An essential, one-stop event for anyone with high-level responsibility for L&D, World of Learning features opportunities to discover the latest in L&D with over 100 exhibitors, The programme features Technology Test Drives, Learning Design Live, live workshops, one-to-one consultations and free seminars.

The world-class World of Learning conference is a platform where expert speakers share industry knowledge, strategies, and tactics to make an immediate business impact.

Among L&D experts from around the UK will be Marks & Spencer's L&D Design Manager, Brid Nunn, who won "L&D Professional of the Year" at the Retail Journal Awards in 2015. Also in attendance will be her colleague, L&D Manager Sarah Gregory Anderson. They will join Marnie Threapleton of Towards Maturity as they challenge assumptions and examine ways of motivating and empowering time-starved workers in their session called Learner-Determined Learning.

Former Global L&D Director of Google, Stephan Thoma, and Callum Petrie, HR Director at Philips Lighting UK & Nordic, will address a subject at the heart of this year's conference in their keynote session entitled Learning that Drives Innovation and Innovation that Drives Learning.

Perry Timms, founder of PHTR, will bring his passion for and fascination with the future of work and learning to his Platinum session "Your Organisation Is Unique - Is Your Learning Strategy?" Perry explains, "As our world changes and shifts, there are more alternative ways of working thrown in the mix of how an organisation is run - and the way we learn.  Therefore, the strategies we deploy to facilitate that learning also need a range of alternative approaches.  Social, mobile, apps, and the cloud (or SMAC) is only one aspect of the alternatives we should be focusing on."

Perry works extensively with companies and leaders who aspire to build self-organised teams and have more self-managed organisations.  "This has become a real passion of mine, starting with agile, dispersed, and virtual organisations, which are fast becoming the challengers to the fixed, orthodox structures, processes, and management.  Democratic workplaces and the democracy of learning is really where I see the future of work heading."

So how does learning "work" in organisations that are unconventional and unorthodox?  When people want to fuse their learning and their work, how does the learning profession cater and cope with that?

Perry will answer these questions based on his work with companies he helps move from “strictly controlled to sweetly liberated".  He will share his thoughts, ideas, and experiences with the World of Learning audience to help them "…make their learning strategy as unique as the learners they support."  He concludes, "World of Learning will be the place where perhaps we see a glimpse of a future we could all be part of creating."

Matthew Syed, two-time former Olympian and best-selling author, will open the first day of the conference with a focus on how motivated learners drive a culture of high performance and optimal business results.

In his keynote speech "Driving Learner Motivation - the Positive Business Effects", Matthew will examine how to create a culture of performance excellence through continuous learning and growth.  He'll demonstrate how a positive learning culture that reduces or eliminates the fear of failure by confronting and learning from it can dramatically increase learner motivation and the willingness to try new things.  Matthew explains, "I've seen again and again that individuals motivated by learning are better able to drive performance excellence and so deliver maximum results for their business."

In the bespoke presentation for the World of Learning audience, Matthew will share compelling examples from healthcare, aviation, business, sport, and the criminal-justice system to highlight how to drive learner motivation through a growth culture and the difference this can make on performance and growth - both at an individual level and at an organisational level.

"Harnessing the Power of Social Learning" will be addressed by Ben Betts, CEO of L&D research and development firm HT2.  Ben will share an enlightening case study on the InterContinental Hotel Group.  He explains, "InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) had never created a MOOC before they jumped right in at the deep end and created one for their leaders and managers. It was, by its nature, a very social affair. Thousands of staff from around the world came together to openly discuss a touchy subject: how to give better feedback."

Ben continues, "From the outside looking in, it was inspiring to watch a major corporation be driven by the opportunity this massive community conversation created, not the threat. Five weeks and 30,000 contributions later, IHG had a much better feel for what leaders and managers were experiencing in their day-to-day jobs. What's more, they came away with quantifiable data that people were beginning to change their behaviour as a result of their community initiative. This is what online social learning can do for an organisation: create real impetus for change."

Closing the conference is leading thinker and practitioner in learning, development, and performance, Charles Jennings. Co-founder of the 70:20:10 Institute, Charles will lead a bespoke session entitled Integrating Learning into Work: Make It Happen.

Charles explains, "Most learning takes place in the workplace. Research suggests that people spend far more time learning as part of their job than they do in classrooms or through eLearning and that this learning is more effective and often more efficient, too.  For L&D to play a role in helping their organisation thrive, they need to step beyond a focus on formal learning and start to support effective workplace learning. If they don't do this, L&D will become increasingly marginalised."

As part of his presentation, Charles will provide guidance on strategies and tactics that will help integrate learning with the current work in the audience’s organisations. He will explain the new roles L&D should adopt to apply the 70:20:10 model to extend the focus of learning into work and describe the tasks needed to undertake them for success. The audience will come away with tools and job aids they can use to help embed learning with work in their organisations.  Charles adds, "Not only will the tools and job aids help their workforce, they'll reflect well on the individuals putting them forward, too!"

At a time when it's going to be more important than ever for L&D functions to demonstrate true business value, this year's conference has an emphasis on the core fundamentals of L&D, while examining how innovation and technology can drive learning forward to deliver optimal results for business.

Andrew Gee, Senior Project Manager for the World of Learning, explains, "Experts who are leading the way in L&D and performance excellence will be sharing valuable insights and case studies to bring theory and innovation into practice for the audience. Visitors will come away with inspiration for how to deliver real business value from their L&D initiatives, with ideas and tactics to apply immediately to drive improvement."

The highly respected World of Learning conference sits alongside the exhibition, which includes a range of interactive areas where visitors can receive hands-on, practical advice. These include the Technology Test Drive area, enabling visitors to test the latest innovations. The Mindfulness Zone provides strategy on increasing employee productivity and engagement, while the Experiential Learning Zone delivers a series of interactive bite-sized skill sessions on key areas, including emotional intelligence.

New for 2016 is the Apprenticeship Zone, where visitors will find all the necessary information about the Apprenticeship Levy that will be implemented in April 2017.

Ensuring the conference is accessible within a wide range of budgets and schedules, there are three delegate packages available.  Delegates are encouraged to book early to benefit from a discount of up to 30% off until 9 September.