Certification Study Series
Dates: August 6 - November 19, 2025
Orientation: July 30, 2025
Time: Weekly meetings on Wednesday nights, 6:30 - 7:30 PM CST
Cost: $65
Register here
Are you preparing for the ATD Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) or Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) exam? Join our ATD Multi-Chapter Certification Study Group for structured, collaborative study sessions designed to help you stay accountable, gain insights from certified facilitators, and connect with fellow candidates..
For complete series information, including dates and topics, VISIT HERE.
What to Expect:
Who Should Attend?
Registration & Commitment
RESERVE YOUR SPOT TODAY & TAKE THE NEXT STEP TOWARDS ATD CERTIFICATION.
Learn more about the study group, including dates and topics, VISIT HERE.
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (SIG) - TALENT STRATEGY
Own It: Equipping the Team for Performance Review Success
ATD Kansas City is proud to introduce our newest Special Interest Group: Talent Strategy. To kick things off, we're launching a 5-part series that brings together experts and practitioners to reframe the role of performance reviews and explore how they can grow your business, your people, and your bottom line. Each session offers actionable strategies, tools, and insights to turn your performance review process into a true strategic advantage.
Program Description
Learning Objectives
Meet our Speaker
Zoe Brandstater is a Human Resources leader dedicated to enhancing individual and team performance.
With more than 20 years of experience in organizational development, she specializes in performance management, engagement, and enabling high performing teams.
And our Event Hosts...
Giulia Brutesco, P.Eng. is a John Maxwell Certified Coach, Certified Behavioral Consultant, and professional engineer who helps emerging leaders grow into confident, impactful decision-makers. With 15+ years of experience in policy, stakeholder engagement, and organizational strategy, she’s known for turning complex challenges into simple, powerful solutions. As a coach and facilitator, Giulia empowers her clients to lead with clarity, confidence, and impact.
Rachel Schell, is the founder of RASPersonalized Solutions, where she helps organizations turn training into a strategic advantage. With over 15 years of experience in learning and development across healthcare, tech, government, and manufacturing, she specializes in designing engaging, real-world learning solutions that drive impact. Rachel believes training should be more than a requirement – it should be simple, effective, and personalized to each organization’s unique needs.
ATD Capabilities
The purpose of the C&E SIG is to provide an environment within ATD KC where independent consultants, contractors, and business owners can thrive! This unique community of talent developers, instructional designers, learning consultants, and business owners will meet to:
On the second Thursday of each month, the C&E SIG will hold virtual meet-ups and quarterly in-person events for facilitated networking, knowledge sharing, and socializing. Bring your tough questions and challenges as a business owner for the group to solve with their wealth of knowledge and experience.
Put it on your calendar today so you can join us in growing together as a group!
ATD Kansas City
Membership Happy Hour
Join us for an informal Networking Happy Hour!
We love meeting new people in the Talent Development space here in Kansas City! This event is an informal meet-up, hosted by ATDKC Membership Team. Come join us, buy yourself a drink, network, and learn from other Talent Development professionals in the Kansas City area!
Cost: This is a free event for both members and non-members in the Kansas City area.
Even though this is a free event, please register for the event so that we can get an approximate headcount.
We look forward to meeting you there!
PS: If you bring a non-member, yours and their first drink is on the house!!
Performance reviews reveal more than past performance, they uncover future potential. In this session, we’ll show you how to turn performance review insights into learning and development strategies that support entire departments or the whole organization. From team-based training to flexible, application-focused programs, you’ll explore scalable approaches that align learning efforts with performance goals. Walk away with practical ideas for building learning plans that drive collective growth and measurable results.
Meet our Event Hosts
September Webinar
Teach the Geek to Speak - Developing Training Programs for Technical Staff
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
AI. Green technology. Augmented reality. All these topics are popular nowadays. Companies are either using them directly or developing products that incorporate them. Organizations need people who have the aptitude to learn technically complex topics quickly. The technical staff are these people. For a variety of reasons, though, technical professionals can struggle with effectively communicating these topics, especially to non-technical audiences. TD leaders can help overcome this challenge by developing speaker training programs for the technical staff. In this session, we will discuss why developing a speaker program makes sense, what developing a speaker program entails, and how to track the usefulness of the program.
