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Meridian Re-Launches Its Online Community

Chantilly, Va. - May 25, 2010 - Meridian Knowledge Solutions, LLC - a maker of learning management system (LMS) software - made collaboration a theme of its recently completed users conference, titled "Learn & Know" 2010, becuase customers have been increasingly investigating social media tools to train employees and business partners.

"This year, our conference agenda was peppered with examples and exploration of social media for training and development," said Roy Haythorn, executive vice president of operations for Meridian. "Our presenters offered wisdom and sage advice about the use of social media for learning, and our staff publicized the re-launch of Meridian's online community for customers."

"Ironically, our online community is one of the longest-running in the LMS industry and collaboration has been a part of our product since Meridian was founded in 1997," said Mike Brennan, product director for Meridian. "With a heritage like that, we owed it to our customers to make the Meridian online community the place for fostering collaboration. While our community has always been there, we haven't made it the focal point of our customer networking until now."

Learn & Know 2010 became the perfect venue for Meridian's team to re-launch the Meridian online community and provide a space for clients to share LMS and e-learning best practices, discuss learning and development challenges and access Meridian-provided content.

Among the sessions at the two-day conference that received the highest marks from the post-conference survey were the following: the Meridian community re-launch; the "Meet the Buzz-Breakers" panel; and, the Meridian Global LMS product seminar.

The "Buzz-Breakers" session featured bloggers and e-learning experts Mark Bower, Karl Kapp and Susan Smith Nash in a fast-paced, give-and-take format designed to help attendees understand whether or not the latest e-learning trends are fact or fad. According to this year's panelists, virtual worlds are clearly here to stay, but Twitter, as a company, and CLO, as a business title, will fade away.

Along with this year's presentations and networking at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles, Meridian hosted an awards session. The company's executives recognized customers who had achieved particular success within the last year with the Meridian Global LMS. This year's award winners, and the categories for which they won, were:

• Abbott Nutrition (Most Innovative Use of an LMS)


• Land O' Lakes, Inc. (Best Launch of an LMS)


• Mazda North America (Best Graphical Interface for an LMS), and


• TeleTech (Best Marketing of an LMS)

The conference also featured Meridian's Mike Mills who explained how Meridian's Virtual Library, a collection of approximately 18,000 off-the-shelf e-learning courses, offers customers a way to evaluate e-learning content and compare similar content from various vendors prior to buying. Mills invited attendees to visit Meridian's Content Evaluation Showcase to learn more about courses covering: business skills; computer skills; high-end information technology training; Six Sigma; regulatory compliance, including on-the-job safety; and, retail.

In between the sessions, attendees had opportunities for networking. "I'm eager to participate and learn from others in the Meridian community," remarked one Meridian customer.

The two-day conference included Meridian's product team unveiling its roadmap for releases, showcasing features for quickly adapting the LMS and its content to meet a learner's needs and announcing members of the new Meridian product advisory council.

For more information about Meridian, visit www.meridianksi.com.

To follow Meridian on Twitter, visit http://twitter.com/meridianks.