Next week, I will be in Orlando for the ATD International Conference and Expo. I am used to attending the learning conferences by now, but this time I am very excited. The main reason is the keynote speakers, in particular Sugata Mitra and Erik Wahl. I am sure Andrea Jung will be good, but I am partial to the other two.

Sugata Mitra (@Sugatam) is one of the learning innovators I follow. A strong believer in the concept of self-organized learning environment, he has worked tirelessly to change the way we think about childhood education. From the Hole in the Wall experiment in Delhi, where he demonstrated how just by having access to a PC connected to the Internet, the children from the slums taught themselves how to use the computer and gather information, to the School in the Cloud and the Granny Cloud, Sugata Mitra has been very outspoken about the importance of the freedom to explore and self manage learning. He is also a Ted prize winner for 2013: Ted Talk – Build a School in the Cloud. Looking forward to hearing him speak next week.

I have seen Erik Wahl (@ErikWahl) at one of the past Masie conferences and have been impressed with his energy and passion. An artist and speaker, Erik Wahl inspires “unthinking” and motivates through innovation and freedom of design. Art is freedom – see Erik’s site for really cool stuff.

With ten content tracks and four industry tracks to choose from, the conference promises to be  to be very informational and energizing. I will be tweeting all next week, so follow me on Twitter, and, of course, follow all conference posts at #ATD2015. There will be 400+ exhibitors, so when you get lost in the sea of booths, just come to #1508 and visit with Obsidian Learning. We will even show you a preview of Obsidian Black, a new rapid development tool we are working on. Meanwhile, just to get ready, you can check out the main ATD page – they have a ton of good information. If you are in Houston and you are not a member of ATD Houston Chapter, consider it. They have a lot of informative events and great networking.