What organizations have helped you as a trainer? That is, how have you advanced your training skills, as distinguished from your technical skills?
The most help I've gotten hasn't been from a formal organization, but from hanging out with Jerry Weinberg's groupies, sometimes joking referred to as "Weinborgs" because of the way people tend to get assimilated (willingly) into his community.
Jerry is a legendary pioneer in the software industry, though at least half of the software professionals I ask have never heard of him. He's authored probably 30 books.
I'm attending his workshop on experiential training design next month, where I'm hoping to learn how to involve the participants much more in my courses. (Sorry, the course is full, with a long waiting list.) Maybe I'll also learn how to rely less on PowerPoint - Jerry never uses PowerPoint.
I've learned a lot of soft skills from Jerry, especially communication skills. I used them today teaching a kid who supposedly has a learning difficulty (I didn't see any difficulty - perhaps I'm blind to it because I have the same problem he does :-).
I could go on, but I'll leave it at that. The easiest way to get introduced to Jerry, besides reading his books or meeting him in person, is to subscribe to the SHAPE forum - http://geraldmweinberg.com/shape.html.
BTW, thanks for the pointers. I ought to look up some of those organizations. I tried Toastmaster a few times. My problem is that I don't get nervous enough in front of a crowd any more.
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Danny R. Faught
Tejas Software Consulting
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