AIIM Private Courses

In this post I'll explore one of the hidden gems AIIM offers, at least in my mind. Full disclosure: I run all the training at AIIM and, at least for classes in the U.S., I'm generally the instructor as well.

We periodically schedule public classes in the U.S., mostly at AIIM HQ in Silver Spring, MD. Most of these classes are for our ECM, ERM, BPM, and CIP Prep "deep dive" classes: 2-4 days of instructor-led, "butts-in-seats" discussion, lecture, and exercises. We also offer public courses in Canada (Toronto), the UK (London), and Europe (Amsterdam).

What you may not know is that we are also available to teach private courses. Basically the process is that you have a group of people you want to get some training. We work with you to schedule dates/times and location - most frequently in a training or conference room in your organization's building, though sometimes we use a nearby hotel or facility. We work to ensure that schedule, location, and content all meet your particular needs. We teach these courses all over the world and are happy to come to your location, region, or country!

So why would you schedule a private course? There are a number of benefits to this approach over our traditional public courses.

• Better control over the content. If your organization doesn't need X module, or wants to spend additional time on Y module, we can do that. We may also be able to tailor the discussions, etc. to your type of organization and location - I routinely teach at U.S. Federal Government agencies and can tailor the discussions to Federal IM and recordkeeping concerns such as FOIA. 
• Custom content. We can also "mix & match" among our courses to create exactly the learning experience you want. I did a 4-day private class last year that included modules from ERM, Information Governance, ECM, Implementation, Taxonomy, and SharePoint. We can also incorporate your training/trainers or develop custom training - for example, we can build content on email management, social media governance, the Managing Government Records Directive in the U.S.,  or other topics of interest. 
• Flexibility in scheduling. We had a course last year where a major holiday fell in the middle of the week. We made it work such that students were in class 2 days, took the holiday, and were back in class 2 more days.
• Cross-functional team training. Having us in-house makes it much easier for you to include staff that might not ordinarily be able to get away for 4-5 days or who have less personal interest but for whom the class is particularly important, such as IT, legal, or project managers.
• Flexibility in location. We go where the interest is; unfortunately, that means that unless you're in the DC area, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, London, or Amsterdam, your offerings are limited or require travel. With a private class we come to you. 
• Reduce or eliminate the travel cost. This is particularly true today, when travel budgets seem to be the first thing to be frozen or eliminated, and is more compelling the more people you have. If I come out to your site, you don't have to pay air, and hotel, and ground transport, and food, and everything else associated with a public class for each of your attendees.
• Significant cost savings for the actual training cost. We generally charge a per-day fee, either including travel or with travel billed extra, which can be significantly cheaper with higher numbers of attendees. If you have 10-15 people you want trained on a topic, it's definitely cheaper to do as a private course. 

If you're interested in more information on a private training course, please contact AIIM at training@aiim.org and we'll have Michelle (North America) or Angela (EMEA) follow up with you. You can also contact me directly at jwilkins@aiim.org for additional information.