You spend most of your year designing programs meant to change behavior. The real test comes when you sit across from peers doing the same work and find out which of your assumptions actually hold up.
Training Magazine’s 2026 Conference & Expo created that kind of environment. Over three days in late February at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, L&D leaders came together to share what’s working, challenge what isn’t, and sharpen their thinking.
Our Shapiro Negotiations Institute (SNI) team was there to contribute.
Lead Facilitator Jeff Cochran ran a session called “Teaching Better Negotiation Choices: How to Shift from Win-Lose to Value Creation,” where attendees worked through a live simulation, applied a framework for choosing the right negotiation approach, and practiced creating value in real time. Senior Director of Business Development Michael Roche also spent the conference at Booth #608, where he had many interesting conversations.
We came home thinking differently about a few things, and five things stood out the most.
Negotiation Showed Up as a Leadership Conversation
Conversations at Booth #608 confirmed something we’ve seen building for a while. L&D leaders aren’t treating negotiation as a standalone skill anymore. They’re connecting it to stakeholder alignment, cross-functional collaboration, and internal decision-making. The question kept coming back to fit: how does negotiation training plug into leadership development programs already in motion? People wanted practical, measurable programs tied directly to performance outcomes.
AI Is Everywhere, and the Questions Have Changed
A year ago, most AI sessions at conferences like these opened with “What is it?” That question is behind us. Presenters and attendees focused on the application: how to use AI in learning design, content creation, and personalization. The tone was pragmatic. People want tools that save time and improve quality without replacing the human elements that make training effective.
Human Skills Still Hold the Room
Communication, influence, emotional intelligence, and conflict management ran through sessions across every track. Technology keeps advancing, and the demand for strong interpersonal skills keeps growing right alongside it. Jeff’s session on negotiation choices reinforced the point. Attendees didn’t want theory. They wanted to practice making decisions under pressure with real people in the room. The appetite for human skill development hasn’t faded. If anything, the rise of AI has sharpened it.
L&D Leaders Face Growing Pressure to Prove Impact
ROI came up in nearly every session we attended. L&D teams face real scrutiny to connect training outcomes to business goals and performance metrics. Reporting how many people attended a workshop no longer counts as proof of success. Leaders want to know what changed: better decisions, stronger conversations, measurable improvements in behavior. Programs that tie training directly to results hold a clear advantage right now.
Learning Moved from Passive to Participatory
The conference leaned heavily toward experiential formats. Simulations, hands-on labs, and interactive workshops drew the biggest crowds. Attendees gravitated toward sessions where they could apply ideas on the spot rather than sit through slides. One standout addition was the podcast station on the expo floor. Live broadcasts and interviews with speakers created energy throughout the venue and gave attendees direct access to perspectives from people leading the work. That format brought content and community together in a way that felt genuinely valuable.
Let’s Compare Notes
Three days in Orlando reminded us that the best ideas come from conversations with people doing the work. We shared what we’ve learned, and we walked away with new thinking to pressure-test against our own methods. That exchange doesn’t have to stop at the conference.
Whether your current negotiation training is delivering results, falling flat, or landing somewhere in between, we want to hear what you’re seeing. What’s sticking? What isn’t? Where are the gaps between training and real behavior?
Reach out to our team and let’s figure out what’s working and where to go from here.
