Hypothetical Training Seminar

Hypothetical Software Solutions

2 Day Training Conference

Nimble Elana

University of Phoenix Online

Instructor:

Dan S. Bailey

8-14-5

An integral portion of our infrastructure software has been upgraded significantly by our own in-house design staff. The new software increases productivity and communications potential throughout our national infrastructure. There is, however, a learning curve to the new technology. There are approximately 80 stakeholders who will need further training in order to function in the new system. Thankfully the changes are slight enough that almost all of the training may be accomplished in a 2 day training seminar.

Our infrastructure is strewn throughout the mid-south and covers many states. While we do have some outfits on the Western seaboard of the United States, we will primarily be bringing most of our trainees from the Mid-south. Because of this, we have selected our prime location in Nashville, TN to be the location of the training seminar. It provides a centralized location for most of our potential attendees thus allowing us to minimize travel expenses.

Our first task was to select those who would attend in order to see what kind of accommodations and facilities would be necessary. We quickly came to an estimate of 80-90 attendees based on an estimate of which employees actually use the software that is being amended. We needed a facility that could accommodate that number of guests. We also would like to centralize our expenses and keep the lodging and the meeting location in the same place. That narrowed our search quite a bit. In Nashville, the best possible selection to meet these criteria was the downtown Nashville Hyatt. The hotel has 3 on-site restaurants, 300 guest suites, and a 15,000 square foot meeting room facility with both high-speed internet access and point to point networking available. We will be requesting that some attendees share rooms to minimize company expenses.

ID badges have already been designed and printed for all stakeholders. These badges will simultaneously allow them access to the luncheon seminars, and they will also allow the hotel to track meal expenses for the trainees. These ID's are quite simple containing a simple bar code, a black and white photo of the trainee, and some pertinent information (trainee's department, location, and facility of origin). Those without their id badges will not be eligible for entry to the seminar and will not receive their expensed meals.

The speakers selected were rather easy. The project manager responsible for the new upgraded systems will be the primary speaker. Her team members will additionally address specific points pertinent to their experience. This will make the scheduling much more fluid, because we will not be held captive to the time-tables of an externally employed speaker. We are able to plan it all very effectively and without complications due to this.

The team will train several hands-on trainers to disseminate this information to the attendees. There will be 5 such hands-on trainers manning the desktop pc systems that the attendees will be using. We have devised mpeg video files that act as video tutorials for the hands-on portion of the training process. These videos can play on modest computers.

We estimate that the speakers' portion of the training will consist of approximately 4 hours of speech on both days. After the speeches there will be a computer lab set up in the back half of the meeting room where the mpeg video tutorials will allow the trainees to learn from and interactive with a dummy version of the upgraded software. This portion of the training will move in four shifts of one hour periods. We are estimating a total of 20 desktop pc's. This means we will have roughly four hours worth of total training time after the speeches devoted to hands-on learning. The video tutorial should be able to handle the lion's share of the hands-on training, but the 5 trained specialists will be on hand to answer any questions that may arise in this portion of the training.

Between the speeches and the hands-on portions of the training, we will hold a catered luncheon on both days. There will be 3 potential collections of menu items. This will allow us to satisfy those of traditional diets and those with special dietary needs (vegetarians and those with certain religious dietary prohibitions). We will contact the caterers no less than one month ahead of the planned date to receive estimates and select the best options. The rest of the meals will be supplied to the trainees at company expense during their 2-day stay at the Nashville Hyatt. As mentioned above, the hotel houses 3 different fully staffed restaurants: The Palm Steakhouse, Eddie George's Sports Bar & Grill, and Market Street Restaurant. The Palm is prohibitively expensive and meals eaten by trainees there