ASCENSION 1: INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Elevating Growth: Explore How Design Thinking Methods Can Strengthen Training Design

September 18th, 2026 | 9am - 3pm | Core Bank, Omaha, NE

This Ascension:

In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore how selected Design Thinking methods can strengthen training design by bringing more action, experimentation, and learner insight into the early stages of a project. Design Thinking is especially useful because it moves teams beyond discussion and into doing: mapping what learners experience, spotting assumptions, reframing challenges, generating options, and prototyping ideas quickly.

Your Guide

Stephanie Hammer

ASCENSION 2: LEARNING TECHNOLOGY

Rising Through Innovation: Using AI and Learning Technologies to Create Impactful Learning

October 2nd, 2026 | 9am - 3pm | Core Bank, Omaha, NE

This Ascension:

Today’s learning and enablement teams are being asked to do more than ever and wear more hats while doing it. AI and modern learning technologies can help accelerate productivity, streamline workflows, and make it easier to create impactful learning experiences at scale.

In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore practical ways to use tools like AI and virtual learning technologies to support real day-to-day work.

Through examples, discussion, and guided working sessions, participants will:

• Explore how modern learning technologies and AI can improve productivity and reshape workflows across learning, enablement, instructional design, and talent development
• Apply practical AI frameworks and prompts to real work challenges from their own roles
• Create usable drafts, frameworks, or assets they can immediately refine and take back to their teams

Your Guides

Alanna Hoffman and Carrie Shively

ASCENSION 3: FACILITATION

Empowering Others to Soar: Commanding a Room and Creating Connections in Facilitation

October 16th, 2026 | 9am - 3pm | Core Bank, Omaha, NE

This Ascension:

We’ve all sat through a painful presentation. And if we’re honest — we’ve delivered a few too. Great training delivery isn’t just about knowing your content. It’s about commanding a room, creating connection, managing the unexpected, and leaving your audience with something they’ll actually remember. In this high-energy, humor-forward full-day workshop, facilitator and comedian Theresa Hummel-Krallinger takes participants on a candid, laugh-out-loud tour of the most common mistakes presenters and trainers make — and exactly how to fix them. Through peer coaching, checklists, practice triads, and a healthy dose of the Rule of Three, participants leave with concrete tools, sharper instincts, and the confidence to deliver programs that stick.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Identify the most common delivery mistakes that undermine credibility and engagement
• Apply a practical presenters checklist to self-assess and improve their own delivery
• Design and deliver energized openings and powerful closings that frame the learning experience

• Use humor techniques — including the Rule of Three — to increase engagement without sacrificing professionalism

• Apply strategies for managing group dynamics, side conversations, and challenging participants

• Incorporate reinforcement techniques that create lasting learning beyond the training room

Your Guide

Theresa Hummel-Krallinger

ASCENCION 4: EVALUATING IMPACT

Rise as One: Let Go and Lean In to Build Data-Driven Learning Cultures

October 27th, 2026 | 9am - 3pm | Core Bank, Omaha, NE

This Ascension:

This session blends practical strategy with mindset work: you’ll leave with a simple, actionable roadmap for building a learning culture that speaks the language of business—and a reflection guide to uncover the assumptions you need to release to get there. Whether you lead talent development, team learning, or enterprise-wide training initiatives, you’ll walk away empowered to drive measurable impact and cultivate a learning culture of agility and purpose. Join us if you’re ready to let go of going through the motions—and step into learning that truly transforms.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Identify the key elements of a data-driven learning framework and describe how they can be leveraged to demonstrate the business value of talent development initiatives.

2. Evaluate current learning programs to uncover assumptions, legacy practices, or misaligned metrics that may be hindering organizational learning agility.

3. Apply a clear, step-by-step roadmap to design or refine a learning culture that integrates data insights, leadership priorities, and measurable impact.

4. Practice strategies for “letting go” of outdated learning methods and shifting toward a culture that encourages experimentation, reflection, and continuous growth.

5. Develop a personalized action plan to communicate learning outcomes in the language of business, reinforcing credibility and influence within organizational decision-making.

Your Guide

Debbie Petru