Past Events

ASTD Local International Conference in the Drakensberg 24 – 26th March 2010. 

Around 200 executives from the HRD profession attended.

Prof. Andre Roux from the Institute for Future Studies and Prof. Nick Binedell from Gibs opened the conference and highlighted the following trends:

• A rapidly growing middle income group of consumers in China and India outstrips the entire population of the USA and Western Europe. 
• Workers are distrusting the workings of the market system. 
• Clash of religious cultures. 
• Sharp focus on environmental and economic cultures. 
• In 2050 the world population will exceed nine thousand million. Globalisation, relations of power created by governments and institutions are the “new empire”. 
• 25% of the world population live on less than $1 per day.

Read more ...

ASTD Study Tour to New York and the Chicago International Conference 16 - 19th May 2010

Our ASTD local study tour spent two days in New York en route to Chicago and had a wonderful visit to IBM’s INNOVATION Centre in Hawthorne, USA.

A strong emphasis on Social Media emerged throughout the conference. The opening address at the Chicago Conference was delivered by Daniel Pink, author of  A Whole New Mind -  the right brainers will rule the future and  D R I V E  - the surprising truth about what motivates us. In his first book he postulates that we are moving from an economy of and society built on logic linear,  computerlike capabilities of THE INFORMATION AGE to an economy and society built on inventive, empathic, big picture capabilities of what’s rising in it’s place  - THE CONCEPTUAL AGE.

In his latest book, D R I V E  and in his presentation, Daniel disagrees with the belief that  the best way to motivate  ourselves and others is with external rewards like money and the carrot–and-stick approach.  To him the secret to high performance and satisfaction, at work and at home, is the deep human need to direct our lives, to learn and create new things and to do better than ourselves and our world. In the new world of motivation he expouses what science knows and what business does - and how that effects every aspect of our lives. The carrot-and-the-stick approach worked successfully in the 20th Century, but is the wrong application for to-day’s challenges. When money is used as an external reward for an activity the subjects lose intrinsic interest for the activity. Rewards can deliver a short term boost, but the effect wears off and can reduce a person’s long term motivation to continue.

Read more ...

Membership benefits

To add more value to our membership benefits, members will soon be receiving, in addition to  “Management To-day”  on a monthly basis,  a free electronic version of  “ HR Future”.  We have slightly increased the annual membership subscription fee, which has remained unaltered over the past  2 years.
See the new website: www.astd.co.za

New fee structure is as follows:

Good Things, Robin and the ASTD team.