I spoke at DevLearn & co-located Articulate User Experience - and we WON DEMOFEST!!!

What a whirlwind week at DevLearn 2025 — in the best possible way.

My session at Articuland on Wednesday on Small Branches, Real Impact had an amazing turnout with genuinely great feedback. Right after that, we wandered through the Articuland Experience Room, which was a blast, and the Articulate-led sessions were packed, energetic, and full of practical gems — including a standout project from Ninja Tropics COO Carlos Alfaro on building a 360° virtual city for learning.

The expo floor was a treasure hunt of genuinely cool, surprisingly useful swag — plus a whole wave of AI-powered services and inventive twists on familiar tools. Lunch even stepped up its game this year (always worth noting). James Gilchrist from Lighthouse Consulting LLC had an Expo floor session on Thursday reviewing insights from a state of the industry report Sharing Information and spreading positivity as usual.

Thursday’s morning keynote by Accenture’s Yulia Barnakova on how L&D can lead in the age of AI was engaging and full of insights on AI’s impact on the future of L&D.

Our session later that day (A GenAI Powered Storytelling and Gamification Case Study) also drew a strong crowd and inspired good conversation — thank you to everyone who showed up and contributed.

Throughout the conference, it was great getting to connect, even briefly, with so many brilliant folks — James Gilchrist, Karyn Gleeson, Aaron Suhpreem King, Christy Tucker, Destery Hildenbrand and others across sessions, halls, and in-between moments. Those quick conversations always end up being some of the best parts of the week.

DemoFest was pure adrenaline — nonstop pitching our project to hundreds of people over the course of an hour, answering rapid-fire questions, and chatting with a steady stream of attendees. And then the big moment: we won Best in Blended Learning Solutions for our electric utility client’s 3-year technical training program, supported by our sci-fi webcomic narrative with badges and points. Immediately after riding that high, we had to dash straight to the airport — a fast, breathless end to an incredibly inspiring week.

I came home energized, grateful, and buzzing with ideas. If you’d like to learn more about the project we shared — or want a demo, slides, or a closer look at anything we showcased — feel free to reach out. Always happy to continue the conversation. Thanks to the Learning Guild and Articulate for putting together another solid event, and to everyone who attended our sessions or stopped by to chat. See you next year!