News & Thinking

A Conversation with Ken Taylor, President, Training Industry

At the recent Training Industry Conference & Expo, I had the opportunity to talk with Training Industry President Ken Taylor. Ken is the leader of one of the most trusted sources of information on the business of learning. And, he possesses a deep understanding of the corporate learning and development market. The following article is an edited excerpt of the interview transcript.

Q: What’s the state of the training industry?

To help expand the reach and impact of Sandy Hook Promise's proven Know the Signs school violence prevention programs, d'Vinci Interactive conceived and built the organization's first-ever digital training and learning management system designed specifically for schools. The project was made possible by the generous support of The Walt Disney Company.

d’Vinci Interactive, a leading learning technology solutions company, announced today the receipt of a Phase I grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Institutes of Health.

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) and d’Vinci Interactive showcased a new website Wednesday designed to help parents, teachers and caregivers keep children safe from sexual abuse.

PCAR and d’Vinci developed SafeSecureKids.org featuring helpful resources, videos and an interactive game, after sexual assault center staffs expressed a need to find better ways to engage parents and caregivers in their communities about healthy sexual development. They also found that educators needed materials to help communicate with children about sexual harassment, abuse and assault.

In July of 2017, Adobe announced plans to “stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020.” At the same time, the company encouraged “content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to … open formats.”

Best Buy Canada is Canada’s largest consumer electronics retailer with more than 175 stores and 12,000 employees nationwide. As the company’s Senior Manager, Learning and Development, Marjorie Van Roon, CPTM, provides innovative programs that drive performance while being inspiring, relevant and fun.

General Mills is a global manufacturer and marketer of a variety of well-known food brands, including Cheerios, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker and Yoplait. As the Senior Manager, Learning Development within the company’s supply chain organization, Sharron Northern leads change and training initiatives that increase work process efficiency worldwide. In her role, she partners with functional learning leaders in Sourcing, Logistics, Engineering and Manufacturing to create centralized access for employees' skills development.

For the fourth time in its 30-year history, d’Vinci parent company JPL has been named to INC. Magazine’s prestigious list of the nation’s 5,000 fastest growing private companies. d’Vinci was acquired by JPL in 2013 and has tripled in size since then.

"It’s great to earn this national recognition again. Thanks to our talented team members, we’ve achieved exceptional growth by achieving results for current clients while attracting targeted new business,” said JPL President and d’Vinci CEO Luke Kempski.

As part of its commitment to the community, summer interns from d’Vinci and its parent company JPL, a full-service marketing agency, partnered with Cocoa Packs, Inc. to redesign its existing website. Cocoa Packs is a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the growing issue of food insecurity by making sure that children have the basic nutrition and support to promote their success.

d’Vinci Interactive marked its 25th anniversary at a special reception with team members, local business people and elected officials on July 19, 2019 at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown.

d’Vinci develops learning experiences, educational websites, and web and mobile applications for corporate, government, medical, and K-12 educational content clients. Its team of learning consultants, creative designers and programmers create web-based training courses, learning activities, instructional games and video programs to educate, inform, and inspire audiences.