More than eighty-eight thousand employees work for E.ON, one of the world's largest investor-owned international power and gas companies, headquartered in Duesseldorf, Germany. For several years now, employees in various parts of the world have had access to virtual learning: Extensive content is available for self-study. How do staff take advantage of this material? Which topics are important enough to motivate employees to learn on their own? At OEB, Elisabeth Jaegle from E.ON will present the key findings of a recent study into the “soft factors” of e-learning in the workplace.
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Thomson Reuters is, by the company’s own definition, “the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals”. It was created when the Canadian Thomson Corporation purchased the news agency Reuters in 2008. In this environment, information and learning are in constant and rapid flux. Accordingly, the company has launched a major change programme for its training department now known as the Thomson Reuters Knowledge Network. “Learning at the speed of need” is the order of the day. OEB has asked ‘Knowledge Network Ambassador’ Joe Pokropski, Managing Director at Thomson Reuters Markets Division and keynote speaker at OEB, to explain the new concept.
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Oxfam GB works in over 60 countries worldwide, tackling urgent humanitarian response and long term community development. Its geographic, operational and thematic scope means that the organisation deals with a true “alphabet soup” of government and institutional donors - EC, ECHO, WFP, UNDP, UNICEF, OCHA, OFDA, DFID, FCO, CIDA and SIDA, to name a few. The task is to delivering programmes for the donors while complying with complex grant rules under cost pressure. At OEB 2010, Cynan Houghton of Oxfam will illustrate how global online training has made a big difference.

Since 2009 Oxfam has introduced a virtual classroom training approach to ensure that their worldwide staff, manging over £100m per year of institutional grants have easier access to experts, with timely and engaging training.
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The two leading business consultants Jay Cross and Harold Jarche recently met up in Berlin, the vibrant and ever-changing hometown of Online Educa, but not just for the usual sightseeing. Accompanied by a video camera, they used this unique setting to discuss the crucial changes and latest trends in the world of corporate learning and training. Their conversation starts at the Berlin Stock Exchange, addressing the network era, and then moves on to the remains of the Berlin wall, where they discuss the need for freedom in training. Insights into “Personal Knowledge Management” are the focus of the conversation at the Berlin Pergamon Museum, which houses a world-renowned collection of ancient treasures. But Jay and Harold soon find themselves back in the future, at the modern Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz, where they explain the exciting concept behind their “unbook” entitled Working Smarter Fieldbook.
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Telefónica o2 Germany has tested virtual classroom sessions in its blended learning concept for sales and consulting staff. At ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2010, the company’s e-learning specialist Dr Gwendolin Rugen will share her experience.

Telefónica o2 Germany trains staff in various ways: with classroom teaching, e-learning and blended learning that includes Web-based training sessions, online quizzes and mobile learning units. Early in 2010 the company started pilot testing virtual classroom software provided by WebEx , a collaborative Web-conferencing environment enabling trainers to teach dispersed learners on the Internet.
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“I have never seen such powerful visualisation of a learning goal,” says Bert De Coutere, Business Area Manager at IBM Learning Development Europe, talking about one of the central elements in the brand new leadership training module. Participants will include emerging managers from around the world who want to learn how to leverage the potential of their teams without incurring huge travel expenses. In the 3D world of Second Life, they experience social challenges - as a female leader managing an all-male team, a gay consultant in a global role or a wheelchair-bound employee seeking a position as a sales rep. In the virtual world, participants are able to break down symbolic barriers. At OEB, Bert De Coutere will demonstrate the unparalleled immersive experience of the medium, and how it can act as a strong memory builder.
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Skills are moving up the business agenda - business leaders across Europe flag that building skills and retaining knowledge is a critical component to business success over the next 10 years. But the squeeze is on. Employers of all sizes and in all sectors are demanding more for less from their learning and development: more results, more quality, more speed, more volume and more responsiveness, but with less time, fewer resources and less inconvenience. As a result, an increasing number are turning to technology to help them. Here, Laura Overton, managing director of the London-based learning technology analysts, Towards Maturity, elaborates on recent research into the impact of learning technologies at the workplace.
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“Most organisations don’t understand the magnitude of change that e-learning is,” says Lance Dublin, the renowned US management consultant who draws on 30 years of experience in adult education, training and change management. Dublin has worked across a wide range of industries including financial services and insurance, technology and information services, pharmaceutical and health care, oil and gas, chemical, communications, hospitality and food services, and both the government and non-governmental agencies. At OEB, Dublin will host two pre-conference workshops exploring what is crucial to make new learning technologies work. Here, he points out common problems when introducing e-learning and explains how “third dimension learning” helped global companies, such as Google and Qualcomm, to solve their business problems.
