STOP PRESS!

2013 Open Workshop

How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™

22nd-24th April 2013.

There has been a significant increase of interest and awareness in the ideas and techniques of brain friendly learning, including well over 1,000 people in our Linked In group.
Anyone can say they use brain friendly learning but how many trainers/ coaches/ facilitators can truly say they understand and comprehensively use the principles in everything they deliver?
You may come across other opportunities to learn about these techniques but we've been using and sharing these methods for over 10 years and this is the only 3-day brain friendly TTT programme accredited by ITOL.

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Facilitators of training, education, learning and development, you're about to discover

How you can truly TRANSFORM what you teach,
and produce meaningful MEASURABLE results.

If you're …

investing resources on learning and want to improve the return
working with material that needs to be more inspiring
keen to ensure learning continues long after the happy sheets are completed

And you want …

to know how to motivate more people to learn what’s vital
the key to achieving measurable results when time or money is scarce
zest for learning to increase significantly

Then …

How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™

could be exactly the boost you and your team need right now!

From: Stella Collins, director of Stellar Learning.
To:     People who facilitate learning in others – whatever your job title might be.
Re:     Truly transfom your training - in just three terrific days!

By the time you’ve finished reading this page, you will understand …

	What How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™ will add to your professional toolkit.
	How it’s the most comprehensive way to absorb a brain friendly learning model.
	Why you won’t want to wait a minute longer to achieve measurable workplace results.

Now, you probably think you’ve learnt a lot of this before … how to facilitate groups, how to incorporate icebreakers and energisers, how to use technology, how to deal with challenge, etc.

So before you read any further, we want to make one thing very clear …

Truly transforming your training means
putting on a different hat
to the one you’ve worn up till now!

It means you use your design and development time differently. It means you apply a results driven model consistently to everything you develop. It means you creatively embrace all kinds of media in everything you teach. Above all else, it means you put your learners’ learning first.

But here's the challenge …

Just knowing all the tools and techniques of our trade
doesn't always result in effective learning …

… but consistently applying and modelling what you learn
WILL produce measurable workplace results.

Do you know what concerns us?

… Some facilitators don't even get round to discovering what is current best practice in learning.

… Some facilitators build their knowledge piecemeal which means they don't learn when and how to apply it to greatest effect.

So do you want to be like some facilitators of learning,
or would you rather …?

Look forward to designing your sessions because of the creativity this unleashes?
Be more in tune with your audiences even without a learning needs analysis?
People were absorbed in what you teach because they’re enjoying how they learn?
Learners retain a long-term memory of the information and learning shared?
Your input guarantees that meaningful, measurable results are achieved?
Feel you’re doing the best job in the world and welcome what each new day brings?

We thought so!

Which is why we created How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™.

An easy to follow, yet comprehensive experience of how to apply a proven brain friendly model from invitation to evaluation!

Let us share with you our plan for building your learning, so you can see just how much you'll take away; and because we believe in modelling everything, you’ll be 100% immersed in the methods we teach.

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How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™
Transform Your Training in 3 Terrific Days
Plan for Building Your Learning

Before you attend:
	Questionnaires – so you begin to understand more about learning preferences
	Pre-reading – an ebook outlining the principles and benefits of brain friendly learning.
	Learning needs analysis – so that we can ensure the emphasis of the programme meets your specific needs.
	You decide on a real workplace application that you want to design and deliver.
This element begins to programme your brain for learning yourself (because you’re usually wearing the facilitator's hat), and encourages you to think about what learning outcomes are most important for you. This means you will hit the ground running on Day 1.

