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The Professional Development Center at Wake Forest University was happy to welcome attendees from across North America for the 5th Annual Professional and Organizational Development Conference. What began as a small gathering of colleagues in 2011 has grown to a nationally-known conference drawing learning and organizational development professionals from 28 higher education institutions from the United States and Canada. From March 8th through 10th, colleagues networked, shared best practices, and collaborated on various professional and organizational topics.
The event began on Sunday afternoon with “The PDC Story,” an opportunity for attendees to learn more about WFU’s Professional Development Center and its programs. The group then moved to Zick’s for a welcome reception on one of the first beautiful spring evenings of the year. After dining and conversing on the patio overlooking Hearn Plaza, the conference case study was introduced and participants were given time to discuss the case with their diverse groups.
Monday morning conference-goers gathered in Kirby Hall for the conference sessions which included:
- “Excel at CC” presented by Lisa Brommer from Colorado College
- “Human Performance Technology in the OD Setting” presented by Nathan Strong from the University of South Carolina
- “Transforming Performance Management” presented by Wanda Hayes and Randall Lucius, both from Emory University
- “Building Bench through Knowledge Transfer” presented by Jackie Greenlee from Guilford Technical Community College
The last session of the afternoon featured a Roundtable Discussion on various topics: the Great Colleges to Work For survey, staff mentoring programs, employee onboarding, useful assessments, HR Liason/Representative programs, and more.
Tuesday morning six groups presented on how they would hand the fictional organizational development case study that presented three challenging people/departments for a newly hired leader. The presentations were extremely well done and presented multiple facets of OD and different approaches to difficult situations.
The Professional Development Center staff offers its deepest appreciation for the individuals who were able to attend!
Additional conference photos can be found here.
Attendee quotes:
“”This conference exceeded my expectations on every level! I have already told several colleagues about it and encouraged them to attend next year. The effort and care you put into planning and facilitating speaks volumes about WFU’s deep commitment to learning and development.”
-Susan Coan, Director, Organizational Development and Learning, University of Alabama at Birmingham
“This was the best conference I have attended. From the handwritten welcome note, to the facilitated round table discussions every aspect of this conference was thoughtful and robust.”
“I felt this conference was a huge value for a low cost, much more so than larger conferences.”
Institutions in attendance: Appalachian State University, Bucknell University, Colorado College, Concordia College, Elon University, Emory University, Forsyth Technical Community College, George Mason University, Guilford Technical Community College, James Madison University, North Carolina State University, South Piedmont Community College, University of Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Denver, University of Georgia, University of North Carolina – Asheville, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina – Greensboro, University of Richmond, University of South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Wake Technical Community College, Western University