On Friday 10 July 2009 Sylvanvale were the proud hosts of the inaugural Learning and Development Forum. With 18 participants and 16 organizations represented across the NGO sector, the principle aim of the forum was to create an opportunity for people with an interest or passion for learning and development to come together and discuss key issues, trends, developments and new initiatives within the field.

Participants explored these ideas through the innovative World Café model. This model uses hosted conversations between participants, to link and build on each others contributions as participants move between their groups to cross-pollinate ideas and discover new insights into a question or issue that is important to their life, work or community. The L&D Forum discussed “What could a good L&D Forum be?”  Among the many ideas highlighted, sharing resources, ‘best practice’ modeling, measuring the effectiveness of L&D activities and managing the strategic vs operational focuses of L&D were identified as the key issues for the L&D Forum to focus on moving forward. The forum proved a great success in enabling participants to meet key contacts and establish networks within the NGO sector and Sylvanvale would like to thank all those who attended for their enthusiastic participation.

An online NGO forum is now under development with the next L&D Forum scheduled for Friday 25 September 2009 hosted by Interaction Disability Services in Castle Hill.

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