The annual ATD (Association for Talent Development) conference is a highly anticipated event for professionals in the training and development field. In addition to the diverse range of workshops and sessions, the expo floor is always one of the biggest highlights of the show, especially coming off the pandemic. While the show ran last year, this year was different. There was a buzz. There was energy. There was pent-up demand for new and innovative ways to learn in the new normal of work. It was back to the traditional size of nearly 10,000 people who were ready to explore.

As part of Advantexe’s presentation at our trade show booth, we hosted an engaging business simulation challenge for conference participants. The Advantexe Paws and Claws Simulation Challenge was a micro business simulation designed to be completed within 15 minutes. It allowed participants to experience the flexibility of our simulations while emphasizing the importance of developing business acumen skills.

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It seems like a simple question until you try to answer it.

Last week, a client and I were working on the design for a custom business simulation to teach Business Acumen skills to the top 150 leaders and one of the issues she was struggling with was how to share with the executive leadership team the way we are going to train the participants on the topic of quality.

This blog is an interesting summary of the findings and hopefully is of interest to you as you continue to build your business acumen capabilities.

Quality vs. The Perception of Quality

One of the first things I shared is that we must start the definition process by collectively establishing an understanding that there is a significant difference between intrinsic and benchmarked quality and the perception of quality. In its purest technical form, an organization can measure quality to some sort of defined benchmark. But that benchmark is going to be arbitrary and at best based on a combination of science and objectivity.

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For many marketers, this is tradeshow season and thousands of vendors will be packing up their booths while thousands of prospects and clients are walking up and down the aisles searching for that next new thing that will change their world. From an ROI perspective, opinions about the effectiveness of tradeshows are mixed and often divided – you either love them or hate them. For some, tradeshows are seen as a necessary evil; a box to be checked to avoid giving a negative impression to customers and the market that “you are not there.” For others, it is part of an integrated omnichannel marketing approach that is critical to a marketing and sales strategy.

Regardless of which way you look at a tradeshow, it does come with its challenges. The CFO complains about the cost, while the CEO expresses frustration over the lack of closed deals. The sales team, meanwhile, grumbles about spending 3 days away from the field generating leads only to have to hand them off to other salespeople who manage that account or territory.

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I have had the opportunity to reflect on a very successful and interesting experience during my time at the recent #ATD23 conference in San Diego, California.

A few of my observations include:

In-person meetings and conferences are back – There were over 9,000 attendees at #ATD23 and you could feel the energy and appreciation for the freedom to explore and learn about leadership and talent development.

There is a lot of pent-up demand – Between the pandemic and the uncertain economic environment, many organizations have been treading water in terms of bold, new innovative ways of building capabilities. Now, many key decision makers are actively and aggressively looking for new solutions.

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There are many industries where times are very tough right now. Core markets have slowed down and demand has been cut by up to 20% year over year in too many industries that drive the global economy. Some places like central Europe and Eastern Europe have been hit even harder because of the ongoing Russian war and the impact it is having on energy prices and other goods. Even industries like high tech which have been fairly recession proof are also feeling the effect as consumer confidence and demand continue to erode. The impact of these tough times transcends the organization and has an impact on every employee.

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