Managing the training function

Building a learning culture
Shalini Taylor

Training needs analysis
Emad Rizkalla

Pay for certification
Daniel Atkinson

The importance of good instructional design
Danielle McCay

E-learning & knowledge management
David Muratori

Turning training and development into business results
Barry Barnes

Danielle McCay has been committed to performance excellence through learning, training and development for nearly 15 years. After working for a large management consultancy, a leading financial services organization and founding Noble Performance & Learning, she has recently joined Benchmark Performance Inc., a Toronto- based consultancy that is dedicated to helping people and organizations perform. As a bilingual Performance & Learning Consultant, Project Manager, Instructional Designer and Facilitator, she has worked with small and large private and public sector organizations throughout Canada, the U.S. and France. She has helped organizations achieve success in a number of performance-related areas and has also played a strategic role in managing the training function, leading a variety of change management, communication, process, reward & recognition and project management initiatives.

Don Whittemore, Designer RBC Recruitment & Learning. A lifetime banker who has devoted the past 10 years to training others to do their job more effectively. RBC is an innovator in employee development and offers training through a multitude of channels including, web-based learning (both synchronous and asynchronous), satellite broadcasts, traditional classroom and print based. Don' specialties are sales training and client-focused behavioural training.

Shalini Taylor has over 10 years experience in sales, customer service within training and development. She was the Lead Trainer for design and deployment of learning management systems, sales orientation programs and has conducted many seminars on sales techniques. She has developed training programs for sales managers and call centre managers since 2000. She is the Training & Development Learning Technology Specialist at Gamma-Dynacare Medical Laboratories, where she has organized Management Training, and Learning Symposiums for over 200 employees.

Emad Rizkalla is the President and CEO of Bluedrop Performance Learning. He has almost 15 years of IT and e-learning industry experience and an additional background in marketing, organizational change management, leadership, and ROI assessment. Bluedrop's pioneering status in Web-Based learning and its strong track record has earned it the respect of clients such as Cisco, Dell, Microsoft, Sony, RBC, Health Canada, Pfizer, Prentice Hall, and Wyeth. Mr. Rizkalla was the recipient of the Business Development Bank "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" award in 1997. In 2001, he was honored as one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 for his leadership and vision in May 2000. Mr. Rizkalla is also a published author and has written numerous articles for publications in the training, leadership, and healthcare fields. Mr. Rizkalla was featured in a TIME magazine cover story on the Young, Dynamic Entrepreneurs Who Will Create the 21st Century and has been featured on CBC's The National Magazine, CBC Radio's Morning Show, CP24 Business Report, BBC Radio, the Financial Post, the Ottawa Citizen, the Globe and Mail, and Macleans Magazine.

Daniel Atkinson has work experience ranging from public accounting to Ontario Provincial Government to a Private Health Care provider in California to the present position of Vice President, Operations with the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA) since March 2000. OCWA invests quite heavily in training of its operations staff because of regulatory requirements that necessitate annual training for operators to maintain their various licenses.

Barry Nelson is a Senior Consultant and part Owner of PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT OF CANADA INC. and specializes in developing the analytical and problem solving skills of corporate staff support teams. He has studied Avionics while in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, Business at York University, Sciences at the University of Toronto, Advanced Programming & Systems Concepts at the Herzing Institute, and Advanced Systems Programming at IBM's Princeton Lab. He also serves as an academic advisor to Humber College's two-year Business Administration program.

Dr. Frank Welsh is Director, Office of Emergency Preparedness of the Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Public Health Agency of Canada. He is responsible for developing and maintaining national all hazards emergency response planning, training and exercise programs from a medical and public health perspective. He also works with other federal government departments, provinces and territories to address health aspects of their emergency planning, training and exercise issues. Prior to this position, he held several managerial and senior policy analysis positions in the Government of Canada.

Barry Barnes is currently the Director of Learning at Lafarge North America Inc. He has been involved in training and HR since 1979, working at organizations such as Federal Business Development Bank, Rothmans Benson and Hedges Inc. and Otis Canada Inc. He has membership in the CSTD (Canadian Society of Training and Development), HRPAO (Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario) and ISPI (International Society for Performance Improvement).

Nick Chambers is a Senior Consultant and Partner with Benchmark Performance Inc. Benchmark is a Toronto-based training design and performance improvement firm. Nick's specialty is helping organizations ensure successful end-user uptake of new, upgraded and existing enterprise systems. He accomplishes this by marrying the best of performance analysis, instructional design and training management to produce user-focussed, performance-driven training and jobs aids.