Article mentions me!

Here's an article that was forwarded to me, which was written recently about the ASTD conference in San Diego. I was interviewed for this article...

Volunteers – without them ASTD wouldn’t work


The ASTD International Conference 2008 in San Diego worked smoothly as it usually does. As a participant you are every year impressed over how ten thousand people is moving around among the sessions and expo booths, getting their cappuccinos in the breaks, finding the right buses, eat-to-meet venues, lost luggage, and time to check your e-mail in the Cyber Center, without to much disorder. It is true that a well-organized logistic plan underpins it all, but in the end it is hundreds of volunteers that get this huge machinery work. One of them is Dr. Kella B. Price.

I met her over some ice-tea in an intermission between two conference sessions where she was fully engaged in distributing and collecting participants’ feedback forms.

The standard deal for volunteers is that they get one day free admission to the conference for every day they work. Kella has volunteered to work two days, thus getting access to half the conference. She reveals, though, that she has been working all four days, having no chance to make use of her accrued days. I asked her why she so totally devoted herself into this work, what was in it for her? “There was a shortage of hands, and I really want every participant at the conference to feel that everything is working without any unnecessary interruptions due to lack of volunteers. I wanted to contribute to the overall success.” says Kella.

Back home Kella is running a small but successful consultant company focusing on training expatriates for their work abroad. All aspects of preparations that need to be taken: cultural understanding, language training, networking in the new country, and the important role for the family accompanying. She has also developed a detailed program for the families when they return - an often neglected part of the outsourcing process. “You never return to the same environment that you left. Everything is constantly changing, and you notice that when you return after some time abroad”.

She has just recently moved from Newport, South Carolina to Yuma, Arizona, due to her husband’s contract with the army, which means she will have to start her business all over. “Networking is the key, also when relocating within a country” says she with a smile. She hurries down the aisle. The next session’s speaker is waiting for her assistance.

It is individuals like Dr. Kella B. Price that makes ASTD such a great organization.


Anders Kinding
Training Consultant and ASTD Member, Sweden