Invite us to speak at your event.

Dan, our founder and CEO, and Philip, our senior sales director, speak about putting AI to work in training and in the knowledge an organization already has. Their sessions are practical, and many are built live in front of the audience.

Dan Belhassen presenting to a full ballroom at DevLearn 2019, beside a slide that asks what learners care about
Dan Belhassen speaking on stage with a headset microphone, one finger raised to make a point

Dan Belhassen

Founder & CEO, Neovation

Dan founded Neovation in 2012 and leads the company behind SmarterU, OttoLearn and JoySuite. Dan's career has turned on one question: why is it so hard for people to find, and keep, what their own company already knows?

Dan speaks often at eLearning events and likes to make L&D professionals question long-held beliefs about how people learn and retain information. The talks are fast paced and funny, and they make complicated subjects clear to technical and non-technical audiences alike.

Formats: Keynotes, conference sessions, workshops, round tables, webinars and interviews.

Talks Dan gives

  • Beyond ChatGPT: a practical AI toolkit for L&D

    A hands-on tour of AI tools a training team can use today, from turning a script into a narrated video to drafting slides and infographics, prototyping learning games and brainstorming quiz questions.

    For Learning, compliance and training professionals

  • Reimagining compliance training with AI

    How AI can personalize coaching, close each person's knowledge gaps and put employees in realistic scenarios, and what that means for a backlog of compliance courses that cost a lot to build.

    For Teams responsible for compliance training

  • Putting your company's knowledge to work with AI

    What changes when the documents an organization holds are kept in one knowledge center, search understands what people mean, and a virtual expert answers questions about the organization's own content.

    For Managers, L&D and HR leaders, and anyone who shares information or onboards people

  • Learning analytics you can read at a glance

    A step-by-step session on turning training data into a dashboard in Microsoft's free Power BI, with cards, tables, maps and filters, given as a hands-on session at DevLearn 2019.

    For Training managers, LMS administrators and anyone who reports on training

Philip Giles smiling, with short grey hair and dark-rimmed glasses, in a navy jacket and checked shirt

Philip Giles

Senior Sales Director, Neovation

Philip is one of Neovation's senior sales directors and its resident AI practitioner. A lifelong early adopter of technology, Philip draws on more than 20 years of international sales and marketing experience across many industries to assess what each organization's training needs.

Philip's sessions are high-energy and built live. Audiences watch a folder of documents become an AI coach, or score their own team's readiness for AI, during the session.

Formats: Keynotes, conference sessions, webinars and interactive sessions.

Talks Philip gives

  • Build a corporate brain

    Philip turns a folder of scattered documents into an AI coach in real time, then uses the same material to generate role-plays, scenarios and knowledge checks that teach the skill behind the answer.

    For Organizations whose expertise is trapped in documents

  • Protect your company DNA with AI

    How AI-powered learning keeps culture, values and the unwritten standards of your best people teachable as an organization grows, with existing content turned into scenario-based learning during the session.

    For Growing organizations spread across job sites, offices or communities, with no technical background needed

  • From AI-curious to AI-confident

    An interactive self-assessment that shows where a team sits on the AI adoption curve, names what is holding it back, and ends with a 30-day plan for the team's next stage.

    For L&D teams at any stage, with no technical background required

  • AI in L&D: friend, foe or future?

    A fast-paced look at how AI can simplify training work, personalize learning paths and speed up content creation, for people who are AI-curious and for people who are AI-cautious.

    For L&D managers, instructional designers, training coordinators, HR professionals and business leaders

Conferences, interviews and podcasts

Dan has spoken at learning conferences and joined podcasts and video interviews about training, microlearning and building a company.

Dan Belhassen on a low stage at DevLearn, presenting to a seated audience beside a slide of mastery levels
Dan Belhassen presenting at DevLearn.
  1. March 2022

    Video interview, TheFutureEconomy.ca (opens in a new tab)

    How Canada must improve business support programs

    Dan, as founder and CEO, on reworking support programs to serve entrepreneurs better.

    Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
  2. October 2020

    Podcast, WTC Winnipeg

    Innovation Series, episode 8

    Dan talks with Mariette Mulaire and Joelle Foster about how Neovation helps organizations create and deliver training, and how OttoLearn and microlearning support long-term retention.

    Listen to the episode (opens in a new tab)
  3. September 2020

    Live stream, #LearningCollective by RISC Inc.

    Self-directed learning and knowledge retention

    Dan on how learning that people direct themselves helps them keep what they learn.

    Watch the stream (opens in a new tab)
  4. June 2020

    Video interview, Quicksilver from The eLearning Alchemist Podcast

    The business case for microlearning

    Dan talks with host Clint Clarkson about how microlearning is changing corporate training.

    Watch the interview (opens in a new tab)
  5. October 2019

    Conference, DevLearn 2019

    Microlearning gamification without the games

    Dan's session drew a standing-room-only crowd. He also led a hands-on session on building training dashboards in Power BI.

    Read the recap (opens in a new tab)
  6. 2018

    Conference, DevLearn 2018, Las Vegas

    Moving to continuous compliance training

    A packed session on keeping compliance knowledge current with practice spaced over time after the first course.

    Read the recap (opens in a new tab)
  7. February 2018

    Event, DisruptED: The Future of Work

    Ripe for disruption: the depressing state of online training

    A short talk on why online training was ready for a change.

    Watch the talk (opens in a new tab)
  8. 2012

    Video series, Financial Post

    Canadian innovators

    Short answers to business questions, with Dan on technology at the leadership table and on adopting new technology early.

    Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

AI sessions for your association's members

Associations tell us their members are worried about what AI means for their work, and want safe, practical ways to use it. Philip Giles builds a live session for your members, at no cost to your association, that shows them how to get real value from the AI tools they already have.

Each session starts with a call about your members and your sector, so the examples match the work they do. It suits boards, staff and volunteers as well as members. Philip teaches as a practitioner, and the session carries no sales pitch.

  • A call beforehand about your members, your sector and where AI is coming up
  • A 60-minute live session, mostly demonstrations, with time for questions
  • How AI works, and how to use it securely, privately and responsibly
  • Prompting and practical exercises built around your members' roles
  • A graphic to promote the session to your members or your board
  • A recording and a resource kit for attendees afterward
Ask about a session for your members

Planning your event

  • Formats

    Keynotes, conference sessions, custom workshops, round tables and webinars, in person or online. We also join podcasts and video interviews.

  • Audiences

    Our sessions have been given for L&D and HR teams, compliance and training managers, instructional designers, LMS administrators, business leaders and IT decision-makers, technical or not.

  • Workshops

    Each workshop is built for its event and its audience. A workshop can be hands-on, with people working on their own laptops as we go.

  • What to tell us

    Your event's name and date, whether it's in person or online, who will be in the room, the format and length you have in mind, and the subject you'd like us to cover.

Ask about a talk

Tell us about your event, your audience and the format you have in mind, and which of our speakers you'd like. We reply within three business hours.

All fields are required unless marked optional.

We'll get back to you within 3 business hours.