Workshop: Building and Facilitating Training for Neurodivergent Learners (11 Dec 2026)

Fri, 11 Dec 2026 13:30:00 GMT

This session will equip HR professionals, educators, and facilitators with the concepts needed to design learning experiences that honor and welcome a wide variety of cognitive styles and reduce unintentional barriers. Together, we’ll discuss ways to improve clarity, engagement, and accessibility for neurodivergent learners while benefiting all participants.

Participants will leave this session with:

A foundational understanding of neurodiversity and associated strengths/challenges.
How various cognitive profiles may influence different processing and learning needs.
Tactics to integrate inclusive and accessible design principles to meet those cognitive profiles.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Samantha Kelly is a neurodivergent advocate and trainer who helps businesses build more inclusive, high-performing workplaces. Through workshops, coaching, and leadership development, she brings a strength-based, real-world approach to neurodiversity at work. With experience spanning the HR industry, consulting, and advocacy, Samantha is known for making complex ideas relatable — and creating space where all minds can thrive.

Web: https://www.beyondnd.com/

Workshop: Ship Happens-Be the Reason It Does (30 Apr 2027)

Fri, 30 Apr 2027 12:00:00 GMT

Ship Happens is an interactive workshop designed to help Learning & Development professionals think and operate like product managers. Instead of building courses by request or compliance, participants will be challenged to approach the request like product managers who validate assumptions and iterate before investing time and energy into long-term products.

In this session, attendees will step into one of three fictional organizations facing realistic learning challenges. Using these scenarios as their sandbox, they’ll explore how product thinking elevates ADDIE, uncover hidden root causes behind training requests, and practice translating stakeholder “asks” into strategic outcome statements.

The workshop culminates in the creation of an outcome-based roadmap: a practical tool that aligns learning efforts to business impact through clear North Star results, small testable pilots, and evidence-driven scaling.

This workshop equips L&D professionals to challenge assumptions, design with intention, and ship solutions that genuinely change performance because learning doesn’t matter until ship happens.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Cara North is an award-winning product-minded learning leader who helps organizations stop launching courses and start launching outcomes. She began her career as an “accidental” L&D professional in telecommunications, where a surprise promotion into training revealed a talent for simplifying complexity and improving performance. Nearly two decades later, her work spans corporate, higher education, and consulting environments with organizations including Amazon, The Ohio State University, Silfex, Medical Mutual and JPMorganChase.

Cara is the author of the award-nominated book Learning Experience Design Essentials and serves as adjunct faculty at Boise State University. She is also the founder of The Monthly 60-a community of practice for learning and development professionals to network and sharpen skills in one high-impact hour each month. Cara also serves as a certificate program facilitator for the Association for Talent and Development. She resides in Columbus, Ohio with her partner and their four cats. When she’s not working, you can find her in an Orangetheory Fitness studio chasing her next benchmark score, watching esports, or gaming her stress away. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caranorth11/

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM; Doors open at 7:45 AM with networking available until 10:00 AM. Continental Breakfast will be provided.

Conveners: Kim Breeze, Nathan Floom, Jonathan Wilson

GCATD upcoming events

Workshop: Building and Facilitating Training for Neurodivergent Learners (11 Dec 2026)

Workshop: Ship Happens-Be the Reason It Does (30 Apr 2027)