Laying Firm Foundations
	Tools to get everyone talking and learning – as soon as you arrive!
	How to stimulate the brain to stay alert during presentations, learning and knowledge transfer.
	Mind mapping – a fantastic tool for all brain friendly learning facilitators.
	Planning all aspects of learning, the brain friendly way.
Building the Structure
	The 6-step learning process - how to achieve consistent success with all you design, develop and deliver.
	Motivating ideas to keep the audience engaged, responsive and refreshed, whatever the content!
	How do the 5 senses affect how everyone absorbs information and learning? – designing materials and resources for all preferences.
	The theory and practice of the multiple intelligences and their importance in making learning meaningful to all. Amongst other things, this knowledge helps to minimise challenge in the learning environment.
	Effective methods to trigger your audience’s memory for all the facts and figures you present – you’ll learn well over 40!
	Identify 57 ways to test learners’ understanding of what has been learned.
	Discover the impact of using reviews to retain learning; this is the key to workplace transfer and long-term memory.
	How learning preferences are a major factor within diversity management which you can’t afford to ignore.
Joinery
	Participate in our live demonstration of how to bring everything you learn together, which we apply to a technical topic – so you can see, hear and experience how to do it yourself.
	Why creativity is important in learning and how to get your own creative juices flowing ready for your session.
	Framing learning through themes and how to open sessions in ways which engage all your learners.
	Learning to use media and a treasure trove of value for money resources, in a brain friendly way.
	Design time for your very own session – to be based on a real work application for you.
DIY Delivery
	Refresher on how to give feedback constructively.
	Practical delivery of your session to a small group.
	Feedback from your peers and ideas for developing your session further.
The Grand Design
	How to evaluate creatively and to get workplace results.
	Ask the experts – Q & A session to answer any questions you may have left.
	Effective closes - how to end on a high to make learning stick.
	Transforming your learning into action when you’re back at work.
Throughout the learning, and at the start and end of each day, you will experience multi-sensory, multiply-intelligent ways in which you can review learning to ensure people remember it for longer. These ideas are immediately transferable into your own learning designs.

How to transfer learning after
	Further resources from us to complete your brain friendly experience.
	Access to photos of the entire workshop to keep your memories alive.
	Networking with your group to follow up items of interest.
	Ongoing support from us as you refine your sessions into workplace reality.

If you prefer pictures, here's what we've just said above, put another way…

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Who benefits from attending this programme?

So personally, you’re going to benefit from joining us if you are …

	Curious about how to motivate people in different ways to take in learning, to understand it, to retain what they’ve learned and to apply their new knowledge in action.
	Working within a budget.
	Interested in how you can deploy your time and energy to best effect when you’re in the design and development phase.
	Keen to see, hear and experience how to use PowerPoint more effectively – or not at all!
	Appreciative that a wide range of media is available to enable learners to learn in the best ways for them.
	Wanting to create learner-centred environments, instead of instructional-based classrooms.
	On a quest to add value at all points of contact – with your colleagues, with your learners, with your customers and clients.
	Seeking inspiration for continued professional development or maybe feeling a bit 'stuck in a rut'.
	Ever told that something is hard or impossible in education, training or learning but you want to make it meaningful and possible for others to understand.

And professionally, you’ll benefit from joining us if you experience any of these situations (and more!) …

	Are being asked to cover 2 days’ material in 1 day – or less.
	Receive a wordy manual, and are being asked to deliver the content.
	Have responsibility for learning which is tough, technical or downright tortuous.
	Are asked to deliver ‘mandatory’ learning to those who don’t want to know.
	Design learning programmes, without alignment to personal / business objectives.
	Hear horror stories about the ‘group’, and how they’ll behave in your session.
	Work with people from very diverse backgrounds – possibly all in the same group.
	Juggle a bunch of ideas, but with no obvious way to link them.
	Work in unnatural, uninspiring environments; you’ll learn how to turn a dungeon into a delight.
	Deliver learning, but know nothing about your participants in advance.
	Are presented with 100 PowerPoint slides, and asked to deliver them.
	Work with learners whose style is totally different from yours?
	Learners fall asleep during the ‘graveyard’ slot – or even at other times.
	Learn something yourself, and 24 hours later, remember very little?

In the 7 years we’ve run this programme (in a couple of different forms), here’s who’s joined us to transform the learning they deliver …

	Heads of organisations - large and small. We’re thinking here of leaders who want to create lasting change or who are heavily involved in how learning is cascaded in their workplace.
	Heads of L&D - people responsible for the strategic direction of how information is learned in the workplace.
	Learning Designers – people who have the important task to prepare sessions or manuals for delivery or absorption by others but never get to see the results.
	Learning Facilitators – those for whom the education, training or development of others is their daily bread and butter. This group includes learning consultants, trainers, teachers, lecturers, instructors, and may also include parents and community workers who have substantial input into the learning of others.
	Experts – people with expertise in a technical field and are asked to share their knowledge with others
	Learning Advocates – people within communities who have significant involvement in the design / delivery of education and training opportunities for individuals or groups.

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Here are some of the questions we regularly help others
to work through which you too can confidently handle …

Yes!! If you have previously attended one of our shorter events, you will know that we don’t always use PowerPoint – to the obvious relief of our audiences! However, in trained hands it can be a very powerful tool – especially when music is added to review learning. Throughout your workshop, we’ll be showing you how to use PowerPoint with a light touch, yet deliver your messages with great impact.

Part of our answer to this question revolves around the major topic of motivation (or ‘state’). As a participant you will experience first-hand what we do to motivate learners to learn before and during an event, and retain learning long after – ideas which we’ll be delighted for you to take away and act upon immediately! We use over 40 memory triggers to aid learners’ retention (in tests, achieving up to 100% retention!) – and by the end of the programme, we’ll have shared them all with you.

There are soundly researched reasons why true brain friendly trainers use colour, props, themes, toys, music, share humour, pay attention to the environment and nutrition, regularly check that the learning is meeting individuals’ needs, etc. You’ll quickly learn why we do what we do, and understand the difference it makes; knowledge that we want you to have if you ever need to handle challenge from participants. This knowledge can help with challenges from other parts of organisations or senior management too. But what is really important for you, is that you learn when and how to use the whole brain friendly model because applying aspects piecemeal often gives facilitators even more challenges to handle!

Knowledge is only data unless you act upon it. At this workshop you’ll learn: the important stuff about the brain; a rigorously tested process to apply to all learning; and how to use creativity throughout. Plus, you’ll be given design templates to follow. You’ll walk away with a clear blueprint of what you can do with every application, and how to apply your knowledge consistently. If you’re not sure we can add value for you, call us and we’ll find out together!

We want to debunk the myth of ‘difficult learners’ right from the off – this is a phrase we never use and, unsurprisingly, we don’t have ‘difficult learners’. What brain friendly learning gives you is the knowledge that every individual has a unique way in which they learn best and how to tap into that. Whilst you're with us, you will experience an interactive demonstration, of brain friendly learning applied to technical information, and find out how it’s designed to handle a wide range of learning styles.

Our reputation has been built by modelling everything we say on the tin. From invitation to final evaluation, we actively demonstrate, and you actively experience, how to design what you need to deliver, by keeping the brain firmly at the front of your mind. Plus we share extra learning throughout; learning which we believe is crucial to the whole brain friendly experience and which you probably won’t find elsewhere. Check out our programme above!

Joining us at How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™ is a great way to see, hear, feel, smell and taste, what you can do differently in your organisation. Throughout, you will work on your own applications, supported by us, experiencing first hand the effect these powerful methods can have on performance. You’ll leave feeling enthused to influence a sustainable difference in your organisation.

This is true of many people when we first work with them, because they’ve gained their knowledge piecemeal. Maybe they’ve read a book on effective facilitation, heard a lecture about group motivation, or even attended a bite size session. By learning bit by bit you can miss out on important learning – and it’s often the really important process or structure, that isn’t conveyed. What we do is share with you our successful model for learning transfer, which you can then seamlessly apply to all your material, whatever the topic.

This is where applying our model consistently comes in …

… because the results from applying our model consistently demonstrate that you and professional facilitators everywhere can truly transform what you teach, so long as you use the right tools at the right time and in the right way to make transformation happen.

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Meet the people who'll share this model for success –
Stella Collins of Stellar Learning and Helen Ashton of First Class learning and development

The powerful, yet simple to apply model we use at How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™ helps us, and learning facilitators just like you, to share learning enjoyably, meaningfully, and memorably, so that learners achieve workplace results.

Fact One:
We’re passionate about enhancing your abilities
to facilitate learning and others’ abilities to remember.

Let’s be honest, who hasn’t been on the receiving end of a learning session which was boring, repetitive, unmeaningful, or sleep-inducing? With her background in technical environments, Stella recalls with horror attending plenty of sessions like that.

We’re equally sure that we’ve all had experience of forgetting what it’s vital for us to remember, including at very critical times. Our colleague, Ann Grindrod, still breaks out in a cold sweat when she recalls waking up on the morning of a professional exam, only to find she’d forgotten 50% of the material!

Fact Two:
We’re committed to transforming both learning
and learning environments too.

Next time you’re in a hotel or conference centre, or outside a classroom, do what we do – have a peek or a listen in. Look at the expressions on learners’ faces, listen to the tones of those who are facilitating, put on those learners’ hats, and really experience what they’re going through in their attempts to extract meaning from turgid learning in environments without any soul.

Fact Three:
We’ve trained thousands of people, so we only share
with you, what consistently works for us.

The methods we employ have been used to share information about every subject you care to mention; organisational development including leadership and strategy and every soft skills learning there is – assertiveness, customer care, influencing, presentation skills, time and stress management, writing for business – to name just a few.

We’ve trained people to deliver wide-ranging technical topics too. This includes finance, health and safety, logistics, IT, law, medicine, government procedures, science, social care, etc. topics which we’re often told can be ‘dull’ and ‘hard to learn’.

In fact, we have yet to come across a topic that is intrinsically dull – because we know they can all be made meaningful and memorable for learners, by applying the model we use. In our experience, all learning is interesting – unfortunately, it’s the delivery that can be made dull!

Lots of people have now learned this model and they in turn are truly transforming the material they deliver.

So let’s find out how just a few of them have transformed their training …

3 essentials to applying a
brain friendly model in action.

Essential One: Underpin everything you design and deliver with knowledge about how the brain functions best.

We’d like you to meet Tracey – she’s the one in the brown trousers in the middle at the front. At all our events for learning facilitators, where we’re teaching brain friendly learning, we believe that beginning with the brain in mind is probably the best place to start. So we discuss different parts of the brain and how it functions, and our learners consider how to apply their new knowledge to the learning that they share. Now Tracey’s a Health and Safety trainer, which most readers will know, is not always a popular topic, particularly when it has the words ‘mandatory attendance’ attached! And unfortunately this important topic, often results in lots of ‘no shows’. As a result of her new learning, Tracey transformed both her invitations and her delivery, to encourage more people to turn up and learn. Word of mouth spread that H & S training was fun, memorable and useful. Attendance at required events increased by 50% within 3 months. Accidents at the Council went down. Tracey’s pay went up. More of the budget was allocated to health and safety training. The Council’s investment in brain friendly learning was returned time after time after time!

Essential Two: Apply a systematic process to everything you design and deliver.

Now please meet Mike. Mike’s an independent, trading as FAM360, an award-winning buildings refurbishment and safety training company. Mike specialises in training CIEH to Levels 1, 2 and 3 and he learned how to apply a systematic brain friendly process to his design and delivery of learning to qualifications standards. Mike successfully applied the process to his own learning as well as to those whom he taught. He grew in confidence and developed ways to test learners without embarrassment. He knows how to motivate people to turn up and participate in the learning, whatever the topic. He now has tools at his disposal to ensure learners who challenge him quickly discover what’s in the learning for them. His learners consistently achieve 100% pass rates – meaning they remember everything Mike teaches them – 100%! Mike’s investment in his own development has kept him ahead of the game!

Essential Three: Apply creative thinking to everything you design and deliver.

We’d also like you to meet Chris and Gail – Chris is the guy in blue right in the middle at the back, and Gail’s kneeling at the front, holding up a yellow card. They joined us at a 4-day brain friendly Train the Trainer programme, when they were both working as Animal Health Officers. They were responsible for teaching people about the UK livestock import and export regulations. As you may have read above, part of our event includes presenting a session to the group and they decided to work together on this one. On Day 1, they were planning to tweak their regular material a bit; on Day 2 they were starting to be unsure; by Day 3, they’d thrown their old material away, and had gone back to the drawing board. So the session we saw, heard and participated in on Day 4 was about the import and export of livestock, themed to the Wizard of Oz! Chris and Gail continued to apply creative thinking to this session, and developed it so it was demanded far and wide by their colleagues. The procedures started to be checked more carefully, resulting in more accurate and successful submissions to the authorities. Part of their training delivery included teaching others how to spot errors producing an impressive 50% increase in the ‘failure detection rate’. Neither Chris nor Gail speak French, but they successfully used brain friendly principles to teach Customs Officers the UK regulations in France. Neither Chris nor Gail speak Spanish, but they successfully used brain friendly principles to teach Customs Officers the UK regulations in Spain. A Government Agency’s investment in its staff, reduced costs for the taxpayer.

Bonus: Apply this successful model to everything else you do.

And here's Helen again with her colleague Mel, The co-founders of First Class learning and development. Mel’s a voracious networker and Helen’s the full-time trainer in their successful business partnership. Helen already had an interest in delivering effective learning, so grabbed the opportunity to learn more about brain friendly methods. She came away from our 3-day workshop re-invigorated, read lots of books we suggested, and got off to a cracking start, implementing everything she’d learned. Very quickly, she was getting the results we’d promised, and here’s what she said at the time: “I would like to tell you about a real achievement today.  I have just done a half day programme titled ‘Dealing with difficult people’ - their title not mine!  This was for a sceptical and questioning bunch, but thanks to the brain friendly approach there were 100% rave reviews!”  Enthused by the difference the brain friendly approach brings to learning, Helen then influenced Mel that the whole First Class team would benefit from introducing these memorable methods to their extensive training portfolio. Mel and 10 of the First Class associate team then attended one of our events en masse. And here’s what Mel fed back afterwards: “The workshop was a real eye opener; the facilitation was superb; time flew by, fun and memorable.  I would recommend the approaches to anyone who is involved with learning, development or presentations.  The brain friendly approach will certainly be encouraged and developed within First Class to give our clients the best possible return on their investment.”  They’ve now also gone the extra mile and embraced brain friendly ideas across their entire business – with immediate and positive results. Even their web designer joined the workshop! They’ve re-branded and changed their website. They use brain friendly ideas in proposals, tenders and at presentations. They get more business as a result. They receive consistently excellent feedback from their training delivery. They reliably achieve measurable workplace results for their customers. Which, is (or should be!) the bottom-line for all of us who facilitate learning in others! And now, of course, Helen is sharing her enthusiasm and experience in this workshop with you.