This session is for TD leaders who recognize the issue of their technical staff struggling to convey technical information that others in the organization can understand and appreciate and are open to the idea of establishing speaker training programs to address the issue.
SPEAKER BIO
Neil Thompson is an engineer-turned-communication coach dedicated to helping STEM professionals enhance their public speaking skills. After experiencing challenges in conveying complex technical information to non-technical audiences, he founded Teach the Geek, a platform designed to empower technical experts to communicate more effectively.
Through Teach the Geek, Neil collaborates with organizations to develop customized speaker training programs for technical staff, aiming to transform technically proficient employees into confident communicators.
Neil also hosts the Teach the Geek podcast, where he interviews STEM professionals about their public speaking journeys, and has authored the book Teach the Geek to Speak: A No-Fluff Public Speaking Guide for STEM Professionals.
In addition to his coaching and writing, Neil contributes to publications such as Inc. Magazine, sharing insights on effective communication strategies for technical audiences.
ATD CAPABILITIES
This session has been approved for recertification credits by the Association for Talent Development.
Consult > Design > Deliver! A Foundational L&D Practitioner's Series
This series is designed for early- to mid-career Learning & Development professionals eager to build practical, real-world skills. Whether you're an instructional designer, facilitator, or talent development leader, this series will equip you with the tools and frameworks to elevate your L&D practice.
Session 2: From Concept to Prototype
Bring your learners’ needs into sharp focus and turn ideas into concrete learning assets. In this hands-on session, you will:
You will leave with a vetted instruction roadmap ready for final development.
Save the Date for Session 3
Dr. Dan Jensen is a higher education professional in both leadership and faculty roles. He has developed innovative and impactful curriculum/process designs for executive MBA, professional MBA, and undergraduate programs. He leverages his past experiences as an executive coach, educator and training/organization development professional to help his students achieve their potential. His research interests include entrepreneurship, strategy, organization development, organizational behavior, strategic career management, and advances in educational technology and online learning. He currently serves as Director of UCM’s MBA program.
With three decades of experience in talent development, Shannon Swift has designed and delivered over 10,000 hours of training across both in-person and virtual platforms. Specializing in leadership development, communication, customer service, and train-the-trainer programs, she has partnered both internally and externally with organizations to implement transformative learning solutions. Now teaching graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Central Missouri, Shannon is focused on business communications, human resources management, and other talent development-related courses. She also contracts with Kansas City-based companies to provide learning facilitation and leadership coaching services.
Impacting Organizational Capability
Fee: $30 Members / $50 Non-Members
In this Lunch & Learn, we will hear from three TD professions (15 minutes each) who will share their communication strategy to support leadership development (nominations, selection, updates for supervisors/senior leadership and executive overview).
Facilitator Bio
Amy Swaminathan, CPTD® loves helping others reach their full potential. She’s a champion for driving your own career through ongoing development, learning from others, and using the benefits an ATD membership provides.
Amy has over two decades of learning and organizational development experience that includes leadership and employee experience design, facilitation, coaching, instructional design, and organizational effectiveness consulting. She earned the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) credential in 2018 and continues to learn to earn recertification requirements to impact personal, team, and organization strategies.
She finds great joy in traveling with her husband and son, watching KC Chiefs football, and helping others advocate for their aging parents.
It's that time again, join us for
ATD Kansas City's Fall Conference.
Be part of the area’s largest learning and networking event:
This year, we are thrilled to be back at the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.
Registration will open at 8:00 am Light breakfast and full lunch provided.
Note: Any cancellations must be completed one week prior for a full refund.
To register groups of 5 or more, send attendee list and key contact (for invoicing) to vpmarketing@tdkc.org.
Session 3: Delivery & Evaluation - Launching for Impact
Move from “nearly ready” to “live and measurable.” This capstone workshop focuses on executing, evaluating, and sustaining your learning initiative. Participants will:
By day’s end you will have a launch checklist, evaluation instruments, and a strategy for showcasing results—positioning your program for scalable, demonstrable success.
Mailing Address:
