Do you look at expos and conferences and wonder if they’ll be worth attending? If you have to pay for your won travel accommodation and losing a few days of work, it’s quite a decision. Jamie Dixon from The Story Habit, took a chance on this years WoL expo and this is what he thought.
This week I booked myself into a Premier Inn in the heart of London and spent two days wandering around the World of Learning Exhibition.
This was my second time to World of Learning, and probably my fourth L&D conference in this country. You see, 3 years ago I moved back to the UK after living in China for 16 years. Little did I know on my move back how different it would be, and how much harder it would be!
In China, I was “special”, and as a bilingual, independent facilitator in the hottest economy on planet earth, there was a lot of demand for me. So much so that every month I’d get people reaching out on LinkedIn offering me work. I didn’t really need to network there.
But fast forward to 2023, I move back to the UK and suddenly a very humbling reality check. I am no longer special! And I am one of thousands of independent facilitators on a tiny island. My LinkedIn inbox suddenly went rather quiet, and I realised work would not just come to me anymore, I would have to start going out and finding it! And of course, this meant I needed to get my extremely introverted backside out the door and start meeting people and figuring out how things work over here.
And so that brought me to this week. Where I turn up to World of Learning solely with the intent of just meeting people.
As this was my second time going, I decided to implement some lessons I learnt from my previous visits to World of Learning and other L&D Conferences and learnt some new lessons as well! So, I thought I would share them with you… here we go:
1. With Friends? Or Not with Friends?
Last October, being the grown up I am, I travelled all the way from the comforts of my home in Brighton to Birmingham. And when I rocked up on my own, to this sea of exhibition stands and hundreds of strange faces, I was suddenly gripped by fear! I was all alone, drowning in a sea of strangers!
After wandering around, I bumped into a few familiar faces. People I’d known online but had never met in person before. That helped to put me at ease as I had people to talk to. And as we stood there chatting, other familiar faces would stop by and say hello, and gradually we’d all meet more and more individuals. It turns out that L&D folk are actually rather friendly. I did not meet a single psychopath. Yay!
Later that night we all made our way to the Learning Network’s after party, and we all made an effort to speak to lots and lots of other people.
But this time in London was different. I went there with two old friends I’d known from my China days. My introverted self felt well and truly in my comfort zone. So much that we all quickly realised we were not going to meet anyone new if we all stuck together! So we intentionally decided to split up for an hour or so at a time, and then reconvene for lunch.
So my lesson from this trip was that if you’re anything like me and gravitate towards solitude, then purposely going up with old friends is a bit risky as you may be more likely to stick to your little bubble. So remember to put in a bit of effort, because there are lots of great people there, and who knows some could become your new old friends.
2. Look for Round Tables
There are two types of talks I noticed at World of Learning. The first type is a ‘talk’ talk, with the audience sitting row after row and not much interaction happening. The second type is an interactive talk, where the speaker will pause at certain times and get you chatting in groups. Naturally, it is so much easier to meet new people in these interactive talks!
One thing my body has a visceral reaction to is approaching random strangers from out of the blue and saying “HI, BE MY FRIEND WILL YOU?”. I’ve noticed some people are far more comfortable doing that than me (although I think they probably have a better greeting than I do). But for me, no, I just hate approaching people I haven’t met before. But once I’m in conversation with them, no problem, I’m all good. So, to avoid having to chase strangers around the conference centre demanding they partake in a greeting ritual with me, I just joined interactive sessions.
These interactive sessions were by far the easiest way to meet people and have a good old chat. So there.
3. Prepare LinkedIn QR Codes
Business cards are soooooooooo 2010s.
These days it’s all about the in, you know, the LinkedIn. Heard of it? How are you even a person if you’re not on the in?
Anyways, that’s the thing you do when you meet people. You exchange LinkedIn cards (I think?) so that they can be one of the 12 likes on your next humble brag post.
Or perhaps it goes a bit further, and they actually leave comments on your posts (do people still do that?). Or even more, send each other a message!
Or even more! Send each other a message and arrange to get a coffee! Like our great great great grandparents generations did before the invention of social media.
One challenge I discovered when attempting to exchange my proof of existence, aka LinkedIn profile, was that, despite the fact that it is 2026 and I was in the capital city of the 6th largest economy on the planet, my mobile had no signal and the Wi-Fi was rather patchy. Cue many awkward moments of staring at a white screen unable to convince people that I did actually exist.
So the moment I got Wi-Fi, I quickly asked AI how on earth do I find my LinkedIn QR Code? And here’s how you do it:
Go to the search bar, on the bottom right just under the search bar is a little QR code symbol, press that and et voila, a QR code that points people straight to your proof of existence! Screen shot that quickly, for the gods of modern technology have completely forsaken this country.
4. People at Stands are People Too
Yes, they’re not just vultures waiting for any opportune moment to pounce and eat your kidneys. They’re people too, and quite friendly as well!
Now, granted, some are there to eat your kidneys. I had one or two straight away pull out their kidney scanners and use it to scan my torso to see if I had a kidney worth eating…Or maybe they were just scanning the QR code on my badge?
But most were extremely friendly and made no attempt on my kidneys. I had some great conversations with some, and learnt about the interesting things they do, the new technologies they use, and got lots of free pens, notebooks, a pair of socks and of course, a rubber duck. Have you even been to a conference if you have not come away with a rubber duck?
For me, I was particularly interested in AI simulations and how I might be able to bring this into some of the work I do with my clients, so I was purposely looking out for these stalls and made time to talk to them and see what they were doing.
And as a fellow service provider myself, the moment some of them started going into pitch mode I quickly let them know that I was a service provider as well and they could relax. That helped smooth things along.
So go have a snoop around, see what other service providers are up to, what new ideas you get for your business, and of course, look out for rubber ducks (and check your kidneys are still in tact after every interaction).
5. Sit Near the Back
I’ll be brutally honest here, the quality of the talks is EXTREMELY hit and miss.
I saw some alright talks, I some one or two good talks, and I walked out of a number of other talks.
I saw a number of speakers walking through a bunch of stats I had already read about myself. I saw one speaker, the CEO of a global training firm who deliver a lot of presentation skills training, reading everything from his notes and acting as if the audience didn’t exist.
One talk in particular was so bad I ended up questioning the life choices I had made that resulted in me sitting in that room in that moment. It was a very introspective moment.
That particularly bad talk was in fact so bad that everyone else I spoke to who watched it was shocked by how bad it really was. So, a word of warning if you are going to be one of the speakers at this event, don’t be the speaker everyone complains about afterwards.
And that brings me to a pro tip I realised: Sit near the back!
That way, if the talk is bad, you can quickly slip out at the back and go somewhere better.
When you’re sitting at the front it is so much more awkward to slip out. Unless of course that speaker is so bad you really want to cause a scene and let them know how bad they are.
6. Book Hotel Rooms Months in Advance!
Final pro tip: If you wait until a few weeks before the conference like I did last time, expect to pay an arm and a leg (and probably a kidney) for a hotel that is miiiiiiles away from the venue.
The next World of Learning is in October, 8 months away from the time of writing, and hotels are currently very affordable.
So do yourself a favour, book your hotel rooms in advance, and hope to keep two fully functioning kidneys!
