Directions — Lauren Harbert
Members are the backbone of our LTEN community
Hello LTEN community and happy June! It’s hard to believe that we’re almost halfway through 2023, and the LTEN Annual Conference is just days away. I hope your year has been successful and fruitful thus far and that you’ve made some fun plans for the summer months. Personally, I’m looking forward to our annual family beach trip – my kids love the ocean and I love a good book and comfortable beach chair.
I have enjoyed sharing a little bit about me each month since assuming this Directions column. This month, I want to share a bit about three of our incredible members as well.
We recently celebrated Awards Announcement Week (a first for LTEN!). We announced the recipients of our Chuck Pearson Learning Scholarships, our Field Trainer Scholarships, our 2023 LTEN Excellence Awards finalists and our 2023 Members of the Year. We look forward to honoring these winners and finalists at our live-streamed awards ceremony on June 14 at the LTEN Annual Conference.
While I could write pages and pages about each of these fantastic members and organizations, I would like to focus this month on our 2023 Members of the Year. At LTEN, our members are the backbone of our community. You create content, lead workshops and webinars, provide amazing articles and insight for Focus magazine each month, and really help to guide and support the forward-focusing strategy for the organization.
After a call for nominations, our LTEN Board of Directors and staff voted to name Jill Benko, Iain Boomer and Jennifer Lalli as the 2023 Members of the Year. Let me tell you more about them.
Jill Benko, Director, Multi-Brand Commercial Training & Development, BioMarin Pharmaceuticals
Jill has been involved with LTEN since 2007. She was appointed to the LTEN Advisory Council in 2020 and has been an active contributor to Focus. She recently joined me and other staff members in hosting our new member benefits webinar; I enjoyed hearing about her personal and professional experience with LTEN and encourage you to check it out if you couldn’t listen in that afternoon. You can access the recording through the LTEN on-demand library or directly here.
I asked Jill to share her thoughts on the Member of the Year award:
“I love being a part of the LTEN community where it allows individuals with common goals to come together and share experiences, brainstorm problems and build networks,” Jill said. “Over the years it has allowed me the opportunity to challenge current ways of approaching training through all of the different partnerships and forums – for example, extensive access to industry partners. Finally, the LTEN conference is always the highlight for us as members and learning leaders. What a great way to connect with peers and industry partners, and build great bonds and memories with our own teams!”
Iain Boomer, Global Learning Director, AbbVie
Iain has also been an active member with LTEN for many years. He was appointed to the LTEN Advisory Council last summer, is an active committee member on both the Ambassador and Global Committees and has been an active contributor to Focus magazine – he was even the guest editor in March of this year! His article on ways to prepare team members by promoting mindfulness, exercise, diet and sleep was a great reminder of the steps we need to take to stay healthy, focused and engaged.
I asked Iain to share some thoughts as well:
“LTEN is completely aligned and, I find, essential to my learning leadership role,” Iain said. “I got involved in LTEN to give back, network and learn. Each involvement, contribution and interaction permits me to learn, grow and think differently (innovate). Plus there’s meeting colleagues and suppliers, discussing ways to advance and innovate learning, opportunities to network and meet new and old colleagues. Most importantly, at the annual conference I enjoy fantastic workshops and identifying how knowledge could apply to my business or to one of my current gaps.”
Jenn Lalli, Senior Director, Business Development and Marketing, Encompass Communications & Learning
Last, but certainly not least, Jenn has also been an LTEN member for many years. She supports the team as a member of the LTEN Editorial Advisory Board, serves on the Social Media Committee and has been a critical driver in the success of the newly formed Ambassador Committee. She also wrote a great article about LTEN membership, Six Insider Tips to Make the Most of Your LTEN Membership. Jenn is always one of the first to raise her hand when we have volunteer opportunities and is a cheerleader to all new members!
And, of course, I reached out to Jenn as well:
“Years ago, LTEN was instrumental in helping me further my understanding of key trends and innovations happening in the life sciences learning and development space. Since that time, I’ve dedicated myself to giving back to this community, through helping newer members navigate membership benefits and facilitating connections, best practice sharing, thought leadership (articles) and developing long-lasting professional connections,” Jenn said. “One of my favorite parts about the LTEN Annual Conference is the time to informally connect with peers in the industry – you never know who you might meet in the hallway, while grabbing lunch or in a workshop. These informal, organic moments have really shaped my journey with LTEN.”
Conclusion
I am thankful for these three members, and for our previous members of the year. Without active members like these individuals, we would not be able to provide the programs, activities and opportunities that we believe are needed to be successful in training.
I hope you’re able to join us this month in Phoenix for #LTEN2023, and I hope you get the chance to echo my appreciation for our 2023 Members of the Year.
Jill, Iain and Jenn – thank you for all that you do to make LTEN an agile, valuable resource for members.
Lauren Harbert is executive director of LTEN. Email Lauren at lharbert@L-TEN.org.