As well as the above case studies,
See and hear what people from the 2012 programme say How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer reviews

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What's included in your investment?

How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™ is our most comprehensive event, where you have the opportunity to spend 3 full days with us, sharing the knowledge it has taken us years to acquire! You can expect:

	A highly interactive and intensive workshop with a limited number of like-minded professionals who are curious and passionate in their pursuit of excellence.
	Refreshments from dawn till dusk and lunches each day designed to keep your brain and your body fit and refreshed.
	An inspiring environment in which to think, work, and learn. Whatever the topic, we’ll show you how improving the environment makes a real difference to what is heard and absorbed. We’ll hope to spend some time working outdoors too – weather permitting!
	To dress for your personal comfort, the environment to be informal yet fast-paced, and your participation to be vital to all the group’s learning.
	Timings will be advised subsequent to booking but be prepared that your days will be very full!
	To work with everyone in the group, experiencing the dynamics of different group sizes in learning, as well as having lots of opportunities for personal reflection about how to put your own learning into action.

BONUS #1
Learning – Begin with the Brain in Mind
Value – £10

Our first ebook in the Brain Friendly Essentials series sets the scene for how learning can be absorbed differently. You will receive a copy with our compliments to read, learn, and inwardly reflect upon before you arrive.

BONUS #2
Kitbag of Sensory Resources
Value - £27

BONUS #3
Full Colour Workbook
Value - £147

BONUS #4
Samples from which you can Prepare Materials
Value – at least £147

BONUS #5
ITOL Accredited Training
Value - £Lifetime

BONUS #6
Ongoing Support
Value – at least £797

BONUS #7
Full Board and Accommodation
Value – at least £258

We’ve reserved your deluxe accommodation near Stratford on Avon and negotiated an all inclusive package including all your accommodation and meals, 3 course dinners in the restaurant, access to superb leisure facilities and grounds plus complimentary parking.
Past participants have found that networking and sharing ideas in the evening has significantly contributed to their experience and learning.
PLUS we’re organising a bonus session before dinner on the first evening with a special guest. Last year people learned to draw incredible graphics and this was one of their favourite sessions.

Value of all these bonuses?
At least £1,386!

Which returns your investment in full!

How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™
What's the investment?

Considering how many years we’ve spent developing and refining this model and how much return you and/or your organisation will get in terms of time saved and the results you achieve (see the case studies above), you would expect the investment to be very expensive.

However, we’re on a mission! And our mission is to share brain friendly learning with the whole world.

We believe that the more people who learn and implement these methods, the faster individuals and organisations will be motivated towards learning and will achieve measurable workplace results.

But the only way we can encourage as many people as possible to learn these ideas with us, is to offer this learning at a very reasonable rate!

So, in 2012, the investment in …

How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer™

Transform Your Training in 3 Terrific Days

Is only £1,297! (+ VAT)

Book before 28th Feb and you will receive a free Kindle pre-loaded up with some of our favourite brain friendly books.

Talk to us before 28th Feb if you’d like an option to pay in 3 installments.

Book before 31st March to receive a free Kindle and read some of your favourite books

But when we say as many people as possible, unlike some companies, we don't mean that we work with huge groups, in order to maximise our income!

In fact, we limit the people we work with at this open workshop to a maximum of just 6 participants per trainer – to ensure you get our maximum personal time and attention. And remember there are only 12 places in 2013 on this workshop.

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If you prefer us to invoice you please phone 0118 983 6339 or email info@stellarlearning.co.uk

If you …

… have any more questions, you’ve very welcome to call us on 0118 983 6339
or email info@stellarlearning.co.uk
... want to find out more about how brain friendly learning looks, sound and feels watch a short
video here Show me about brain friendly learning.mov

And finally, here's to all your future successes – whatever learning you share!