Washington, D.C.- More than 200 participants and exhibitors recently converged on Washington's Ronald Reagan Building for Discover the Possibilities, the e-learning Winter Showcase and Learning Symposium. Hosted by the e-Training Service Providers GoLearn Program (U.S. Office of Personnel Management), National Technical Information Service (Department of Commerce), FasTrac/Fedsource (NSA/Treasury) and the Foreign Service Institute (Department of State), the event drew a cross section of federal employees involved with learning and human resource development.

"The e-Learning Winter Showcase and Learning Symposium is about harnessing technology to advance the federal workforce," said Jeff T.H. Pon, acting project manager for OPM's e-Training Initiative. "We do this better when we foster and participate in a learning community."

Josh Bersin, a leading analyst in corporate solutions, training and e-learning, opened the event with a keynote address, "The Learning Management Systems Market: Where We Are and Opportunities for 2006." Participants then attended interactive learning sessions on topics including enterprise architecture, human resource line of business and curriculum development. The event culminated with a panel discussion on "21^st Century Challenges of Learning in the Federal Government" with some of the government's top leaders participating including: Gen. Frank Anderson, president, Defense Acquisition University; Claudia Cross, chief human capital officer, Department of Energy; Dr. Pon; Chris Niedermayer, associate chief information officer, Department of Agriculture; and Dr. Robert Wisher, director, Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, Department of Defense.

More than 50 companies were on hand to showcase products, tools and services available to meet e-Learning needs.

Our mission is to ensure the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce. OPM supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.

---