The preparations are almost complete.  Learning and HR leaders from around the world have started to converge on the Rennaissance Vinoy in St. Petersburg, FL.  It is time for IMPACT 2009, and a quick scan of the session agenda shows that – despite the economic downturn – this year’s event promises to both powerful and timely.

For an analyst in enterprise learning like myself, it’s like Christmas in April.  How so?  Let me cover just some of the highlights:

• Tomorrow I will be helping to facilitate a workshop  and discussion with leaders from organizations like Apple, CA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Textron, Bank of America, Boeing, Turner Broadcasting, ADM,  Luxottica, and Vestas Wind Systems on running a lean learning organization in today’s business climate.  We certainly have some data-driven best practices to share; however, I fully expect to walk away having learned much more from the interactions of that esteemed group than I presented.
  
• On Wednesday, we are holding a special press event to formally release our newest comprehensive study of the Learning Management Systems market: LMS and Learning Platforms 2009.  This report contains a detailed review of the learning management systems (LMS) market, including a discussion of market trends, profiles of the top providers, and our proprietary Market Maps® to help buyers understand the positioning of providers.
  
  2009 promises to be a pivotal year for the LMS.  With the tremendous growth in demand for integrated talent management solutions, most LMS providers have added features for performance management, succession management, and development planning.  
  
  At the same time, the market is responding to the rising demand and importance of social learning or informal learning.  Our research shows that in 2008 and 2009 companies have stopped investing significant new dollars into e-learning and are now adding many of their incremental investments into social networking and tools to help build collaborative learning solutions. Some providers are moving aggressively in this direction, but there are also a large number of new companies entering the market with a sole focus on informal learning, social learning, and content management systems.  
  
  Now more than ever, LMS buyers will want to seek out the kind of clear, actionable guidance that our study provides in order to best understand the strengths and weaknesses of different providers so they quickly can determine the short list of solutions that best meet their needs.
  
• Also Wednesday, I am sharing for the first time some of the groundbreaking results of our 9 month long study of the Practices of the Modern Learning Organization, including presenting our new Enterprise Learning Framework ®.  The needs of the business are changing, and with them so is the very concept of corporate learning and development.  We have put together a snapshot of what the modern corporate training department should look like in order to remain relevant.  Wednesday’s presentation will be start of a series of publications and events over the next few months through which we will expand on this important topic.  
  
• On Thursday, I am the emcee for our first ever Innovation Showcase.  This session will be a fast and furious sneak peek into just-emerging technologies, which while likely not on the radar yet of most HR and Learning leaders, are likely to profoundly shape enterprise learning and talent management down the road. During the Showcase, we will see functional demonstrations of "what if" financial modeling for workforce planning (Infohrm); new and advanced analytics for workforce planning (Vemo); new ways to use Flash-based content for interactive learning (Flypaper); and the application of semantic search technologies for highly personalized learning (PulseLearning).

Hopefully you will be joining us at IMPACT, in which case I will see you there.  If not, you can still follow along via this blog and those of my colleagues.  And you can monitor the Twitter stream as well.  Follow me at @da5idm.  Follow the conference account: @BersinIMPACT and keep up with the overall discourse by searching on #im09 at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23im09.

Here's a sampling of the conversation so far:

Best,
-David

http://marketing.bersin.com/Learning_Management_Systems_LMS2009.html