients that what they really need is some kind of exhibition of learning projects, activities and outcomes within a large organisation? The value of the face to face, informal discussions around a common theme was really valuable to me – and I hope to them – and reminded me that social learning is real in the face to face world. So why do I remain cynical of the social networking tools being promoted so ubiquitously at the show as an answer to an unspecified problem in the world of learning and development? 

My cynicism seems to revolve mostly around structure. The exhibition – a collection of vendors and potential buyers – was a clearly structured situation. What is more, on both sides there was a degree of self interest – a group of people wanting to identify leads and a group wanting to resolve issues within their organisations. What was clear about these short relationships – some more positive than others – was that they were clear transactions. The two groups were united in having differing but coinciding needs and wants which by coming together to share ideas and knowledge they both hoped would be satisfied. I learned from these transactional meetings and I think others did too. My belief that transactions provide a more robust model for social learning instead of the rather formless social structures of Facebook or MySpace was reaffirmed.

The second lesson of the exhibition was about the common ground between potential suppliers and potential customers. For years I have been going on about how much money and resource organisations waste on moving people around the country – or the globe – in order for them to endure endless presentations in the name of knowledge acquisition or training. It seems the message has got through, perhaps because of the economic situation which most organisations face. Again and again I had conversations with people who have suites of face to face courses who are now looking to transfer some of that content online as part of a blended solution. This is not only motivated by cost. Some of the people I spoke to have clearly recognised that online knowledge acquisition is at least a match for attending a lecture if not a considerable improvement.

The third lesson was about the nature of presentations in the 4 seminar theatres around the exhibition.  Despite being a learning technologies exhibition, the majority of presenters used badly designed PowerPoint slides as their only visual aid. A 25 year old learning technology using endless bullet points or screen shots of e-Learning tools with the habitual apology of “I’m sorry you can’t read this very well, but what it says is....” Still, at least these people standing up in front of training professionals - who let’s not forget make a living from presenting to others – wouldn’t have the nerve to get to the podium unless they were skilled and accomplished presenters? Well, maybe next year......