LDT Learning & Teaching Conference 2026: Another Resounding Success

Highlights from our 2nd Annual Learning and Teaching Conference

On Friday, September 18th, LD Training triumphantly hosted its second annual learning and teaching conference at the wonderful Village Hotel in Nottingham. This flagship event brought together leading academics, educators, and industry professionals to explore the theme of ‘Creativity in Education’, opened by our Dean, Dr Bobbi Burton.

Exploring Creativity in Education

Through an impressive line-up of engaging internal and external speakers providing insightful concepts, discussions and practical takeaways for almost 40 delegates covering everything from the creative professional education in an age of AI, the value of creativity in Education and a whole-institutional, integrated approach to improving the student experience to creative communication and the art of public speaking.

A key highlight was the keynote address by Dr Sara Jones, Reader at Bayes Business School, City St George’s, University of London on the “creative professional education in an age of AI“. Sara questioned “how can we teach people to be creative?” – arguing that we need to teach FOR creativity, we can teach ABOUT creativity – teaching people about theory, but we also need to teach people WITH creativity.

Expert Voices on Creativity in Education

We were honoured to welcome a fabulous lineup of expert speakers who each brought unique perspectives on this year’s theme:

• Dr Michelle Morgan, PFHEA, NTF, from the University of East London presented a compelling session with insights from her work on a whole-institutional, integrated approach to improving the student experience.
• Professor Simon McKeown, from Teesside University drew on art, technology, industry and higher education, making the case for creative learning as cultural enquiry, research infrastructure and an engine for economies.
• Tejas Kotecha, ex-Sky News and Sports Producer, illustrated creative communication through his experiences of almost 20 years at Sky with a practical exercise asking a delegate to do a Martin Brundle grid walk with fellow delegates.
• Dr Keith Scott, SFHEA, Academic Registrar at LD Training, drew on a research sabbatical looking at the educational value of gaming as a teaching and learning tool, why gaming is of value for experiential learning and practical skills development, and introduced a range of gaming systems for colleagues to explore.
• Kelly Dunn and Sara Green, Heads of Post-16 and Quality and Compliance, LD Training delved into what can happen when we look beyond traditional educational boundaries and draw on the strengths of different sectors.
• Rohan Ashar, Student Experience Adviser, LD Training weaved his stand-up comedy experience into the subject of the Art of Public Speaking, connecting the skills in stand-up comedy to education.

An Inspiring Atmosphere

The energy throughout the day was inspiring and insightful. Attendees enjoyed valuable networking opportunities and a dynamic panel discussion hosted by Santanu Vasant, Head of Teaching and Learning, LD Training, that brought all the external speakers together for an exchange of ideas and questions from the delegates.

Feedback from delegates has been very positive:

The speakers were excellent with very relevant and interesting content

What stood out most was the diversity of thought in the room. Educators, technologists, communication experts, designers, and researchers all brought different backgrounds and perspectives to the core questions around creativity

Thank you

We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended and contributed to making this event such a success. The conference marks a key milestone in our commitment to educational innovation, thought leadership, and community engagement, because education inspires change.

Photographs of the Conference