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The philosophy at the Institute for Work Based Learning (IWBL) at the Middlesex University is not ’What can you do for us?’, but rather ‘What can we do for you?’ The Institute offers a myriad of highly customisable programmes specifically designed to provide opportunities for full-time workers who seek to build on their existing professional skills while developing new ones, in order to further their careers.
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Building sustainable “strategic competence” into the DNA of a firm is what corporate learning should pursue, says strategy consultant Prof Roland Deiser. In his latest book Designing the Smart Organization: How Breakthrough Corporate Learning Initiatives Drive Strategic Change and Innovation, he describes how large-scale participatory learning can be put into practice by giving numerous examples from leading companies and organisations. ELIG has invited the renowned learning expert to contribute to its workshop on Wednesday, December 2nd at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN.
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An event that is both fun and practical, PechaKucha originated in Tokyo in 2003 as an innovative way for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public. It has developed into a massive celebration, with sessions taking place all over the world, inspiring creativity worldwide. This year, PechaKucha premieres at OEB.
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The European Learning Industry Group (ELIG) brings the debate on the role of knowledge and learning solutions in ensuring sustainable economic recovery to ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN in the form of a pre-conference workshop: "Moving beyond the Crisis Powered by Knowledge and Learning Solutions – What Is the NEXT Practice?”. This will be held on December 2nd, 2009 between 14:00 and 18:00.
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How can one reduce induction time and substantially lower attrition rates for new recruits? Home entertainment giant Sky found answers to these questions in its new e-learning programme "Get Up to Speed". The customised, on-the-job training portal, designed by Brightwave, helps new recruits to quickly orientate themselves in their still-unfamiliar working environment, thus leading to estimated annual savings of about £700,000. Kenny Henderson, Sky's Head of Talent Development Operations, will present the tool at OEB.
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Repercussions of the recent downturn in the financial sector have been felt heavily in the business world, but anyone with even a modicum of entrepreneurial acumen knows that out of something bad, something good can come. The current climate presents an opportunity to revamp corporate learning and training, swapping traditional and outdated strategies for fresh and innovative ones. What do work-based learning, cloud learning and blended learning entail, and how can they be adapted to suit different business structures? What benefits do open learning and distance learning offer businesses, and how can they be efficiently embedded? At this year’s ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN, questions such as these will be the focus of numerous sessions from expert-led discussions through to real-life case studies, providing a comprehensive theoretical and practical overview of the possibilities.
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The fight against illegal drugs is a high priority for governments and citizens of the EU. The frontline of this campaign involves officers of the EU Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD), who use intelligence, analysis, investigative and legal skills in their efforts to prevent the traffic in illegal drugs from violating EU borders. Caspian Learning has developed training simulations for custom officers that are now being deployed in 27 EU countries.
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Traditional language training at the workplace is “expensive and ineffective,” says Timothy Phillips, Managing Director of the Cologne-based company SKYLIGHT GmbH. Together with Henkel, the manufacturer of home-care brands and cosmetics with 52,000 employees worldwide, SKYLIGHT has developed a new blended methodology that makes language learning directly relevant to the business. At OEB, both companies will present the “Scenario Management System” before its official launch in January 2010.
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Businesses are facing many challenges in these times of economic uncertainty, when training budgets are tight and performance is increasingly crucial. How can ICT strategies be designed and implemented in order to enhance workplace performance without breaking the bank? Tarkan Maner, President and CEO of Wyse Technology Inc., discusses the nature of thin computing and his belief that it presents a highly customisable and cost-effective solution with significant advantages for the corporate sector.  
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As Head of E-Learning and Knowledge Management at the German supermarket chain real,- SB-Warenhaus GmbH, Olaf Bursian is responsible for implementing an e-learning project for 50,000 employees in more than 280 locations. In a pre-conference workshop, Bursian will share his experiences, present best practice cases and show how the difficulties involved in implementing e-learning in retail can be overcome.
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Martin Dougiamas, best known for being “the guy who started Moodle”, understands better than most the challenges and opportunities associated with distance learning. Growing up in the remote Australian desert meant that Martin was educated via “The School of the Air”, being guided by a teacher 600 miles away. Nowadays, such learning is not unusual and Moodle is one of the latest software platforms that encourages self-learning and online community-learning. Dougiamas will participate in a pre-conference workshop and deliver a keynote speech at OEB 2009. In the following interview, he talks about the expansion and future of Moodle.
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